Mark Giangreco has made countless appearances on ESPN 1000’s “Waddle & Silvy” show, in studio and on the phone. But after ABC 7 made him walk the plank in 2021, those in-person segments disappeared with him. Until this year, ESPN 1000 was based in ABC 7’s building downtown on State Street, and Giangreco was — and likely still is — not welcome.
“Not allowed in the building,” Giangreco, 74, told the Sun-Times. “I could never just sneak into the radio studio because the way it was set up, you had to go through the back of the set of the television studio. So there’d always be a chance that I’d run into certain people, and nobody wanted that kind of confrontation.”
So it was great to see Giangreco, a legendary Chicago sports anchor, join Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman last month in ESPN 1000’s new studio in the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Even better was that because the White Sox were playing, “Waddle & Silvy” aired on YouTube, where there are no holds barred.
Giangreco was in his element, talking candidly about, well, everything.
“There wasn’t even a dump button,” he said. “It was so raw and a lot of vulgarity. It was like I was turned loose after 45 years.”
On NFL insiders: “You talk about suck-ups.”
On Ozzie Guillen: “His English is worse. It keeps getting worse.”
On LeBron James: “Great career. Just get out. We’re tired of you, you flopping, whiny …”
And on ABC 7 news anchor Cheryl Burton, who took offense to a joke by Giangreco on the air and complained to management, thus putting the plank in place:
“It’s been more than five years that I was run out by a hyper-sensitive, super-insecure, untouchable diva and enabled by a cowardice news director and general manager — but I’m way over it.”
ABC 7 management declined to comment.
Giangreco said that his rant about Burton was a joke, too.
“These people do not live rent-free in my head. I don’t care anymore,” he told the Sun-Times. “But I love making fun of it because, as I said, I had a year and a half left on my final contract. I was counting the days to retirement. I had had enough. The business was fading. It was just a depressing place to work. And I had had a tremendous career.
“So when we reached a financial settlement, it was all good. I got to leave early. What stuck in my craw for a while is the person who had the power to get me fired — that’s so bizarre. We used to make fun of each other all the time on and off the air. And then all of a sudden, she was offended by what I consider to be a pretty benign comment, relatively speaking.”
At the end of his sportscast Jan. 28, 2021, Giangreco referred to Burton as someone who could “play the ditzy, combative interior decorator” as part of a fictional DIY Network show. It ended up being Giangreco’s last sportscast.
“The statute of limitations I assume pretty much ran out,” Giangreco said. “I don’t think the people who fired me really care at this point anymore.”
On the YouTube show, Silverman asked Giangreco an interesting question: If he were to go into a broadcasting hall of fame similar to that of baseball, which station’s cap — NBC 5, where he spent 12 formative years, or ABC 7, where he spent 28 — would he have engraved on his plaque? Giangreco said neither. But with time to think about it, he changed his answer.
“I should’ve said Channel 5 because the way it ended at Channel 7 really tainted my [time],” he said.
After being fired, Giangreco said he received offers from NBC 5, WGN 9, radio stations and podcasts, but he didn’t have it in him anymore to do the work.
“After 50 years in sports media, beginning my sophomore year in college — I got my first full-time job in radio — I had enough,” he said. “I had the greatest career during the greatest time. It was the golden age of Chicago sports, and it ran simultaneously with the golden age of local television in Chicago sports.”
And though technically he didn’t leave on his terms, he actually did.
“My brother said, ‘Well, of course you were going to go out this way,’ ” Giangreco said. “ ‘Of course you were going to be fired.’
“I dreaded having a going-away retirement party hosted at the station by people I hated, people I didn’t respect. I’m like, this is going to be so awkward. You know what? Let’s just get fired. Then I don’t have to have that party.”
He took care of that and said he’s better off for it.
“I’m so proud of the fact that I don’t miss it,” he said. “Being on television is not my persona. There’s so many people I know who were forced out; their whole life was being on TV and being recognized. I don’t care about that at all. The older I get, the fewer and fewer people recognize me, and that’s fine.”
Remote patrol
- WGN 9 sports anchor Jarrett Payton, the son of Bears great Walter Payton, announced that he’s leaving the station after 10 years to spend more time with his family.
- Eddie Olczyk, the former longtime Blackhawks TV analyst, is leaving the Kraken after four seasons and will limit his schedule to TNT broadcasts.
- Adam Amin, A.J. Pierzynski, Adam Wainwright and Ken Rosenthal will call the Yankees-Cubs game for Fox at 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
