On just about every day of the year, Chicago's media companies are competing with each other - elbowing others out of the way to get interviews and stories on the air faster and better.  Today, we worked together for "Chicago Helps Haiti".  Every TV and radio station in town spent an entire broadcast day soliciting calls and donations for the American Red Cross.  

Steve Robinson, General Manager of WFMT-FM, was a driving force in organizing the event. He told me it took just two hours to get commitments from every broadcast executive in town including my bosses here at Fox Chicago, General Manager Mike Renda and News Director Carol Fowler.

Hewitt Associates stepped up bigtime by hosting the telethon at its facilities in Lincolnshire and finding an army of volunteers to answer the phones and take in the donations.

BIG money came in from a number of major Chicago companies.  By 1pm, donations topped $1.6 million!  The total is sure to be well over $2M when the final tally comes in.  I am so proud to have been a part of this major fundraiser.  And many thanks to the Fox Chicago viewers who called in to donate!  

Here's a look at some of my media friends from "Chicago Helps Haiti":

Ed Curran of CBS2 and Ravi Baichwal of ABC7.

Fox Chicago cameraman Leo Brucato!

Hello, Judy Hsu of ABC7!

My radio pals, "Koz" from WTMX The Mix and Brian from 100.3FM