John Idler, who was named president and general manager of Chicago ABC O&O WLS earlier this week, hopes to do a lot of listening in his first days on the job.

“The first thing I’m going to do is to reconnect with everybody in the building and figure out where the departments are strategically,” Idler told Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder recently.  “Beyond that, as far as any long-terms plans or specific goals for the station, it’s way too early to talk about them.”

Idler joined WLS as an account executive in 1998 and served as vice president and general sales manager at the station before leaving to run WTVD, the ABC O&O in Raleigh-Durham.

Idler is replacing Emily Barr atop WLS.  After 15 years with the station, Barr left last month to become president and CEO of Post-Newsweek Stations.

[Time Out Chicago]