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John Williams
Weekdays 10 a.m. – noon, 1 – 2 p.m.

John Williams is heard weekdays 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on WGN Radio, including the Wintrust Business Lunch from noon – 1 p.m. John originally came to WGN Radio in September 1997 as midday host. Before arriving in Chicago, he hosted middays on WCCO Radio, Minneapolis, for four years. Prior to that, John spent ten years at WMBD, Peoria. His first radio job out of college was WSPY, Plano, Illinois. After returning to Minnesota at the end of 2012, John is now back on Chicago’s Very Own.

John’s program is all encompassing. Focusing on current events, he discusses the news of the day, sports, television programs, movies, and books with a thoughtful perspective and quirky sense of humor. John excels at drawing out listener views on all sides of the issues. Inquisitive and curious by nature, he asks what listeners want to know and his guests never get a pass on the tough questions.

In 2006, John was a finalist in the category of Personality of the Year at the Illinois Broadcasters Association Silver Dome Awards. He has received several other broadcasting awards as well. A past Marconi finalist, he won Personality of the Year at the Silver Domes, and Best Afternoon Show on a News, Talk, Personality or Sports Station and Best Talent at the (A.I.R.) Awards. He was also named an influential radio talk show host in Talkers Magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” personalities for 2018 and 2019. In addition, John’s opinion pieces occasionally appear in the Chicago Tribune.

John also hosts ‘The Mincing Rascals’, a weekly news roundtable podcast with a rotating cast of Chicago area journalists. The podcast received awards in 2017 and 2019 from the Chicago Headline Club and the Illinois Broadcasters Association, respectively.

His hobbies include running (he’s a four-time marathoner), reading, playing basketball and recovering from injuries sustained while playing basketball. John is also a certified nuclear physicist and speaks no languages fluently. He’s a Libra, is in excellent health, and thinks the greatest invention ever is either the seedless watermelon or the Internet.

John and his wife Brenda have two sons, Grant and Griffin, a granddaughter, and a dizzy dappled dachshund named Daisy.

Subscribe to John’s podcast at feeds.feedburner.com/wgnradio/johnwilliams.