Roan ready to sign off
After 38 years at WGN, sports reporter and weekend anchor calls it a career
When WGN-Ch. 9 hired Dan Roan as a sports reporter and weekend anchor in December 1983, the station most associated with live local sports in Chicago wasn’t totally committed to it during its nightly newscast.
Veteran Bill Frink was the lead sports anchor, well past his years on the popular “Happy Talk” newscasts at WLS-Ch. 7 with Joel Daly, Fahey Flynn and weatherman John Coleman.
Familiarity was key in Chicago newscasts, and WGN seemed perfectly content with Frink narrating a couple of Cubs or Blackhawks highlights before throwing it back to the newscasters or Tom Skilling’s five-day forecast.
But news director Paul Davis hired the 30-yearold Roan out of Champaign, taking a chance on a Keokuk, Iowa, native who began as a news correspondent/cameraman in Decatur, Ill., and had no name recognition in Chicago.
“Everyone should have goals, and working in Chicago is one I set for myself,” Roan told Tribune sports TV/radio columnist Skip Myslenski upon being hired.
Roan was on the air by February 1984 and stuck around long enough to report on championship seasons for the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox, Cubs, Fire and Sky over 38 years at the station. His long run comes to an end May 26, when Roan delivers his final sportscast before heading off to retirement.
“I’m 69 and just thought it was time to do it,” Roan said at the WGN studio. “We have three grandkids, and two live five blocks away now. And you don’t want to get home after midnight every night, which I do with the late show.
“I do have to say the pandemic wrecked it for me — all those months without any access, doing shows in my basement on a delay with Jarrett (Payton). That kind of set everything in motion.”
Even Roan’s traditional jump into a swimming pool after the final spring training report in Arizona had to be scrapped, a sure sign it was time to go after 46 years in the business.
The role of the local sports anchor was outsized in the mid-1980s, when there was no internet to get quick updates or watch highlights if your team wasn’t ESPN-worthy. In a town that craved sports like ours, a sports anchor’s job ensured celebrity status in Chicago. And with WGN’s superstation status for much of his career, Roan was a recognizable figure almost anywhere he went.
On the day Roan was hired, the big news was who would replace Chet Coppock, who had been fired by WMAQ-Ch. 5. Would it be interim anchor Mark Giangreco or one of the big-name candidates, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and former Minnesota Vikings star Ahmad Rashad?
The competition for stories back then was fierce. Tim Weigel had carved out a niche at Channel 7 with his wry, cerebral take on the sports world, and the “Big Kahuna” was WBBM-Ch. 2’s Johnny Morris, the former Bears receiver and close friend of popular coach Mike Ditka.
But Roan didn’t look at them as rivals and simply focused on getting to know the main characters and teams that provided the daily drama Chicago sports fans devoured.
Timing is everything in life, and 1984 — Roan’s first year at WGN — was a turning point in Chicago sports after the Dark Ages of the late 1960s and 1970s.
The Bears were emerging under Ditka and beat Washington to advance to the NFC title game, setting the stage for the ‘85 championship season. Michael
Jordan was drafted by the Bulls and immediately became the team’s brightest star. Tony La Russa’s White Sox were coming off their 1983 division title and added an ace in Tom Seaver. The Cubs were about to change the course of franchise history with Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutcliffe leading them to their first playoff appearance in 39 years.
It was like walking into a dream.
“I thought, ‘Hey, what is this?’ ” Roan said. “But then after the ‘85 Bears we had to wait a while before we won anything.”
The cast of characters he got to meet along the way was the best part of the journey. Jordan, Ditka, Walter Payton, Harry Caray, Ozzie Guillén, Sammy Sosa, Dusty Baker and Phil Jackson — a who’s who of the last half-century of Chicago sports — were among the hundreds of personalities he interviewed.
Roan played hoops at the East Bank Club with President Barack Obama and once set a pick for Jordan in a pickup game. He played golf in Iceland and picked up a couple of Emmys for the story. He subbed for Caray and was in the Cubs booth during the SosaMark McGwire home run race of 1998. Roan’s trip was a trip.
The city has changed quite a bit since he arrived in Chicago, and obviously so has the TV news business. We’ve seen sports reporters and anchors come and go with little knowledge of the history or culture of the teams they cover.
But Chicagoans can see through the lack of expertise, which makes anchors like Roan all the more valuable. Roan wasn’t a showman or a wise guy and seldom made himself the focus of the story, with the exception of jumping into a swimming pool every spring.
He outlasted most of his competitors and never felt the urge to switch jobs after joining WGN in ‘84. Though he wanted Chicago teams to succeed, he didn’t sugarcoat their failures. He did his job well without calling attention to himself, which was why Roan was so widely respected by his peers in press boxes and newsrooms.
While Roan doesn’t know what the future of local sportscasting holds, he doesn’t believe many up-and-coming anchors will last four decades on the job. One-on-one interviews with players are more difficult to secure since the pandemic limited media access in 2020, and other viewing options — including streaming — have cut into legacy media’s audiences.
“The audiences are shrinking because the way people get their information is so much different now,” he said. “When I first got here, everybody watched the news. That’s where they got their info. Now you can get it off your wristwatch.
“We’re not as immediate
as some of the other sources, so that makes it different too. But in sports, Chicago is unique. Everyone cares so much about these teams.”
Working for WGN in its sports heyday, Roan was able to work in the booth on Notre Dame football, DePaul and Illinois basketball and Bulls, Cubs and Sox games. Less than an hour before a 1990 White Sox game against Cleveland, he was called upon to fill in on play-by-play for Harrelson, who didn’t show up for work. (“I know now how fast I can get from WGN to Comiskey Park,” Roan said after the game.)
For decades WGN was the undisputed sports leader in town, and Roan was often the congenial emcee. Whether hosting a show on the first night game at Wrigley Field in 1988, “The Cubby Awards” after the 1989 season or “Michael Comes Home,” an hourlong pregame show celebrating Jordan’s return to the Bulls in 1995, he frequently was involved in special programming.
WGN promoted its reputation as a sports station, knowing anything with a sports theme was gold. Now the station has mostly given up on live sports
besides Fire games, cutting ties with the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks and watching the Cubs move their games to their own network.
It’s a new era, like it or not.
ESPN can show highlights of your teams but can’t provide the local flavor you’re accustomed to seeing. And sometimes you just want to see a familiar face, someone you’re sure knows what they’re talking about when discussing your favorite teams.
Roan said he hasn’t had time to reflect on his final week at Channel 9. But he said he was overwhelmed by the response he received from viewers after news of his pending retirement first leaked.
“It’s really humbling to think you’ve touched these people who have been watching you for a long time,” he said. “I went into this out of school at Illinois State just trying to find a job, hoping it would turn into a career but not really knowing.
“For someone who grew up in Keokuk, Iowa, listening to Harry Caray and Jack Buck, and then to fill in for Harry when he went into the Hall of Fame and doing games next to him ... shoot, I feel lucky.”