A broadcasting job that hits close to home for Barrington's Magiera
Lauren Magiera had no trouble finding a captive audience when she was younger.
"I always watched WGN growing up," said Magiera, who was a two-time state place-winning gymnast and 2003 graduate of Barrington High School. "I felt like such an adult getting to reference what happened on the news the night before.
"It was always a running joke in our family. My sister would always say, 'Let me guess. You heard it on the news.' "
Now, Magiera's family and friends will be among those in the Chicago area who will have the opportunity to see her deliver the sports news on WGN. Monday was her first day on the job after she was hired as a sports anchor and reporter to replace Rich King, who is retiring June 15.
Magiera will be shadowing King, who had a long and successful broadcasting career in Chicago, to ease her transition into the job. She was handling a variety of broadcast duties for the Green Bay Packers.
"It was kind of a goal you make when you're a kid - one that you throw out there and pray that God grants you some of your wishes," she said. "I never thought it was going to happen and I can't believe it's happening."
And it is literally a long way from Anchorage, Alaska, where she got her start in TV sports after going to the University of Alaska-Anchorage on a gymnastics scholarship.
"In college I wasn't sure how real of a dream it was because I thought I wanted to be a teacher," said Magiera, who was third in the state on the balance beam in 2000 and fourth on the vault in 2003 at Barrington. "My freshman year I had a professor who said I should look at going into journalism.
"After my first class in Journalism 101 I automatically had a passion for it. I could see more reality to the dream than I originally thought and it caught fire from there."
Magiera worked for a couple of stations in Anchorage before her career path took her to Wausau, Wis. In three years as sports director she regularly covered the Packers along with the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers, a University of Wisconsin basketball Final Four run and local teams.
Then she got the opportunity to work for the Packers in their new broadcasting division. She did a 30-minute pregame show with legendary player and broadcaster Larry McCarren, covered practices and did player features.
"I was happy there and I didn't think I was going to leave there," Magiera said. "My agent called one day and said, 'I don't want to get your hopes up, but WGN asked what part of Chicago you are from.'"
Magiera, who lived in Jefferson Park on Chicago's Northwest Side until she was 6, also had interest from a station in Jacksonville, Fla. That accelerated the process to return to the place where her true football allegiances are with the Bears.
"I'm not naive to feel there isn't going to be a bit of a learning curve, but I know Chicago sports and was raised on it," Magiera said. "When I spoke with (longtime WGN sports anchor) Dan Roan, I told him I'm a person where there won't be a day I don't walk in with a good attitude and I'm ready to work my guts out for you guys."
Magiera also understands she will have a larger pool of critics of her work in Chicago. But she said she has learned to have a "little guard over my heart" and know who is worth listening to in that respect.
Magiera said she hopes to have the chance at WGN to do feature work similar to her other broadcast stops. She believes those experiences along with her background as a Division I athlete will be big pluses in her new job.
"As an athlete when I was waiting to get interviewed," Magiera said, "I was always curious about how the reporter would use my sound bites and how would they tell my story."
Now it won't be long before Chicago sports fans can regularly watch how Lauren Magiera tells a story.
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