Locally-owned bank gets ad to run on 40-plus stations at the same time : 51 p.m. Chicago radio listeners, another “roadblock” is taking place. But unlike the last one, this one is much shorter – and probably more enjoyable to listen to. On Monday, forty members of the Radio Broadcasters of Chicagoland plan to air a single, sixty-second ad […]
Seven Chicago radio stations under new ownership In a deal which marks the first under the FCC chairmanship of Ajit Pai, CBS Radio announced Thursday morning it was merging its station group to Philadelphia-based Entrecom Communications for $1.7 billion. The merger creates a new mega-station group, with 244 stations nationwide and in 23 of the top 25 radio markets. When the […]
The latest news and um…notes: Todd Cavanah, sticking to….stuff not related to politics, a lackluster MTM tribute, and correction to make and more Todd Cavanah takes over programming duties at US99 WBBM-FM and WJMK-FM program director Todd Cavanah is adding another new position in his arsenal – program director of sister station WUSN-FM, according to Robert Feder. He succeeds Jeff […]
Kathy and Judy are out….again Groundhog day isn’t until Thursday, but for WGN Radio, it came on Monday. As first reported by Robert Feder (whose article on this story has 185 comments – and counting at the time of this writing), the Tribune-owned radio station announced Monday it is bringing back John Williams (not to be confused with the award-winning […]
President Obama invites Chicago stations to interview him; Robin Rock returns; ABC 7 launches new anti-fake news campaign; Dish Nation returns for two more seasons.; NBC launches new station in Boston; TCA’s Winter Tour begins Thursday was a big day for local Chicago TV news operations as in an unprecedented move, outgoing President Obama gave interviews with all five local […]
With 2016 officially in the books, let’s look ahead on what to expect in the media business in 2017: 1. The FCC under a Trump administration. With a 3-2 FCC majority, issues the FCC championed under Tom Wheeler: net neutrality, preserving the cross-ownership rule, and other issues are going to get a hard look at – and likely change. 2. […]
Longtime WSCR personality retires Terry Boers, one-half of the popular Boers & Bernstein duo in afternoons, announced his retirement Tuesday in a blogpost at CBSChicago.com. The WSCR (The Score) personality had been at the station since the beginning – 25 years, when The Score (along with sister station WXRT-FM) were owned by Diamond Broadcasting and located in a nondescript building […]
Half-hour roadblock on 47 radio stations unimpresses listeners It looked like a good idea on paper: get together 47 Chicago radio stations – including suburban sticks – and Rahm Emanuel was going to address the city on major issues. At the same time, local radio stations were demonstrating their commitment to their communities. The result was anything but. Chicago Mayor […]
Also: Conviction canceled, becomes first casualty; NFL ratings continue to decline; WLIT to flip to Christmas music Thursday; PlaysttionVue drops Viacom channels Fresh after a bruising election season, Chicago radio listeners are going to subjected to a half-hour with Mayor Rahm Emanuel – whether they like it or not. On Monday, over 40 radio stations in the Chicago area are airing a half-hour interview […]
A Chicago radio legend passes at 88 Chicagoans and radio fans everywhere are mourning the loss of radio personality Herb Kent, who passed away Saturday evening at the age of 88. His death marks the end of an long career – 72 years working in radio, a Guinness World Record. Most recently, he was handling daytime weekend shifts for iHeart […]
Can’t we all get along: With the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, leave it to those idiots at Tronc to ignite a war between the two cities’ newspapers – given the company runs newspapers in both cities. On Friday, overrated Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke wrote a column bashing Los Angeles, saying the city is a […]
Cumulus pulls plug Sometimes, you can’t relieve your former glory. Ask Arsenio Hall, who saw his late-night revival effort go down in flames after a year on the air. Now Jonathon Brandmeier, who rode to success as a morning personality for WLUP-FM in the 1980’s and 1990’s, is seeing his radio comeback once again cut short. Cumulus Radio canceled his […]
Pete McMurray & Co. out As first reported by Radio Insight, Hubbard-owned WDRV-FM, “The Drive” announced Tuesday the hiring of Brian Sherman and Steve Tingle for mornings. Though the site stated “Monday, October 21” (actually a Friday), the actual start date is October 31. The move reunites the duo at the Classic Rock outlet – the duo were at the […]
Happy anniversary to T Dog Media! It’s a different media world today than it was when I started this. As we mark the ten-year anniversary of T Dog Media this weekend, I would like to take a look back – not at dopey posts from the early years such as these (really bad idea)…or getting involved in feuds (Wil Wheaton and […]
Once again, Cumulus is clueless on customer service Usually on this blog, yours truly often laments the state of Chicago radio, with some of the stations run by clueless idiots who make managers at your local Arby’s more competent by comparison. But when it involves Cumulus… no market – large or small – is safe. Take what happened last week at […]