LONDON CALLING
F
red Weintraub, co-host of the Hannah
& Fred show on WCGO-AM 1590 and
executive producer of sports at Weigel
Broadcasting (WCIU-TV), lives a life that is
very different from your average broadcaster.
“I’m a Chicago-born and bred kid,”
Fred says, “But for the last 13 years I’ve
been living between London and Singapore
and Chicago. I’ve been doing that because
my wife works for British Petroleum and
she keeps getting transferred from place to
place. As long as I can do my job from anywhere
in the world, I’ve been fortunate and
able to do that.”
The radio show can be done from anywhere,
but Fred still has to fly into Chicago
(in a non-COVID time) to handle his duties
By Rick Kaempfer
Fred Weintraub
for Weigel Broadcasting.
“I joke that I have the longest commute
to work in the world. When I’m coming in
from Singapore it can be 19 hours. From
London it’s 8 hours, which seems like a
drop in the bucket by comparison. Because
the management has been as generous as
they’ve been, and the loyalty goes two
ways, I’ve been able to continue my broadcasting
career even under these unusual circumstances.”
The high school sports schedule (he produces
the High School Game of the Week
for WCIU) required him to be in Chicago
for four months or so a year, but Fred wasn’t
satisfied doing nothing the rest of the
year. Shortly after his move to London, that
restlessness led him in a totally new direction.
“I tried to find something to do outside
of my sports responsibilities to keep
me busy,” Weintraub explains. “I decided
to pitch myself as Chicago’s Royal Watcher.
It’s really just a matter of figuring out
where the queen or royal family will be at
certain events, and then going there to
report on it. I still remember the thrill I felt
the first time I saw the Queen walking
down the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It
gave me the chills.”
At first it was just a lark, but soon he
was a regular guest on radio shows in
Chicago. “I developed a niche. I began to
call radio stations and say that I was there
and could report on the royals, and before
long they began calling me. There was luck
too. I was in London for Will and Kate’s
wedding. At the time, everyone believed
that only women were interested in that
story, but when the bells rang at
Westminster Abbey, there was no one in the
pubs. Every eyeball was glued to the television;
men, women and children.”
Weintraub parlayed that royal watcher
role into his current radio show, the
Hannah & Fred Show, currently airing from
11am to 1pm on WCGO 1590AM. “I was on
with Hannah Stanley on WGN as a royal
expert, and what started out as 15 minutes,
turned into an hour. We had a meeting with
(then WGN General Manager) Todd
Manley and he asked if we wanted to do a
show together. By then we had figured out
that we were good radio partners. We had
the same interests. I realized that I couldn’t
do it on WGN every week because of my
schedule, but I pitched to Hannah that we
should form our own company and we
shopped the show. Hannah is a great partner
because she has a different skill set than
me, but we sound good on the radio together,
and through WCGO and the Talk Radio
Network, we found a way of making it
work.”
The biggest challenge is the time of day
they call each other to plan out the shows
because of time-zone differences, especially
while Fred is in Singapore. “We probably
talk about five times a week while we plan
out the shows. A lot of people ask us if we
really do like each other as much as it seems
we do, and the answer is yes. We like each
other off the air too. We come to our editorial
decisions in two different ways, but it
works. She lives in the suburbs with her
kids, and works in a school system, and I
live a very different kind of life, but as long
as we can communicate, it’s not very hard.”
Fred describes the show as follows. “If
you tune into the Hannah and Fred show
on a Sunday morning, our vision is that
you’ll grab a cup of coffee, and listen to us
talk with interesting and informative people.
We’ll have celebrity guests, politicians,
and experts, and by the end of the show,
you’ll leave with more chips in your pocket
because you’ll have more information
about things that are happening in the
world. Sometimes it’s more of a serious
news show, and sometimes it’s just really
entertaining. We are curious about a lot of
different things, so it just comes out in our
conversations. Hannah is really smooth
and great – a pro’s pro. Meanwhile I’m not
afraid to ask any question at any time, for
better or worse. Our personalities mesh
well.”
And yes, they do it live, despite the time
difference. “The radio show is from midnight
to 2am to me. If you want to do it, you
find a way. I feel fortunate to do what I do,
so it works for me. It takes a little extra
stamina sometimes, but that seems like a
small price to pay. It’s important to support
your spouse, which is what I am doing.”
16 illinoisentertainer.com september 2020