Gregory Jarrett (born December 1952) is an American broadcast journalist who was a longtime news reporter in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, mostly at

KGO (AM) KGO (810 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial AM radio, AM Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to San Francisco, San Francisco, California, and owned by Cumulus Media. KGO operates with 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted AM radio stations b ...

. He became the

morning drive Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

radio host on

WGN (AM) WGN (720 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, with studios on the 18th floor of 303 East Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WGN has a news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues an ...

in Chicago in June 2009, a position in which he remained until December 2011.

Professional career

Jarrett was born in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

; his family moved repeatedly, sending Jarrett to 16 grade schools and 3 high schools. His first radio job was as football play-by-play announcer for

KANE (AM) KANE (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an oldies music format. Licensed to New Iberia, Louisiana, United States, the station serves the Lafayette area. The station is currently owned by Coastal Broadcasting of Lafourche, L.L.C. and featu ...

when he was a high school senior in

New Iberia, Louisiana New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, L ...

. Jarrett joined

KGO-AM KGO (810 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, and owned by Cumulus Media. KGO operates with 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted AM radio stations by the Federal Communications Commission, but uses ...

in 1986 as an aviation and space reporter. In 1991, Jarrett reported for KGO-AM and

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV maint ...

from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

during the Persian Gulf War, also filing reports for the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...

. In late 1992, Jarrett flew to

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

to join the mass of media greeting U.S. troops there. In 1993, Jarrett reported from

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, where mortar fire came through the window of his hotel room while he was elsewhere. Jarrett left KGO-AM in 1994 to become a staff correspondent at

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

. From 1998 to 2000, Jarrett worked at KEWS-AM (now

KPOJ KPOJ (620 AM) is a radio station serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon and neighboring Washington. It airs a sports format, and is affiliated with Fox Sports Radio. Its transmitter is located in Sunnyside, Oregon, ...

) in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Jarrett rejoined KGO in June 2000.http://www.linkedin.com/pub/greg-jarrett/a/874/757 In 2003, Jarrett was an embedded journalist assigned to the Purple Foxes (HMM-364) U.S. Marines helicopter squadron in Iraq. Jarrett was laid off from KGO in January 2009. Many of the staff at KGO were laid off by owner

Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. is an American private broadcasting company. It is based in Bronxville, New York and owns 1 Low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power television station on which it operates a regional 24-hour news cycle, 24-hour Un ...

around the same time. On June 15, 2009, the management of

in Chicago announced that Jarrett would be joining the station on June 22, 2009 as its

host. Jarrett would fill the position previously held by legendary Chicago talkers

Wally Phillips Walter Phillips (July 7, 1925 – March 26, 2008) was an American radio personality best known for hosting WGN's morning radio show from Chicago for 21 years from January 1965 until July 1986, and was number one in the morning slot from 19 ...

, Bob Collins and

Spike O'Dell William "Spike" O'Dell (born May 21, 1953), a native of East Moline, Illinois, is an American former radio host for WGN Radio in Chicago, Illinois. He joined WGN in 1987 and hosted the afternoon show until 2000 when he took over for Bob Collins (Am ...

. The most recent WGN personality to hold that slot,

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...

, replaced O'Dell but spent only six months in the slot; he moved to the 9 a.m.–noon slot at the same time Jarrett started as morning host. On December 2, 2011, WGN announced that longtime Chicago radio personality

Jonathon Brandmeier Jonathon "Johnny B" Brandmeier (born July 15, 1956) is a Chicago radio personality and musician. Career Born John Francis Brandmeier to a German father and a Lebanese mother, Brandmeier started his radio career in 1973 at WFON in Fond du Lac, Wi ...

would replace Jarrett in the morning time-slot in a shift to a more personality-based program. Jarrett joined

Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...

in 2013 and co-hosts Bloomberg Best

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrett, Greg (Radio Personality) 1952 births Living people American radio reporters and correspondents American male journalists American talk radio hosts Radio personalities from Chicago People from San Antonio Radio personalities from San Francisco American war correspondents Journalists from Texas