R.I.P.: Chicago Radio Personality Bob Sanders

Bob Sanders

Long before Bob and Marianne, Steve and Johnnie, or Don and Roma, there was Bob and Betty Sanders — Chicago radio’s quintessential husband-and-wife team. And listeners loved them, according to Chicago Media Writer Robert Feder.

“Bob and Betty were the epitome of comfort radio,” said veteran broadcaster Steve Dale, who was their producer in the 1980s. “The influence that they had was undeniable. They were at the top for a reason.”

A trusted and admired voice on WBBM AM 780 for decades, Bob Sanders died Sunday near Lake Geneva, Wis., after a long illness.

He was 89.

The couple met at a station in St. Louis where Bob was a staff announcer and Betty was an actress working in commercials. In 1956, Bob joined WBBM and was the last disc jockey on the air before the station switched first to talk and later to all-news. After 18 years of marriage, the couple finally cajoled management to let them go on the air together in April 1972. Ads billed them as “the only husband and wife news radio team.”

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