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Nick Gale
News Director
Nick Gale is a native of suburban Glenview and has been behind a microphone since 1994.
Nick got an early start in broadcasting at Glenbrook South High School’s WGBK-FM. After graduating from Southern Illinois University with a degree in radio and political science, he worked as news director at a five station cluster in LaSalle – Peru and later as a reporter and anchor in Jacksonville, Florida at WOKV-AM. Nick returned to Chicago and spent six years with the Illinois Radio Network covering state government for 50 affiliates, and also worked part-time at WLS before coming on board full time.
Nick has covered a wide range of stories including NASA’s return to space after the Columbia disaster, flooding on the Mississippi River, the horrific mass shooting at NIU, and the Blagojevich corruption trials. He has contributed to the AP, ABC, the BBC and Fox.
Nick has been recognized for his work by the Associated Press and the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
Nick is an avid duck hunter and fisherman. He also enjoys tinkering with old trucks and tractors and operating his ham radio.
Kim Gordon
News Anchor
Kim Gordon anchors afternoon drive and during the John Howell Show weekdays from 4pm-7pm. She started her career at WHAS Radio in Louisville, Kentucky and was an Anchor and Reporter at WGN Radio for 15 years. Kim Gordon won an Associated Press Broadcasters award for local team coverage in Louisville during the September 11th attacks and a 2015 Silver Dome Award from the Illinois Broadcasters Association for “Fighting Hunger Chicago Style: Food Insecurities and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.” Kim loves to workout, golf, ski, walk, travel, cook, bake, spend time with her family…especially her granddaughters.
Ray Stagich
Weather Channel Meteorologist
Ray is a native of Saugerties, New York and has a BS in Atmospheric Science from SUNY Albany. Ray says “I have always been interested in weather. The driver was really my love for snow and winter sports (snowmobiling). That grew into more fascination with severe weather and eventually just became a TWC addict and watched some of the people I now WORK WITH while I was in High School and College! HA! (The real story is that I applied to 2 schools, 1 for Physical Education and 1 for Meteorology. I did not get accepted for meteorology the first time around, so thought I wanted to be a gym teacher. Obviously, that did not work out and transferred after my first year and got accepted.”
Ray is an accredited member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society.
Bret Gogoel
News Anchor
Bret is a late comer to the industry who spent his first years out of college working in finance. After being bit by the radio bug, he joined WLS over four years ago and has spent his time learning the ins and outs of production through fill-in producing and podcast management. He’s always had a deep-rooted love for sports and has grown to enjoy the news industry just as much.
Molly Cavanaugh
News Anchor
Scott Childers
Scott is a lifelong Chicagoan and a local broadcasting veteran of over thirty-five years. He is a news anchor/reporter and fill-in talk host. He has spent time at many area radio and television stations and has been a part of WLS several times. In addition, Scott is proud to be one of the WLS Radio historians, preserving the 100-year legacy of this fabled station. He’s authored a book, “Chicago’s WLS Radio” by Arcadia Press and is the curator of WLSHistory.com. Scott had been the recipient of multiple Chicago Achievement In Radio (AIR) Awards as well as the Peter Lisagor Award for Journalism in Illinois.
In his spare time, he loves to travel with his wife and is a diehard Cubs fan.
