Milt Rosenberg

Friends, this is Milt's son, Matt. As you all know, my beloved, late father Milt Rosenberg was for 38 years the host of a most remarkable radio show on WGN-AM Radio in Chicago. It was named Extension 720. But most listeners just called it The Milt Rosenberg Show. It had breadth and depth, became a sort of an on-the-air People's University of Everything.

Many, many listeners here at Facebook - and in live calls to the show, which ended in 2012 - and in thousands of letters and emails to Milt over the many years, expressed their appreciation for what they learned from Milt and his wide-ranging cast of guests.

Milt was of course a social psychologist at the University of Chicago. I remember first-hand from childhood his reportorial shoe-leather instincts. This was how I ended up at a Yippie Party protest in Lincoln Park with him one very-charged night, in the lead-up to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He was forever sticking his nose into things, and asking questions.

The fruits of his inquiries were many. And his loss was deeply felt by many in and beyond Chicago.

As you may know, there is a website where are stored some 400-plus MP3s of his many thousands of radio shows. In the year or two immediately following his death, I updated that site and also kept this page freshened with notices of the new episodes added at the website.

However, in the last year-plus, I removed the paywall at the website because other commitments made it impossible for me to continue keeping it fresh with new old episodes. Capiche? I let followers here know of these changes.

Since then, I've had occasion to reflect on what the future should look like for the community of literate, engaged people who have followed this page. I realized that the most appropriate future course would be to narrow the focus to one of the things that most concerned Milt: the civic, economic, and social health of our family's real home: The City of Chicago.

That same topic has been my intense focus for the last year, as an author writing his first book.

I have always appreciated your fond remembrances of my father, and I share them. He was a complex, deeply curious man, who made it his mission to to wrap his arms and considerable intellect around the wonders and foibles and even existential threats of the ages and the present day. His reach encompassed the world, the nation, and our city.

My own mission now, assuming Facebook approves the changes I have submitted for this page, is to go forward with a more narrow focus, on the questions “What Next, Chicago?” and What Next for other major U.S. cities.

Because cities matter more than ever.

This page will NOT ever make any political endorsements, of any candidate or ballot measure.

However, I do want to try to foster lively discussions here around the politics and policies of Chicago and other big cities, and how to build a better future in the face of today's stiff challenges to their viability.

And yes, certainly, in the course of that, you will hear about some of the arguments and evidence presented in my new book on Chicago, and some of my adventures and insights as I travel back to Chicago this autumn. I hope you'll join me on this ride. To get on-sale notification for my book, hit me up with your email via [email protected]

Please bear with me these next few days as it may take that long for Facebook to fully process my requested changes in the name and orientation of this page. I hope many of you will be interested in staying aboard and helping me steer the ship.

With Appreciation and Respect,

Matt

The Pleasure of His Company: Milton J Rosenberg, 1925-2018 Milt Rosenberg died in Chicago late on Tuesday night at the age of 92. When truly great people depart this earth, I am inclined to be selfish and mourn not just the glories of the past but the glories that will never be: I will never hear a brand new