Veteran WLS Chicago newsman Alan Krashesky will be taking over the evening and latenight anchor chair being vacated Wednesday by Ron Magers, who is retiring after 50 years in the business.
Krashesky will anchor the ABC O&O’s newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The job is the latest step in Krashesky's 34 years at WLS, during which he has done everything from anchor the morning news to covering Pope Francis’ inauguration from St. Peter’s Square.
He has co-anchored the station’s 4 p.m. newscast for the last 11 years.
Krashesky had a tough act to follow in Magers.
Since Magers joined WLS 18 years ago, every newscast he has anchored has ranked No. 1, according to Chicago media watcher Robert Feder.
He has been in the market for more than three decades, arriving in 1981 to work at NBC O&O WMAQ.
Sixteen years later, however, Magers and fellow anchor Carol Marin, another Chicago TV legend, walked away from WMAQ on principle after the station hired Jerry Springer to do commentary on the 10 p.m. news.
