CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - After 50 years of covering Chicago news and politics, today is the last day for the dean of the City Hall press corps, TV news reporter Mike Flannery.
He came here from Washington D.C. and started at the Sun-Times on June 18, 1973.
Like many a cub reporter, Mike Flannery worked the overnight shift. He still remembers his first front page story, it was about a natural gas explosion at the under-construction Sears Tower.
He started at City Hall the next year and covered the beat for CBS-2 then FOX-32.
With such extensive knowledge of Chicago history, many viewers came to think of him as a native.
“Many people assume that I was in class with them at [St.] Ignatius [College Prep] or Mount Carmel [High School]. Nope, that wasn’t me,” Flannery says.
He recalls how a federal prosecutor told him his voice was almost a part of one of the many corruption trials he covered, talking to an alderman who was wearing a wire.
Since announcing his retirement, Flannery says many people have asked how he can leave with the DNC coming to Chicago next year, a looming presidential race and corruption trials for Mike Madigan and Ed Burke.
“There’s always something, [chuckles], there’s always something, and, while I got my health, I’m able to get around, there are some things I want to do,” Flannery says.
Aiding his decision to retire now at age 72 are the loss of former colleagues who died not long after leaving their jobs.
“There’ve been several of those instances of people I’ve known who’ve not had as much time in retirement as they were counting on…I have taken that lesson to heart,” Flannery says.
Flannery says he's going to take a couple of months off before deciding what to do next.
“I’ll have plenty of time to reflect on things after I punch out for the last moment,” says Flannery.
His final “Flannery Fired Up” show on Fox-32 airs this weekend.
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