Steve Grzanich

Steve Grzanich co-anchors the afternoon news on Newsradio 780 WBBM along with Keith Johnson from 3-to-8 pm each weekday.

The veteran WBBM newsman joined Newsradio 780 WBBM in 1994 as a news writer and general assignment reporter. During his tenure at WBBM, Steve has reported some of Chicago’s biggest news stories, including the 1995 Heat Disaster, the death of Cardinal Bernadin, the Cook County Administration Building Fire, the Judge Lefkow Family Murders and the White Sox World Series to name a few.

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A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Steve has been honored with numerous journalism awards from The Society of Professional Journalists, Radio-Television News Directors Association, Associated Press, United Press International and Chicago Press Veterans. He is a five time recipient of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for investigative and breaking news reporting.

In 2009, Steve spearheaded Newsradio 780′s special coverage of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics and reported on various aspects of the campaign as part of our special series Race for the Rings. He also traveled to Copenhagen for the big announcement and reported live on Chicago’s surprising lost.

Steve has also continued reporting on another special series Mission to ISS and Beyond which highlighted the 50th Anniversary of NASA and focused on Chicago’s connection to the space program. The year-long project began airing in October 2007 with the space shuttle mission of astronaut Dan Tani of suburban Lombard and documented Tani’s five month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station. The ongoing series was honored with an Edward R. Murrow award for “Best Continuing Coverage” and now focuses on life aboard the space station and NASA’s future exploration. In May of 2009, Steve took his reporting to Cape Canaveral where he covered the launch of shuttle Atlantis on a final mission to refurbish the Hubble Telescope. Chicago astronaut John Grunsfeld was the lead Hubble repairman.

In 2008, Steve and Keith’s afternoon newscasts won Associated Press honors for “Best Newscast” and the pair led Newsradio 780′s team coverage of the shootings at Northern Illinois University which earned awards for “Best Spot News.” Steve won a Lisagor for his special series on the 40th Anniverary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago “The Whole World was Waching.”

Steve began his journalism career at the age of 15 as a weekend reporter at his hometown radio station, WFRX in West Frankfort, Illinois. Prior to joining Newsradio 780 WBBM, he worked as a reporter at WLRW-FM in Champaign, Illinois, WCIL-AM/FM in Carbondale, Illinois, WSIL-TV in Marion, Illinois and KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Steve also spent a year covering politics in Springfield, Illlinois. Steve is a member of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association, Radio-Television News Directors Association, The Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors Association.

The question Steve is asked most is, “What nationality is Grzanich?” He says it’s Croatian but the other half is Irish.

Steve lives on the north side of Chicago with his labrador retriever “Murrow.”