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| Curator's note: Rich Samuels ended his association with WTTW on December 31st, 2009. Rich presently hosts a Thursday morning classical music broadcast on WORT 89.9 fm, Madison, Wisconsin. The program, which airs 5-8am Central Time, is also streamed on the internet through th WORT website. you can follow Rich on Twitter and on Facebook. |
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| Above: The late Julia Child and several of her admirers at the "Chicago Tonight" show at WTTW, Chicago. Standing (from left to right): Michelle McKenzie-Voigt, the Curator, Phil Ponce, Mary Field and Jessica Zoller Kaplan. (Photo by Mitchell Canoff). |
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| Above: The Curator (on the right in the blue shirt), along with a sizeable gaggle of journalists, pestering Alan Keyes as he enters Chicago's Union League Club on August 4th, 2004. The photo was shot by John J. Kim of the Chicago Sun Times. |
| Rich
Samuels, the curator of these pages, was formerly a correspondent for the
"Chicago
Tonight" show, which airs Monday through Thursdays at
7 PM on WTTW, Channel 11, Chicago's PBS outlet. Rich also
contributed segments to the "ArtBeat Chicago" program
and documentaries to the "Chicago Stories" and "Chicago
Matters" series. (His most recent "Chicago Stories"
contributions included pieces on the Chicago
Conspiracy Trial" and the J.C.
Deagan musical instrument company). From 1973 (during the era of the late Floyd Kalber) to 1990, Rich was a reporter at WMAQ-TV, NBC's owned-and-operated television station. (Click here to read about his 1977 encounter with the notorious Anthony Pellicano). Additionally, Rich wrote the scripts for the Museum of Broadcast Communication's 1995, 1996 and 1997 "Radio Hall of Fame" broadcasts. Rich's academic training as a historian explains why this collection of pages came about. Simply put, he realized early on in his tenure at NBC that few measures were being taken to preserve Chicago's illustrious history as a broadcast center. This site is his effort to remedy that shortcoming. Rich received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. His dissertation, "Benedetto Varchi and Sixteenth Century Florentine Humanism", traces the decline of Civic Humanism (not to be confused with "civic journalism") after 1500. Rich did his undergraduate work at Yale where he was one of the more underachieving members of the class of 1963 and a reed player in the Yale Thunderbirds of blessed memory (earlier Rich was one-fifth of a jazz group at New Trier High School known as "The Quintet"). You may perhaps remember that Dick Cheney was also a member of the Yale class of 1963 until he dropped out at the end of his junior year (one of the curator's roommates recalls the future Vice President standing on a table in the Berkeley College dining hall throwing food at people not long before his departure). Likewise a member of that class was L. Paul Bremer III (known in those days as "Jerry Bremer"). Rich was among those who shared toilet facilities with the future vice-regent of Iraq when he lived on Berkeley College's North Court. They have shared nothing since. |
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Left: The curator and his dissertation advisor Eric Cochrane in the spring of 1976. The curator attributes any writing skills he may acquired to Eric's guidance. |
| In
addition to exploring the rich tradition of Chicago broadcasting,
Rich has, from time to time, compulsively engaged in the research
and writing of family
history. Rich and his wife Judy Lynn Korshak-Samuels (best known to her vast following as the "Queen of Love and Beauty") live in the Chicago area with Rachel,the child of their middle age (and the successor to Mr. Piano). Rich is a licensed amateur radio operator with the callsign of KF9KV. |
| Right: The "Chicago Tonight" staff (most of it) at a Labor Day 1997 gathering. |  |
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Left: WTTW cameraman Chuck Haynie and Carol Marin on 5/23/97 at the farewell party for Ms. Marin and her fellow former WMAQ-TV colleagues Danice Kern and Ron Magers. |
| Right: WTTW cameraman Chuck Haynie in the arms of an unidentified female rugby player. You are advised not to attempt this feat, much as Chuck might enjoy it. |  |
Comments
or suggestions? click here to send them to Rich Samuels
Created by Rich Samuels (e-mail to rich@richsamuels.com)