Craig Schwalb blew into the Windy City two years ago and is bringing WBBM Newsradio to new altitudes across all platforms.
“I’m a native of Illinois, listened to WBBM growing up, and had spent a bunch of time in Chicago as a college student and have a lot of love and appreciation for the station,” Schwalb, the Brand Manager and News Director at Audacy Chicago all-news station, told Barrett Media.
“So to have the chance to manage the station, it’s an absolute honor. It’s a privilege and I don’t take it for granted at any point at any day.”
Craig Schwalb got his start in college at Eastern Illinois University. Quickly, he found himself involved at the radio station and gravitated towards the management side of the business quickly. Schwalb had some internships and the rest is history.
“I just stuck with it and was inspired by [radio],” he said. “Inspired by working with talent and the craft and the science of ratings and generating audience.”
He’s successfully held management roles at stations across the nation including WRBZ in Raleigh, 77 WABC in New York, and WTOP in Washington, D.C. Each one with its own unique storytelling abilities. Schwalb does not develop cookie-cutter stations.
“It’s really about assessing the needs of the station and enhancing certain parts of it. There’s really nothing that was broken or needed massive repair work [at WBBM],” Schwalb said. “It’s a great station and has been that way for many years. So it’s really about enhancing the station looking for opportunities to enhance what we do.”
The biggest stride he’s made at WBBM is enhancing the station’s digital approach. “We’re much more aggressive digitally. We’re much more aggressive on multi-platform content than the station used to be. We really identified a lot of opportunities there.”
Craig Schwalb went on to say, “That’s been a really great part of the enhancement of the overall brand.”
That overarching brand includes the core identity of Chicago. “It’s full of great culture. It’s full of great sports, and it’s a hard-news town. But it also has a big heart and I think you really get a sense for that living and working here.”
Hard news with a big heart is not something every station can pull off well. But there is a strategy Schwalb and his team follow. “We make sure our reporters are out in the street. We’re talking to people one-on-one within their neighborhoods. And we’re bringing that heart from the street into the station and share that with the audience overall.”
Consistency is key, which is why it’s important to not just grow journalists at WBBM Newsradio but also have a great partnership with their “heritage” journalists.
“We have a whole generation of journalists within the newsroom, which has been a tremendous asset for us,” Schwalb said. “We also have great diversity in the newsroom.”
“It’s just part of really reflecting what Chicago is and reflecting the people and the listeners of Chicago,” he added. “We want to have a newsroom that’s very consistent with Chicago, and we’ve been able to accomplish that in many ways.”
Another part of staying consistent for listeners? Not following other station’s trends. “News has evolved. The amount of different angles on news has evolved. The different ideologies within news has evolved where there are distinct factions and a lot of separation in terms of ideology within news. For us, this station hasn’t changed in that sense.”
Craig Schwalb added, “We want to bring the facts, we want to bring credibility, we want to drive trust within the market, and we want people to depend on us for news. For the facts, they know they can come to us. There’s not going to be any spin. There’s no biased reporting and that’s a great space.”
It’s what makes stations like WBBM a great space for business. “Clients know that they’re in a safe space when they put their business onto our radio station and they put their messaging onto our radio station, it’s free of bias. It’s free of spin or rhetoric. So it’s a great place to be in terms of audience generation. It’s also a great place to be in terms of business and revenue generation.”
While some outlets have moved away from straight news, Schwalb is grateful his dedicated team has not. “Throughout my career, [one thing that] hasn’t changed is, [I’ve] been inspired by the people and the projects and all the different things that come with managing radio properties.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
