Rick Kogan (born September 13, 1951) is a Chicago newspaperman, a Chicago radio personality and a noted author.
Early life and education
A native of Chicago's
Old Town
In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
neighborhood, Kogan is the son of longtime Chicago newspaperman
Herman Kogan
Herman Kogan (November 6, 1914 – March 8, 1989) was an American journalist who spent fifty years covering the city of Chicago, many with the ''Chicago Daily News'' and ''Chicago Sun-Times''.
Kogan, a 1936 graduate of the University of Chicago ...
(1914–1989) and longtime Chicago literary and journalism fixture Marilew (Cavanagh) Kogan (1919–2007). His parents named him Rick and not Richard as a tribute to Riccardo's, a legendary Chicago restaurant and watering hole that now is known as Stefani's. On the night that Kogan was born, noted author, historian and broadcaster
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral his ...
came over and took Kogan's father, Herman, out for a celebratory drink.
Kogan's first home was in an apartment on the second floor of an old graystone at 1444 N. State Parkway on Chicago's
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
, a building that was demolished in 1959. When Kogan's brother Mark was born several years later, the family relocated to an apartment in
Old Town
In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
. "Everything swirled around that crazy second-floor apartment in Old Town," Kogan told the Chicago Reader in 2013.
"To walk into this living room filled with smoke and clinking glasses and music and Studs (Terkel) and Nelson (Algren),
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...
,
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event t ...
, (Roger) Ebert -- you don't wind up in life being starstruck after that kind of childhood, and it's served me well."
Kogan attended LaSalle Elementary School in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. and
The Latin School of Chicago
Latin School of Chicago is a selective private elementary school, elementary, middle school, middle, and high school located in the Gold Coast Historic District (Chicago), Gold Coast neighborhood on the Near North Side, Chicago, Near North Side of ...
, Class of 1969. He did not earn a college degree, and worked a variety of jobs in his late teens and early twenties, including as a cab driver.
Professional career
Kogan earned his first byline in the
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
at age 16.
Although he did not attend college, Kogan continued to write for the Sun-Times, the
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
, and then, after the Daily News ceased publication in 1978, returning to the Sun-Times, where he specialized in writing about Chicago's nightlife.
In 1985, Kogan joined 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 ar ...
, eventually becoming the paper's TV critic and later serving as editor of the Tribune's Tempo section.
He currently is a senior reporter for the Tribune, and he also typically writes front-page obituaries of notable figures, particularly those who have worked in the news media, literature, entertainment and politics. Among those whom Kogan has memorialized with front-page obituaries are
Milton J. Rosenberg
Milton J. "Milt" Rosenberg (April 15, 1925 – January 9, 2018) was a prominent social psychologist who was professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and was the host of a long-running radio program in Chicago, Illinois.
Rosenberg was ...
,
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obsc ...
,
Lois Weisberg
Lois Weisberg (May 6, 1925 – January 13, 2016) was the first Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago, from 1989 until January 2011.
She was profiled by writer Malcolm Gladwell in a 1999 ''New Yorker'' essay, "Six Degrees of Lois ...
,
Dennis Farina
Donaldo Gugliermo "Dennis" Farina (February 29, 1944 – July 22, 2013) was an American actor. Often typecast as a mobster or police officer, he is known for roles such as FBI Agent Jack Crawford in '' Manhunter'', mobster Jimmy Serrano in the ...
,
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
, former Chicago first lady Maggie Daley,
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral his ...
,
Floyd Kalber
Floyd Kalber (December 23, 1924 – May 13, 2004) was an American television journalist and anchorman, nicknamed "The Big Tuna."
Life and career
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent two years in the army during World War II and began his television ...
Irv Kupcinet
Irving Kupcinet (July 31, 1912 – November 10, 2003) was an American newspaper columnist for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', television talk-show host, and radio personality based in Chicago, Illinois. He was popularly known by the nickname "Kup".
...
,
Eleanor "Sis" Daley
Eleanor Daley (née Guilfoyle; March 4, 1907 – February 16, 2003), better known as Sis Daley, was the wife of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley and the mother of former mayor Richard M. Daley. Daley served as first lady of the City of C ...
(with Gary Washburn), Judge
Abraham Lincoln Marovitz (with Noah Isackson),
Jeff MacNelly
Jeffrey Kenneth "Jeff" MacNelly (September 17, 1947 – June 8, 2000) was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Shoe''. After ''Shoe'' had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip '' Plu ...
,
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...
,
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
, and
Mike Royko
Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago. Over his 30-year career, he wrote over 7,500 daily columns for the ''Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', and the ''Chicago ...
(with Jerry Crimmins). Kogan also has written inside-the-paper obituaries of graphic designer
Art Paul
Arthur Paul (January 18, 1925 – April 28, 2018) was an American graphic designer and the founding art director of ''Playboy'' magazine. During his time at ''Playboy'', he commissioned illustrators and artists, including Andy Warhol, Salva ...
, photographer
Art Shay
Art Shay (March 31, 1922 – April 28, 2018) was an American photographer and writer.
Biography
Born in 1922, Shay grew up in the Bronx and then served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he flew 52 bomber ...
, artist
John Kearney, writer
Norbert Blei
Norbert Blei (August 23, 1935 – April 23, 2013) was an American writer of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. In 1994, he established Cross+Roads Press, dedicated to the publication of first chapbooks by poets, short story writers, novelists and ...
, photographer
Michael Abramson
Michael Abramson (October 11, 1948 – March 21, 2011) was a Chicago photographer who produced a large body of artistic and commercial photography.
Life
Born in Jersey City, Abramson graduated from Columbia High School in nearby Maplewood. H ...
, newspaperman
Paul Galloway
Paul Galloway (1934 – February 2, 2009) was an American newspaper reporter, columnist and storyteller who wrote for both the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and the ''Chicago Tribune''.
Galloway was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1934. His father s ...
, sportscaster
Tim Weigel John Timothy Weigel (March 4, 1945 – June 17, 2001), known professionally as Tim Weigel, was a Chicago broadcaster who spent most of his career as a television sports anchor and reporter.
Early life and education
Weigel grew up in Gurnee, Illi ...
, puppeteer
Shari Lewis
Shari Lewis (born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was a Peabody-winning American ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, television show host, dancer, singer, actress, author, and symphonic conductor. She wa ...
and many others. In addition, he covered Siskel's funeral service.
For four years, Kogan edited the syndicated
Ann Landers
Ann Landers was a pen name created by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002) in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated ad ...
advice column that ran in the Tribune and was written by
Eppie Lederer
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (née Friedman; July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002), better known by the pen name Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity. She began writing the "Ask Ann Landers" colu ...
. After Lederer's death in June 2002, Kogan wrote a personal reminiscence about his experiences working with Lederer. The following year, he authored a book about Lederer, titled "America's Mom."
Kogan has had more than 2,300 bylines in the Tribune since 1985. One of his most popular features, "Sidewalks," is a weekly feature in the magazine that he produced with longtime Tribune photographer Charles Osgood, who retired in 2008.
Kogan previously was the host/producer of
Chicago Live!
''Chicago Live!'' is an hour-long stage and radio variety show hosted by Chicago newspaperman and radio personality Rick Kogan. The multi-platform show is produced by the ''Chicago Tribune'' in partnership with The Second City and broadcasts on ...
, a radio show produced by the Chicago Tribune and broadcast on WGN Radio.
Kogan worked in the late 1980s as a part-time entertainment reporter for
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...
and has worked for
WBBM radio as well.
From the fall of 1994 until the fall of 1995, Kogan hosted a Sunday morning talk show called "The Sunday Papers" on Chicago's
WLUP-FM
WCKL (97.9 FM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, featuring a Christian contemporary format via the K-Love network. Owned and operated by Educational Media Foundation (EMF), WCKL serves the Chicago metro area w ...
. From March 1998 until September 1998, Kogan teamed up with Chicago Sun-Times columnist and noted movie critic
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
to co-host a daily radio show called "Media Creatures" on Chicago's
WMVP-AM
WMVP (1000 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metro area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship station of the Chic ...
. Kogan hosted a Sunday morning talk show called "The Sunday Papers" on Chicago's
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 format, along with broadcasts of Chicago Blackhawks hockey and Northwestern ...
.
He was widely known among Chicago radio listeners for his distinctive, gravely voice, which once was named the best voice in the city by Chicago's alternative ''
Newcity
Newcity is a media company based in Chicago, founded in 1986 by Brian and Jan Hieggelke." It started as the ''Newcity'' independent, free weekly newspaper in Chicago. Effective March 2017, the founders changed the newspaper into a glossy monthly ...
''. Kogan left WGN in September 2012 to become the afternoon host on Chicago's public radio station,
WBEZ
WBEZ (91.5 FM) – branded ''WBEZ 91.5'' – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, and primarily serving the Chicago metropolitan area. Financed by corporate underwriting, government funding and lis ...
-FM. He left WBEZ in March 2013 and then rejoined WGN in September 2013, this time hosting a Sunday evening talk show. Called "After Hours with Rick Kogan," the show airs on Sunday nights from 9 to 11 p.m.
Kogan has authored eight books, including: ''Yesterday's Chicago'' (co-authored with his father, Herman); ''Everybody Pays'' (co-authored with Maurice Possley), about the Chicago mob and the retrial of mob hit man
Harry Aleman
Harry "The Hook" Aleman (January 19, 1939 – May 15, 2010) was a Chicago mobster who was one of the most feared enforcers for the Chicago Outfit during the 1970s. Aleman got the nickname "Hook" from his boxing career in high school. He is also ...
; ''America's Mom: The Life, Lessons and Legacy of
Ann Landers
Ann Landers was a pen name created by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002) in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated ad ...
''; ''A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a curse And the American Dream'', about Chicago's fabled
Billy Goat Tavern
The Billy Goat Tavern is a chain of taverns located in Chicago, Illinois. Its restaurants are based on the original Billy Goat Tavern founded in 1934 by Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant. It achieved fame primarily through newspaper columns by M ...
; ''Dr. Night Life'', ''Sidewalks: Portraits of Chicago''; and ''Brunswick: The Story of an American Company from 1845 to 1985''.
Personal life
Kogan has a daughter, Fiona, who lives in
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
with her mother. Kogan lives downtown.
References
External links
WGN RadioKogan interviews Howard Reichat the
Pritzker Military Museum & Library
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...
on March 31, 2008
Kogan interviews Darrell Griffin, Sr.at the
Pritzker Military Museum & Library
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...
on October 2, 2009
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kogan, Rick
1951 births
Latin School of Chicago alumni
Living people
Chicago Tribune people
Chicago Sun-Times people
American male journalists
Radio personalities from Chicago
Writers from Chicago