92 - RIP.

Robert Feder
‏ @RobertFeder
3m3 minutes ago

Milt Rosenberg, University of Chicago professor and longtime host of "Extension 720" on @WGNRadio, dead at 92: http://bit.ly/2ANuzPT

For nearly 40 years, Milt Rosenberg was the smartest man on the radio.

As host of “Extension 720,” the University of Chicago psychology professor presided over a two-hour nightly meeting of the minds on Tribune Broadcasting news/talk WGN AM 720. The program attracted a national following by virtue of WGN’s powerful signal at night and later reached a worldwide audience through multiple digital platforms.

Milton J. Rosenberg died Tuesday of pneumonia and its complications after entering the hospital on New Year’s Day, according to Joseph Morris, an attorney and close friend. He was 92.

“He was a polymath, a perceptive analyst, and a keen questioner,” Morris told friends in an email Wednesday. “These traits, combined with a prodigious memory born of wide reading and experience, made him an outstanding interlocutor of political leaders, business executives, academics, journalists, artists, and others in the long parade of guests whom he welcomed to his studios and to the extraordinary conversations that he then held for the benefit of millions of Americans listening to his program each night in their homes and cars across the nation as streamed by clear-channel radio at 50,000 watts. For four decades his show was the mandatory first stop on the book tour of every author of a serious work of fiction or non-fiction.

“His career was also described by the arc of a moral conversion, carried out in public via his nightly broadcasts, from the ‘soft mindless leftism of an East Coast academic’ to an embrace of free market economics, traditional social values, and an appreciation of the United States as the world’s best hope for the defense of freedom and human decency in global affairs,” Morris wrote.

Born in New York and educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Wisconsin, Rosenberg earned a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Michigan. He taught at Yale University, the Ohio State University, Dartmouth College, and the Naval War College before joining the University of Chicago, where he served as director of the doctoral program in social and organizational psychology. He later became professor emeritus.

From 1973 to 2012 he hosted “Extension 720” on WGN before he was forced to retire. “I’m on the older side, obviously, but I’m still full of piss and vinegar,” Rosenberg told me at the time. “Publicly, I want to say it’s mutual. Obviously, they initiated it.”

He continued an independent podcast on miltrosenberg.com and also hosted a weekday show on north suburban WCGO AM 1590. In 2014 Rosenberg was among the inaugural inductees in the WGN Radio Walk of Fame.

He is survived by his wife, Marjorie Anne King, and a son Matthew Rosenberg. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Last of a breed right there.

I loved Extension 720 from about 2003-2009. I thought it was pretty terrible the way WGN kicked him out the door to give a late-night show to Turi Ryder of all people (who I think lasted less than a year); if anyone in Chicago radio should have been allowed to retire on his own terms, it was Milt Rosenberg. I think more than I liked the show itself I liked the idea of it, that commercial radio could still produce erudite programming with a devoted audience. Knowing how far Milt lurched to the right in his later years, I do wonder what he would have made of Trump and the 2016 primaries. Anyway, I'm glad he had such a long and accomplished career.

I'll now stand by for Dr. Ken's thoughts.

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Well said, CH.

I only caught Milt at the end of his WGN career, but he was always a great listen. When I was living in Israel, he was appointment radio for me as his show would come on at 6 am, the same time I'd be starting my day so I always streamed him live and stuck with him on my commutes.

He had so many great and memorable interviews on a diverse range of topics. You always came away from his show knowing more than you did before.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

He was doing podcasts in 2015 during the debates. He was not a fan of Trump or his style.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Kap ( of course classy as always ) just gave a nice remembrance / acknowledgement of Milt.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

and I know bid you all a most cordial... goodnight

Snobbish,educated talk.

Give me a Mike North talking smart stuff any daze of da week.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

He used to lead in to Milt's show in the later years.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Milt did a lot of shows about opera, and while initially I was like "ew, opera" and wouldn't listen, I finally gave one a try and ended up learning quite a bit! Then I started listening to the Met on Saturday afternoons.

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He also did quite a lot with Shakespeare, who I never really appreciated until Milt's shows on the subject.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

I was never a fan of his farm reports. Fuck off, rube...

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As Matt posted, well said.


Indeed.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Before I even heard the news, I was thinking of this show today with the unveiling of the abomination that is the architectural design for the Obama library. (not a political opinion here, but it is architecturally hideous)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLrKZ-E ... Mi&index=3

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Kamin was surprisingly forgiving to the unsettlingly vaginadental Washington/Wabash station.

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The Heartland Inst. (gak) has a much better obit. Apparently the arc of his moral conversion to traditional social values didn't prevent him from leaving both a widow and a "devoted friend." A French leftist one at that. How European of him.

https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/ ... enberg-rip

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

my man!

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Perhaps he can be immortalized on the CFMB as Mult Rosenberg.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

For one's listening and viewing pleasure, Milt's show from December 21, 1994: https://www.c-span.org/video/?62318-1/milt-rosenberg-radio-talk-show

The guests discussed the upcoming 104th Congress which will be under Republican leadership.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

As a grade school insomniac I used to sneak a transistor am radio into bed and switch between Uncle Milty, Jim Bohannon and Larry King. Then after midnight WBBM played old time scary radio serials that were pretty good. Even at a young age you could tell that Milt read the book. Larry King never read the book.

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

Great radio. RIP Milton.

#gay

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Elections have consequences.

I am sad that he is gone. He's right up there with Paul Harvey as far as classic radio hosts. It's a shame that WGN forced him out when they did. He did 39 years of radio on the station and he deserved better from their management. Not a single host currently on WGN is as good as Rosenberg. His legacy will live on and I will relive it by listening to old programs.

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

#vicious

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

Busted. You’re a kevhead.

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Elections have consequences.

Well said, CH. Not much to add.

If only we could posit a counterfactual that WGN didn't take him off the air when he so obviously wanted to continue the only great show on their station or if today never happened.

This is very sad. He had the greatest radio show ever. Find a better one. You won't. This is what Fresh Air wishes it could be and it makes me sad that the show is popular.

The insult to injury component of them unceremoniously taking him off WGN is that they also took off the archive which was incredible. Years upon years of historians, authors, political figures, and kooks - not necessarily mutually exclusive. Not a month goes by where I don't try to find the old archive. I know there's stuff still there but it's a shadow of what they used to have. If WGN has any sense, release that stuff because it is historically significant, motherfuckers.

When I was a teenager in the '80s, I hated that E720 would come on after a Cubs road game (had to be a road game) and then I heard one on Kennedy or NASA, something, and realized this is amazing stuff. Later I'd heard David McCullough and realized not only that that guy had an amazing voice but those books are tremendously interesting and well-researched and I was hooked.

God speed, Milt. Thanks.

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You know me like that.

I think the closest show to the sheer breadth of x720 was To the Best of Our Knowledge out of Madison, but while their hosts were all good interviewers and highly intelligent and intellectually curious people, they were not Milt Rosenberg, who had to be almost peerless in terms of devouring books throughout his life. Also, TTBOOK, like 99% of public radio, is in the can, so no callers, and it's since evolved into a much foofier "radio production" sort of show, to its detriment.

I do hope WGN can use this occasion to release the archives back to the public, the way David Schwimmer (of all people!) helped WFMT get the entire Studs Terkel archive online. I might have a couple episodes deep in my external hard drive somewhere, it's not much, but I'll look.

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I remember listening to his interview of Mitch Albom when Tuesdays with Morrie was released. That was a great interview.

Directly back to my thoughts from before, CH had a great point about his shows...he took calls. And they were typically very good calls. It revealed the unscripted nature of the shows that the panel had real thoughts unlike what typically happens for these types of shows today with scripted "conversations".

It's really not a show that can be recreated because the show was Milt. I knew the day was coming soon but I'm still very sad about it. I'd love to hear one more show where he wonders what would happen if Hitler was killed in WWI.

As many times as he did it, it always led to an interesting conversation.

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You know me like that.