John J. Vitanovec Regional vice president and general manager WGN Television Center Advisory Board

John J. Vitanovec is the regional vice president of Tribune Television. Currently, his responsibilities include vice president/general manager of WGN-TV Chicago (a position he has held since May of 1999) and the operations of WXIN-TV and WTTV-TV, a two-station cluster in Indianapolis, Indiana and WXMI-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Vitanovec was vice president/director of operations for Tribune Broadcasting, where he oversaw engineering, creative services, TribNet (the broadcasting group news cooperative), traffic, business information systems, and revenue-related activities, as well as Tribune's West Central WB station group.

Previously, Mr. Vitanovec was vice president/general manager of WLVI-TV, Tribune's WB Network affiliate in Boston. Mr. Vitanovec also served as station manager of WGN-TV, Chicago, from 1990-1995, where he was responsible for production, engineering, human resources, community relations, traffic, and finance functions of the station.

He began his Tribune career as manager of planning for Tribune Broadcasting in 1984 and moved to WGN-TV as controller in 1986.

Before joining Tribune, Mr. Vitanovec worked at Coopers & Lybrand from 1979 to 1984, holding successive positions as staff accountant, senior accountant, and supervisor.

Born in Chicago on March 8, 1957, Mr. Vitanovec graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree from DePaul University and a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Vitanovec is chairman of the annual Bozo Ball which benefits The Off The Street Club and WGN-TV Children's Charities. He is a member of the McCormick Tribune Foundation Advisory Committee, and the United Way Chicago Council. He is chairman of the Association of Local Television (ALTV) Convention 2000; a former board member and vice president of television for the Illinois Broadcasters' Association; a member of the Association of Local Television Stations and the Executives' Club; Advisory Council member of DePaul University College of Commerce, and an Advisory Board member of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.