Dan Ponce

Dan Ponce is a Chicago television journalist for WGN-TV, radio talk show host on WLS-AM (890) and founder of the renowned a cappella group Straight No Chaser.

Career and background

His TV career began in 2005 when Dan was hired at WILX-TV in Lansing, Michigan, as a reporter and weekend anchor. In 2006, Dan joined ABC-owned WLS-TV (channel 7) in Chicago as a general assignment reporter.

In 2009, after Straight No Chaser's album "Holiday Spirits" went to #1 on iTunes and Amazon, Dan decided to leave ABC and join the group full time. SNC went on to perform hundreds of concerts throughout the country and record three more albums on the Atlantic Records label. The group's televised concert series "Live in New York" (produced by WTTW) aired on PBS stations coast to coast.

Dan’s father is Phil Ponce, a Chicago television journalist who hosts Chicago Tonight, a nightly television magazine of news and culture on PBS member station WTTW (channel 11). Dan’s brother is Anthony Ponce, a general assignment reporter for NBC-owned WMAQ-TV (channel 5) in Chicago.

Dan earned his Master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and his Bachelor's degree from Indiana University - where he founded Straight No Chaser. Dan grew up in Wilmette and currently lives in Chicago.