John Kass (born June 25, 1956) is an American columnist and former editorial board member for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' and radio broadcaster. Until summer 2020, his opinion pieces regularly appeared on page 2 of the main news section of the ''Tribune'', instead of on the opinion/editorial pages; this is the spot formerly occupied by Mike Royko.

Early life and education

His ''Tribune'' biography reports Kass as the son of a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

immigrant grocer. Kass was born on the South Side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and grew up there and in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn. He graduated from Harold L. Richards High School in the class of 1974, and was a member of the varsity football team and the yearbook staff. He studied film at Columbia College in Chicago and worked on the student newspaper, though he never graduated.

Career

Kass worked as an intern and later a reporter at the ''

Daily Calumet {{italic title The ''Daily Calumet'' was a Chicago newspaper that existed from 1881 until 1987. It was at one time billed as "America's Oldest Daily Community Newspaper." The ''Daily Calumet'' was located at 9120 S. Baltimore Ave., Chicago, in the ...

'', and worked from 1980 to June 2021 for the ''Tribune''. He regularly covered political topics for the newspaper. His columns are syndicated by

Tribune Content Agency Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media S ...

. Kass also writes about lighter topics, particularly beer can chicken. Kass hosted, first with Jake Hartford and later

Lauren Cohn Lauren Cohn is a radio host at WLS in Chicago. Cohn previously worked as a morning anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago in 1993. She later moved to be an Anchor/general assignment reporter at WBBM-TV in 1998. Then, she worked for WFLD as a general assignm ...

, a weekday morning talk-radio program on

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

-owned WLS-AM. His last show was February 26, 2015. In June 2021, Kass took the buyout offer at the Chicago Tribune, after 38 years at the paper. In his final column, he announced his writing could continue to be found a
johnkassnews.com

Family

Kass married Betty Castela in Oak Lawn's St. Nicholas

Greek Orthodox Church The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

in 1986. They have twin sons and currently live in Saint John, Indiana.

References

External links

''Chicago Tribune'', John Kass columns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kass, John 1956 births American male journalists Radio personalities from Chicago American people of Greek descent Chicago Tribune people Living people Writers from Chicago