Phil Donahue, who taped talk show from Chicago for 10 years, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Nineteen high-profile Americans were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House Friday – including Phil Donahue, who once taped his celebrated talk show in Chicago at CBS 2.
Donahue, 88, was visibly moved as President Joe Biden gave him the prestigious honor.
Donahue, a Cleveland native and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, worked a few jobs in radio and television before joining WHIO radio in Dayton, Ohio in 1959. He hosted a program called "The Conversation Piece" at the station, as recalled by the Dayton Daily News. He also worked as an anchor at CBS affiliate WHIO-TV in Dayton.
He later switched stations to WLWD-TV, now WDTN, and founded "The Phil Donahue Show" in 1967. The program went into national syndication three years later.
Donahue moved his show to Chicago in 1974, and began taping from WGN-TV 9. The program's name was changed to "Donahue."
In January 1982, "Donahue" switched his base of operations in Chicago from Channel 9 to CBS 2, taping from the station's old studios at 630 N. McClurg Ct. in the historic Studio 1 – which had served as the venue for the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate in 1960.
On his shows, Donahue stuck to the same style – making a point of drawing out the audience and getting them involved. He focused on one guest or topic per show, with equal time for questions and comments from the audience.
The topics back in those days included serious subjects that were controversial at the time – including abortion, nuclear war, the Equal Rights Amendment, and LGBTQ+ rights such as the adoption of children by lesbian couples. But he also hosted celebrities, politicians and newsmakers. Donahue's show also launched some icons to celebrity – Jeff Smith, "The Frugal Gourmet," rose to national prominence after a 1983 appearance on "Donahue," and went on soon afterward to tape his own show from Chicago at WTTW-Channel 11.
As Donahue taped his show at CBS 2, guests from his show would also sometimes appear live on the Channel 2 News the same day.
Donahue moved his show to New York City at the beginning of 1985. Shortly before he left, he sat down with CBS 2's Walter Jacobson – who asked him about concerns that moving the show to New York might draw a sense of resentment among the Chicagoans he left behind, with people perhaps perceiving he was "thinking of [himself] as a big enough shot to make it in New York."
"This is not a teddy-bear town," Donahue said in reply of Chicago. He added that the show was already a success with New York viewers while he was still taping from Chicago, and said, "I think maybe one of the reasons we're hot in New York… is that we come from Chicago."
"Donahue" ran until 1996, and paved the way for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other talk shows. Donahue also later briefly hosted a show on MSNBC.
Other recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday included Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Katie Ledecky and Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh.
