The Media Notepad: WBBM Newsradio names Craig Schwalb news director
Also: Mayoral debates scheduled; CBS-owned stations to rebrand news properties
Audacy’s all-news WBBM-AM/WCFS-FM announced last week the hire of Craig Schwalb as brand manager and news director of the station effective January 23. He succeeds Ron Gleason, who retired last month.
Schwalb comes from Hubbard’s dominant all-news station WTOP in Washington, D.C., a station who typically leads the country in revenue. During his time there, Schwalb was director of content integration and operations.
“When Ron Gleason announced his retirement last summer, we knew we had a major challenge in replacing him, since Ron has been the driving force behind WBBM for nearly two decades,” said Audacy Chicago VP/programming and operations chief Greg Solk in a press release. “We believe we have struck gold in tapping Craig Schwalb as WBBM’s new Brand Manager. Craig’s vast experience in news and spoken word formats, most recently running content and operations at WTOP in Washington, gives him the ideal skill set to lead this brand and drive innovation and growth for Chicago’s most trusted news voice.”
The move comes in a period of transition for WBBM, who is no longer the home for Chicago Bears football after 22 years, which wrapped up its final broadcast January 8 as next season, all Bears games and programming shifts to ESPN 1000 (WMVP-AM.) For the last three months, WBBM remained fourth in the Nielsen Audio ratings, including the most recent December survey.
The first televised Chicago mayoral debate has been scheduled and it is taking place Thursday at 7 p.m. in the studios of ABC 7 (WLS-TV) at 190 North State St. The ABC-owned station is partnering with Univision Chicago and The League of Women Voters.
“This debate will give Chicago voters an excellent opportunity to examine all nine candidates who believe they deserve to be the mayor of Chicago and evaluate how they respond to tough questions from our moderator and panelists.”, said ABC 7 President and General Manager John Idler. The debate will air live on ABC 7’s Localish channel (over-the-air channel 7.2 and various cable systems) and streamed live online at the station’s website, YouTube, Facebook, their 24/7 streaming channel, and the ABC app. The debate will be translated in Spanish on Univision Chicago’s platforms, streaming on their YouTube, Facebook, website, and app.
The debate will be replayed on ABC 7’s main channel Sunday at 10:30 p.m. and on Univision’s WXFT at 4 p.m. the same day, in Spanish. Univision Chicago consists of Unimas affiliate WXFT; Univision affiliate WGBO; and radio stations WOJO-FM, WVIV-FM, and WPPN-FM. All share TelevisaUnivision as a corporate parent.
All nine candidates are expected to participate, including incumbent Lori Lightfoot and challengers Paul Vallas, Chuy Garcia, and Willie Wilson, among others. This is the first of likely numerous debates to come between now and the February 28 primary and if any candidate doesn’t reach the 50 percent threshold, the two candidates who have the largest number of votes will face off in an April 4 general election.
Even though the Chicago Bears were a big flop on the field this season, they weren’t on the tube. Despite finishing with a 3-14 record and ending the season on a ten game losing streak, the team drew a weekly average of 1.206 million viewers locally per game and did a 19.1 household rating and 53 share, ranking it eighteenth among all NFL teams by rating. Among total viewers, the Bears ranked fourth only behind the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles, all top five market teams.
However, as the Bears continued to lose, the ratings declined: January 8’s home loss to the Minnesota Vikings drew only a 11.4 rating, tying the previous week’s game against Detroit for a season-low.
Topping all markets was the Buffalo Bills, with a phenomenal 44.8/77, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (42.1/80) and Milwaukee viewership of the Green Bay Packers (34.3/70). At the bottom were the New York Jets (7/22), followed by Los Angeles’ two teams: the Chargers (7.7/26) and the Super Bowl Champion Rams (8.5/30). The Rams’ quest to repeat as champions ended early as the team slumped to a 5-12 record, but the NFL should be happy with the Chiefs and the Bills in the playoffs, especially with the strong Buffalo viewership.
The future is looking bright for the Bears, with the team landing the top pick in the upcoming NFL Draft and hiring Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren as team president and of course, finally landing a franchise quarterback in Justin Fields, who nearly broke the NFL rushing record in a season for a player in his position. This certainly means more viewers will tune in as the Bears should perform better on the field.
The Bears are expected to close a deal to buy the former Arlington Racetrack in northwest suburban Arlington Heights, likely meaning the team will build a new stadium on the property, thus rendering the “NFL’s Lakefront Team” as no more.
CBS News and Stations announced recently a new branding strategy for some of its owned-and-operated stations, with the biggest one taking place in Los Angeles.
In an unusual move, the CBS duopoly in L.A. is rebranding its entire news operation as “KCAL News”, not only for independent KCAL, but its CBS sister station, KCBS-TV. CBS executives feel KCAL News has the stronger news brand.
The shift comes as KCAL recently launched a seven-hour morning news block from 4 to 11 a.m., while KCBS airs CBS Mornings live from 4-6 a.m., simulcasts KCAL’s news from 6-7 a.m., and runs the Pacific Time zone edition of CBS Mornings from 7-9. Once known as KNXT with its top-rated The Big News during the 1960s, KCBS has lacked a news identity in the last 50 years or so, regularly lagging behind KNBC, KABC, and often KTLA and KTTV in the ratings. Once known as KHJ-TV, KCAL launched the first-ever primetime news block in Los Angeles in 1990.
Thanks to the FCC allowing duopolies in a single market starting in 1999, KCAL and KCBS came under common ownership in 2002, six years after its previous owner purchased it from The Walt Disney Company, who sold KCAL after merging with Capital Cities/ABC, who owned KABC.
Meanwhile, CBS is planning branding revamps in other markets, de-emphasizing channel numbers as viewing are shifting to streaming (all of CBS’ owned stations operate 24/7 news streaming stations, including CBS 2 Chicago.) For example, KPIX San Francisco – one of the original five Group W stations, is now known as “CBS News Bay Area” but has the KPIX call letters intact. In Chicago, WBBM-TV shares its calls with Audacy-owned AM and FM radio stations, back to the days when they were under common ownership of CBS. CBS 2 is known as “CBS News Chicago”.
Further reading:
Chicago-set FX series The Bear gears up for season two (B&C)
NBC Sports Chicago lays off digital staffers (Sun-Times)
Elizabeth Vargas gets a show on NewsNation (TVNewsCheck)
YouTube adding FAST channels (Hollywood Reporter)
FX’s John Landgraf’s latest tally of scripted shows is just one shy of 600. (Deadline)