Chicago TV: Ivory To Succeed Tom Killing At WGN

As WGN-TV chief meteorologist Tom Skilling prepares to sign off after nearly 46 years at the station, a successor has been named.

The Chicago Tribue reports Demetrius Ivory, 48, who joined WGN in 2013, was named the station’s new chief meteorologist Thursday, a promotion that carries with it the challenge of filling the void left by the imminent departure of Chicago’s longest-tenured and most-trusted TV weathercaster.

“It’s a big task,” Ivory said Friday. “It’s not replacing him, just kind of continuing the work that he was doing and the incredible things he’s done for the city and for the weather community.”

Ivory and Skilling

Skilling, an esteemed meteorologist and broadcaster who has been the face of Chicago weather since joining WGN in 1978, is retiring Feb. 28. Ivory will take the reins on Feb. 29 — leap day — leading the WGN Weather Center Team into the post-Skilling era.

A Cleveland native who earned a degree in atmospheric sciences at Ohio State, Ivory was a meteorologist at stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio before coming to Chicago to work under Skilling.

“I came here with a dollar and a dream,” Ivory said. “Basically me and everything I owned in a car.”

Ivory put down roots in Chicago and at WGN, where he met his future wife, Erin McElroy, an anchor and reporter at the station. The couple divorced about a year ago but remain amicable co-parents in the northern suburbs and co-workers at WGN, Ivory said.

As chief meteorologist, Ivory will deliver weather forecasts on WGN afternoon and evening news. Viewers, he said, can expect the same kind of accurate information they depended on from Skilling, but delivered in his own way.