Weigel recovering, ready for action
By BroadCasting & Cable Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/9/2000 8:00:00 PM
WBBM-TV sportscaster Tim Weigel says he's making an excellent recovery from last month's brain surgery and will interrupt his daily round of golf to return to the air Sunday, July 9. "We've got Mike Ditka on our Sunday-night show [Face 2 Face], and I don't want to miss that."
Weigel, who last week began a month of daily follow-up radiation treatments, has already given local fans a look, dropping in on his colleagues on the air, wearing a hat to cover up "the trap door where [surgeons] went in." Weigel isn't sure whether he'll keep the hat when he returns, but describes his head as "a Chicago 16-inch softball with seams."
Weigel, 55, says his surgeons told him they believe they removed all of the tumor and that the radiation is just a precaution. The radiation, he added, has not been wearing him out, and he's anxious to get back on the air. He says he has received thousands of get-well messages and is working to "connect with each friend and viewer. It's incredibly time-consuming, but I'm enjoying it, and I'm grateful."
Weigel is the second well-known WBBM-TV personality to be struck with brain cancer. Movie critic Gene Siskel died last year of complications following brain surgery. Besides being colleagues, Weigel and Siskel were roommates at Yale, and Siskel's widow, Marlene, was among the well-wishers who sent a card to the sportscaster.
Also at WBBM-TV, the station bade a lengthy farewell to longtime anchor Lester Holt, who is heading to New York, where he will work for MSNBC. He was the station's late-news co-anchor with Linda MacLennan until this year, when WBBM-TV began its late news with Carol Marin, and Holt and MacLennan moved to 5 p.m.
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