Dan Ponce (born December 7, 1976, in Illinois) is an American television journalist for WGN-TV, radio talk show host on WLS-AM (890) [1] and founder of the a cappella group Straight No Chaser. [2]
Ponce's TV career began in 2005 when he was hired at WILX-TV in Lansing, Michigan, as a reporter and weekend anchor. In 2006, Dan joined ABC-owned WLS-TV (channel 7) in Chicago as a general assignment reporter. [3]
In 2009, after Straight No Chaser's album "Holiday Spirits" went to #1 on iTunes and Amazon, Ponce decided to leave ABC and join the group full-time. [4] SNC went on to perform hundreds of concerts throughout the country and record three more albums on the Atlantic Records label.[ citation needed ] The group's televised concert series "Live in New York" (produced by WTTW) aired on PBS stations coast to coast. Ponce later came back to a TV career and was hired by WGN-TV {Channel 9}.[ citation needed ]
His father is Phil Ponce, a Chicago television journalist who hosts Chicago Tonight . [5]
Ponce earned his master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and his bachelor's degree from Indiana University, where he founded Straight No Chaser. Dan grew up in Wilmette and currently[ when? ] lives in Chicago. [6]
WTTW is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT. The two stations share studios in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue in the city's North Park neighborhood; its transmitter facility is atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the two stations.
WGN-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister to the company's sole radio property, news/talk/sports station WGN. WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community; as such, it is the only major commercial television station in Chicago which bases its main studio outside the Loop. Its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower in the Loop.
WGN is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a talk radio format. WGN's studios are in the Chicago Loop, while the transmitter is in Elk Grove Village. WGN also features broadcasts of Chicago Blackhawks hockey and Northwestern University football and basketball.
WLS-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. WLS-TV's studios are located on North State Street in the Chicago Loop, and its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower.
WBBM-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's CBS network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Street in the Loop, and it transmits from atop the Willis Tower.
WFLD is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WPWR-TV. The two stations share studios on North Michigan Avenue in the Chicago Loop, and transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower.
WCIU-TV is an independent television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to two low-power stations: independent outlet WMEU-CD and MeTV/Heroes & Icons flagship WWME-CD. The stations share studios on Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood; WCIU-TV's transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.
NewsNation is an American cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group.
WMAQ-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo station WSNS-TV. The two stations share studios at the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood and broadcast from the same transmitter atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.
Nancy Loo is the West Coast Bureau Correspondent for NewsNation in Los Angeles.
Robert "Bob" Sirott is an American broadcaster. He is the morning host at WGN in Chicago. He is also a former television news anchor, most recently working in that role at Chicago's WFLD.
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Mary Ann Childers is an American media consultant and former newscaster. From 1980 to 1994, she worked as an anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago, where she became the first woman to anchor a top-rated 10pm newscast in Chicago. She then worked as a reporter and anchor at Chicago's WBBM-TV from 1994 to 2008.
The WGN Morning News is an American morning television news program airing on WGN-TV, a CW owned-and-operated television station and former national superstation in Chicago, Illinois owned by Nexstar Media Group. The program is broadcast each weekday from 4:00 to 10:00 a.m. Central Time; weekend editions are broadcast on Saturdays from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and Sundays from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Central Time.
Phil Ponce is an American journalist and television presenter. Ponce is notable as the former, long-time host of "Chicago Tonight", a weekly television magazine of news and culture on WTTW, Chicago's public television station.
Rafer Weigel is an American broadcast journalist who most recently was an early morning weekday news anchor and general assignment reporter at WFLD-Channel 32 in Chicago. Formerly, he was the weekend sports anchor and reporter at WLS-TV in Chicago, the sports anchor for CNN HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade and also an actor.
Straight No Chaser (SNC) is a professional American a cappella group that originated in 1996 at Indiana University. Originally a student group at Indiana University, they recorded a video in 1998 of a comical version of "The 12 Days of Christmas". The founding members all graduated, to be replaced by other students, in 1999. In 2007, the 1998 video went viral on YouTube, and subsequently led to a reunion of the founding members and a five-album record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008. The YouTube video has been viewed over 24 million times.
Elizabeth E. Brackett was an American journalist and political figure and writer. She was known for hosting WTTW's Chicago Tonight program, and also worked as a correspondent for PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In 1988, she won a Peabody Award with her coverage of the 1988 U.S. presidential election.
NewsNation Prime is an American television news program on NewsNation, which premiered nationally on September 1, 2020. Broadcast live from Chicago, the program utilizes the journalistic resources of the 110 television news operations throughout the United States that are operated under the network's corporate parent Nexstar Media Group. The program is designed as an alternative to the opinion-based programs on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, the top-rated cable news networks in the country in the early 2020s.
Life Matters Media is a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization offering news, information, education and resources for those involved in end of life decision-making.