Tom Shaer will return as host of the 78th Annual Pitch and Hit Club Awards Banquet. The banquet will be held January 19 at the Tinley Park Convention Center, 18451 Convention Center Drive, Tinley Park. Doors open at 3:30PM for autographs and the memorabilia auction. Dinner begins at 5PM.
This marks Tom’s 23nd year as MC in a relationship which Tom describes as “One of the most fulfilling in my career, a true pleasure every time.”
Tom’s 31 years of broadcasting began with his first on-air job as an 18-year-old college freshman in Boston; after seven years there, he came to Chicago. He is best known for being the first host ever heard on the region’s first all-sports radio station, WSCR-The Score, where he did the morning-drive show, and for his many years as a television sports reporter and anchor on NBC5. He began his Chicago career in 1983 by co-hosting a nightly sports show on WGN Radio with broadcast legend Jack Brickhouse before moving on to a five-year run at WBBM-AM where he and colleague Rich King were described as Chicago’s best radio sports reporters by Crain’s Chicago Business. Tom was also a member of the first news team at WFLD-TV/Fox32 and later worked as sports anchor and talk show host on ESPN-1000. He then opened a media consulting firm, and that second career continues to include broadcast contract negotiations and government media relations.
The father of two adult children, Tom is now semi-retired and living in Scottsdale Arizona with his wife, Lisa. They have two grandchildren.