After two years as one of northwest Indiana's premier morning personalities, a Chicago radio veteran is turning full-time to managing and programming his own station.

Ric Federighi, who was known for 20 years as a traffic reporter on numerous stations in the market, signed off last week as host of his news/talk morning show simulcast on WJOB-AM (1230) in Hammond and WIMS-AM (1420) in Michigan City.

Since he acquired the two stations with partner Jim Dedelow of Vazquez Development in 2004, Federighi has doubled as general manager. Now the two are splitting up the company, with Dedelow and his wife, Alexis, retaining WJOB and Federighi owning WIMS along with his brothers, Marc and Scott.

While the stations continue their news/talk simulcast for the time being, Federighi plans to launch a separate news/talk format on WIMS by June 1. In the meantime, he's assembling on-air news and sales staffs.

For additional information, see: www.wimsradio.com

TRACKING: BACK TO YU, LINDA

-Linda Yu, veteran news anchor at WLS-Channel 7, will emcee the 2006 Silver Circle Awards on May 5 at the Drake Hotel. Yu was inducted in the Silver Circle last year.

Hosted by the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, this year's honorees are: agent Don Ephraim, reporter and public affairs host Theresa Gutierrez, producer and former reporter Peter Karl, producer Gloria Brown, cameraman and editor Charles Boyle and producer and director Roger Lee Miller.

For more information, see: www.chicagoemmyonline.org

-For his final broadcast of "Fox Chicago Perspective" this weekend, Walter Jacobson will reunite with his former anchor partner, Bill Kurtis. They'll no doubt reminisce about the long run Bill & Walter had as WBBM-Channel 2's legendary duo in the 1970s and '80s.

Jacobson, whose contract was not renewed at WFLD-Channel 32, is being pushed out after 14 years at the Fox-owned station.

Channel 32 airs "Fox Chicago Perspective" at 8 a.m. Sunday.

-Fresh from his appearance Thursday as a judge at the first Howard Stern Film Festival, Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper turns up as a guest on "The Tony Danza Show" at noon today on WMAQ- Channel 5 and on Bill O'Reilly's "The O'Reilly Factor" at 7 and 10 tonight on Fox News Channel.