By Rick Kaempfer
GOOD MORNING DAVE
D
ave Fogel has now been in the sad-
dle as the morning man at WLS for
a year. The return to his former sta-
tion seemed to be destined. “I was doing
mornings at WJMK, and CBS sold to
Entercom out of the blue, a total surprise,
and they changed the format overnight. I
was out of a job, but I was very lucky. I got
a call from WLS that same day. In the
process of hiring me, however, they went
into bankruptcy – so any new hires had to
be approved by a court or a judge, so I did-
n’t start until after the holidays, but it all
worked out. I’m pretty happy right now.”
He should be. The ratings have been
going up since his arrival. When he first
opened up the microphone as the morning
overly confident.”
He was in denial about the illness at
first. “I didn’t fit the profile,” he says. “I
was too young. It didn’t run in my family.
I’m a pretty healthy guy. I go to the gym
every day. It just didn’t make sense. I was
sure they had the wrong guy. But I know
more now. The surgery wasn’t enough, so I
had to do radiation. In fact, when I first
started at WLS a year ago, it was great
because the NBC Tower was so close to the
hospital. I’d do the show, get off the air,
then walk over to the hospital to get
zapped with radiation. The radiation oncol-
ogist kept asking me ‘Are you tired?’ I said,
‘I’m always tired. I do a morning show!
How am I supposed to tell the difference?”
Dave Fogel
man, the show was ranked in the 20s. It’s
now in the top ten. Yes, there have been
some fortunate outside events (like WJMK
and the Loop dropping their formats), but
there’s no question that Fogel and his on-
air partner Kim Berk are catching on.
Sometimes arranged marriages work out.
“I didn’t know Kim before I started,”
Fogel admits. “I guess we kind of got
thrown together, but she figured me out
right away. I call her my work wife.
Sometimes she finishes my sentences
before I do. It was complicated at first
because she had been there already when I
showed up, so we had to figure it out. But
we’ve got a good way of doing it now. She’s
a very strong independent woman, and she
knows how to have fun on the air. That’s
really all I’m looking to do, is have fun.”
That’s always been Fogel’s appeal. He’s
the veritable guy-next-door. “I am just a
pretty normal dad,” he admits, describing
the exact demo the station seeks. “I’m just
like a lot of people. My wife calls us ‘Sweet’
and ‘Salty’. Guess which one I am? I like
motorcycles, golf, and cigars. Probably
shouldn’t say that. I’m sure the doctors
aren’t in favor of cigars.”
The mention of doctors is something
that’s become a normal part of Fogel’s life.
He had a cancer scare right around the time
he took the job, and he might have pushed
it a little too hard in those early days. “I was
a little screwed up for a while to be honest
with you,” he says. “I missed only one day
of work after surgery. It actually ended up
being not so bright because I really needed
the rest. I figured, what the heck, I’ve got all
these tubes in me and I won’t be able to
sleep anyway, but I really should have lis-
tened to the doctors and gotten my rest. It
would have helped my recovery. But I was
16 illinoisentertainer.com january 2019
If the cancer scare taught him anything,
it was to appreciate his family. With his
daughter working in St. Louis and his son
in Houston, it meant making sure he could
find time to visit. His son is carrying on the
family tradition. Fogel’s dad was in the
media biz (television) and now so is his
son. “He’s doing sports talk down in
Houston,” Fogel says. “We went down and
visited him for Thanksgiving and his mom
cooked for him in his studio apartment.
He’s on SportsRadio 610. He’s a fill-in talk-
show host and is also their primary base-
ball reporter. He got down there two years
ago, and Houston was hosting the Super
Bowl. Then there was a hurricane. Then
they won the World Series. They were also
only one game away from being in the
NBA Finals. So, he’s had an exciting two
years.”
Fogel’s last few years have been event-
ful too. Going back to WLS wasn’t like
going home, really. It’s clearly not the same
station anymore. “That’s definitely true,”
Fogel says. “When I was at WLS the first
time the equipment and studio were awful,
and now it’s this pristine, beautiful com-
plex. It’s funny, a lot of the same people
work here that worked with me before, but
it sure does look different.”
Of course, it helps ease the transition
when you haven’t burned the bridge.
That’s where the nice guy persona comes in
handy once again. “My dad is really my
guide for how to behave,” he admits. “I
watched him doing television shows, and
he was nice to everyone from the camera-
man to the makeup person, to you name it.
It’s not that hard to be nice.”
Dave Fogel can be heard every weekday
morning on WLS, 94.7FM..