Chicago Radio: WLS-AM Adds Sports Talk Hour

Lou Canellis, top sports anchor at Fox32 in Chicago, has signed as a permanent contributor to the WLS-AM 890 afternoon show hosted by Conn and Richard Roeper.

Starting this week, Canellis joins Roe & Roeper for a full hour of sports talk at 5pm Monday through Friday on the Cumulus Media news/talk station.

In announcing the change to his listeners Friday, Conn called the new feature “a mix of sports and entertainment — a different way of looking at the world.” The show’s signature Top 5 at 5 feature, a rundown of the day’s top five news stories, will move to 5:36pm and become “sports themed.”

“Driven by the explosion of sports stories and by the appetite our listeners have for them, we are excited to launch the 89 WLS Sports Pregame Show on Monday at 5pm,” Tracy Slutzkin, program director of WLS, said in a statement.

“It’s a natural expansion of our brand of timely, exciting, talk about the biggest stories on 89 WLS. We are thrilled to have Fox 32’s Lou Canellis join Roe and Roeper every day.”

Robert Feder at timeoutchicago, com notes Canellis, a native of south suburban Oak Lawn, first gained widespread notice in the '90s as part of the Bulls broadcast team, delivering memorable courtside interviews with Michael Jordan. He also has worked for a variety of local broadcast outlets and served as a regular contributor to 190 North, the weekly magazine show on ABC 7. He was promoted to main sports anchor at Fox 32 in 2010.