Chuck Goudie jumps to NBC 5

He’ll head the station’s investigative unit after decades at ABC 7

In a coup for the NBC-owned station, WMAQ-TV – known as NBC 5 – announced Monday the hiring of Chuck Goudie as chief investigative reporter with his first day scheduled for February 10. He shifts over from ABC-woned WLS-TV (ABC 7) as he led the station’s I-Team unit until he was let go at the end of last year. 

Goudie will head the station’s investigative unit and joins producers Katy Smyser, Lisa Capitanini, and five-time Emmy winner Bennett Haeberele. Goudie arrived at WLS-TV from Charlotte’s WSOC and became the station’s chief investigative reporter in 1990. For Goudie, this is a homecoming of sorts – he got his start with NBC’s News & Information Service in 1975, a 24-hour satellite-fed news operation heard locally on what is now known as WKQX-FM (101.1). 

“Investigative reporting is more important than ever,” said NBC 5 Senior Vice President of News Sally Ramirez in a release. “Adding Chuck, one of the best journalists in the nation, to our award-winning ‘NBC 5 Investigates’ team ensures an even greater commitment to our Chicagoland viewing audience.”

“I walk into WMAQ on the shoulders of giants,” said Goudie. “Many of them I have been lucky enough to know, stand beside, work with and learn from. Paul Hogan, Phil Walters, Floyd Kalber, Peter Karl, Renee Ferguson, Rich Samuels, Linda Yu, Rob Elgas, Mike Adamle, Phil Rogers, Dick Johnson, Rob Stafford, Mark Giangreco, Tim Weigel, Art Norman, Lisa Parker, Dick Kay, Ron Magers, Carol Marin, Don Moseley and other friends who are still in the Chicago trenches at NBC 5 that I am excited to join. I’m grateful to become part of an organization with such a powerful pedigree and a legacy of investigative excellence. A place with a motto more relevant today than ever, baked into its call letters: We Must Ask Questions.” (WMAQ changed its call letters in August 1964 from WNBQ-TV to match its then-sister radio station.)

This is the second news personality to shift from ABC 7 to NBC 5 in recent years. Steve Dolinsky, known as “The Food Guy,” came to WMAQ from WLS-TV in 2021 after his contract wasn’t renewed with the ABC-owned station. From the 1970s through the 1990s, several former WMAQ personalities shifted to ABC 7, including Adamle, Giangreco, Kalber, Magers, Yu, meteorologist Jerry Taft, and film critic Roger Ebert. 

Goudie won several awards for his work, including Emmys, an Edward R. Murrow award, and Peter Lisagor Award. In 2018, Goudie was inducted into the NATAS’ Silver Circle. Goudie joining NBC 5 is a huge boon for the news organization as it has trailed ABC 7 in the ratings for decades but is ahead of Chicago’s other news operations. Among Goudie’s resume of work include being the first Chicago reporter to arrive at Ground Zero after 9/11, digging into backgrounds into criminals such as Robert Crimo III, who is accused of killing numerous people with a high-powered weapon during Highland Park’s Fourth Of July parade, and investigating President Trump’s impeachment trial.

His hiring demonstrates that despite viewers increasingly moving away from linear TV (local news in particular) and heading to streaming options, broadcasters are still committed to investing in talent. While some Chicago news operations have made several blunders in recent weeks, NBC 5’s hire of Goudie is a welcome move.