CHICAGO / MIDWEST
2020-2021
BIOS FROM INDUCTION YEAR
Jackie Bange
Jackie Bange is an award-winning journalist who has worked
in Chicago for more than 30 years and is currently weekend
anchor for WGN News at Five, Nine and Ten. Jackie joined
the WGN-TV News team in 1993 as a general assignment
reporter and anchored the WGN Morning News from
January 1995 to October 1995. Jackie also spent 21 years
working with the Weekend team of Robert Jordan, Jim
Ramsey and Rich King. All have since retired. Jackie
continues her weekend work with Tahman Bradley, Mike
Janssen and Lauren Magiera.
Prior to her arrival at WGN-TV, Jackie was a general assignment reporter and weekend
anchor for WMAQ-TV in Chicago from 1989-1992. Before moving to Chicago, Jackie was a
reporter and noon anchor for WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida where she covered city
hall and had the only weekly local scuba diving report in the nation.
Among the countless stories Jackie has covered are the Presidential election nights of
Barack Obama and the election of President Joe Biden. Jackie has also reported from
international locales, including Tanzania, Africa and Paris, France. After Hurricane Katrina,
Jackie brought WGN viewers “Into the Darkness,” a story profiling two local pilots and their
crew who were the first to arrive in New Orleans and help rescue hundreds of stranded
residents. Utilizing night-vision goggles, Jackie recreated the rescue for viewers, and her
report won the Illinois Associated Press award for Best Hard News Feature.
Jackie won an Emmy® in 1999 for her series as a member of a group who attained a world
record for the largest skydive formation. She also won an AP award for the series and for
aerial photography. She received a Peter Lisagor award in 2009 for her report that helped a
widow “get justice” for her husband who was killed by a suspected drunk driver.
Jackie has worked with Elmhurst College’s Mentor Program for students interested in
journalism. She serves on the board of The Michael Matters Foundation, an organization
created to help those fighting brain cancer. Jackie is involved in the fundraising efforts for A
Safe Place, a domestic violence prevention organization in Lake County. She also volunteers
at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, The West Deerfield Township Food Pantry and Feed My
Starving Children. For her devotion to family, she received the Woman of Honor award from
Thornton Township.
Jackie received her post-baccalaureate degree in Telecommunications from the University
of Florida where she graduated with distinction. Jackie’s undergraduate degree was from
Florida State University in Management Information Systems. She is proud to carry on a
family tradition of television journalism. Her father was a news anchor at WPLG in Miami,
Florida, and at WGAL Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her mother was a weathercaster in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. She is married with three children. In her free time, Jackie enjoys traveling,
scuba diving, skydiving and athletic training. She has completed seven Triathlons.
Richard Bernal
Richard Bernal is a lifelong Chicagoan, born on the Southside,
the youngest of 12 in an immigrant Mexican family. He
attended Chicago public schools, graduating from West
Pullman Elementary and Morgan Park High. In 1948, the
Bernal house was the first in the neighborhood to get a TV set.
Chicago broadcasting would become a steady influence
throughout his youth.
As a boy, Richard developed a serious interest in photography
and cinematography. He was a photographer for the high
school student newspaper and yearbooks and thought that photography might be his life’s
work. But a high school field trip to the WBBM-TV studios sparked the idea of possibly
becoming a TV cameraman.
With a TV career as motivation, Richard went to college, first at Wilson Junior College in
Chicago, then finishing at the University of Illinois in Champaign. His camera abilities got him
his first paying job in television at WILL-TV, the university’s PBS station. Fun Fact: Richard’s
first ever TV Election Night was the 1960 JFK/Nixon Presidential Election. Richard was the
first in his family to graduate college. In 1962, he received a B.S. Degree in Journalism &
Communications from the University of Illinois. He considers that his most significant
personal achievement.
Richard served his military obligation as a TV Production Specialist, including a year at the
American Forces Korea Network, directing live TV programs for American troops in South
Korea. He was discharged in 1965, just as the Field newspapers publisher was planning to
start a brand new TV station in Chicago, WFLD, Channel 32. He landed an interview with
Chicago TV legend Sterling “Red” Quinlan and was hired to work in the first crew of “Creative
Assistants” who got the station up and running. On the very first night that Channel 32 went
on the air, Richard was in the room where it happened. Once in the directing rotation,
Richard helmed a wide variety of shows including BJ & Dirty Dragon with Bill Jackson, and
Screaming Yellow Theater hosted by the original “Svengoolie”, Jerry G. Bishop.
In 1971, Richard moved to CBS, WBBM-TV as a staff director. During his 33 years at Channel
2, his assignments ranged from daily programming like the Lee Philip Show, the news with
Bill Kurtis & Walter Jacobson, the Chicago Bears coaches’ show with Mike Ditka to numerous
special projects. At WBBM-TV, he received three Chicago Emmy® Awards, one for Individual
Achievement as a Director, and two as Director and Co-Producer for Best Children’s Series,
Magic Door. Richard was also the director of Lee Philips’ National Emmy® award-winning
documentary, The Forgotten Children.
A third chapter in Richard’s Chicago TV History began in 1979 when he was invited to teach
at Columbia College Chicago. Richard’s career there spanned 40 years, offering his
knowledge of TV Directing and Production. Richard takes great pride in knowing that many
of his students are now successful figures in the industry, both in Chicago and around the
USA.
MARK GIANGRECO
Mark Giangreco enjoyed a storied career as a Chicago sports
reporter and anchor for a lot longer than most of the sports
figures he covered. His almost four-decade run in Chicago
began when he was hired as a weekend sports anchor/
reporter at WMAQ-TV in 1982. He quickly became the
station’s sports director along with his reporting and
anchoring duties.
In 1994, Mark joined ABC 7 in Chicago and would remain
there until earlier this year. He became the station’s sports
director and primary sports anchor for the top-rated 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. During his
tenure, Mark earned a reputation for delivering sports with humor and, at times, a bit of
sarcasm. He was considered a sports anchor that even non-sports fans enjoyed watching.
Mark was tagged to participate in various non-sports specials including ABC’s well-viewed
New Year’s Eve coverage co-hosted by Mark and 2013 Silver Circle honoree Janet Davies.
Mark’s broadcasting career began while he was at the University of Dayton. He joined
WING-AM Radio in Dayton, Ohio as a news and sports reporter in 1972. He received his B.A.
in Communications in 1974 and, two years later, became the weekend sports anchor and
reporter at WDTN-TV in Dayton. His final stop before coming to Chicago was WLKY- TV in
Louisville, Kentucky where he served as sports director and anchor.
Over the years, Mark has garnered several awards for his sports reporting including eight
Chicago/Midwest Emmy® Awards: The 39th Year Itch (1985 sports special), Sports Sunday
(1986 sports series), Countdown to Chicago 2015 and 2020 (2015 and 2020 special event
coverage), Chicago Auto Show Special (2016), and Outstanding Newscast (2017, 2018, and
2020). He has also won two Peter Lisagor Awards, two Associated Press Awards as well as
the prestigious Iris Award from the National Association of Television Program Executives.
He was named Illinois Sportscaster of the Year in 2017.
LYNN HAuLDREN
Across America and even internationally, people recognize
the Empire Carpet commercials for two distinct reasons, the
Empire Carpet Man and the Empire Carpet jingle.
Lynn
Hauldren was the man behind both.
Lynn was an independent copy writer and producer of
broadcast advertising when Empire became his client. In
1977, Lynn created the Empire Carpet Man character. After
unsuccessfully auditioning several actors, the company’s
owner requested that Lynn play the role. The character was
part blue-collar superhero and part pure entertainment. Lynn was the friendly face and the
soft sell.
People from all over the world would stop him on the street and say: "I know you --- are you
that TV guy?" And his reply would be: "You watch too much TV!" He appeared in almost
every commercial for the company from 1977 to 2011, the year he died. In 2012, the company
switched to the animated character fashioned after him. You can still hear him say "today" at
the end of every commercial appearing now.
The Empire jingle "800-5-8-8, 2-300, Empire today” has made the company's phone
number one of the most recognizable in the country. The jingle has been the subject of
several late night talk show skits. Lynn also recorded the jingle with his barbershop quartet,
The Fabulous 40s.
Lynn was a decorated World War II veteran. As a 23-year-old radio operator in Asia along the
Burma Road from India to China, he volunteered to answer the call to deliver supplies to
Chinese port cities to troops who were starving from a Japanese naval blockade.
During his career, Lynn won 2 Cleo advertising Awards. He also was a lifelong barbershop
quartet singer. He was awarded the Quartet Champions Association Barbershop Harmony
Society Music Man award in 2007 for his talents and contributions as an international
quartet medalist, eminent writer, parodist, and arranger.
Lynn Hauldren was a boating fanatic known for giving his boats clever musical names such as
Sea Sharp. He also loved to ski, a sport he took up at the age of 60. He was married to Helen
Helmke Hauldren for 68 years. They had 6 children, 16 grandchildren and 12 great
grandchildren.
ALAN KRASHESKY
Alan Krashesky has reported and shared major news stories
with Chicago viewers for nearly 40 years. The veteran news
anchor and reporter currently co-anchors three of ABC 7’s
top-rated weekday newscasts at 5 PM, 6 PM and 10 PM.
Among Chicago’s most trusted news anchors, Alan is wellknown
and respected for both his news anchoring and news
reporting. He joined ABC 7 as a general assignment reporter
in 1982 and began co-anchoring ABC 7's 4pm weekday
newscasts and its morning newscasts. In fact, he was the first
anchor of ABC 7's weekday morning news program. Every newscast he has anchored has
consistently been rated No. 1 in the Chicago market.
Alan's reporting in Chicago and abroad has earned high praise. He is considered one of the
top reporters in the market to cover major domestic and international stories, and has been
lauded in particular, for his coverage of the Roman Catholic Church. He has covered three
Chicago Cardinal Archbishops as well as three Popes. He has earned numerous Chicago
Midwest Emmy® Awards and a Chicago Headline Club Peter Lisagor Award.
Early in his career, Alan served as a news reporter and weathercaster for KTBC in Austin,
Texas. Prior to his work at KTBC, he was a news reporter, weathercaster and weekend sports
anchor at WBNG in Binghamton, New York. He gained his first broadcasting experience in
college when he was a news anchor on WICB-FM radio in Ithaca, New York.
In addition to his career accomplishments, Alan has a long and outstanding history of
volunteering his personal time to community service. He serves as a mentor for
students interested in broadcast journalism and is a local spokesperson for the fight against
Alzheimer's disease. He is also a member of the Chicago Midwest Chapter of the National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Alan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but attended the Milton Hershey School in
Hershey, a residential school for children with financial and social need. The school honored
him as Alumnus of the Year in 2005. He graduated with honors from Ithaca College in
Ithaca, New York, with a B.S. in Communications Management.
He and his wife, Colleen, have three adult children and three grandchildren.
Marda Le Beau
Marda Le Beau is proud of her 40 years working in Chicago
news at ABC 7 and CBS 2. From desk assistant to news writer
to producer and executive producer, she has loved every
minute of her career covering everything from war in Israel
to sex- abuse conferences at the Vatican as well as
supervising investigations into corruption here in Chicago.
Marda was born in Chicago and raised in suburban
Lombard.
Most of her time in high school was spent in Thailand where
her microbiologist father was working in epidemic control. She graduated from Mundelein
College which is now part of Loyola University. Her news career started in the late 1970s
when she was hired to answer phones on the ABC 7 assignment desk. Later, she produced
the 4pm and 6pm news as well as the 10pm weekend shows.
But the turning point in her career came when she started producing stories on the health
beat. She and anchor/reporter Mary Ann Childers had a long partnership covering health
and medicine. Their motto was knowledge is power. The more you know about your health,
the more you can take control. They took a critical look at treatments and procedures such as
Lasik and the complaints and side effects no one was talking about. She honed her skills as a
writer and segment producer on the health beat and began to delve into investigations.
Marda and Mary Ann were assigned to Israel during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 when Israel
was attacked by 40 Scud missiles. Fears were high that Iraq would use chemical weapons.
Over the weeks of the conflict, they covered the political situation and the human stories of
Israeli and Palestinian families coping with the stresses of war, gas masks and sealed rooms.
For the last 14 years of her career, Marda was the Executive Producer of the CBS 2
Investigators. Award winning stories by the investigative unit included the critical ambulance
shortage in Chicago, a company spewing fumes linked to cancer into a suburban
neighborhood, Chicagoans getting billed tens of thousands of dollars for water they did not
use and Chicago police terrorizing families by raiding the wrong homes. Marda has won a
national Emmy® and 10 regional Emmy® Awards as a producer and 12 more as an executive
producer in addition to Peabody and DuPont Awards.
She juggled this rewarding career with marriage and a daughter. All of it made possible by
Ronald Klein, her incredibly supportive and sharing husband who passed away seven years
ago. Marda’s daughter, Adina Klein, is now a segment producer at Fox 32 Chicago.
Since retiring in May of 2019, Marda has become a docent at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center where the mission is to encourage all of us to be upstanders and
speak out when we see injustice. She feels it is an extension of her many years working in
investigative news.
JENNIFER LYONS
Jennifer Lyons joined CBS 2 Chicago as President and
General Manager just last month, another step up the
management ladder for an executive with a proven track
record of success in the Chicago television market.
As the former Vice President of News for NewsNation,
Jennifer led the creation and launch of the new national
cable news outlet. Under her leadership, a daily three-hour
newscast and all digital products were put in motion to
deliver unbiased national news. She oversaw the design and
buildout of NewsNation’s 24-hour newsroom and studio.
Jennifer is an award-winning television news executive with 30 years of experience, more
than 27 in Chicago, the 3rd largest TV market in the United States. Since 1993, she has
worked in a variety of capacities at Chicago’s WGN-TV including Executive Producer of the
WGN Morning and Midday News, Director of News and Content from 2014 to 2020 and
Assistant News Director from 2008 to 2014.
An innovative and industry leading journalist, Jennifer led the conversion of the traditional
broadcast newsroom into a successful multi-platform digital operation by enabling and
organizing the distribution of content on a variety of digital outlets. She also led the charge
to expand WGN’s news footprint by several hours, producing more local news than any
other Chicago station, 75.5 hours weekly. Newscasts can be seen on WGN-TV, WGNTV.com
and the WGN-TV News app.
She began her career in Davenport and Des Moines Iowa, working as a news photographer,
live truck operator and producer for KWQC and WHO after earning a Bachelor of Arts
Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Iowa State University. Her Awards
include Chicago/Midwest Emmy® and Silver Dome awards. And in 2017, Jennifer was named
News Director of the Year by Broadcasting & Cable Magazine. She serves on the Advisory
Council for Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, she
is a member of The Chicago Network and she is active in The Mercy Home for Boys and Girls
Leader Council.
JACK AND ELAINE MULQUEEN
Theirs is a love story between a man and a woman... and a
bunch of puppets. They were Jack and Elaine Mulqueen
and they met on Chicago’s south side. Jack had developed
a talent for puppeteering as a child, orchestrating
backyard puppet shows for his neighbors. While stationed
at Fort Carson, Colorado, his Army commander asked Jack
to put on puppet shows to help improve relations with
surrounding communities. When Jack returned to
Chicago, he met and married Elaine where they began a
lifelong partnership not just in the home, but in the TV
studio as well.
Jack and Elaine’s career in children’s TV programming
began in the early 1960s on WTTW when they appeared
on the Totem Club featuring Elaine as Pandora, a fun-loving pixie-like clown. The couple
performed at supermarkets on weekends promoting Borden’s dairy products with “Elsie the
Cow’s Puppet Carnival.”
Jack and Elaine got a big boost in 1962 when they appeared in weekly skits on WGN-TV’s
Bozo’s Circus. That led to a show they produced independently for WGN called The
Mulqueens featuring cartoons and puppetry. As Pandora, Elaine was always the on- camera
star, with Jack creating the puppets and bringing them to life on the airwaves.
In 1965, the Mulqueens took their puppets to WBKB (now WLS) where they debuted a new
program, Kiddie A-Go-Go, a preteen version of American Bandstand. But management
changed at WBKB in 1966 and a new boss said the program contributed to the delinquency
of children. So Jack and Elaine took Kiddie A-Go-Go to UHF upstart WCIU, Channel 26.
Record labels sent stars to appear on the show including Glen Campbell, Lesley Gore, the
Cowsills and Frankie Valli. YouTube visitors can even watch a young New Colony Six perform
on Kiddie A-Go-Go, a video that has been viewed more than 150,000 times.
After Kiddie A-Go-Go went off the air, Jack and Elaine launched Mulqueen Productions,
producing industrial films, radio and TV commercials and promoting events like Disney on
Ice and Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. They also expanded their passion for
television and movies by hosting Hollywood Collectibles, memorabilia shows attended by
thousands of fans.
Although the Mulqueens never had children of their own, they fostered several children over
the years. And Jack and Elaine left a lasting impression on hundreds of thousands of kids
with their groundbreaking work in children’s programming during the early days of television.
Marlin Perkins
Zoologist Marlin Perkins began his career at the St. Louis
Zoological Park, rising through the ranks to become the
zoo’s Curator of Reptiles in 1928. From St. Louis, he moved
to the Buffalo Zoological Park in New York, as Curator and
was named Director in 1938. Six years later, Perkins came to
Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, where he served as Director
from 1945 until 1962. He then returned to the St. Louis Zoo
as Director, and from 1970 until his death in 1986 served as
Director Emeritus.
In the 1940s during the early days of experimental television, when only 250 television sets
received a TV signal, Perkins appeared first on Chicago’s WBKB (now WLS-TV) educating
local TV viewers about zoo animals, their characteristics and habitats. These in-studio
appearances on a show called A Visit to Lincoln Park Zoo, led to the creation of Zoo Parade,
a local program airing live on Sunday afternoons from Lincoln Park Zoo. The program
originated on WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV), at a time when TV cameras and equipment were far
from hand-held or portable. Soon after its launch as a local program, Zoo Parade joined the
NBC Television Network, where it aired from 1950-1957. Starting in 1955, Zoo Parade
expanded the show’s scope from its weekly Lincoln Park Zoo location, traveling to film a
series of pioneering on-location programs in Africa.
Zoo Parade’s successful run led to the creation in 1963 of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,
with Director Don Meier of Don Meier Productions, which aired on NBC for 9 years before it
began first-run syndication in 1971. In 1974 Wild Kingdom parted from NBC and remained in
syndication until 1988. Filmed in 47 countries, it aired in 40 countries and was watched by 34
million Americans on 224 U.S. TV stations during the height of its popularity. Perkins’ many
accolades include five honorary doctorate degrees and his television programs received
industry-wide recognition. Zoo Parade was honored with a Peabody Award and Wild
Kingdom won four National Emmy® Awards.
Perkins living legacy includes founding, with his wife Carol, the Endangered Wolf Center, a
sanctuary known for protecting and preserving wolves and reintroducing them back into
their natural habitats.
Perkins’ lifetime love of taking pictures went from developing his own black and white
photos to amassing thousands of photographs taken on his world travels. His legacy includes
two substantial collections of archives and memorabilia, The Marlin Perkins Papers located at
The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-St. Louis (SHSMO) and the
Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center in St. Louis. Each may be consulted
by historians and other researchers.
Marlin Perkins pioneered the nature program genre from the earliest years of television and
became one of the most visible advocates for healthy ecosystem preservation, nature
conservation and the protection of endangered species.