Ryan Chiaverini (born October 12, 1977) is an American television personality, and Midwest Emmy Award winning co-host of '' Windy City Live'' (now Windy City Weekend) on ABC Chicago (

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) 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. ...

). He is also the Lead Sports Anchor at ABC7 Chicago replacing Jim Rose who retired in September 2023.

Early life and education

Chiaverini is from

Corona, California Corona (Spanish language, Spanish for "Crown") is a city in northwestern Riverside County, California, United States, directly bordering Orange County, California, Orange and San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino counties. Its curre ...

. His father, Eddie Chiaverini, is a professional guitarist and singer who was a member of the surf band The Lively Ones. Their most popular song, “Surf Rider” is featured in the 1994 film “Pulp Fiction” earning the band a platinum album. Ryan has four half-brothers and is the twin brother of former NFL receiver Darrin Chiaverini (Ryan is 8 minutes older). They both attended the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

. Ryan was a “walk on” for the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

eventually earning a full athletic scholarship. Ryan earned a degree in broadcast journalism and has had a successful career in sports journalism and television hosting. Darrin was drafted by the Cleveland Browns (5th round) in 1999. He holds the Browns franchise record for catches in a single game by a rookie (11). He went onto play 4 seasons in the NFL (Browns/Cowboys/Falcons) and played professionally in the AFL for several years before becoming a college football coach.

Career

Chiaverini began his career as a weekend sports anchor at KFBB in

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

, then at

KTVQ KTVQ (channel 2) is a television station in Billings, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network, a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KTVQ's studi ...

in Billings. In 2002, he became a sports reporter at KUSA in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. He spent four seasons covering the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

and served as a fill-in host for the

Mike Shanahan Michael Edward Shanahan ( ; born August 24, 1952) is an American football coach, best known as the head coach of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL) from 1995 to 2008. During his fourteen seasons with the Broncos, he led th ...

Show and

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 1 ...

's ''Crush Zone''. In 2006, he moved to

, where he was promoted to sports anchor for the weekend news broadcasts and hosted the station's pre-game coverage of the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

, the ''Chicago Huddle''. In 2011, WLS-TV launched a 9:00 am weekday talk show with the working title ''”Morning Rush”'' to replace the iconic and coveted '' Oprah Winfrey Show''. After several rounds and months of auditions, Chiaverini was named co-host alongside Val Warner; more than 500 people had applied. Ryan is credited with naming the show ''Windy City Live''. In September 2021, after a successful 10 year daily run ''Windy City Live'' became a weekly program, ''Windy City Weekend''; starting in 2022, Chiaverini also became a fill-in weekday sports anchor on ABC 7. In November 2023, Chiaverini was promoted to ABC 7 Lead Sports Anchor. He currently anchors sports on ABC 7's top rated newscasts weekdays at 5pm, 6pm and 10 p.m.

Acting

In 2021, Chiaverini played a lawyer in the Lifetime TV movie ''Switched Before Birth''. He has also had small roles on Showtime’s '' Shameless'' & ABC’s ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...

'' along with other TV series and independent films.

Awards

In 2013, Chiaverini shared the Chicago/Midwest regional

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Program Host/Moderator; he won the award outright in 2017. Also in 2013, he shared in the regional Emmy for Interview/Discussion Programming awarded to ''Windy City Live'' for a special on violence, and in 2020-2023 he was one of the recipients of the Chicago/Midwest regional Emmy for Special Event Coverage, for ABC7’s popular New Years Eve show ''Countdown Chicago''.

Personal life

In 2011, ''New City'' named Chiaverini "best-looking male local TV personality", and in 2012, ''Modern Luxury'' magazine named him among Chicago's most eligible bachelors. Chiaverini is a hobby singer/guitarist. Having lost his younger brother to suicide, in 2014 he wrote and recorded a song called "Chicago" to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In 2019, after his mother's death from cancer, he released "This Is Country" with a link for donations to cancer research. He has also performed at a media charity event known as "Newsapalooza", in 2008 with

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with " What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers ...

He has continued to work for suicide awareness and cancer research, speaking at the annual Out of the Darkness Walk and emceeing cancer fundraising events.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiaverini, Ryan Radio personalities from Chicago 1970s births Living people University of Colorado Boulder alumni Year of birth missing (living people)