T Dog’s Six Pack: Put away the beach ball

For the first time in a long time, its been an active time here on the blog with a lot of breaking local radio news and the demise of Q101- and its only going to get busier with Comic-Con and the Television Critics Association Press Tour coming up and Fresh 105.9’s musty smell finally going away. Summer vacation? There’s no summer vacation here at The T Dog Media Blog!

Winners

Q101’s final week. Was Q101’s final week perhaps the best material ever to air on Chicago radio? Letting the radio personalities play the music they chose… with a proper goodbye from the staff to its fans and listeners. Brilliant. And the final episode of Local 101 this past Thursday night – paying homage to local musical acts – was the best sendoff of any program – radio or TV – since the February 28, 1983 finale of M*A*S*H.

There is some good news for Q101 fans – the station will live on online – thanks to Broadcast Barter Radio Networks, which will stream the station’s old format over Q101.com. Broadcast Barter has also bought the intellectual rights to all Q101 properties – even Robert Murphy’s straightjacket from those wacky commercials from the 1980’s.

WBBM-AM… now on FM too! In a long overdue move, CBS-owned WBBM-AM is simulcasting its signal on WCFS-FM (105.9 FM). Beginning August 1, the all-news station improves its reach including those who can’t get the signal downtown and attracting younger listeners who otherwise would not tune in to AM radio – not to mention increasing revenue.

HBO. The Emmy Awards were announced this week with HBO programming receiving a whopping 104 nominations ranging from Boardwalk Empire to Game of Thrones. HBO’s renting a U-Haul.

Losers

You, the consumer. Entertainment is sure getting expensive if you’re a fan of Steve Dahl or if you use Netflix. Dahl is charging $9.99 a month for his podcasts beginning next month while Netflix users will have to pay $16 a month starting in September if they want to continue to stream content and receive DVDs in the mail. Yeah, the economy is really improving – for some.

The MLB All-Star Game. A sporting event which usually is the highest-rated program of the summer found itself getting beaten by NBC’s America’s Got Talent and set a record low viewership, losing two million viewers from last year. Reaction to Fox’s telecasts were harsh on Twitter as the mid-summer classic has become nothing more than a boring spectacle.

Men Of A Certain Age. TNT’s drama about the trials and tribulations of middle-age men was canceled Friday after nearly two years. In a cable TV sea of Jersey Shore, Evil Housewives and Cupcake Wars, this great character-driven drama stood out. Sadly, shows with really thin plots featuring singing “teenagers” are hot these days.