As soon as word got out there was a sniper shooting at residents from a building in Highland Park near Chicago during a 4th of July parade, the WGN radio team sprung into action to cover the breaking news and keep listeners informed.
Nexstar Media Networks President Sean Compton managed the situation for WGN and was in immediate contact with other station executives. Compton tells Radio Ink the radio station used its partnership with WGN-TV for the first 90 minutes of the incident to get the breaking news out. The WGN radio team was gathered. Like many other businesses WGN had a skeleton crew in place due to the long 4th of July holiday weekend.
Once in place Compton says the radio team went live to cover the local press conferences, interview people at the scene and take calls from listeners and Chicago officials. Compton said, “it’s what we do. It’s the business we’re in.”
The station had been playing a best-of talk show at the time of the shooting. Host Jon Hansen took over live after the 90 minutes of coverage from WGN-TV.
You can listen to the WGN Radio stream HERE.
