Former ABC7 Chicago News anchor and Naperville resident Alan Krashesky joins host Liz Spencer to talk journalism, growing up in a private boarding school, and his love for air space and travel.
Career in News
Krashesky graduated from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York with a degree in communications management. After some short time as a news reporter in Birmingham, NY, and reporter and weekend weather anchor in Austin, TX, Krashesky came to Chicago as a general assignment reporter for WLS-TV, an ABC-owned and operated station. For several decades he was the principal anchor at the station until his retirement this year.
“An Interesting Upbringing”
On the show, Krashesky discusses what he calls an “interesting upbringing.” His father was murdered during a robbery when he was just four months old. Now widowed and having to raise four children on her own, his mother made the difficult decision of bringing him to the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
“I grew up there. I went there from kindergarten through twelfth grade,” said Krashesky. “But it made all the difference in my entire life.”
Early Affinity for Aviation
Long before becoming a news anchor, Krashesky had a passion for air travel and space, dreaming of becoming a commercial pilot when he was little. It wasn’t until he was in high school that he gained an interest in public speaking and then eventually the news industry upon attending college. While he never flew commercially, Krashesky says he did fly a few times privately. To this day, he loves to travel, something his mother instilled in him.
“Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer and there’s a truism to that,” he said. “Because as you travel, you see that yes, there are wonderful differences between us but at our core, we are all very similar. We are human beings and I think if we had more of an understanding of that, we’d be able to get along a whole lot better too.”
Naperville Notables Guest
Alan Krashesky, Former News Anchor-ABC7 Chicago
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