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Nick Gale
News Director
Nick Gale is a native of suburban Glenview and has been behind a microphone since 1994.
Nick got an early start in broadcasting at Glenbrook South High School's WGBK-FM. After graduating from Southern Illinois University with a degree in radio and political science, he worked as news director at a five station cluster in LaSalle - Peru and later as a reporter and anchor in Jacksonville, Florida at WOKV-AM. Nick returned to Chicago and spent six years with the Illinois Radio Network covering state government for 50 affiliates, and also worked part-time at WLS before coming on board full time.
Nick has covered a wide range of stories including NASA's return to space after the Columbia disaster, flooding on the Mississippi River, the horrific mass shooting at NIU, and the Blagojevich corruption trials. He has contributed to the AP, ABC, the BBC and Fox.
Nick has been recognized for his work by the Associated Press and the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
Nick is an avid duck hunter and fisherman. He also enjoys tinkering with old trucks and tractors and operating his ham radio.
Kim Gordon
News Anchor
Kim Gordon anchors afternoon drive and during the John Howell Show weekdays from 4pm-7pm. She started her career at WHAS Radio in Louisville, Kentucky and was an Anchor and Reporter at WGN Radio for 15 years.
Kim Gordon won an Associated Press Broadcasters award for local team coverage in Louisville during the September 11th attacks and a 2015 Silver Dome Award from the Illinois Broadcasters Association for “Fighting Hunger Chicago Style: Food Insecurities and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.”
Kim loves to workout, golf, ski, walk, travel, cook, bake, spend time with her family...especially her granddaughters.
Ray Stagich
Weather Channel Meteorologist
Ray is a native of Saugerties, New York and has a BS in Atmospheric Science from SUNY Albany. Ray says "I have always been interested in weather. The driver was really my love for snow and winter sports (snowmobiling). That grew into more fascination with severe weather and eventually just became a TWC addict and watched some of the people I now WORK WITH while I was in High School and College! HA! (The real story is that I applied to 2 schools, 1 for Physical Education and 1 for Meteorology. I did not get accepted for meteorology the first time around, so thought I wanted to be a gym teacher. Obviously, that did not work out and transferred after my first year and got accepted."
Ray is an accredited member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society.
Bret Gogoel
News Anchor
Bret is a late comer to the industry who spent his first years out of college working in finance. After being bit by the radio bug, he joined WLS over four years ago and has spent his time learning the ins and outs of production through fill-in producing and podcast management. He's always had a deep-rooted love for sports and has grown to enjoy the news industry just as much.
Annie Krall
News Anchor
Annie Krall is typically on the WLS-Radio airwaves in the middle of your weekday from 9am-2pm CST. She comes home to Chicago after being an on-air TV reporter for ABC in Green Bay, WI (WBAY-TV). Besides news anchoring, Annie is also an adjunct faculty professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
After earning her bachelor and master’s degrees from Northwestern, Annie covered breaking news in Green Bay, the Ryder Cup international golf tournament, as well as the Green Bay Packers. Host of her own weekly medical investigative series “Your Health Matters” Annie was accepted to medical school before pursuing journalism. Prior to WBAY-TV, Annie wrote and produced for ABC NEWS in New York City on the medical and business units.
Honing her golf skills as a competitive golfer starting at the age of six, Annie is now the entertainment golf correspondent for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). She helps spotlight celebrity women who either play or have had their lives changed by the sport.
When she’s not anchoring the news, video editing, or teaching, you will likely find Annie on the golf course, watching a baseball game with her twin sister Katie Krall (former Double-A coach with the Boston Red Sox), or in the kitchen baking one of her signature batches of chocolate caramel thumbprint cookies.
