Former radio sex therapist finds her Eden in Hawaii

By Robert Feder Mon Oct 15 2012

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Robservations on the media beat:

The hottest show on Chicago radio in the ’80s was hosted by a middle-aged mom from the northwest suburbs. First airing Sunday nights on the former WKQX-FM and then five nights a week on WLS-AM (890), clinical social worker Phyllis Levy held forth with explicit advice about sex and compassionate conversation about relationships. Though it drew consistently high ratings, the show fell victim to a crusade by the National Federation for Decency and a crackdown on sex talk by the FCC. After a brief comeback in Boston, Levy left radio for good in 1996. She sold her private practice, All About Women, to Alexian Brothers Medical Center and eventually gave up counseling to move with her third husband to Hawaii, where they volunteer for Maui Cultural Lands and Pacific Whale Foundation, among other groups. “I’m completely absorbed in the land and the ocean,” Levy told me the other day. “Here, we call the caretaking of things “malama,” so I malamed so many people for years, and now I’m taking care of the land and trying to protect the oceans.” Now 72 and a grandmother of two, she added: “We’ve found our Eden, the place where we feel so blessed, where we feel healthy and the place that brings the best out of us.”

Of all the tributes to the late Bill Jauss, some of the most glowing came from former colleagues and students at his alma mater, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he taught freshman and sophomore writing labs for 15 years. “You would just hear the highest accolades about Bill Jauss,” associate professor emeritus Roger Boye told the Daily Northwestern. “It was the quality of journalism that he practiced on a day-to-day basis and then brought back into the classroom.” A Chicago sportswriter for more than 50 years — at the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Today and most recently the Chicago Tribune — Jauss became an unlikely media star as one of the original panelists on The Sports Writers on TV. A memorial service will be held at 4pm Monday at the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmette for Jauss, who died last Wednesday at 81.

Q87.7, the Merlin Media alternative rock station, announced the lineup Monday for its Christmas show December 1 at the Aragon Ballroom. On the bill for The Night We Stole Christmas are AWOLnation, Morning Parade and Youngblood Hawke, among others. Tickets go on sale Friday on the station’s website, starting at $24.50.

Jason Goff, a 12-year veteran of CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR-AM (670), who worked up from intern to producer to reporter/fill-in host, has been hired as nighttime host of WZGC-FM, the new sports/talk station in Atlanta. He announced his departure Wednesday on Laurence Holmes’ show. “It’s hard to leave but I am extremely excited about the new opportunities that await me in Atlanta,” Goff said in a statement. “I will never have better friends and family than I had while at the Score.”

Lilia Chacon, the former Fox Chicago reporter, and Tony Sculfield, morning host at Clear Channel urban contemporary WGCI-FM (107.5), moderated a panel discussion on violence last week at Kennedy-King College. A Plea for Peace: A Town Hall Meeting on Violence in Chicago will air November 25 on City College of Chicago’s WYCC-Channel 20. Participants included Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and rap artist Rhymefest. Since late 2010, Chacon has been communications director for the office of Chicago city treasurer Stephanie Neely.

It was nice to see a number of former colleagues in the crowd last Thursday at the Book Bin in Northbrook wishing veteran Chicago newsman Dennis Byrne well on the publication of his first historical novel, Madness: The War of 1812. Byrne calls it “a story of probably America’s most botched, least remembered and misunderstood wars,” as told through several fictional characters. A veteran of the Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News, Byrne still free-lances as an op ed columnist for the Tribune and a blogger for ChicagoNow. His book can be ordered online from Tate Publishing now or will be available on Amazon in late November.

Trine Tsouderos, who covered science and medicine for the last three of her nine years as a Tribune reporter, has left to join GolinHarris public relations as healthcare media director. Tsouderos, who previously worked for People magazine and the Nashville Tennessean, is married to Jon Yates, who writes the Tribune’s What’s Your Problem? column.

Courtesy of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, here’s the link to a complete list of this year’s regional Emmy Award nominees. Richard Roeper will emcee the 54th annual Emmy ceremony November 18 at Alhambra Palace, 1240 West Randolph Street.