Chicago Radio: Cochran OUT, Sirott IN At WGN

The musical chairs in Chicago morning radio continued Friday as WGN 720 AM replaced host Steve Cochran with another well-known Chicago air personality, Bob Sirott.

The Chicago Tribune reports the lineup change was announced Friday morning by WGN, now owned by Dallas-based Nexstar Media. Sirott’s first day on the air will be Jan. 6. Cochran’s last day was Friday.

It is a return to WGN-AM 720 for Sirott, who along with his wife, Marianne Murciano, ended a two-year run as midday hosts at the news/talk station in 2015. He previously hosted “The Noon Show” on WGN Radio from 2007 to 2010 while co-anchoring the WFLD-Ch. 32 news at nine.

Sirott has mostly been off the air since he and Murciano left a midday shift at WLS-AM 890 two years ago.

A Chicago native, Sirott launched his media career in the 1970s with shows at WBBM-FM 96.3 and WLS-AM 890. Sirott shifted to television in 1980 at WBBM-Ch. 2, and later became a correspondent on CBS News’ “West 57th” newsmagazine. In 1989 he returned to Chicago television, with stints at WMAQ-Ch. 5 , WFLD-Ch. 32 and WTTW-Ch. 11, where he hosted “Chicago Tonight” for three years.

Mary Sandberg Boyle

WGN also announced Mary Sandberg Boyle has been promoted to general manager, effective immediately. She had been the station’s acting general manager since WGN changed hands as part of the September sale of Tribune Media to Nexstar. Boyle replaced Todd Manley at the helm.

It was not the first forced exit from WGN for Cochran, who had hosted the morning air shift at the station since 2013. Cochran was previously cut loose as afternoon drive host at WGN in 2010 and moved to low-rated WIND-AM during the interim.

Cochran will be paid through the end of his contract in 2020, sources said.

The shakeup at WGN follows a similar move Wednesday by legacy alternative rock station WXRT-FM, which eliminated the position of longtime morning co-host and news anchor Mary Dixon, and announced that her on-air partner, Lin Brehmer, would move to a midday air shift in early 2020.