WGN Movin’ On Up

• WGN Radio/Chicago is moving its studios and offices from its current location in the Tribune Tower over to the 18th floor of 303 E. Wacker Drive. The first official broadcast from the new studios will happen in June.

The new space offers sweeping vistas of both the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Built and designed exclusively for WGN Radio, and spearheaded by WGN Chief Engineer Bill Murdoch, the new 16,000 square-foot headquarters offers two Allstate Skyline Studios — one with a northeast view (shown here in this rendering) and the other with a northwest view, as well as six studios dedicated to the podcast platform WGN Plus, and a 650-square-foot performance studio and stage for live music and radio dramas with seating for 25 plus standing room.

At the core of the studio space is the WGN Radio journalism hub, home base for the station’s 24/7 newsroom. The new headquarters includes an expanded video production suite with green screen for WGN Radio’s in-house content agency DATS. This new layout invites all employees to work in the content space and features state-of-the-art lighting for video production, broadcast, and streaming.

“An investment like this represents the strength of our brand beyond traditional broadcast,” said Todd Manley, WGN Radio Station Manager & VP of Content. “It recognizes our success on every platform. What an exciting time for this 94-year-old start-up.”