Former WGN Host Judy Markey Dies at 82
WGN, Chicago announced to listeners on Friday (9/11) that former longtime air personality Judy Markey died at age 82 in Switzerland by medically assisted suicide after years of failing health. Markey was co-host of the “Kathy and Judy Show” alongside Kathy O’Malley. Before embarking on her radio career, 
Markey was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Retired WGN news anchor Steve Bertrand – who was a regular on the “Kathy and Judy Show” – appeared on WGN’s morning show with Bob Sirott to break the news. O’ Malley addressed Markey’s passing in a post on the WGN website: “Over the years, Judy and I talked on the air several times about our support for medical aid in dying, a highly personal choice but one we felt should be available for those who chose it – and she did. With her family at her side, she peacefully ended her life at a MAID (medical aid in dying) facility in Switzerland.” Of Markey’s success on the radio, WGN notes how it all began: “On a hunch, on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon in 1989, WGN’s program director Lorna Gladstone decided to team Markey and O’Malley. No one could have anticipated they would be, as media critic Rob Feder aptly put it ‘lightning in a bottle.’ For the next two decades ‘The Girlfriends,’ as they came to be known, attracted a fiercely loyal following (of women and men) and dominated the midday ratings,” Feder wrote. “Their authentic chemistry transcended radio. No topic was off limits or too personal. Annual fan conventions and station-sponsored trips drew thousands.” See the WGN story here.