Biography
Cheryl Raye-Stout has been in Chicago Sports Radio since 1979. She has been on the air at WMAQ, WMVP and WCBR over those years. Currently, she can be heard on WBEZ Radio, 91.5 FM – Chicago Public Radio.
Cheryl Raye-Stout comes from a family of 9 children, and the kids were able to explore whatever they wished. Cheryl Raye-Stout chose sports as her activity during her school years. Sitting on her grandfather’s lap during the afternoon baseball games, she was taught the nuances of the game, as well as other games that were on TV and Radio.
Working her way through Wright College, and then through Columbia College, nothing came easy for Cheryl Raye-Stout. She was a woman in a “traditionally” man’s world, and worked from the ground up. She did a lot of the background work, as new broadcast professionals do, and eventually helped in the creation of “Coppock on Sports,” starring Chet Coppock. Cheryl Raye-Stout produced that show for 5 years, and gave sports reports on the show. Known as “the straw who stirs the drink” Cheryl Raye-Stout started making many contacts with people in the sports world.
During that time, she also had her own show called “One on One with Cheryl Raye-Stout” featuring interviews with local sports figures. And became the Executive Sports Producer for ‘MAQ , handling many aspects of the station’s sports department.
Cheryl Raye-Stout continued to impress the listening audience with her “matter of fact” analysis about the goings on in Chicago Sports. With WMAQ, who carried the Bulls games at that time, she did the pre and post game interviews with the players live from the locker room. When the Bulls won the Championship, she won a broadcasting award for her part in hosting the championship rally in Grant Park. She came into her own as a pretty darn good reporter, and not a “good reporter – for a woman”.
Also during this time she had a Sunday night sports talk show on WCBR-FM to hone her on-air work in sports talk.
When WMVP went on the air as an all-sports station Cheryl Raye-Stout jumped from ‘MAQ to AM 1000 and was made the senior reporter on all sporting events. On a daily basis she covered the Bulls, Bears, Sox, Cubs and any event that was sports related to the listening audience. One of Cheryl Raye-Stout’s biggest assets to the sports talker was her insight of all the teams and the contacts that afforded her the ability to break major stories. Two such stories were Michael Jordan’s decision to play major league baseball and Jordan’s return to the NBA.
Some of the highlights during Cheryl Raye-Stout‘s career included doing color for a White Sox game in 1986 with Don Drysdale, traveling to the championships of the Bears, Bulls and baseball playoffs. At the Bulls first championship,Cheryl Raye-Stout’s favorite, three players separately poured champagne on her… but she still got the story done. A few years back Comiskey Park was being used for some actors to prepare for roles in baseball movies.Cheryl Raye-Stout spent a few days in the press box talking to John Cusack as he readied for “Eight Men Out”. Later, another actor came to Chicago and Cheryl Raye-Stout spent time talking and interviewing him, Tom Hanks. He was down to earth and truly a nice guy.
Cheryl Raye-Stout has been married since 2/16/96 to Glenn Stout, and together they have one son, Jaxon Daniel.
Written by her biggest fan – Glenn Stout