Radio Legend Milt Rosenberg Dies At 92

CHICAGO, IL — His voice was instantly recognizable to generations of nightime AM radio listeners across the Midwest. With his mellifluous tones and his casually erudite respect for his audience, Milt Rosenberg became a legend of Chicago radio.

Rosenberg, 92, died of complications from pneumonia on Tuesday after entering the hospital on New Year's Day, according to close friend Joe Morris.

As host of "Extension 720," a nightly two-hour interview and call-in show on WGN-AM, Rosenberg interviewed hundreds of guests and took calls from thousands of listeners and attracted an international audience while hosting the broadcast from 1973 to 2012.

Born in New York City on April 25, 1925, Rosenberg received an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College, a master's at the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D from the Unversity of Michigan in 1954, according to Morris. He taught at Yale University, the Ohio State University, Dartmouth College and the Naval War College before coming to Chicago.

Rosenberg was a full-time psychology professor at the University of Chicago, starting in the 1960s. He went on to host WGN's daily "festival of intelligent talk" for nearly 40 years, Morris wrote:

He was a polymath, a perceptive analyst, and a keen questioner. These traits, combined with a prodigious memory born of wide reading and experience, made him an outstanding interlocutor of political leaders, business executives, academics, journalists, artists, and others in the long parade of guests whom he welcomed to his studios and to the extraordinary conversations that he then held for the benefit of millions of Americans listening to his program each night in their homes and cars across the nation as streamed by clear-channel radio at 50,000 watts. For four decades his show was the mandatory first stop on the book tour of every author of a serious work of fiction or non-fiction.

His career was also described by the arc of a moral conversion, carried out in public via his nightly broadcasts, from the “soft mindless leftism of an East Coast academic” to an embrace of free market economics, traditional social values, and an appreciation of the United States as the world’s best hope for the defense of freedom and human decency in global affairs.

Rosenberg was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush in a 2008 White House Ceremony "for bringing the world of ideas to millions of listeners."

"Combining a scholars understanding and a teacher's openness, he has made a home for radio for elevated conversation and profound thought," read his award.

Rosenberg wasn't done with broadcasting after management at WGN – who he described as "not the smartest people in the building" – ushered him out the doors of Tribune Tower in 2012.

“I’m on the older side, obviously, but I'm still full of piss and vinegar,” Rosenberg told media columnist Robert Feder at the time. “Publicly, I want to say it’s mutual. Obviously, they initiated it.”

"We attempted to provide intelligent radio featuring the movers and observers of history being made as well as with programs on established history, the popular and 'high' arts, and sciences from cosmology to sociology – all mixed with frequent forays into more light-hearted fare," he said in a statement upon leaving.

In 2014, the professor emeritus was among the first inductees into WGN Radio's Walk of Fame.

He once told a Chicago Tribune reporter he was very selective about which guests he wanted on his show, which featured a one-hour interview followed by an hour of discussion with callers.

“I’m very particular about the authors I put on the air. If I don’t like the book, I don’t interview the author," he said.

Even after leaving WGN, Rosenberg remained behind a microphone. He hosted an independent podcast and a weekday show on WCGO-AM in Evanston until 2016.

Rosenberg is survived by his wife Marjorie Anne King. They married in 1954 and have one son, Matthew Rosenberg, of Seattle.

In addition to his two grandchildren and friends, Morris wrote that Rosenberg leaves behind the "thousands of students and millions of listeners who will no longer hear his voice probing the far reaches of the cosmos, the fine details of history and literature, and the depths of the human mind."

» Listen to Milt Rosenberg interview Barack Obama in 1995
» Listen to the Best of Extension 720

» Watch Milt Rosenberg discuss the future of digital news in a 2009 interview:

» Listen to an episode of Extension 720 featuring local Chicago architects:

_{Top photo: Milt Rosenberg, via YouTube}