After more than 50 years, Walter Jacobson to broadcast final ‘Perspective'

Yahoo

26-03-2025

For more than half a century, legendary Chicago anchorman and commentator Walter Jacobson has been broadcasting his views on everything from the city's colorful politicians to the Cubs, for whom he once worked as a batboy.
On Thursday morning, he will deliver one last 'Perspective' on WGN Radio, home to his weekly commentary segment for the past decade, and perhaps conclude the final chapter of a storied Chicago broadcast career.
'Commentary was always the most important thing for me, by far,' said Jacobson, 87. 'I've always been interested in government and politics, and when I had the freedom to say what I wanted to say was right or wrong, that was a blessing for me.'
The two-minute radio segment will mark the end of a prodigious run for Jacobson, who once disrupted the airwaves as the unlikeliest of TV news anchors.
Paired with co-anchor Bill Kurtis at WBBM-Ch. 2 from 1973 to 1982, Jacobson's signature commentary segment was an integral part of the station's top-rated 10 p.m. newscast. Seated at a separate cluttered desk, often wearing suspenders and glasses later revealed to be purely cosmetic, his feisty take on the day's biggest story set the CBS-owned station and Jacobson apart from the happy talk newscasts that had predominated.
The unusual combination of Kurtis, the quintessential anchorman, and Jacobson, a scrappy muckraker, became the yin and yang of local TV news, forming one of the most iconic teams in Chicago broadcast history.
'I was never a great anchorperson – I haven't got the voice,' Jacobson said. 'Bill was always the strength; I was the awkward guy and troublemaker.'
Kurtis called it a 'forced marriage' that evolved into a great working relationship, a transformative TV newscast and a lifetime friendship.
The more polished Kurtis added anchorman gravitas while hitting the streets to cover stories. More often than not, Jacobson spent most days working on his 90-second commentary feature, Kurtis said.
'I've never seen anybody so focused,' Kurtis said. 'He loved it. I don't think he wanted to do anything in the world except that 'Perspective.' And he owned it.'
In 1982, Kurtis left for New York to co-anchor 'The CBS Morning News,' first with Diane Sawyer, and later Phyllis George. Kurtis returned to WBBM-Ch. 2 in 1986, where he again partnered on-air with Jacobson, but the station relinquished its ratings crown to WLS-Ch. 7.
Jacobson left WBBM in 1993 for a 13-year-run at WFLD-Ch. 32. The pair reunited on Channel 2 in 2010 to reprise their co-anchor roles for the station's 6 p.m. newscast, but ratings fizzled and they stepped down after 2 1/2 years.
In 2014, Jacobson joined WGN Radio, bringing with him, as he has at every stop along the way, his 'Perspective.'
'That gave me another way to be in the business,' Jacobson said. 'That's why I've been doing it for so long.'
Growing up an avid Cubs fan in Rogers Park, Jacobson landed his first dream job after his family moved to north suburban Glencoe, becoming a batboy for the team at age 15.
Jacobson earned a bachelor's degree from Grinnell College and a master's in journalism at Columbia University before earning his stripes as a journalist through stints at City News Bureau, UPI and the Chicago American, an afternoon newspaper owned by the Tribune that ceased publication 50 years ago.
Shifting to local television in 1963, Jacobson bounced between a few stations before his 1973 pairing with Kurtis at WBBM-Ch. 2 changed the face of Chicago TV news. Gone were the logoed blazers, pristine sets and cheerful patter, replaced by an actual working newsroom filled with anchors and reporters that became media stars in their own right.
'It was a very big time,' said Kurtis, reflecting on a decade where Channel 2's rating dominance revolutionized local TV news.
It also gave Jacobson, originally hired to be the station's version of Len O'Connor, then the acerbic dean of Chicago TV news commentators, a big platform to take on politicians, corporations and others whose misdeeds found their way into his nightly segment.
Jacobson, sometimes dismissively referred to as 'Skippy' by competitors and commentary subjects alike, more than rose to the challenge.
'The joke was, what's the worst thing that can happen to a politician? To get a call from Walter Jacobson,' Kurtis said. 'He was a hell of a reporter. He was getting news that nobody else was.'
In addition to his Emmy-winning commentaries, Jacobson's legacy includes some notable reporting scoops, such as a 1992 prison interview with serial killer John Wayne Gacy. It also includes a legendary ratings stunt in the winter of 1991, where Jacobson spent two days living as a homeless man, trailed by a camera crew documenting his rapid descent into a state of self-declared misery.
But it was Jacobson's 'Perspective' that defined his career, and fittingly became the title of his 2012 memoir. It remained his signature when he shifted from TV to WGN-AM 720 more than a decade ago.
The weekly two-minute radio segment has been airing Thursday mornings during Bob Sirott's show. Recent topics have included Walgreen's closing stores, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's unprecedented role in the new Trump administration, and of course, waxing about the rites of spring and his beloved Cubs.
'He has never taken his foot off the gas as far as how he approaches covering any of it,' said Mary Sandberg Boyle, WGN Radio's vice president and general manager. 'He is just as passionate today as he was when he got started.'
Sirott, a Chicago TV and radio veteran who took over the morning drive slot at WGN in 2020, first worked with Jacobson and Kurtis when he joined WBBM-Ch.2 in 1980.
Getting to work with Jacobson again in the twilight of his career has been a thrill, Sirott said.
'I see Walter in the hall, I still want to get his autograph,' Sirott said. 'It's impossible to convey to someone who wasn't around during the heyday of 'THE 10 O'Clock News' on Channel 2, just how important Walter's 'Perspectives' were – they were must viewing.'
In recent years, Jacobson has been recording his weekly segments a day in advance at WGN studios on the 18th floor at 303 E. Wacker Drive, the station's home since 2018, when Tribune Tower was sold and converted to million-dollar condos. Launched more than a century ago by the Chicago Tribune, WGN Radio was purchased in 2019 by Nexstar, the Dallas-based TV station group, as part of its $4.1 billion acquisition of Tribune Media's broadcast properties.
On Wednesday, Jacobson arrived at the station to record the final 'Perspective,' and was feted with a farewell party by his radio colleagues.
For Jacobson, there is plenty of change in the air.
Widowed when his wife died from a head injury after a 2019 dog-walking fall, Jacobson said he is moving from his Gold Coast apartment into a Chicago senior living community in the next few months. He is also planning to visit his daughter and son-in-law, who just had their first baby, at the cannabis farm they own and operate in upstate New York.
As to his final 'Perspective,' which is scheduled to air Thursday at 9:25 a.m. on WGN Radio, it may not come off as a farewell address. Jacobson said that while he's 'pretty well ready to retire,' he's not ruling out returning to the airwaves at some point down the road.
'I'm not going to say goodbye,' Jacobson said. 'I can say, 'So long for now.''
His longtime on-air partner understands Jacobson's reluctance to sign off for good.
Kurtis, who served as the tongue-in-cheek narrator for 'Anchorman,' the 2004 comedy film featuring Will Ferrell as the legendary and semi-fictional Ron Burgundy, has remained a ubiquitous on-air presence during the new millennium, producing and hosting TV shows such as 'Investigative Reports,' 'American Justice' and 'Cold Case Files.'
These days, in addition to his production company, Kurtis, 84, keeps busy with the weekly NPR quiz show 'Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!' where he serves as judge and scorekeeper.
'Walter is older than I am … and both of us should be in assisted living,' Kurtis quipped. 'But we can't let go. And God bless him as long as he can keep going.'
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