Feder: Onetime listener Shaun Thompson moves up to afternoon host at WIND

Twelve years after he began calling in to talk radio shows as a listener, Melrose Park native Shaun Thompson has been named afternoon drive host at WIND 560-AM, the Salem Media Group news/talk station, Robert Feder writes.

Thompson, who's been a weekend and fill-in host at AM 560 The Answer since 2016, premieres today from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, replacing Steve Cortes, who held the job since January 2020.

From July through November of last year Thompson filled in for Cortes, who took a hiatus to work on the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump. Now Cortes is leaving to pursue a new national television project, according to the station.

"It's rare in radio to have a transition as smooth as this one," Jeff Reisman, regional vice president and general manager of AM 560 The Answer, said in a statement.

Thompson, who attended Columbia College, worked as a trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange. He became a licensed real estate broker in 1992 and opened a real estate investment group in 2009. Since 2016 he also has owned the Elmhurst Cigar House in Elmhurst.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.