New Show 'Lossano & Friends' To Launch Saturday From The Museum Of Broadcast Communications
Details
Published on Friday, 03 October 2014 11:45
A brand new, one-hour talk show, hosted by Tony Lossano, the creative force behind the long-running Chicago TV show "Nude Hippo," will launch this weekend. "Lossano and Friends" will be recorded each Saturday afternoon from the radio studio located inside of the Chicago-based Museum Of Broadcast Communications.
Tony Lossano is a longtime Chicago radio producer, who currently has the joyful privilege of working with local legends Dick Biondi, John Records Landecker, and Robert Murphy each day on WLS-FM. He previously worked for many years at two radio stations, producing and contributing for Melissa Forman's morning shows.
On May 3, 1997, a little cable access program called "The Big Fat Nude Hippo Show" made its debut. The show featured local media celebrity interviews, magazine-style reporting, sketch comedy, local information, and general silliness. It eventually dropped four of the words from its title, becoming simply "Nude Hippo," although for a short while, it was titled "Nude Hippo: Your Chicago Show." "Nude Hippo" ended its run as a Chicago cable program on May 3, 2007 -- exactly ten years to the date of it debut. Soon after, the show re-invented itself as a series of smaller video segments appearing on the WMAQ-TV/NBC5 website and on its own website. On November 1, 2010, "Nude Hippo" returned to Chicago television, as new segments were aired at random times throughout the day on WMAQ-TV's former digital sub-channel Chicago Nonstop. By the end of summer 2011, "Nude Hippo" went back on hiatus, only to be resurrected one last time, from 2012-2013, as a series of segments on the now defunct website NudeHippo.TV.
Over its 16 years in existence, "Nude Hippo" went through numerous hosts, contributors, formats, and outlets. The one constant for all these years and the driving force behind the show was been Tony Lossano. He was the creator of the show, the producer for the show, and its host for most of the first 10 years.
In addition to producing on WLS-FM, Lossano is also a freelance special events producer for WMAQ-TV/NBC 5.
While his current jobs are enjoyable and fulfilling in their own ways, they haven't been feeding his wacky and creative side as "Nude Hippo" once did. From that desire, this new "Lossano and Friends" show was created.
It all begins tomorrow.
Each Saturday at 1:00pm, Tony Lossano, his friends, and some special guests will get together and have casual, comedic conversations. This will take place in the studio created in the back corner of the National Radio Hall of Fame floor within the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago. The show will be quickly converted into a podcast and made available later that day on Lossano.com.
Lossano will be joined each week by friends of his, who happen to be Chicago media veterans. These friends include sidekick Jim Gronemann (former Chicago radio producer, pizza franchise owner), engineer Chris Cwiak (Chicago radio producer, currently with the WXRT-FM morning show), segment producer Ann Sheehan (actress, former producer for WKQX-FM and "Nude Hippo," former XFL/AFL cheerleader, former private investigator), and roving reporter Ashley Lobo (actress, model, former "Nude Hippo" reporter, former WMAQ-TV reporter/blogger, former Blackhawks TV reporter, former Blackhawks Ice Crew member).
Among the many guests scheduled for the month of October for the "Lossano and Friends" podcast include: WBBM-TV news anchor Rob Johnson, former Chicago radio star Eddie Volkman, ABC's "GMA" Chief Meteorologist/formerly of WMAQ-TV Ginger Zee, WMAQ-TV's LeeAnn Trotter, Rivet News Radio's Jennifer O'Neill, "I Want To Draw A Cat For You" creator Steve Gadlin, owner of the recently closed Hot Doug's! The Sausage Superstore Doug Sohn, and more to be announced soon.
In a statement, Bruce DuMont, Founder and President of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, said: "We are delighted to welcome Tony Lossano back to the MBC where we can showcase this talented communicator with a proven knack for innovation."
The "Lossano and Friends" podcast will soon be part of a much larger conglomerate, the Radio Misfits Podcast Network, which is set to launch on November 1st. The Radio Misfits Podcast Network is the brainchild of Ed Silha, the chief architect of the subscription-based Steve Dahl Network and a longtime technical contributor to Steve Dahl's radio shows and podcasts. Chicago radio fans may know Silha by his on-air nicknames given to him by Dahl, "Edzilla" and "Party of One."
The Radio Misfits Podcast Network will not be subscription-based, though, but rather sponsor-based, making it more accessible by the mass public.
In addition to Tony Lossano's new show, other podcasts already signed up to be part of the new Radio Misfits Podcast Network include:
- "Dishing Bitches" with Betty Belden, Gina Scotlynd, and Samantha Rosedale (Chicago-based)
- "Ready, Set, Vent! with Andy Lurie" (Los Angeles-based)
- "Masshole & The Minions" (title subject to change) with Dave "The Masshole" Friedrich (Chicago-based)
- "80 Proof Truth" with Harvey McCarter (Chicago-based)
Other podcasts will be announced after the network's launch next month.
Collage photos in this article by Malrie Sonier
Link: http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/6902-new-show-lossano-friends-to-launch-saturday-from-the-museum-of-broadcast-communications
