Linda MacLennan expects to return to her post on the WBBM-Ch. 2 news anchor desk at 4:30 and 10 p.m. “sometime toward the end of summer,” she said Tuesday.
MacLennan gave birth last Wednesday to her second son, Carson Charles Elliott Rammelt.
And, to make her absence easier to take, MacLennan has access to the station via her home computer, which helps her keep up with “the rundowns” of the nightly newscasts. “I feel like I’m still sort of plugged in” with the station, she said. “And I can read the (news) wires. So I don’t feel too far away from the office.”
The computer was installed during “a difficult pregnancy” with Carson, and her doctor recommended cutting back on “the time I was up and about.” With the computer, she said, “I was able to read the scripts and look at the rundowns. I could rewrite copy from (home).”
But for now, mother, father David Rammelt, baby Carson and his 16-month-old brother Taylor are doing “very well,” added MacLennan. “It’s great to meet this little person after nine months.”
News notes: Chicago Access Network Television has added “Notiziario RAI,” a newscast originating from the RAI Italian Broadcasting Co. in Rome, at 11 p.m. to its cable Channel 36 lineup. Also, Ald. Charles Bernardini (43rd) produces and hosts “The Italy Chicago Exchange” at 9:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month. With those programs joining the already crowded Channel 36 local-access lineup, C-SPAN2, which shares Channel 36, is now off the air from 4 to 11:30 p.m. The addition of RAI, however, gives Chicago cable subscribers news shows from such foreign ports of call as Rome, Paris (Channel 21), Moscow (C-SPAN)-and Oak Brook (CLTV).
Taste tidbits: WFLD-Ch. 32 will air two live specials from Taste of Chicago, starting with “Fox Diner-Welcome to the Taste” at 6 p.m. Saturday. Hosted by morning anchor David Rose, the one-hour program will preview the station’s own fall lineup as well as the outdoor festival. Also, Channel 32 will telecast the annual lakefront fireworks show at 8 p.m. July 3, hosted by Rose and Robin Robinson. . . . Talk-show host Richard Bey puts in an appearance at the WCIU-Ch. 26 Taste booth at noon Saturday and Sunday. . . . On the free concert side, WXRT-FM 93.1 sponsors shows Tuesday (featuring Poi Dog Pondering) and July 4 (Freddy Jones Band and General Public), while WLUP-FM 97.9 presents Tom Jones July 1.
Hear and there: Meteorologist Steve Schill finally got out of his contract in San Jose and will replace Mike Tsolinas on the 9 p.m. newscast at WFLD-Ch. 32 starting Monday. . . . Sonya Thompson, producer of the 10 p.m. newscast at WBBM-Ch. 2, has been promoted to executive producer of the afternoon newscasts. . . . WLS-Ch. 7 reporters Janet Davies and Frank Mathie and WXRT-FM 93.1 personalities Marty Lennartz and Leslie Witt are co-chairs for Thursday’s Jim Gibbons Memorial 5K “Run Your Shorts Off” benefit for the Leukemia Research Foundation. Gibbons, a Channel 7 reporter, died of leukemia last year. . . . WFLD-Ch. 32 news anchor/reporter Maurice DuBois hosts the Jobs for Youth “Jazz for Youth” benefit at the Fairmont Hotel Wednesday night. . . . Chicago-based Major Networks, a division of Major Broadcasting Inc., has sold off its 24-hour music formats for an undisclosed amount to Jones Satellite Networks to “focus its energy on its most profitable areas that include talk and sports-talk formats,” according to Major Broadcasting president Chris Devine. . . . Former Chicago deejay Bob Worthington has been hired as morning personality at New York City’s WPAT-FM.
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