5-23-13
Jimmy de Castro is back, and his business card now reads President/GM at one of the most recognizable sets of call letters in the country. WGN-AM in Chicago has been through a lot of turmoil in recent years with parent company Tribune going through an extended bankruptcy and highly publicized management failures. The energetic 60-year-old de Castro told Radio Ink he's very excited to be back. "I missed being with people every day. I missed radio. I love radio. WGN is the cornerstone of Chicago radio. It's been cast astray a little bit, and my goal is to bring it new energy. It's going to be a lot of fun."
De Castro spent more than 25 years as one of radio's most successful executives before getting out. In the early 80s he was running WLUP in Chicago. In 1988 he founded Evergreen Media with Scott Ginsburg, and with the help of a little government deregulation grew the company from a handful of stations to over 400. In the late 90s Evergreen merged with Chancellor which became AMFM. Clear Channel came along and purchased AMFM, which is when de Castro cashed out and began dabbling in the Internet. In 2007, de Castro launched the "Content Factory," an independent content-focused national syndication company for new and traditional media, that carries The Dan Patrick Show.
De Castro will report to Larry Wert, whom he once hired to be the GM at WLUP. Wert is now Tribune's President of Broadcast Media.
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