Top Ten Chicago sports media personalities

Don’t worry, this guy is nowhere to be found on here.

10. Jeff Joniak
For the Bears’ first two games in the 2006 playoffs, I put the television on mute and turned on WBBM 780 to listen to Joniak and Tom Thayer. Some of that was just my strong dislike for Joe Buck, but that’s how much I enjoy listening to Joniak call a Bears game. He is fun to listen to, and understands the game inside and out. My all-time favorite line of his has got to be, “Devin Hester, you are ridiculous” after Hester returned two kicks for scores against the Rams.

9. Phil Rogers
Hands down, the best baseball writer in Chicago. His “Around the League” column every Sunday and his Power Rankings every Monday are great-reads. He shows no bias toward either the Cubs or Sox, and also does a nice job of blending in stories about what’s happening in the rest of baseball. Rogers also wrote this really sweet book.

8. Sarah Kustok

Erin who? Just like Joakim Noah, the Bulls/Celtics series was sort of her coming-out party.

7. Stacey King When the Bulls decided to shake things up on their telecasts by letting go of Tom Dore and bringing over Neil Funk from radio, I remember thinking one thing: more Stacey King is never a good thing.

Now, I have pulled a complete 180 and can’t get enough of the guy. Yeah, he’s a bigger homer than “Hawk” Harrelson, but listening to him during the Boston series was awesome. King was so entertaining, I even chose to tune into Comcast over the broadcasts on TNT, which had the great Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins for Games 5-7. My favorite King line, and there were many, from the series: “if you’re scared, go buy a dog.” (said whenever the Bulls blocked a shot.)

6. Marc Silverman Unlike most of the other sports talk shows on WSCR 670 and ESPN 1000, “The Waddle and Silvy Show” comes across as very professional and entertaining. Silverman is always prepared, doesn’t take himself too seriously, and is able to work around Waddle’s sometimes diva persona. And he is truly a fan first and offers great insights from a fan’s perspective.

5. Steve Stone This guy understands baseball like Albert Einstein understood electricity. The one thing I will say though is that Stone is still adjusting to being a fan of the White Sox. Stone hasn’t yet seemed to let go of the Cubs and embraced his new team, which is strange considering he did radio for the Sox last year. With all that said, his analysis and insights pretty much make up for his rather slow transition back to the television side.

4. Sam Smith Smith took his talents to bulls.com after the Tribune surprisingly bought him out last April. The author of the best selling, The Jordan Rules, Smith has so many connections around the league, he even had Shaquille O’Neal calling him out last year after one of his articles. Even though Smith was known to write unbelievable trade rumors without having any sources, it sure was entertaining stuff to read.

3. Len Kasper In my opinion, Kasper is very underrated as a play-by-play man. He can hold a conversation while doing a game, and unlike a certain guy on the South Side, doesn’t let biases get in the way while doing a broadcast. Hard to believe, but back in 2005, Kasper was actually the Cubs’ third choice for an announcer behind Dave O’Brien and the great Matt Vasgersian.

2. David Kaplan It’s not the easiest job in the world to have to try and host a Chicago sports talk show when you have baseball writers talking about the Bears or football writers talking about the Cubs. Kaplan manages to keep the discussions very lively by inserting his own opinions and often stimulating debate amongst the panelists. This guy is versatile enough to be an expert in any sport, although at times he can come across as too much of a Cubs homer.

1. David Haugh Whether he’s writing interesting profiles on Bears players, giving his take on issues surrounding the team, or writing one of his must-read Ten things I know about the Bears columns, Haugh is as good as it gets on the print side in Chicago. His insights and observations are always spot on, and he takes great angles on his stories.