Jim tillman weatherman chicago tv#
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He is survived by his wife, four children, and six grandchildren. Tilmon was a longtime NBC 5 forecaster and aviation pioneer who became a household name to Chicagoans. I sincerely hope there is some way I can still serve them on a regular basis.Jim Tilmon was born in 1932, making him 86 years old at the time of his death. I feel as loyal and devoted to the viewers here as they have been to me. The truth is they have been magnificent in their support of me - people of every age, every ethnic group and from every side of this town.

On his departure from CBS 2 Tilmon told me: “I love Chicago and always will consider it my hometown. Tilmon returned to Chicago for his final stint on the air with CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, where he worked from 2002 to 2005.

In 2000 Tilmon was inducted in the Silver Circle of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2004 the DuSable Museum of African American History named him a trailblazer history maker. He also free-lanced for cable news networks and Phoenix area stations. Tilmon worked briefly for Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 as a weather and aviation consultant. “I made this decision myself because I thought it was best to leave now, and I feel happy and excited about the future.”

Jim tillman weatherman chicago free#

“I have no hard feelings at all toward anyone at the station, and I leave free and clear of any animosity,” he told me when he left NBC 5. Together they formed Carpe Diem! Productions, an audio and video production company they operated until 2003. A few months later Tilmon was reinstated after viewers objected and Operation PUSH organized a protest on his behalf.īut by later that fall, Tilmon announced he was quitting and moving to Scottsdale with his wife, Joan. Late in 1993 management of NBC 5 disclosed plans to demote Tilmon to weekends, replacing him on the weeknight newscast with Andy Avalos, who’d just been hired from ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7. Jim Tilmon (Image: Museum of Broadcast Communications) It was an honor then and an honor to work with him decades later. He was as gracious, eloquent and thoughtful with a kid as he was on television. Who arrived at the school? The great Jim Tilmon. “I called the American Cancer Society to see if a spokesperson would join me to discuss the dangers of smoking. “When I was a student at Columbia College, I took a radio interviewing class,” Williams recalled. “You were brilliant and you were a gentleman, paving the way for many of us,” veteran news anchor Jim Williams wrote in a Facebook tribute to Tilmon.

newscast in Chicago, Tilmon served as an inspiration, role model and mentor to generations that followed. In 1972 he moved to NBC 5 where he hosted “Tilmon Tempo,” an Emmy Award-winning weekly magazine show, and became on-air weather forecaster and science and aviation reporter two years later.Īs one of few Black broadcasters on the front line of a Monday-through-Friday 10 p.m. Debuting in 1968, “Our People” was billed as the first program in the country broadcast for and by African Americans.

Jim tillman weatherman chicago tv#

Army Corps of Engineers, where he served for eight years and earned the rank of captain.Īfter joining American Airlines as a Chicago-based pilot in 1965, Tilmon landed his first TV gig with WTTW-Channel 11, the Window to the World Communications public station. “Jim was an accomplished pilot, broadcaster and, more importantly, an old school gentleman who was a pleasure to be around,” recalled retired news anchor Ron Magers, who worked with Tilmon at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 - one of four local stations that employed Tilmon over a distinguished 37-year broadcasting career.īorn in Guthrie, Oklahoma, and educated at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, Tilmon learned to fly in the college’s ROTC program and honed his skills with the U.S.