A Saturday Morning Salute to Roy Leonard

Bryan Anderson paid dearly in service of his country and his blog entry has 12 comments. I predict there will be three times as many comments from people whining about WGN. Sad.

Congrats to Mr. Leonard!

Congrats to Mr. Leonard! My first media job outta Columbia College was assist. to the assistant producer (intern?) at WGN-TV/Radio. Got to work with Roy (old-time traffic reports, pre-computers, when we called the State Police for updates), getting sets set for Family Classics, etc. Roy was always very friendly, professional, in good humor, helpful and had amazing guests. Helped to fortify my now life-long passion & work in radio & TV. The memories come back--I recall Mel Torme was waiting to be on with Roy, was trying to buy a cup of coffee at a WGN vending machine, but was short of change. I got to loan Mel a quarter and told him he looked great these days. Mel's response..."I've lost all of this weight because I'm going thru a divorce!" One time, Roy was scheduled to have Stevie Wonder on, and Elton John who was in town came by to surprise Stevie. I told Sir Elton I liked the 'soccer sweater' he was wearing--and he took it off--and gave it to me saying "here, I've got so many of these." Elton had worn that sweater for a Rolling Stone cover shoot & interview (Google it-Oct/1976), both of which I've framed together. Thanks Roy, for a fun & amazing capsule in radio/TV time for this young wanna-be. You are a great part of Chicago & broadcasting history. -Jim Nayder

Viva Roy Leonard. I understand the laments over the changes at 'GN, but change is inevitable. We'll never know where WGN's ratings would be today if the line-up was the same from the 90's. If this is the place on the internet to wail over good radio times gone, so be it. Heck, I miss Clark Weber, and most of all Ron Britain.