WLS-Channel 7 sports director Jim Rose to retire

WLS-Ch. 7 sports director and announcer Jim Rose announced on Monday’s 5 p.m. newscast that he plans to retire next month after 41 years at the station.

Rose, 70, a native of Rhode Island, is the sports director and host of ABC 7’s 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. news programs. She joined ABC 7 in 1982 from a station in Syracuse, New York. In 2021, he was named ABC 7’s 10 p.m. sportscaster after the station fired longtime leading sportscaster Mark Giangreco.

Rose, whose most recent three-year contract with the station expires in September, told the Tribune that he has been meeting with the station’s management for the past few weeks.

“They were great in every way, and I’ll tell you this: here’s the quote I like to use: No one can beat Father Time,” Rose said. “However, I turned 70 in July and my health is excellent. Just because I want to, I go through a health check every six months and my health is on the glide path and at the glide center, as the pilots say. But this seemed like the perfect time to call it a career. I’ve had more careers than a man really deserves.

Rose notes he has the longest tenure of any sportscaster at any station in the nation’s top 20 markets, but Los Angeles sportscaster Jim Hill first joined his current station, KCBS-TV, in 1979, but only lasted for five years. He stated that he was leaving. He joined KABC-TV in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 2013, Rose was inducted into the Silver Circle of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She also hosted the station’s annual broadcast of the Bud Billiken Parade and co-hosted ABC 7’s Chicago Auto Show specials she.

Rose said she’s proud of how she’s behaved in her career in Chicago, and while praising how her station has handled her approach, she said she’s disappointed with the national shift in insult when it comes to sports.

“There’s a lot more conflict, not on our station – Channel 7 is still an ethical and characterful TV channel – but they’re yelling and screaming and doing all that on the sports radio and I’ve never been the type to do that.” “Do nothing to get ratings,” he said. “I tried to act respectfully and with character. I’m leaving Kanal 7 with my word, my pride, my honor, my name. This is very important for me.”

Rose said he and his wife, Lakesha, are planning to stay in Chicago.

“I love Chicago,” she said. “We were originally going to retire to Saugatuck, Michigan, but my wife’s interior design business took off during the pandemic, and when my wife’s business took off, I couldn’t stand in the way of her career. I fully support your career.”

ABC 7 management did not put a name in Rose’s place.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

First Release Date: Aug 28, 2023, 20:47