Longtime Chicago sports radio personality Mike North announces retirement from sports media

Mike North has been out of the traditional radio business since his Fox Sports Daybreak show was cancelled last September. That’s now a permanent circumstance for the longtime sports talk radio personality, as North announced on local Chicago TV Monday night that he is retiring from sports media altogether.

@RobertFeder @PhilRosenthal @670TheScore @FoxSportsRadio So long everybody… #sportstalk pic.twitter.com/bwvHMkzTfw

— Mike North (@North2North) August 29, 2017

(Presumably, North meant to tweet @Phil_Rosenthal, the veteran media columnist for the Chicago Tribune, not TV writer Phil Rosenthal. We kid; that’s an easy mistake to make. Either that or North is a big Everybody Loves Raymond fan and just wanted him to know.)

“Hey folks, as you know locally on Channel 11 last night, I announced my retirement from sports media,” North said in a Twitter video. “And you know what? That means my Daily Herald column, Friday will be my last column. My podcasts, both ‘Sticks and Stones’ and ‘Black and Blue Baseball’ October 1st. We’re not going to be on today and for a while because of what’s going on in Houston. That’s where it’s produced.

“I want to thank everybody in Chicago, I want to thank everybody around the nation. Worked at The Score, worked nationally with Fox Sports Radio, doing podcasts — making money doing podcasts — the column in the Daily Herald. You know what? I just got tired of chasing myself at the end of the day. Love you all, and thank you so very, very much, from the media to the listeners.”

North, 65, had been in radio since 1990, beginning with a NFL handicapping show. He then joined Chicago’s 670-AM The Score in 1992 as one of the station’s original personalities, hosting a midday show with Dan Jiggetts. Eventually, North got his own show, eventually moving from afternoons to mornings, and became one of the highest-paid radio personalities in Chicago. His stint at The Score ended in 2008. From there, he reunited with Jiggetts on CSN Chicago and hosted a show on Fox Sports Radio, going from weekends to weekday mornings.

Most recently, North caused controversy by criticizing ESPN baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza, calling her “the worst baseball announcer who has ever announced the game of baseball.” Over the years, he’d also gotten in trouble for referring to Korean pitcher Jae Kuk Ryu as a “Chinaman,” and saying local newscaster Antonio Mora would get better ratings if he wore a sombrero during his newscasts.

North had been staying busy with daily podcasts “Sticks and Stones” and “The Black and Blue Baseball Report” for Gow Media’s Podcast Arena network, in addition to a weekly column for the suburban Chicago Daily Herald in which he wrote about current Chicago sports topics.

According to Chicago media reporter Robert Feder, North plans to live part-time in Las Vegas and continue his work as a spokesman for a Chicago-area light repair tools manufacturer.