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If it looks like every Chicago news shops in town starts their dawn patrol newscasts at 4:30a Monday-Friday, that's because they do. Pretty soon, one Chicago station will start their morning news at 4a. That's right, folks...4a.
According to Larz and ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com, WGN's CW9 will expand their popular "WGN Morning News" by another half hour weekday mornings. Instead of a rerun of "The Andy Griffith Show", viewers will instead see the city's earliest morning newscast starting at 4a weekdays, beginning July 11th. The added half hour comes nearly a full year after "WGN Morning News" started their dawn patrol news at 4:30a Monday-Friday.
The plan is to have Erin McElroy, who recently replaced Valerie Warner as traffic reporter on the Tribune-owned outlet's morning newscast, anchor the first 90 minutes from 4 to 5:30a Monday-Friday. Larry Potash & Robin Baumgarten, the show's primary news anchors, would then relieve McElroy at the anchor desk and drive the remaining 3 hours, 30 minutes. McElroy in turn would then shift over to traffic for the rest of the newscast. WGN's other "Morning News" players, sports anchor Pat Tomasulo, entertainment reporter Dean Richards & "Around Town" reporter Ana Belaval would also join the newscast at that point. Meteorologist Paul Konrad provides weather for all 5 hours of the expanded newscast. Got all that?
It's safe to say that "WGN Morning News" has come a long, long way from debuting initially as a one-hour newscast in September 1994 from 7-8a. The initial newscast became an immediate ratings success, and expanded in January 1996 to 2 hours. It expanded again in September of that year to 3 hours, from 6-9a. In January 2001, WGN added an extra 30 minutes, starting its "Morning News" at 5:30a and expanded yet again to 4 full hours from 5-9a in January 2004. Last but not least, "WGN Morning News" stretched out again, starting its news at 4:30a in August last year. It'll be the city's earliest morning news when it expands again in about 2 weeks from now.
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