Phil Kosin
Encyclopedia
Phil Kosin was an American
journalist
, columnist
, radio host, commentator, blog
ger and newspaper publisher from Chicago
. From 1989 until his death, he served as editor
and publisher of the Chicagoland Golf
newspaper.
He also hosted since 1992 the seasonal Chicagoland Golf Show, a talk radio
program on CBS Radio
-owned WSCR
SportsRadio 670 in Chicago, a 50,000-watt clear channel.
Kosin also appeared frequently at Chicagoland Golf's Chicagoland Golf.com website and his blog "Phil Kosin's Worm Castings"
In 1995 Kosin founded the Illinois Women's Open
state championship of golf and served as tournament director.
Kosin has served as a consultant to many golf courses. An experienced photographer, he always made the photographs for articles he wrote.
Kosin died on August 10, 2009, after a four-year battle with cancer.
He continued to write part-time for both local newspapers and freelanced stories to magazines through his college years. He worked full-time in the production department on the third shift at a Chicago daily newspaper while attending junior college, then majored in broadcasting and journalism at Western Illinois University.
He reported on all Chicago sports and teams from 1980 through 1988 while hosting weeknight “magazine” shows on two radio stations, WTAQ and WMRO
, which covered all of the Chicago market under the banner “The Sportsweek Radio Network”. His magazine shows consisting of lengthy interviews and multiple-guest discussions was a first on Chicago radio, pre-dating by three years other shows which make the same claim. He served as midwest writer for Boxing Digest and also was hired by Eddie Einhorn
to be a boxing analyst, teamed with Al Bernstein
on bi-weekly telecasts. They did the first-ever broadcast on the SportsVision
pay-TV channel in 1982.
At that time he also wrote syndicated semi-weekly newspaper columns in addition to stringing for The Associated Press at major sporting events. He pioneered on Chicago radio the concept of moving the sports talk show and its guests out of the studio and before a live audience at sports bars. In the early 1980s he hosted a Sunday night show, “Inside Baseball”, co-hosted in alternate weeks by Chicago White Sox
manager Tony LaRussa and Chicago Cubs
manager Lee Elia
, depending on which team was in town.
Kosin covered golf since the 1975 Western Open
, where he gathered quotes and did sidebars for The AP under the tutelage of legendary AP sports editor Joe Mooshil. Kosin covered 32 straight Westerns (until its contentious demise in 2006) and more than 500 golf tournaments, including nearly 60 major championships. His work has appeared in Golf Digest
, Sports Illustrated
, Golf Traveler, American Bar Association Journal and the first resuscitation of Golf Illustrated.
After freelancing for several marginally-successful regional golf publications for many years, he became editor of Illinois Golfer in 1986. Three years later, in 1989, Kosin finally struck out on his own and founded Chicagoland Golf. Since then it has become the longest-running golf publication in Chicago history.
He also started a non-profit in 1992, The Chicago Friends of Golf, Inc., which has provided financial assistance to needy junior golf programs and wherever else needed. In its ”Used Clubs for Kids” program from 1993 through 2006, The Chicago Friends of Golf, inc., collected from readers and redistributed free to needy juniors and junior programs over 50,000 clubs, 3,500 golf bags, 900 pairs of golf shoes, and over 200,000 golf balls.
In 1993, Kosin wrote an article conceptualizing a golf school limited to beginner adults, and came up with the name "No Embarrassment Golf School" to describe it. The model and the name were first used by Jemsek golf courses in the Chicago area to great success and are now being used nationally, rights-free, as Kosin desired.
Kosin was a longtime member of the Golf Digest
Top 100 Ranking Panel. Until his death, he was the only original member on the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame Nominating Committee (1989). He was listed as an Advisory Board member of Illinois' "Hook a Kid on Golf". Always a public golfer, the only club he was a member of, he joked, was "Sam's Club".
“Phil Kosin’s Chicagoland Golf Show” was on the air on powerful stations in the nation’s third-largest media market since 1994. After three years on WMVP
-AM1000 (now ESPN Radio), for the last 13 seasons he hosted a Saturday morning, two-hour weekend show from March through September on WSCR
TheScore, SportsRadio 670AM in Chicago – a 50,000-watt, CBS-owned clear channel that reaches 38 states and four Canadian provinces – in addition to being streamed live on the Internet at www.670thescore.com. The Score is also the flagship station for the Chicago White Sox
baseball club.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, radio host, commentator, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger and newspaper publisher from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. From 1989 until his death, he served as editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
and publisher of the Chicagoland Golf
Chicagoland Golf
Chicagoland Golf is an independent regional golf newspaper serving the 1.7 million golfers in Northern Illinois, Southeast Wisconsin and Northeast Indiana since 1989. Chicagoland Golf is published in the United States 13 times per year by Chicagoland Golf Publishing Co. and covers recreational golf...
newspaper.
He also hosted since 1992 the seasonal Chicagoland Golf Show, a talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
program on CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
-owned WSCR
WSCR
WSCR is a sports radio station in the Chicago, Illinois radio market. The station is owned by CBS Radio and transmits on 670 kHz on the AM dial. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, which is a western suburb of Chicago. It is known as "The Score," and has been on...
SportsRadio 670 in Chicago, a 50,000-watt clear channel.
Kosin also appeared frequently at Chicagoland Golf's Chicagoland Golf.com website and his blog "Phil Kosin's Worm Castings"
In 1995 Kosin founded the Illinois Women's Open
Illinois Women's Open
The Illinois Women's Open is a three-day, 54-hole state championship of golf administered by the Chicagoland Golf Publishing Co. of Naperville, Illinois, and the non-profit Chicago Friends of Golf, Inc....
state championship of golf and served as tournament director.
Kosin has served as a consultant to many golf courses. An experienced photographer, he always made the photographs for articles he wrote.
Kosin died on August 10, 2009, after a four-year battle with cancer.
Career
Kosin began covering sports at his high school at age 14 for City News Bureau and two competing local newspapers, getting bylines in each and earning himself the princely sum of $32.50 a week. He did this even though he played on some of those teams and had to figure out how to balance being honest in his stories and coexisting with his coaches and teammates.He continued to write part-time for both local newspapers and freelanced stories to magazines through his college years. He worked full-time in the production department on the third shift at a Chicago daily newspaper while attending junior college, then majored in broadcasting and journalism at Western Illinois University.
He reported on all Chicago sports and teams from 1980 through 1988 while hosting weeknight “magazine” shows on two radio stations, WTAQ and WMRO
WMRO
WMRO is a radio station licensed to and serving Gallatin, Tennessee. The station is locally owned by Scott and Leslie Bailey of Classic Broadcasting, Inc...
, which covered all of the Chicago market under the banner “The Sportsweek Radio Network”. His magazine shows consisting of lengthy interviews and multiple-guest discussions was a first on Chicago radio, pre-dating by three years other shows which make the same claim. He served as midwest writer for Boxing Digest and also was hired by Eddie Einhorn
Eddie Einhorn
Eddie Einhorn is minority owner and Vice Chairman of the Chicago White Sox.Einhorn produced the nationally syndicated radio broadcast of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 1958...
to be a boxing analyst, teamed with Al Bernstein
Al Bernstein
Al Michael Bernstein is an American sportscaster, writer, stage performer, recording artist, and speaker.-1970s:In the 1970s, he was a newspaperman, working at Lerner Newspapers in Chicago. He eventually became a managing editor at that newspaper....
on bi-weekly telecasts. They did the first-ever broadcast on the SportsVision
Sportsvision
Sportsvision was a subscription TV service founded by Chicago White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, and media mogul Fred Eychaner. The service broadcast live sporting events....
pay-TV channel in 1982.
At that time he also wrote syndicated semi-weekly newspaper columns in addition to stringing for The Associated Press at major sporting events. He pioneered on Chicago radio the concept of moving the sports talk show and its guests out of the studio and before a live audience at sports bars. In the early 1980s he hosted a Sunday night show, “Inside Baseball”, co-hosted in alternate weeks by Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
manager Tony LaRussa and Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
manager Lee Elia
Lee Elia
Lee Constantine Elia is a former professional baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball. He was a manager of the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies . Additionally, he has served as a coach for the Phillies, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Baltimore...
, depending on which team was in town.
Kosin covered golf since the 1975 Western Open
Western Open
The Western Open, a professional golf tournament, was first played in 1899. At the time of its 2006 playing, the Western Open was the 3rd oldest active PGA Tour tournament, after the British Open and U.S. Open...
, where he gathered quotes and did sidebars for The AP under the tutelage of legendary AP sports editor Joe Mooshil. Kosin covered 32 straight Westerns (until its contentious demise in 2006) and more than 500 golf tournaments, including nearly 60 major championships. His work has appeared in Golf Digest
Golf Digest
Golf Digest is a monthly golf magazine published by Condé Nast Publications in the United States. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. Condé Nast Publications also publishes the more specialized , and Golf World Business. The...
, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, Golf Traveler, American Bar Association Journal and the first resuscitation of Golf Illustrated.
After freelancing for several marginally-successful regional golf publications for many years, he became editor of Illinois Golfer in 1986. Three years later, in 1989, Kosin finally struck out on his own and founded Chicagoland Golf. Since then it has become the longest-running golf publication in Chicago history.
He also started a non-profit in 1992, The Chicago Friends of Golf, Inc., which has provided financial assistance to needy junior golf programs and wherever else needed. In its ”Used Clubs for Kids” program from 1993 through 2006, The Chicago Friends of Golf, inc., collected from readers and redistributed free to needy juniors and junior programs over 50,000 clubs, 3,500 golf bags, 900 pairs of golf shoes, and over 200,000 golf balls.
In 1993, Kosin wrote an article conceptualizing a golf school limited to beginner adults, and came up with the name "No Embarrassment Golf School" to describe it. The model and the name were first used by Jemsek golf courses in the Chicago area to great success and are now being used nationally, rights-free, as Kosin desired.
Kosin was a longtime member of the Golf Digest
Golf Digest
Golf Digest is a monthly golf magazine published by Condé Nast Publications in the United States. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. Condé Nast Publications also publishes the more specialized , and Golf World Business. The...
Top 100 Ranking Panel. Until his death, he was the only original member on the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame Nominating Committee (1989). He was listed as an Advisory Board member of Illinois' "Hook a Kid on Golf". Always a public golfer, the only club he was a member of, he joked, was "Sam's Club".
“Phil Kosin’s Chicagoland Golf Show” was on the air on powerful stations in the nation’s third-largest media market since 1994. After three years on WMVP
WMVP
WMVP is the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by ABC. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove. The station broadcasts live sports talk, both locally and nationally. Daily programming consists of talk shows that are both national and local...
-AM1000 (now ESPN Radio), for the last 13 seasons he hosted a Saturday morning, two-hour weekend show from March through September on WSCR
WSCR
WSCR is a sports radio station in the Chicago, Illinois radio market. The station is owned by CBS Radio and transmits on 670 kHz on the AM dial. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, which is a western suburb of Chicago. It is known as "The Score," and has been on...
TheScore, SportsRadio 670AM in Chicago – a 50,000-watt, CBS-owned clear channel that reaches 38 states and four Canadian provinces – in addition to being streamed live on the Internet at www.670thescore.com. The Score is also the flagship station for the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
baseball club.