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Why Danny Parkins is leading a 24-hour radiothon addressing food deserts on WSCR-AM 670: ‘That’s the Chicago that I know and am proud of’

phil rosenthal, chicago tribune
·5 min read

Danny Parkins’ first radiothon — featuring guests such as ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Chicago Cubs great Ryne Sandberg and not-yet-notorious Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — raised more than $15,000 for tsunami relief.

Parkins told the Tribune when he finished that he had to get right home to bed because he had school the next day and “I don’t know if my mom’s going to let me get out of it.”

That was 16 years ago. Parkins was an 18-year-old “who hopes to be a sports announcer.” His 15-hour fundraiser aired on WNTH-FM 88.1, New Trier High School’s 100-watt station.

Now with 50,000 watts behind him as afternoon co-host on Audacy sport talk outlet WSCR-AM 670, Parkins is back at it with the 24-hour “What About Chicago?” radiothon, set to begin Wednesday morning at 9.

The stakes are higher than in 2005. He’s out to bring in several hundred-thousand dollars this time. And the guest list is set to include NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and athletes connected (or once-connected) to all of Chicago’s major teams giving back to the community.

Parkins’ round-the-clock effort with The Score’s weekday lineup looks to help former Chicago Bears linebacker Sam Acho’s Athletes for Justice charity fund construction of a permanent version of the Austin Harvest grocery now operating as a tented pop-up store on the onetime site of a liquor store in the Austin neighborhood.

“Roger Goodell found out about this and he’s been involved, he’s donated to this,” Acho explained on WSCR when Parkins announced the radiothon. “Mayor Lightfoot showed up to our liquor store teardown party. The police superintendent showed up to our liquor store teardown party. (Bears Chairman) George McCaskey has donated as well. And they said: ‘Let’s do something. Let’s get behind this.’ "

The Austin Harvest pop-up food store organized by the By the Hand Club for Kids, an afterschool program with a facility next door, has been operating there part-time, putting area youths to work and addressing the neighborhood’s shortage of stores offering fresh, healthy food.

A permanent building will enable the nonprofit store to operate seven days a week — and in cold weather as well as warm.

“At the end of this thing,” Parkins said, “there’s going to be a brick-and-mortar grocery store.”

Heidi Stevens penned a beautiful Tribune column about the pop-up last year, mentioning how living within 1½ miles of a grocery store corresponds to a longer life span and noting that there were 17 in a half-mile radius of By the Hand’s Austin facility.

Austin Harvest, Stevens wrote, represented more than just a place for residents to get fresh food: “It’s hope and joy and beauty and investment. It’s young people identifying a need and deciding they’re the ones to meet it. It’s grown-ups in their orbit doing their part to help them.”

The radiothon will start with Parkins and Acho working alongside Dan Bernstein at 9 a.m. (Bernstein’s regular co-host, Leila Rahimi, has previously scheduled time off). Then Parkins will keep going with Laurence Holmes at noon, regular co-host Matt Spiegel at 2 p.m., Mark Grote at 6 p.m., Les Grobstein overnight and wrap up with the morning team of David Haugh and Mike Mulligan at 5 a.m.

“This is a team effort,” said Parkins, who never has been a coffee drinker and expects adrenaline to carry him through.

But he is the driving force for WSCR’s radiothon not just on the air but getting Audacy bosses Rachel Williamson and Mitch Rosen to sign off on the idea and working potential corporate donors behind the scenes.

“I’ve always had a bleeding heart and a philanthropic spirit,” Parkins said. “I just believe that if you have this cool job with a pulpit, you should occasionally use it for more than questioning trades and managerial decisions.”

Parkins dubbed the radiothon “What About Chicago?” as a shot at the flip question often invoked as a response to so many bad situations across this country.

They ask the question, alluding to problems that affect the city, but they do it without attempting to seek out or pursue an actual solution.

The hope is to do some good, raise awareness of the problem of food deserts and try to counter one while also putting neighborhood kids to work, often in their first jobs.

“One of my biggest pet peeves in the world is when people talk about Chicago who don’t care about Chicago,” Parkins said.

“People ask, ‘What about Chicago?’ in bad faith, so this is defiant. It’s ‘What about Chicago?’ This is Chicago: It’s a Chicago radio station partnering with Chicago athletes to build a grocery store in a Chicago neighborhood that employs Chicago kids to give back to a Chicago community. That’s the Chicago that I know and am proud of.”

Confident that Score listeners and others will rally behind this idea, preliminary preparations have begun for the facility they’ll fund. Jewel-Osco has agreed to provide Austin Harvest with food at cost. Architects have been enlisted.

“And any dollar you give, all the money we’re raising, is going to go toward Austin Harvest and building this food mart,” Acho, who has enlisted many sports figures in the cause, told listeners.

Contributions already are being accepted. Anyone interested can text “give” to 44995 or go to 670thescore.com/give.

“You’ll be able to physically see, touch, taste and feel and smell what every single dollar that you give is going to,” Acho said on the air.

“We’re actually changing the statistics when it comes to food insecurity in the city of Chicago, and you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

And Parkins won’t have to worry about classes the next day.