The dust is slowly settling at WGN radio, just under a month after the station surprised midday listeners by canceling the "Kathy & Judy Show" that aired for 20 years on the station.
The station has hired a San Francisco radio news veteran Greg Jarret to host its morning rush-hour show and will move the program’s current host, John Williams, to the mid-morning slot that until last month was the home of the “Kathy and Judy” talk show, Crain's Chicago Business reported Tuesday.
Jarret was most recently an afternoon co-host at San Francisco’s KGO-AM and was a victim of a round of cuts at that station earlier this year. He spent 16 years at KGO and covered world events as a correspondent for ABC News, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
WGN's thinking is that Jarrett brings a newsman's sensibility both to his work and to his life, Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal wrote.
Jarret will anchor the 5-to-9 a.m. “morning drive” starting June 22, the station said in a statement Monday.
Williams will move to the 9-a.m.-to-noon slot after just six months on the earlier show. He replaces Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey, who occupied the mid-morning slot for 20 years before they were taken off the air in May amid a drop in ratings.
