Sundays will be starting earlier for WGN’s Richards

Dean Richards

Add Dean Richards' Sunday Morning to radio’s early risers: Starting October 7, Chicago’s preeminent entertainment reporter and critic will be hosting his weekly radio show from 6:30 to 11am Sundays on Tribune Co.-owned news/talk WGN-AM (720).

“I decided I was getting too much sleep on the weekends,” quipped Richards, whose Sunday Morning now airs from 9am to 1pm. In addition to appearing on WGN-Channel 9’s top-rated morning news program on weekdays, Richards has been hosting weekend radio shows on WGN since 1994.

WGN program director Bill White said the earlier start will avoid preemptions for sports broadcasts, which frequently cut Richards’ show short. “As a Chicago native, Dean truly embodies the WGN hometown quality, and we’re excited to expand the show,” White said in a statement.

The move was prompted by Tribune columnist Rick Kogan’s decision to step away from The Sunday Papers, the weekly show he’s hosted for 13 years on WGN. After this weekend, Kogan will turn up on Chicago Public Media WBEZ-FM (91.5), filling in as host of The Afternoon Shift from 2 to 4pm weekdays until a permanent replacement for Steve Edwards is named.

“Rick is a true Chicago legend and has been a mainstay on WGN for the past 13 years,” White said. “We expect him to have a great experience in his new endeavor, but the door is open for future projects down the road at WGN.”