Education
Northwestern University.
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Bill Frink
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Career
He served as the sportscaster for Chicago"s World's Largest Store -television (an American Broadcasting Company-affiliate). Bill Frink started his career in 1941 at WTRC in Elkhart, Indiana, as a radio sports announcer while still in high school. Frink broadcast sports for WXLI Guam Armed Forces Network while serving with the United States. Navy in 1946.
Upon his return from Guam, Frink spent four years at Northwestern University on the G.I. Bill.
From 1947 to 1965, he was a radio and television sports announcer for WEAW in Evanston, Illinois, for WILA in Gurney, Illinois, for WSGW in Saginaw, Michigan, for WIMA in Lima, Ohio, for We Have A Signal in Louisville, Kentucky, for WCFL in Chicago, Illinois. Foreign WCFL, he re-created White Sox games for radio broadcast from statistics provided on ticker tape machines.
At World's Largest Store in 1968, Frink was teamed with Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly and John Coleman to form the Eyewitness News team, creating a news brand name and establishing a highly successful new local news format derisively dubbed "happy talk" by a local television columnist. This style of local news has been widely copied.
The team dominated Chicago television news ratings for more than a decade.
During his time at Chicago"s World's Largest Store -television, Frink was one of Chicago"s most popular sportscasters, known for his sense of humor and knowledge of sports. In 1979, Frink spent ten weeks at American Broadcasting Company in New York before returning to Chicago to work for World's Greatest Newspaper Radio and television until 1984. He then reported for KSTP Minneapolis hockey in 1983, Sports Time Cable in 1984, Group West Cable in 1986, Century Broadcasting in 1986, and Prime Cable in 1991.
He retired from radio and television in 1991 and taught broadcast journalism at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in his retirement.
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Born
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Died
July 1, 2005 (aged 78) -
Nationality
American