With Oprah Winfrey closing in on wrapping up her nationally syndicated talk show in the next couple of months, her flagship station ABC7 is planning to stay live & local once Oprah signs off for good. It was revealed a few days ago that Ryan Chiaverini, ABC7's weekend sports anchor, and Valerie Warner, traffic/fill-in anchor on CW9's "WGN Morning News", have been tapped to host a new daytime talk show, "Windy City Live". The new show will fill the Oprah time slot at 9a Monday-Friday from ABC7's State Street Studios. Although a start-up date, ticket information and a logo for the new talk show have not been announced as of yet, there's a reason why I bring up Ryan's name.

You see, there's going to be an opening on ABC7's weekend evening newscast for a new sports anchor with Chiaverini shifting over to this new talk show. According to NewsBlues.com, the ABC-owned station is pointing towards Atlanta, the home of CNN and sister network HLN to fill its vacancy. The Website is reporting that Rafer Weigel, sports anchor the last 3 years on HLN's "Morning Express with Robin Meade", will soon follow in his late father's footsteps at WLS.

Interestingly enough, Tim Weigel would have been 66 years old today. Tim, who anchored sports and a brief cup of coffee as a hard news anchor from 1977-1994 at ABC7, died in 2001 of a brain tumor at age 56.

As for Rafer, he actually made the transition to news & sports after he struck out as an actor on the short-lived NBC sitcom "Jenny" with Jenny McCarthy in 1997-98 and also had a brief cup of coffee as a VJ on VH1. Rafer was a reporter at San Diego's KUSI-TV and then shifted over to sports at KOVR-TV in Sacramento before joining HLN in 2008. Neither Rafer nor ABC7 would comment on the NewsBlues story.

I believe Rafer would be the first asian to do sports in this tv market.

Rafer and I had a few meetings back in the day. Lotsa GREEN at those meetings! and not $$$ that kind. Of course many others present.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

lol, u do not come across as a smoker. good 2 know

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If anyone really cares--and I mean REALLY cares--about who a sports anchor is on the local weekend news, then that person has some serious problems. Who the fuck gets their sports on the local news anymore--let alone the WEEKEND local news? My god, join the 19th century. I follow sports religiously and I wouldn't know who this Chiaverini is if he came up and sucked my cock at State and Madison at high noon.

I've watched Rafer on "Morning Express with Robin Meade" for 3 years, and he's not Asian. I think he's the lovechild of Ryan Seacrest & former WWE superstar turned FOX Business contributor John "Bradshaw" Layfield.