The Great Pumpkin Rocks

ABC’s seventh airing of former CBS classic It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown rocked the ratings last night, notching a second-place 7.2 household rating and a first-place 3.8 adults 18-49 rating, which is up 46 percent from last year’s airing, which landed on a Friday, and posted significant ratings improvement over the sagging time period averages of Cavemen and Carpoolers. […]

"Heroes" spin-off shelved; "Samantha Who?" picked up for full season

– NBC has shelved plans to launch a spin-off of the TV series Heroes indefinitely. The move comes as a looming writers’ strike plans to wreak havoc with the networks’ schedules. The toast of the 2006-07 season, both Heroes and Ugly Betty are not having great sophomore seasons, with both programs down in the ratings from last year and both […]

Get the fudge out (mmmm… fudge….)

Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun-Times took the hatchet on this Halloween to WBBM-TV boss Joe Ahern. In his article, he says it’s time for him to make like Michael Jackson and beat it. Ouch! I’m not going to make hay over this article, since yours truly pointed out the problems WBBM has in previous posts. But this is the […]

Syndication notes

– As reported here last week, CBS Television Distribution’s new hour-long medical talk show The Doctors (working title) has cleared 50 percent of the country, and has been declared a firm go for next fall. It has been confirmed that Weigel’s WCIU-TV has picked up the show, but in a surprise move, the program will air in Chicago at 5 […]

The Pickle goes sour

Days before WCKG-FM flips its FM Talk outlet to something else, south suburban WYKT-FM in Kankakee flipped from oldies to become My 105.5 FM, a new contemporary-hit radio station yesterday morning. The move to CHR/Top 40 gives Kankakee and surrounding areas (Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno, and Momence, among others) a format reminiscent of the old WBUS-FM 99.9, or “The Bus”, which […]

A brave old world for Dahl

Phil Rosenthal in the Trib today explores Steve Dahl’s return to the morning airwaves for the first time in 11 years, and it’s not much different than it was the last time he left. Well, aside from WGCI not having a local radio morning show anymore, and Mancow being put out to pasture. Rosenthal also interviews individuals who explain how […]

It’s AC for CKG

Robert Feder is reporting that WCKG is expected to flip to an Adult Contemporary format, which could occur anytime between 7 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday. The format would target women 25-54, and would put it in direct competition with WLIT-FM. WLIT is expected to flip to Christmas music sometime in the next few weeks. Last year, WLIT flipped […]

The latest on WCKG

Two of the on-air personalities of the station, Stan Lawrence and Terry Armour, stated on their blog that they are now former on-air personalities of the station. To read their post, click here and scroll all the way to the end.

Syndication Notes

– Warner Bros. new Bonnie Hunt Show has cleared 55 percent of the country, including WMAQ-TV in Chicago for next fall. Click here for a station list. Station groups clearing include NBC, Hearst-Argyle, Gannett, Belo, Tribune, Fox, Clear Channel, Young, and several more. – Litton is syndicating two off-MTV shows – Pimp My Ride and Cribs to broadcast TV stations. […]

The Worst Person in Media This Week (actually, last week)

Starting retroactive to last Friday, we here at the T Dog Media Blog will present a “Worst Person in Media This Week” award to a deserving individual who excels in utter stupidity. This new feature is inspired by the Worst Person in the World award Keith Olbermann gives out on his MSNBC’s Countdown show (the only cable news show worth […]

No repeat winner for Chicago on "Top Model"

You can forget a repeat for the Windy City as far as America’s Next Top Model is concerned. Chicago’s own Ebony Morgan left the competition. Like the 2007 Chicago Cubs in this year’s playoffs – she quit (technically, the Chicago area is hanging in there – Heather Kuzmich from Valparaiso, Ind. is still in the competition.) Ebony fell into the […]

How the L.A. and San Diego TV stations covered the wildfires

TV stations in Los Angeles and San Diego had their hands full covering major wildfires in their respective metro areas this week, and they did so by expanding their on-air coverage (including pre-empting network and syndicated programs) and expanding their web presence. Many stations like NBC-owned KNBC in Los Angeles and McGraw-Hill’s ABC affiliate KGTV in San Diego provided live […]