WVON keeping hope alive for Santita’s return

Santita Jackson

Three follow-ups for the price of one:

• Tuesday’s report here about Santita Jackson parting company with urban news/talk WVON-AM (1690) in a “cost-cutting measure” at the station elicited a clarification from Melody Spann Cooper, chairman of parent company Midway Broadcasting and general manager of WVON. The eldest daughter of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson has been gone since mid-December from the midday talk show she hosted for more than five years, but Cooper said they have not severed ties. If and when Jackson lands a radio syndication deal, WVON would welcome her back. “Santita’s goal is to have a national platform, and I need some time to get over a little [financial] slump,” Cooper said. “When she rolls out on a national level, I will clear this market for her, let her use our studios and give her all the support I can give her.”

• It’s over and out for Alex Perez as a general assignment reporter at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. As tipped here last week, Perez is believed to be close to a deal to join ABC News. His last day at NBC 5 will be February 3. Saying Perez was leaving “to pursue a network opportunity,” Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news, wrote in a memo to staffers: “We appreciate all of his contributions over the last six and a half years, and wish him the best in the future.” Declining comment on his next move, Perez told me: “I do want to mention how grateful I am to my colleagues here at NBC Chicago. They are some of the best, hardest working journalists in the business. I’m lucky to have been able to work with, grow, and learn from them over the last six and half years.” A native of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, Perez joined NBC 5 in 2005 from KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas.

• In 1988, Jonathon Brandmeier broke attendance records at Poplar Creek Music Theatre when 26,000 fans showed up to hear Johnny and the Leisure Suits perform onstage (immortalized on the VHS tape Jonathon Brandmeier: The Concert). How times have changed: On February 17, Johnny B. will broadcast his WGN-AM (720) morning show from the Summit of Uptown, a retirement community in northwest suburban Park Ridge. It’s the latest stop in the Tribune Co.-owned news/talk station’s Hometown Voices Tour. “I know it sounds weird — Brandmeier broadcasting from a retirement community? — but that’s what I wanted to do, something unexpected and interesting,” he said in a statement. “My intention is to bring a fun, entertaining show to all of my listeners, plus the residents of The Summit at Uptown — many of whom don’t get many visitors. I’m envisioning this as a traveling vaudeville show for the residents.”