WBBM’s Ryan Baker headed back to nights and sports

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CBS Chicago morning anchor Ryan Baker is headed back to the sports department.
During an on-air segment July 15, 2025, the WBBM morning team bid farewell to Baker, who will switch back to the evening shift as well as become the station’s sports director.
Baker moved to the news side in 2019.
Dana Kozlov and Audrina Sinclair, who had been anchoring with Baker, remain at the anchor desk in the morning. Laura Bannon will continue to deliver forecasts with the anchors handling traffic reports.
CBS Chicago has undergone a series of anchor changes across the schedule, including the morning team.
Baker replaced reporter Mike Puccinelli in 2019, when he returned to reporting. He was then laid off in 2020.
Before that, the station laid off Marissa Bailey in March 2019. It previously cut morning anchor Erin Kennedy and morning meteorologist Megan Glaros in cuts in the same round of 2020 cuts that saw Puccinelli leave.
Those layoffs also included the station’s Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter Pam Zekman, along with sports anchor Megan Mawicke and reporter Mai Martinez.
Yasmeen Hassan, who previously handled traffic, reporting and a “live desk” position on the morning show departed the station in 2021 after joining in 2019.
Rob Johnson, who had been the station’s primary evening anchor alongside Irika Sargent, was cut in 2019 as well. The station then made an unexpected pick and moved reporter Brad Edwards to the desk before replacing him with Joe Donlon in 2022.
Donlon was hired from NewsNation, which is based in Chicago, and previously anchored at WGN. WBBM’s president and general manager Jennifer Lyons was previously news director at WGN and later helped launch NewsNation. NewsNation and WGN broadcast from the same building.
Baker will continue to be seen on the station’s morning news, however, providing pre-taped sports segments from the previous night’s shift.
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Brad Edwards, Dana Kozlov, Erin Kennedy, Irika Sargent, Laura Bannon, Marissa Bailey, Megan Glaros, Mike Puccinelli, Pam Zekman, Rob Johnson, Ryan Baker, wbbm, Yasmeen Hassan
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Broadcast Industry News, Local News, People, Sports Broadcasting & Production