Chicago Radio: Tribune Promotes Todd Manley At WGN

Todd Manley

Larry Wert, President of Tribune Broadcasting, has announced several management changes at WGN 720 AM Radio.

Todd Manley, WGN Radio’s, Vice President of Content & Programming, will now add Station Manager to his title. In his expanded role, Manley will oversee the long-term strategy and day-to-day management of WGN Radio on all platforms.

Manley will report to Paul Rennie, President/General Manager of Chicago’s WGN-TV and CLTV, who will now add WGN Radio to his oversight. Rennie will continue to report to Larry Wert.

For over 90 years, WGN Radio has been the voice of Chicago. All content is live 24/7, offering 48 newscasts, 82 weather reports, 85 traffic updates and round-the-clock original programming daily. In 2013, Manley was named Vice President of Content for WGN Radio to oversee the radio station’s multi-media journalists, talk programming personalities, sports play-by-play, and the on-demand audio platform WGNplus. Under Manley’s leadership, WGN Radio has been named Station of the Year by the Illinois Broadcasters Association for the last four straight years (for a total of ten consecutive years.) Under Manley, WGN Radio has sustained 24/7 live and local programming, launched 11 hours of weekly content dedicated to business and innovation, increased its streaming audience 62%, and launched the in-house content agency DATS (Digital And Then Some).

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime and I look forward to working with Paul Rennie to innovate and grow Chicago’s Very Own, WGN Radio everywhere,” said Manley.

WGN continues to innovate with 1.8 million connections to the station’s stream each month and nearly 9 million podcast downloads via mobile audio platforms. This year, the station expanded its on-demand distribution to Amazon Echo users via WGN Radio Flash Briefings.

Said Rennie, “Chicago’s Very Own WGN Radio is truly an iconic station, I’m thrilled to be working with Todd and the talented team at WGN Radio.”

“Both Paul and Todd have worked well together, and this structure will further the synergy and streamline the productivity of our Chicago brands,” said Wert.