(Above) Actor John Mahoney, longtime broadcaster Hugh Downs, museum president Bruce DuMont, and actress Betty White cut the ribbon to officially open the Museum of Broadcast Communications on June 13, 2012. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

Story & Photos by Steven Dahlman

3-Jul-23 – It was such a subtle announcement; it took a while to process. “Our museum space has been sold to a developer,” read the Facebook post on April 30. “We are open this Sunday at 360 N. State Street from Noon-4pm! We are ON THE MOVE to a new location! Exciting news is coming soon!”

Whether the news that followed was exciting is debatable, but one thing was for certain, after 11 years at State & Kinzie, the Museum of Broadcast Communications – one of only three museums in the nation dedicated to broadcast history – was leaving River North.

The museum opened in 1987 in the South Loop. From 1992 to 2003, it was located in the Chicago Cultural Center. But in 2012, with much fanfare and renovation, it moved into an existing four-story, 62,000 square foot building that at one time had been a Mazda dealership.

Reportedly, the museum moved out after a real estate development company, Fern Hill, owner of the third and fourth floors, exercised its right to buy the other two floors. The museum closed to the public on April 30, the day of the Facebook announcement.

To be honest, the news was not shocking. The museum had been slowly putting on its hat and making its way to the exit for years. It was never on solid financial ground, and the pandemic surely was not helpful.

I not only lived next door to the Museum of Broadcast Communications but my background is in broadcasting. The concept of the museum is wonderful – not just a documentation of broadcast history – critical to preserving America’s unique path through this shared experience – but a celebration. I am just enough of a media geek to feel a chill when I see the television camera that was used in the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debate.

(Left) Film, television, and radio star Charlie McCarthy on display at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, along with show-biz legends Mortimer Snerd and Effie Klinker. (Inset) Charlie (left in photo) with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen in the 1931 short film, The Eyes Have It.

I worked with and for the museum off and on for years. I managed their website for a short time. I had access to all of their events, and I met a number of notable people, including Johnny Bench, Carl Kassel, Larry King, and Geraldo Rivera. It was not always a smooth, happy experience – but it was an amazing experience.

Here’s a look back at some of the important dates of the museum’s time in River North, as documented – and celebrated – by Loop North News.

October 18, 2008. Construction of the Museum of Broadcast Communications has been on hold since May 2006 after $6 million in state funding fails to show up. The museum had hoped to utilize all of the floors of an existing building at State & Kinzie, “one of the ugliest corners in downtown Chicago,” according to the museum, but decides to occupy just the second and third floors and lease out the ground and top floors.

December 10, 2008. The board of directors of the Museum of Broadcast Communications votes to sell its half-finished building at State & Kinzie, but with the hope of remaining as a tenant. “This is a very disappointing development,” says museum founder and president Bruce DuMont, a former WBBM-TV documentary producer and nephew of Allen DuMont, founder of the first commercial television network. “What began as a dream for many has turned into a nightmare thanks to Governor [Rod] Blagojevich.”

(Right) State & Kinzie on December 18, 2008, with Marina City at left.

October 30, 2009. Following approval by both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, the $6 million appropriation from the State of Illinois is signed by a new governor, Pat Quinn. Bruce DuMont makes the announcement at the National Radio Hall of Fame ceremony on November 7. “Our struggle has been long and, as you know, it has been very difficult,” says DuMont. “It will only make opening day sweeter.”

June 12, 2010. After being told for years by the state to “please stand by,” the Museum of Broadcast Communications finally has money to resume construction of its building at State & Kinzie. No longer for sale, the site is appraised at $11.2 million but completed and leased, DuMont says it will be worth $21.8 million.

(Left) Construction on the fourth floor on October 11, 2010.

April 28, 2011. A 17-foot-tall steel-and-neon tribute to broadcast history is installed at the top of a grand staircase at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Six DVDs feed television programming from decades past to 23 old monitors. The tower includes circuit boards, cameras, microphones, VCRs, and other vintage electronic gear the museum had lying around. It took Cincinnati artist Mark Patsfall about a year and a half to build the sculpture that cost the museum $40,000. “It’s just about evolution of technology and a little bit of entertainment thrown in, and history,” says Patsfall. (Right) Patsfall adjusts his sculpture as assistant Tim McMichael holds the ladder.

June 16, 2011. Calling it “a work in progress,” Bruce DuMont introduces the new Museum of Broadcast Communications to a full, open house that includes a “who’s who” of notables from government and media.

State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, State Senator Kirk Dillard, and State Representative Lisa Dugan listen to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praise the museum that sat idle for years at State & Kinzie due to funding delays. (Left) “Bozo the Clown” and Rich “Svengoolie” Koz on the museum terrace that overlooks State Street.

November 5, 2011. About 300 people pay $250 each to celebrate the opening night of the National Radio Hall of Fame Gallery on the second floor of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. The Hall of Fame is a subsidiary of the non-profit MBC. Radio and television legend Larry King emcees a national radio broadcast live from the black-tie event, the first Hall of Fame ceremony to be held at the museum’s new location.

“It’s a spectacular place here on State Street, that great street,” quipped King, “a block from Trump Tower, right next to Marina City. It is absolutely gorgeous.” (Right) Larry King emcees opening night of the National Radio Hall of Fame Gallery.

Presenters include talk show host Jerry Springer, television journalist Bill Kurtis, sportscaster Jon Miller, Susan Stamberg of National Public Radio, WGN Radio’s Orion Samuelson, mystery writer Sara Paretsky, and country singer Rex Allen, Jr. (Left) King (left in photo) with MBC president Bruce DuMont.

Bruce Dumont (second from left) and civic leader Kathy Posner (second from right) interview Jerry Springer (right) during a radio wrap-up of the event. At left, Catherine Busch of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

(Left) A crew produces video of the event.

December 1, 2011. The National Radio Hall of Fame Gallery opens to the public. There are now 173 inductees in the hall of fame, each with a poster displayed in the gallery. The Class of 2011 includes former sportscaster/president Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), Graham McNamee (1888-1942), a radio pioneer of the 1920s, news commentator H. V. Kaltenborn (1878-1965), and radio classics Gangbusters, Suspense, The Great Gildersleeve, and WLS National Barn Dance.

June 13, 2012. The Museum of Broadcast Communications officially opens at 360 North State Street. The night before, about 400 people attend a “salute” to the museum that honors MBC’s 25th anniversary since opening at River City in the South Loop in 1987. “Oh boy, have I got you fooled,” joked broadcast legend Betty White (right) after a 54-second standing, cheering ovation. “This building, this whole thing we’re celebrating tonight, means that television has not just become another baby, it has grown up. It has become something that will influence the world from here on out.”

(Left) Actor John Mahoney, best known as Marty Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, poses for a photo while awaiting an interview with Chicago 3 Media. “What gets me most about broadcast in Chicago, I don’t know why, but I love the radio in Chicago. I love all the people associated with radio,” Mahoney told the crowd, mentioning specifically Roy Leonard, Studs Terkel, and Erich “Mancow” Muller.

“We’ve been through a long road,” DuMont tells a packed penthouse ballroom. “The last ten years has been virtually all uphill. But tonight we are at the mountaintop. And I cannot thank you enough for being here to share this joyous night in the life of this museum.”

(Right) Radio personality Erich “Mancow” Muller is confronted with his childhood on a tour of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. He is seen here with Garfield Goose and friends, characters on a children’s television show produced in Chicago from 1955 to 1976.

(Left) Exhibit of clown costumes from The Bozo Show.

September 5, 2012. About 100 people attend a 100th birthday celebration of author/actor/broadcaster Louis “Studs” Terkel (1912-2008) hosted by Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Kogan and filmmaker Tom Weinberg.

November 10, 2012. To no one’s surprise, the self-described “king of all media,” Howard Stern, inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, does not attend the induction ceremony at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Reporter and talk show host Geraldo Rivera hosts the hour-long event, broadcast live to a national audience by Cumulus Media. “I heard Howard Stern was one of the honorees,” says Rivera, “and I thought I would add an air of quiet dignity.”

Among the presenters are National Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, former National Public Radio newscaster Carl Kasell, country music radio and television host Ralph Emery, and former WLS disc jockey Dick Biondi.

November 9, 2013. It is once again “radio’s biggest night,” according to broadcast legend Larry King, who emcees the 2013 Radio Hall of Fame ceremony. Of the eight people inducted this year, only two do not show up – radio manufacturer Powel Crosley, Jr., who died in 1961, and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl. Dahl’s longtime radio partner, Garry Meier, also inducted, thanks 17 people in his acceptance speech, none of whom were Steve Dahl.

October 21, 2017. Saturday Night Live: The Experience opens at the museum. Within a few months, 1,000 people every week, on average, are seeing the exhibit, a collection of 500 artifacts in 12,000 square feet of exhibition space, chronicling the 40-plus years of the late-night show. “We are seeing a huge uptick from last year,” says Justin Kulovsek, SNL Project Lead for the museum.

(Right) Gallery that included a set for “Black Jeopardy” and costume for Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” character.

November 28, 2017. Bruce DuMont notifies the museum’s board of directors that he will retire when his term as president expires at the end of the year. DuMont had been president of the museum since he founded it in 1983. “Time for the next chapter of my life,” exclaims the 73-year-old DuMont on Facebook.

March 1, 2019. The third and fourth floors of the museum are sold to Fern Hill Company, a real estate development and investment firm in Chicago, for about $6 million. The museum then downsizes from 25,000 square feet of available exhibition and event space on three floors to 12,500 square feet on just the second floor. In December, space on the top floor of the building re-opens as private event space.

October 2, 2021. Masterpieces, “accumulated in the course of what was a very weird year,” is how Emmy-winning television host John Oliver describes, um, artwork in an exhibit that opens at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. It is one of only five museums in the nation selected by HBO’s news satire show Last Week Tonight to host the art, from more than 1,000 organizations that applied. Works include a painting of TV host Wendy Williams eating a lambchop, and a painting of a “sad tie” by Judith Kudrow, wife of Larry Kudrow, director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration.

(Left) The Museum of Broadcast Communications from across State Street on November 5, 2011.