It’s a phrase we’ve been hearing for the last couple of years: it’s not a good day to be in the radio business. And no day was as brutal as this past Thursday. In addition to Cumulus cutting loose Chicago radio veteran Michael Damsky after four years at WLS-AM/FM, Clear Channel had to come and announce scores of layoffs – […]
(Editor’s Note: Even though Prop 101 is still in effect, its being lifted for this story only, since WIQI is part.) A little over ten days ago, yours truly wrote a Think Tank regarding an incident that happened outside Mt. Sinai Hospital between the Chicago Police and two journalists – WGN-TV’s Dan Ponce and WMAQ videographer Donte Williams who were […]
– Its over and out for Robert Murphy: Hubbard-owned WILV-FM (Rewind 100.3) has pulled the plug on his morning show after just seven months on the air. Murphy, who was a morning superstar at the former WKQX-FM back in the 1980’s, was unable to replicate his previous success. February’s Arbitron PPM numbers showed Murphy tied for 25th in the key […]
Here we go again: yet another broadcaster-MSO dispute – only this time, Chicago baseball and Vampire Diaries fans (wow, there’s an odd combo) may be left in the lurch. Tribune Broadcasting and DirecTV are in a retrans dispute and if a deal isn’t reached by March 31, Tribune’s 24 stations across eighteen markets – including WGN-TV […]
With Crain’s Chicago Business’ Ed Sherman ending his business of sports blog, T Dog Media is now the only place to get your weekly winners and losers fix. Only there’s six items – three winners and three losers. And mostly doesn’t deal with sports. Okay, sometimes it does. Incidentally, credit for T Dog’s Six Pack should also go to […]
Rosie is over and out; Canadian media consolidates further; and other items of note A lot of items to cover in this week’s Grab bag: In a move that was speculated for some time, struggling cable network OWN finally canceled The Rosie Show after five months on the air. The series’ future was questioned after Rosie O’Donnell sold her Lakeview […]
A bizarre scene unfolded Saturday afternoon at a West Side hospital involving WGN-TV reporter Dan Ponce, a WMAQ-TV cameraman, and the Chicago police. Three local stations and four cameramen were at Mt. Sinai Hospital to file reports from the place on camera after a six-year old girl was gunned down in Chicago’s Little Village (South Lawndale) neighborhood earlier in the […]
Friday marked the arrival of former 1987-91 Fox series 21 Jump Street’s adaption to the big screen. But my oh my, how things have changed at Jump Street Chapel. The film is actually a parody of the series – a standard police procedural with a twist: youthful undercover cops who investigate crimes in those institutions of learning: high schools, colleges, […]
Did you fill out your brackets yet? It’s time for T Dog’s March Madness Six Pack. We have two regionals: The Chicago Bulls region (winners section; the Bulls have the best record in the NBA) and the Pac-12 Supersectional (losers; – seriously, just two teams in the NCAA tournament?) It’s time for tip-off! The Chicago Bulls Regional Steve Harvey to […]
Last week’s episode told what a lot of us already know: Hollywood really doesn’t respect people of color On Grey’s Anatomy, they had the Ferry Boat accident. For The Simpsons, it was changing the backstory of the series to create a lame plot on how Homer Simpson “discovered” grunge music. For this show, […]
Welcome back, Steve Harvey After losing the barely-watched Rosie Show to New York City, Chicago gained a new syndicated talk show on Monday with NBCUniversal’s and Endemol USA’s announcement that the upcoming Steve Harvey will tape in a new, high-definition facility at the NBC Tower. In addition, three-time Emmy-winning producer winner Alex Duda has been named executive producer of Steve […]
Limbaugh gets called out for nasty behavior. But what about everyone else? As you know by now, syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh made a rather nasty comment on his nationally syndicated radio show last week calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified in Congress on difficulty obtaining contraception and felt she needed […]
In what can be billed as a blindside announcement, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution announced Tuesday the sale of ABC Wednesday night sitcom The Middle to 92 percent of the country for off-network syndication beginning in September 2013, with station groups representing Tribune, Sinclair, Weigel, Raycom, and CBS. The swift announcement – and just as swift clearance of the show […]
Want a winner? Bet on seven every time – NY, LA, Chicago ABC O&Os dominate February sweeps No Oprah? No All My Children? No One Life to Live? No problem. Even without three of their long-time stalwarts of their schedule (and threats from soap opera fans never to watch ABC again), ABC owned-and-operated stations continue their ratings domination in the […]
The first post for the month of March deals with the last two weeks of February. Here’s the scorecard: Winners Tyler Perry. Okay, so Tyler Perry’s TV shows suck. And so does his movies. And yours truly is so not a fan (he’s about as funny as Jim Belushi.) But you have to give him props for donating nearly $100,000 […]