Legendary journalist Charles Jaco in 1998 on the ‘evil’ of broadcasting

Charles (C.D.) Jaco

I owe my career to Charles Jaco—or C.D., as listeners knew him when he was news director at Chicago rock station WXRT-FM.

He didn’t hire me at ’XRT when I interviewed for an opening created by the departure of founding news director Linda Brill; he rightly brought Marj Halperin on board then. But when he left to join NBC, he put in a good word for me with his successor, Neil Parker, who hired me for a 10-year run that, as I’ve said many times, sprinkled fairy dust over the rest of my career.

C.D. went on to report for CNN, covering Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War. By March 1998, when he and I sat down for this interview, he’d settled in as a program host at KMOX-AM in St. Louis. He remained as unfiltered as ever:

“The broadcast media business is run by a bunch of … suits in corner offices who may or may not be evil, but they’re the closest approximation you’re going to come to in this lifetime, simply because they don’t care about … the public good.”

Years later, I learned one of my subsequent bosses had been one of those “suits” working with C.D. Including that excerpt in my audition submission hadn’t set the relationship off to a good start.

But I think you’ll enjoy it.

Thanks again, C.D.



More interviews you may like, including a 1994 chat with “Superjock” Larry Lujack and this 2013 sit-down with Chicago radio reporter Dave Berner.
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