R.I.P.: Longtime WGN Host Milt Rosenberg

Milt Rosenberg

Milt Rosenberg, the host of WGN Radio’s “Extension 720” for decades, he died Tuesday from pneumonia at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said his friend and frequent on-air guest, Chicago attorney Joseph A. Morris.

He’d recovered well from coronary bypass surgery more than 25 years ago. But Mr. Rosenberg, 92, had become frailer after suffering a fall around Thanksgiving.

With a Ph.D. in psychology and his work as a longtime professor at the University of Chicago, “He could discuss Shakespeare’s comedies one night, and the latest developments on what are black holes and physics the next night, and a roundtable on politics the next night,” said Morris.

“Extension 720” was already a WGN offering when Rosenberg was hired to be one of a revolving cast of hosts. An occasional guest on that program, he had scant other on-air experience, his radio work to that point consisting of moderating recorded conversations between faculty members and visitors to the U. of C. campus. One of those 30-minute-long tapes was mailed to more than 100 stations across the country to be used free of charge.

When he was offered the job of solo host on “Extension 720” in 1973, he was not particularly confident, saying, “I thought I'd do it for a year or two — to buy a new car.”

But he had a longer run. “He is the Lou Gehrig of intellectual talk radio,” Joseph Epstein, the essayist and occasional guest on the show, said in 2008, when Rosenberg was awarded a National Humanities Medal, which cited him for “bringing the world of ideas to millions of listeners.” “During a single week he can do shows about financial markets, American musical theater, the state of contemporary academic life, nuclear warfare and the modern novel,” Epstein said. “It’s amazing, really."

The Chicago Tribune reports the two-hour daily weeknight broadcasts (sometimes pre-empted by baseball or hockey games) featured an hourlong interview with his guests followed by an hour during which listeners could share by telephone their opinions, gripes and questions.

“He completely redefined the notion of talk radio,” Morris said. “Milt created a kind of radio talk show that was as roomy as his mind. He was an omnivorous reader and had mastered any number of fields of knowledge and enjoyed sharing them.”

“He knew a lot about a lot of things,” said Morris. And, “He didn’t require anyone to talk in seven-second soundbites. You could hear people speaking in complete sentences, complete paragraphs,” Morris said. “An entire thought would be put out on the table and looked at from many different directions.”

After being forced to retire from WGN in 2012, Mr. Rosenberg worked for WCGO-AM 1590, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

He grew up in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants from what is now Ukraine, Morris said. His father Jacob worked many jobs, including as a brush salesman. His mother Rachel was a polyglot who spoke six languages, Ukrainian, German, Russian, Polish, Yiddish and English.