Gregory Jarrett (born December 1952) is an American broadcast journalist who was a longtime news reporter in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, mostly at

KGO (AM) KSFO (810 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to San Francisco, San Francisco, California, featuring a conservative talk radio format. Owned by Cumulus Media, KSFO's studios are on ...

. He became the

morning drive Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

radio host on

WGN (AM) WGN (720 kHz) 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 hoc ...

in Chicago in June 2009, a position in which he remained until December. Deaths: 1.

Professional career

Jarrett was born in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

; his family moved repeatedly, sending Jarrett to 16 grade schools and 3 high schools. His first radio job was as football play-by-play announcer for

KANE (AM) KANE (1240 AM) is an American radio station broadcasting an oldies music format. Licensed to New Iberia, Louisiana, United States, the station serves the Lafayette area. The station is currently owned by Coastal Broadcasting of Lafourche, L.L.C ...

when he was a high school senior in

New Iberia, Louisiana New Iberia (; ) is the largest city in and the parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, Lafayette, and forms part of ...

. Jarrett joined

KGO-AM KSFO (810 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, featuring a conservative talk radio format. Owned by Cumulus Media, KSFO's studios are on Battery Street in the SoMa portion of San Francisco's Financial Distr ...

in 1986 as an aviation and space reporter. In 1991, Jarrett reported for KGO-AM and

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

during the Persian Gulf War, also filing reports for the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which ...

. In late 1992, Jarrett flew to

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

to join the mass of media greeting U.S. troops there. In 1993, Jarrett reported from

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, where mortar fire came through the window of his hotel room while he was elsewhere. Jarrett left KGO-AM in 1994 to become a staff correspondent at

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

. From 1998 to 2000, Jarrett worked at KEWS-AM (now

KPOJ KPOJ (620 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Portland, Oregon. It airs a sports radio radio format, format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KPOJ airs two local sports shows on weekdays, ''Rip City Mornin ...

) in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. Jarrett rejoined KGO in June 2000.http://www.linkedin.com/pub/greg-jarrett/a/874/757 In 2003, Jarrett was an embedded journalist assigned to the Purple Foxes (HMM-364) U.S. Marines helicopter squadron in Iraq. Jarrett was laid off from KGO in January 2009. Many of the staff at KGO were laid off by owner

Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1 low-power television station on which it operated a regional 24-hour cable news channel. The company wa ...

around the same time. On June 15, 2009, the management of

in Chicago announced that Jarrett would be joining the station on June 22, 2009 as its

host. Jarrett would fill the position previously held by legendary Chicago talkers

Wally Phillips Walter Phillips (July 7, 1925 – March 26, 2008) was an American radio personality best known for hosting WGN's morning radio show from Chicago for 21 years from January 1965 until July 1986, and was number one in the morning slot from 1968 ...

, Bob Collins and

Spike O'Dell William "Spike" O'Dell (born May 21, 1953), a native of East Moline, Illinois, is an American former radio host for WGN Radio in Chicago, Illinois. He joined WGN in 1987 and hosted the afternoon show until 2000 when he took over for Bob Collins ...

. The most recent WGN personality to hold that slot,

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

, replaced O'Dell but spent only six months in the slot; he moved to the 9 a.m.–noon slot at the same time Jarrett started as morning host. On December 2, 2011, WGN announced that longtime Chicago radio personality

Jonathon Brandmeier Jonathon "Johnny B" Brandmeier (born July 15, 1956) is a Chicago radio personality and musician. Career Born John Francis Brandmeier to a German father and a Lebanese mother, Brandmeier started his radio career in 1973 at WFON in Fond du Lac, W ...

would replace Jarrett in the morning time-slot in a shift to a more personality-based program. Jarrett joined

Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market ...

in 2013 and co-hosts ''Bloomberg Best''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrett, Greg (Radio Personality) 1952 births Living people American radio reporters and correspondents American male journalists American talk radio hosts Radio personalities from Chicago Mass media people from San Antonio Radio personalities from San Francisco American war correspondents Journalists from Texas