By Illinois Review
On Wednesday morning, Naples, Florida-based Chicago radio host Dan Proft – host of Chicago’s Morning Answer on AM 560, posted a strange message on X where he appeared to be fantasizing about dying in a shootout with police – despite living full-time in Florida and 1,300 miles away from the violence taking place in Chicago – a city where he hosts a radio show.
In the odd and cringe-worthy post, Proft wrote,
“Posting this so Chicago’s government-run press corps can file it in the event I’m killed in a shootout with police. I’d like the Dexter Reed treatment too.”
Nearly 100 shots were fired by Chicago Police officers wearing plainclothes during a traffic stop, and the case has drawn national attention. Police have said that Reed fired first, prompting a hail of bullets and included a police officer being wounded. The incident remains under investigation and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability says initial evidence shows that officers were returning fire.
Proft hosts his Chicago morning radio show – where he routinely talks about Chicago violence, from his studio in Naples, where he lives full time. In 2022, Proft moved to Florida, and studio executives have tried hard to conceal the fact that he’s no longer hosting the show from their studio in the Chicagoland suburbs.
In March, a caller called into the Chicago show and told Proft, “We’re neighbors now. I’m down here in Florida.” A visibly uncomfortable Proft simply replied, “Very good. Congratulations, Bill.”
In addition to hosting a Chicago radio show from Florida, Proft has amassed a fortune running Illinois political campaigns as a consultant – but sadly, an overwhelming majority of those candidates that he’s advised have lost. But Republican political consulting is a lucrative business in Illinois, regardless of one’s winning record.
Last April, this publication revealed that the Richard Uihlein-funded People Who Play By The Rules PAC, in quarterly disclosures, paid three political consultants $142,000 while spending just $3,700 to support conservative school board candidates during the April elections. Unfortunately, the candidates lost, but the real winners were the consultants who paid themselves generously. The founder, president and treasurer of the PAC – Naples’ Dan Proft – received the majority of the consulting fees, totaling $75,000 while the rest went to two other consulting firms closely aligned with Proft.
During the 2022 Illinois gubernatorial campaign, Uihlein donated $42 million to Proft’s PAC. And just weeks before the election, the Illinois political consulting class, including the PAC, were out promoting a single poll that showed Republican nominee Darren Bailey within “striking” distance and only two points behind Pritzker during the final stretch of the campaign. But on election night, the governor’s race was called at the exact moment the polls closed, with the Associated Press declaring Gov. Pritzker the winner at 7:00 pm CDT. Pritzker would defeat Bailey by 12 points – a far cry from the 2-point margin that Proft was promoting just days before.
Chicago continues to dominate local and national headlines as violent crimes continue to skyrocket. And overall, crime went up by 16 percent last year with robberies increasing by 23 percent. In total, there were 617 homicides and 2,450 shootings in Chicago in 2023.
In Naples, where Proft resides and hosts his Chicago radio show, there has been only one murder since 2020. In 2023, 7,719 people accidentally pocket-dialed 911 – a far cry from Chicago – where in 2023, over 225,000 high priority 911 calls went unanswered because of a police officer shortage – leaving residents and visitors in grave danger.
Naples continues to boast of an A+ rating for low crime rates and they are ranked as one of the safest cities in America.
