Chicago investigative reporter out

By Michael P. Hill January 21, 2025

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Update: Goudie will join WMAQ Feb. 10, 2025, it was announced Feb. 3, 2025.

Chuck Goudie, an investigator reporter who has spent nearly 45 years at ABC’s owned station in Chicago, WLS, has left the station.


Goudie hasn’t been seen on air for several weeks and it was revealed Jan. 21, 2025, that Dec. 31, 2024, was his last day at the station.

Meanwhile, however, Goudie may be working on a TV comeback. 

“I am weighing several TV opportunities,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. It was not clear if those options might be local or in other markets.

“Chuck was a valued member of our ABC 7 team for many years and we thank him for his groundbreaking contributions,” a station spokesperson said in a statement. No further comment was made by the station or Goudie about the reasons for his departure. 


Goudie started at ABC 7 as a general assignment reporter and was eventually moved to the I-Team, the station’s investigative unit. He would end up becoming the senior reporter on the team.

While Goudie did not offer any specifics about where he might land, he’d likely be a big catch for any of the market’s major stations. Investigative reporting is a key feature of many Chicago newscasts. NBC-owned WMAQ, for example, heavily promotes its NBC 5 Investigates team, while CBS-owned WBBM has the CBS 2 Investigators that lost high-profile reporter Pam Zeckman in 2020.

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WLS, like other Chicago stations, has bid farewell to a fair number of high-profile personalities and swapped talent in recent years. 

Steve Dolinsky, then known as the “Hungry Hound” left the station but popped up again at WMAQ under the name “The Food Guy.” 

Most recently, WLS lost Roz Varon, a longtime traffic reporter for the station, who opted to retire. The station also bid farewell to highly-paid sports director Mark Giangreco in 2021 after he made a sexist comment on air. 

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