Obit -- Dale McCarren, 1934-2009: Longtime newsman at WBBM-AM

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: Dale McCarren, 1934-2009: Longtime newsman at WBBM-AM in Chicago : Helped usher in all-news radio format : By Trevor Jensen | Tribune reporter : March 18, 2009 : Dale McCarren's rich baritone anchored mornings at WBBM-AM from the beginning of the station's all-news format in 1968 through 1984. : Mr. McCarren, 74, died of complications from diabetes on Monday, March 16, in Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights, said his wife Mary Drish. He was a resident of Palos Heights. : Mr. McCarren was at WJR-AM in Detroit when he was hired by WBBM in Chicago in 1964 to work as a staff announcer. : He co-anchored "Morning People" with Dan Price, a pairing that continued when the station went to all-news in May 1968, said current morning co-anchor John Hultman, a Detroit radio colleague Mr. McCarren helped bring to Chicago. : The move to the now common all-news format was considered quite daring at the time. "They were terrified because they didn't know if they could fill 24 hours with news," Drish said. : The anxiety was short-lived as news radio proved to have a solid and enduring audience. In addition to his resonant voice, Mr. McCarren was an accomplished reporter who broadcast reports from Vietnam during the war and the Middle East through various conflicts. : On May 25, 1979, he hurried back to the newsroom after finishing his morning shift to provide live coverage of the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 near O'Hare International Airport, providing radio at its most immediate. : Writers quickly learned not to hand Mr. McCarren sloppy copy. : "He was a tough taskmaster. He would yell," said Regine Schlesinger, who joined the station as a writer in 1973. "We had to perform up to his standards, which became the newsroom's standards." : Mr. McCarren was born Carl Barger and grew up in Saginaw and Flint, Mich., where his father was a supervisor at the General Motors plant. : His radio career started in high school, when he found part-time on-air work at the local station, his wife said. He got a bachelor's degree in business from Michigan State University and joined the Army, which put him through communications school at the University of Maryland. His classmates included future Chicago TV newsman Joel Daly. : Based in Seoul from 1954 to 1956, Mr. McCarren broadcast to the troops over Armed Forces Radio. A virus landed him in the hospital and he was eventually diagnosed with diabetes. : The disease plagued him the rest of his life, and in 2004, one of his legs amputated above the knee. : Back in Michigan after his medical discharge, Mr. McCarren was a disc jockey in Flint before getting an offer from the CBS station in Detroit. : He was replacing a top-rated broadcaster named J.P. McCarthy, and CBS decided his name should be changed. The station decided he would be Dale McCarren. Fine with him, although family continued to call him Carl, and Carl Barger remained his name on many official documents. : "It was a confusion for him all his life," his wife said. : In 1984, he was replaced as Hultman's co-anchor by Felicia Middlebrooks. He turned to other duties, mostly at night, and for many years did a books segment with different authors. For many years, he was the voice of the Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race, broadcasting the start and updates throughout the competition. : Mr. McCarren retired in 1997 and lived in Naples, Fla., for eight years before returning to the Chicago area. : His long radio career had at least one lingering effect, as Mr. McCarren never slept more than three hours at a stretch. "He never had a normal sleep pattern until the day he died," his wife said. : An earlier marriage ended in divorce. : Survivors include a daughter, Carolyn Randolph; and three grandchildren. : Visitation is set for 9:30 a.m. until an 11 a.m. service Friday in John Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home, 7020 W. 127th Street, Palos Heights.

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