A Blast From the Past Going Back on the Air in Chicago

I guess you can say, the Journalism bug never dies.

Fifteen years after she left Chicago television, former news anchor Joan Esposito is getting back on the air.

Robert Feder says that Esposito, 60, has been hired part-time at Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5, where she will serve as a backup and vacation-relief news anchor during mornings, middays and afternoons.

Now that her two children are older, Esposito expressed interest in returning to broadcasting on a limited basis, according to Sally Eisele, managing editor at WBEZ. “What we’re doing is developing a relationship with someone who can help us out and get to know the public radio side of the business,” Eisele said.

Esposito, who first came to Chicago in 1981 as a 27-year-old reporter and weekend anchor at Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9, became a Monday-through-Friday anchor star at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 and later at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.

Since leaving WMAQ in 1999, Esposito formed J2 Strategic Communications, a media training firm.