Don Vogel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Don Vogel (1945-1995) was a radio talk show host in Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.

Born in Chicago, and blind from the age of six months, Vogel went into radio after a brief stint in college. He worked as a sports reporter, disc jockey and talk show host at various Chicago-area radio stations, culminating at WIND radio in Chicago. He often claimed that he was fired from WIND after an April Fools joke he perpetrated about late night host "Chicago Ed" Schwartz negotiating with WGN to leave WIND turned out (to Vogel's chagrin) to actually be true. Don subsequently took at job at KSTP-AM radio in the Twin Cities in December of 1984. The "Don Vogel Show" - a comedy show in an era when talk radio was largely staid interview programs - was a ratings success. The show featured newsman John MacDougall, sports reporters Mark Boyle and Bruce Gordon, and producers/sidekicks Dave Elvin and Mitch Berg (a host of the Northern Alliance Radio Network at AM1280 in the Twin Cities since 2004). Don left KSTP to go to WMAQ radio in Chicago in January of 1987.

Don lasted one year at WMAQ before that station was purchased from NBC by Westinghouse Broadcasting, previously the owner of WIND, and switched to an all-news format. Vogel joked that he was the only talk show host ever to be run out of two different jobs at two different Chicago stations by the same owner. Shortly afterwards, he became a part-time host on WGN; in 1989, after a tryout with Milwaukee station WOKY, Vogel went to WISN to host its early morning program. Despite healthy ratings, WISN management fired Vogel when he refused a demand to keep his liberal political opinions off the air and stop passing comments on the afternoon program of Mark Belling, and he finally returned to KSTP in 1992. The Tom Mischke program spun off from Mischke's association with Vogel.

In 1994, Vogel was diagnosed to have bladder cancer, and died in 1995.