Chuck said he was the first nightly sports host in the city while at WCFL.
Didn’t Bill Berg do a nightly show on WIND in late 60s and early 79s? Not to mention Chet Coppock’s “Spotlight on Sports” on WSNS, Channel 44 at same time.
50 years in any profession is an eternity these days and Chuck Swirsky isn't exactly a young pup anymore either at age 72. I raise my mug and offer my own Congratulations on quite a milestone.
For a man of his age, Swirsky still has energy in his voice calling Bulls' basketball as well as occasionally hosting Chicago sports talk on a very limited basis on 104.3 FM The SCORE, the flagship of the Chicago Bulls Radio Network.
It seems hard to believe that "The Swirsk" as he's affectionately known has been the soundtrack to Bulls radio broadcasts since 2007. It also seems like yesterday when Chuck called Toronto Raptors' basketball for a decade before that and hosted a daily sports talk radio show on 590 AM The FAN in Toronto.
Not to reveal my own age, but when I was growing up, guys like Swirsky as well as the late, great Chet Coppock hosted sports talk radio in Chicago.
Back then, 24/7 sports talk radio in this city didn't exist. There was no SCORE. There was no ESPN Radio 1000 AM either. If you wanted sports talk radio in this city back then, guys like Swirsky & Coppock were it.
And yes, I'm also old enough to remember when ESPN Radio 1000 AM was once branded as the old WCFL back in the day.
I don't know as of now if the Bulls will honor Swirsky at some point this upcoming season, but he did receive a nice cake from his SCORE family yesterday.
Remember a few years before Chet passed away. The owner of a small station here walked in and asked the board op if there were any calls. The twenty something guy says yea, some guy named Chet Coppock. The owner couldn’t believe the young guy never heard of Chet.