Sep 11, 2025 - Business

Longtime Chicago broadcaster Bruce Dumont dies at 81

Justin Kaufmann

A man talks to an audience with a microphone in his hand. — Founder & president of Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communication Bruce DuMont in 2013. Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Bruce DuMont, longtime broadcaster and founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, has died at the age of 81.

The big picture: DuMont was well known for hosting the political radio talk show "Beyond the Beltway," which was syndicated nationally for decades until he stopped due to health reasons earlier this year.

What they said: "I want to go out while I still have my interviewing skills and not making numerous mistakes on the air," DuMont told Axios in January.

Backstory: He started his broadcast career producing Chicago radio in the 1960s, including "Extension 720" on WGN Radio. He began hosting "Beyond the Beltway" at WBEZ in 1980.

In 1989, DuMont struck a deal to syndicate the show nationally and began producing it from the Museum of Broadcast Communications, which he founded in 1983.
Over the decades, the museum grew to be one of the nation's leading archives for the history of radio and television. He left the museum in 2017.

His legacy: "Bruce DuMont's dedication to preserving our broadcast heritage gave Chicago and the nation an invaluable cultural resource," Museum of Broadcast Communications chairman David Plier said in a statement.

"We extend our condolences to his family and friends, and we honor his extraordinary contribution to media history."

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Longtime Chicago broadcaster Bruce Dumont dies at 81

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