The 'Boys Club' reputation floating over the Chicago tech community is receiving a welcome bit of deflation this morning due to The Big Payoff, a new radio show debuting at 11CST on WGN 720 AM.
Featuring branding veterans Rachel Bellow and Suzanne Muchin, the show is targeted at "entrepreneurs and entrepreneur wannabes" and will cover the day's biggest news in the local startup scene. The hosts will also field and respond to business pitches from callers on the air.
"Chicago is a special place where money and meaning are both valued, which makes it the perfect hub for us,” said Muchin. Added Bellow, “we’ve worked with every kind of leader there is, but send us an entrepreneur with a big vision and we’re in heaven."
Bellow and Chicago-native Muchin have been business partners since '98 and currently run Mind + Matter Studio, a marketing platform that helps brands refine and develop an impactful story, while executing a distribution plan for that message. The studio has worked with Muhammad Ali, JB Pritzker, The Obama Administration, and more to brand their emerging ideas with a social good mandate.
“Suzanne is an unusual combination of charming, whip-smart, and as tenacious as they come," said J.B. Pritzker in a release. "She and Rachel will be great on WGN picking apart business plans and challenging serious entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial wannabes alike to explain their ideas.”
Every second of the show will be dedicated to providing Chicago entrepreneurs with the advice needed to overcome challenges, pivot when necessary, secure funding, and inevitably grow their business. Though the first part of the show will showcase the hosts riffing on the day's trending topic, the meat of the program - and a lot of the entertainment - will come from caller pitches.
Explained Muchin, "we're going to tell the truth and challenge our callers." When asked how a caller can impress the two, the host mentioned that they "need to set up the problem they're solving in a meaningful way, so that when they deliver the solution, the audience is already personally invested."
The radio show represents WGN's new commitment to growing a multi-platform brand across radio, television and social.
