WBEZ-FM 91.5 was back on the air live and local Thursday morning after nearly a day without power forced the station to vacate its Navy Pier studios and run network programming.
ComEd replaced a damaged transformer and restored electricity to the studios at 1:46 a.m., allowing the station to return to normal programming in time for morning drive after a 16-hour disruption.
The outage occurred around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday during the “In the Loop” program with Sasha-Ann Simons. The station was briefly able to continue broadcasting its local programming on a backup power system, but the outage also knocked off the heat, forcing the on-air staff to vacate as the temperatures in the studios began to drop.
At about 10 a.m., WBEZ switched to a network feed from the BBC, unable to air the regularly scheduled “Say More” show with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith.
“We kept things on until we realized we had to leave the studios,” WBEZ spokesperson Victor Lim told the Tribune. “We had to leave the office for safety concerns.”
WBEZ, the highly rated NPR station, offers a mix of local and network programming throughout the day. It normally airs NPR syndicated shows such as “Fresh Air,” “Here and Now” and “All Things Considered” in the afternoon, but with regular local news inserts.
The station successfully switched from BBC to its scheduled NPR programming Wednesday afternoon, but without local news as the power outage and deep freeze continued at the studios, Lim said.
WBEZ sent an email to listeners about the “disruption” and power outage, thanking them for staying with the station during the temporary switch to network programming.
By 5 p.m. – more than seven hours into the outage – ComEd had brought a new transformer to the site at Navy Pier and was working to install it, a spokesperson for the utility told the Tribune. ComEd said it was looking to have power restored for WBEZ by Wednesday night.
It took a little longer than that, with the outage lasting 16 hours before power was finally restored.
WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times are co-owned by Chicago Public Media, after the radio station and newspaper merged under the nonprofit organization in January 2022.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/11/wbez-power-outage-back-on-air/
