Dan Fabian, radio executive whose ideas made WGN a power, dies at 81

Dan Fabian was full of ideas.

They poured out of him so quickly that he ran around the WGN Radio offices with a yellow legal pad and pen to write them all down.

“He was walking the halls and you could walk past him and say, ‘Good morning, Dan,’ and he wouldn’t answer, not because he was rude, but because he was coming up with ideas,” said Dave Eanet, sports director at WGN Radio.

Mr. Fabian’s innovations shaped the station’s sound throughout his 30-year career, during which he worked his way up the station, eventually becoming vice president and general manager.

Mr. Fabian died on Friday. He was 81 years old. Now Eanet is among many WGN colleagues reflecting on Mr. Fabian’s legacy at the station.

“I hope people remember and reflect on the tremendous contributions he made to the radio station,” Eanet said.

Mr. Fabian’s career at WGN began in 1965 and he worked there until his retirement in 1996. He started as a college intern and held positions in all departments, including sales, advertising, marketing and as program director, WGN said.

When Eanet first met him during a job interview in 1984, Mr. Fabian had already earned a reputation as a sharp thinker.

“I knew him, I knew his reputation as one of the smartest people in the business,” Eanet said, adding that he felt an added nervousness during the interview. “But he was very warm, very friendly and very interested in what I had to say and what I had done at that point. It was a good start.”

Mr. Fabian was known as someone who risked people and programs to advance the station. One of his most important moves was that in 1984 he hired folk singer and songwriter Steve Goodman to create a jingle for the Chicago Cubs. The result was “Go Cubs Go,” an anthem that is still played even after victories.

In 1985, Mr. Fabian wanted to change the way the station covered Bears games. He went from a two-man to a three-man broadcast booth, something that hadn’t been done before in Chicago, Eanet said. Mr. Fabian brought former Bears linebacker Dick Butkus into the locker room with Jim Hart and Wayne Larrivee.

Mr. Fabian also brought popular WGN-AM morning host Spike O’Dell to Chicago. He helped oversee the transition from top-rated morning host Wally Phillips to Bob Collins, who kept the station at the top of the ratings.

WGN also credits Mr. Fabian with spearheading “the most successful and memorable marketing campaign in the history of Chicago radio,” with the creation of a cartoon bird that called itself “Chicago” in the 1980s.

Mr. Fabian was inducted into the WGN Radio Walk of Fame in 2016.

“He was a deep, great guy,” said Chicago sports media mogul David Kaplan, who worked at WGN for more than 20 years starting in the 1990s. “You could come in and think you have this enormously difficult question and he could get to the heart of it. He was very measured.”

Kaplan said that although the station had many popular radio hosts, Mr. Fabian was one of the main reasons WGN Radio was able to develop a large following in Chicago.

“He was one of the greatest things they had for WGN for a very, very long time,” Kaplan said. “I thought he was brilliant.”