A year ago, Steve Scott returned to a familiar place, near where he grew up in California.

This fall he also stepped back into a familiar role, as PA announcer for an NBA team: the Golden State Warriors. 

“It’s been fun,” Steve said. “I think I may have forgotten how much fun it is.” 

Steve started behind the mic for the Chicago Bulls, first as the backup, then full-time from 2002-2006.  This was during the time he was News Director and anchor at WLS radio. 

It’s also when he was elected 3 times as president of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.

“At that time we were fighting hard to get cameras in the courts. It was a battle and it was eventually won after I left to go to New York.  I’m proud to be even a small part of making that happen.” 

Steve and his wife Jeanne moved to New York in 2006, when he was hired as an anchor for WCBS radio.  He became involved with the New York Press Club, again serving three terms as president.  In his “free” time, he handled Public Address for the New York Knicks. 

WCBS went off the air in 2024, sending Steve back into the job market.  The Scotts made a cross-country move for his new role at KCBS in San Francisco.  Steve had grown up in Stockton and had attended San Jose State University.  Fun story about that: he didn’t graduate as a younger man, taking a full-time radio job instead, but was able to earn his last credits starting in 2019.  His graduation ceremony in 2020 was cancelled by COVID, but he still counts earning his diploma as one of his proudest accomplishments. 

A chance meeting at the radio station led to his third NBA gig.

“I was coming out of the kitchen, and the Warriors PR staff just happened to be walking by. I was introduced, and the Senior VP comes over and says you know we’re looking for a PA Announcer.”   

Since October, he’s been in what he calls “the best seat in the house” in the Chase Center, where much feels familiar.  

“What is kind of weird is the head coach is Steve Kerr, and I announced him when he was with the Bulls, as a player.”  

The Warriors’ General Manager is Mike Dunleavy, Jr., whom Scott also announced in his playing days. And a current Warriors player is Gary Payton II, whose dad Gary Payton Sr., was on the court in the earlier years of Scott’s announcing career. 

Scott says he wasn’t necessarily looking to do PA again, but with five regular season home games behind him, he’s feeling good.  Now he’s checking the schedule to see if he can make a trip back for the INBA’s Spring Awards on April 18. 

His memories of INBA are of being around similar people who can understand the ups and downs of the business.

“Whether they work in Chicago or Carbondale, or any town in between, we were all in it together.”  

In this INBA Podcast, Margaret Larkin speaks with WGN Radio’s Dave Schwan.

After 45 years in radio news, Schwan is at the height of his career at WGN Radio where he is also on the air with Dean Richards. He talks about anchoring and reporting in Chicago, why he loves doing radio news, hosting the Grant Music Festival concerts and jazz network for WFMT, his mentors, advice, writing, and more. This is from a livestream that Dave did with Margaret Larkin.

In this podcast, Margaret Larkin interviews Jeff Burnett, a producer at WTHR in Indianapolis. Burnett is an Illinois native, with a non-traditional path to broadcast journalism.

Burnett talks about why he delayed going to college and what he learned from working at places like Walmart. Burnett participated in ISU’s TV-10 program and graduated from the Public Affairs Reporting Program at University of Illinois-Springfield.

He previously worked as a producer at WEEK-TV in Peoria and WHAS11 in Louisville.

What drew him to journalism was his interest in music and radio. From there, Burnett said he chose his college where he could get experience in Top 40 radio. To learn how he worked his way from ‘Jeff Jams’ on the radio to TV news producer, take a listen.

In this very special edition of the INBA Podcast, Margaret Larkin interviews John Drummond. Drummond is a legendary TV journalist who spent three decades reporting for CBS2 Chicago. Drummond earned the nickname “Bulldog” for his tenacious reporting. He is known for his coverage of crime, corruption, and the mob in the windy city. He still returns to what he calls “the magic lantern,” every now and then to provide expert analysis and context to stories on CBS2.

But Drummond didn’t start in the big city. He’s from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and he got his first news job doing radio in Iowa.

He said the first time he watched TV was in 1948 and remembers it was “fascinating.” Despite that, it’s not the career he originally wanted.

Drummond was enthralled by the radio broadcasts of WWII and joined the Air Force for four years. He even considered a career in Navy intelligence. After his service he contemplated getting a law degree because of his interest in high school debate.

Ultimately, he got his start in radio and made the transition into TV for a better paycheck; he had a family of three children to support. Drummond said he welcomed the change, adding you have to be “a ham” to work in TV. He had aspired to work in the Twin Cities, but found an opportunity in Chicago and jumped at the chance.

The “Bulldog” gave us some insight on his favorite stories he’s covered in Chicago, including the mob. He said in his career, Chicago had the most powerful mob faction in the country.

If you love history and perspective, this is an episode you can’t miss.

In this podcast, INBA’s Margaret Larkin speaks to Charlie Meyerson about his decades-long career in Chicago news. Meyerson has worked for WGN-AM, WXRT, WNUA, and FM News. He also worked for the Chicago Tribune. Now, he runs his own free email newsletter called Chicago Public Square, where he curates important highlights of the day’s news for subscribers. He also works for Rivet Radio.

Meyerson talks about the challenges with getting younger audiences to listen to radio and how to make money in today’s world of digital news. Despite those challenges, he says he still thinks it’s a great time to get into the communications business. Hey says nowadays, “One person can communicate with thousands of people daily.”

In this podcast, WBBM’s Margaret Larkin interviews NBC5 Chicago veteran reporter Phil Rogers.

Rogers joined WMAQ in 1991, and before that he worked at WBBM Newsradio, KOMA-AM in Oklahoma City, and KVRO-FM in Stillwater, OK.

Rogers talks with Larkin about the news stories he’s covered all over the world throughout his career including Olympic games, conflicts in the Middle East, and the Sandy Hook massacre.

Rogers also dives into how much transparency among public agencies has changed through the course of his career, specifically in Chicago. Spoiler alert: he says it has changed dramatically, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear how he keeps doing the work he does.

To budding journalists, Rogers said, “News isn’t very hard,” adding that 99% of the job is just reporting what happens. He says what interests him is finding the information he’s not supposed to know about. He also talks about how stories can be unpredictable, “News a lot of the time involves things that don’t pan out,” he said, “You’re there to tell the story that you have not the story that you want.”

For journalists hungry for conversations on transparency, public records, and investigative work, this is the INBA podcast for you.

INBA’s Margaret Larkin interviews WGN Radio’s Lauren Lapka about her career in journalism from sports to news in this podcast.

For managers and aspiring managers, Lauren talks about how working as a manager at Hollister helped her navigate leading other young people in the broadcast business.

Lauren’s worked all over the country from Missouri, to Oregon, and now Chicago. In this podcast, she talks about the importance of speaking truth and including a variety of voices in her storytelling. In a world of divisive politics, Lauren says she feels a responsibility to keep doing the news, and provide balance to the public. She says, “WGN is home,” recalling how special the radio station was to kids and families growing up in the Chicagoland area.

Lapka also talked about her decision to not read a controversial promo script from Sinclair Broadcast Group during her time in Oregon, even against the advice of her own family.

Clips of Sinclair anchors reading the promo was strung together and went viral online in 2018. The promos emphasized that one-sided, biased, and false news stories are “extremely dangerous to our democracy.” While the message of the promos seems journalistic at face value, many former Sinclair employees have spoken publicly about one-sided, must-run stories being a regular part of local broadcasts, contrary to the company’s message.

Before she became the Kane County Public Information Officer, Julie Mann worked a few decades in radio news, starting out as an intern at WGN Radio, then as a reporter in Kane County, an anchor at WMAQ, and an anchor and reporter at WBBM until she became the Managing Editor there.

In this interview with Margaret Larkin, Mann talks about what attracted her to radio over TV and print. Mann talks about the thrill of not knowing where you’re going to go next as a reporter whether it’s a parade or a riot, and the dreaded call she used to get from her editor, “Uh yeah it’s snowing, I need you to go to O’Hare.”

Mann also talks about being prepared to receive criticism in journalism. Whether it’s constructive or unwanted, she says, “you can always do better.” She even talks about the one thing she still thinks she’s not good at. Mann emphasizes that news is a public service and talks about her career transition into becoming a public information officer for Kane County, Illinois.

Grzech joined Chicago-based cable network NewsNation earlier this year as its Vice President of News, Managing Editor.

She oversees the network’s day-to day news gathering and production process and supervises a staff of more than 100 reporters, producers, writers, and photojournalists. 

Grzech previously served as Vice President of Fox News, responsible for managing the operations of the network’s Washington, D.C., news bureau, where she developed content for eight hours of daily programming.  She provided daily editorial guidance for more than a dozen teams of journalists working at the White House, Pentagon, and a variety of other federal departments and agencies, and spearheaded the Washington, D.C., bureau’s coverage of the 2020 Presidential campaign.

From 2009 to 2018, Grzech was Fox News’ Senior Director of Politics in Washington, D.C., serving as the network’s primary editorial liaison to both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Grzech began her career in broadcast journalism as an intern and on-air reporter at WJBF-TV in Augusta, Georgia, now owned by Nexstar Media Inc.

In 1995 she supervised a staff of 35 at WILX-TV in Lansing, Michigan and was the youngest female news director in the U.S.  At local news powerhouse WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, she served as Assistant News Director and helped advance all of Capitol Broadcasting businesses with programs built on stretched growth and cross-training. She won an Edward R. Murrow regional award for excellence at KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon, where she was Managing Editor and oversaw a staff of 85.

Grzech graduated from Michigan State University, earning her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Political Science.  She received her Master’s degree in Journalism/New Media from American University.  

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