After 10 years on the air, “Windy City Live” is coming to an end. According to a leaked e-mail on Robert Feder’s site, the show will air its last weekday program on Friday, September 3. (It’s going to be a long Labor Day weekend for that staff.) Since the pandemic shutdown last year, the show lost a lot of steam. Additionally, they’ve parted ways with great on-air personalities like Ji Suk Yi and talent bookers like Emerald-Jane Hunter. From there, the quality of the show (and the ratings) declined. Yet, I feel as if money was the greatest reason for the show’s demise.

Where The Money Resides

Each year, talent contracts get negotiated. As expected, on-air talent (and their agents) ask for more money. Unfortunately, advertising revenue correlates with viewership. When ratings go down, so does the money. Simply put, ABC7 Chicago was already in the hole. They couldn’t afford to pay Val Warner and Ryan Chiaverini more money and keep the same number of staff members.

I hope that Ryan and Val go after bigger gigs. They would be good for “Good Morning America” or the “Today Show”. Additionally, they could make more money in those roles.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of the WCL staff members affected by this disappointing news. I hope that they can find work at other TV stations or band together to start their own news programs.