T Dog’s Six Pack: Pigskin!

Today’s six-pack has somewhat of a football theme in honor of today’s big game! Time for kickoff… Touchdown! WFLD. Yes, you read this right! According to Chicago Business, Fox-owned WFLD scored a whopping 43.2 household rating for last Sunday’s Divisional Playoff between the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears, and the number should certainly go higher for this Sunday’s NFC […]

FCC approves Comcast-NBC merger

Big media just got bigger. The FCC approved the Comcast-NBC Universal deal on Tuesday more than a year after the deal was announced, with the Justice Department also giving its blessings. And unlike the Sirius/XM merger, this deal wasn’t voted upon party lines.The FCC voted in favor of the deal 4-1 with Democratic commissioner Michael Copps the lone dissenter. While […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: The Emmys, "Hot In Cleveland", LeBron, and more

Three up, three down: The best and worst in media during the past week: What’s Hot. The Final Answer: Pay up, Mickey Mouse. A grand jury ruled in favor of Celador after The Walt Disney Co. skimmed the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire producer out of millions of dollars, thanks to “Hollywood Accounting.”  The jury awarded Celador $269 million, […]

T Dog’s Six Pack

Yes, T Dog’s Four Pack is back! But due to the struggling economy (ha, ha), yours truly is forced to cut one each from the winners’ pack and the losers’ pack – and merge the rest together to form T Dog’s Six Pack – three winners and three losers each in the same post – plus, Six Pack is a […]

NBA Finals perform a ratings slam dunk

Viewers fled into the entrances for Game 7 of the NBA Finals between storic rivals the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics and blew the competition out of the water. The game drew 28.2 million viewers in final ratings released Friday afternoon, marking it as the most-watched NBA game since Game 6 the 1998 NBA Finals, which the Michael […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Poker face

Welcome to the Tribune Company stag party with poker, liquor, and smokes galore. The only things missing were the hookers, drugs, and Lady GaGa performing. Yes, this what took place at Col. Robert McCormick’s old office (now used as a conference room) at the Tribune Tower in spring 2009 with Court Jester Randy Michaels – who hasn’t found a company […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Basic cable’s racy content at a crossroads

Stan wasn’t the only one up in arms about Comedy Central taking a hatchet job to a recent episode of “South Park.” For the last few weeks, cable was on a hot streak: SyFy acquired Friday Night Smackdown, stealing it away from My Network TV, while Turner Broadcasting snared both Conan O’Brien and part of the NCAA Tournament. But on […]

T Dog’s Four Pack

This was a week to get angry – from vicious hits on the ice to vicious insults on the Capitol steps, not exactly a feel good week. But there was some good, too – and March Madness did not disappoint. What worked for yours truly – and what didn’t: Winners:Rosie may be coming back to daytime. Okay, before you beat […]

T Dog’s Four Pack

Here’s the recent list of winners and losers of the last week-in-a-half  – plus an extra-long rant at the end… What worked for yours truly… Winners Conan O’Brien. His final “Tonight Show” drew 10.3 million viewers, with one of the classiest send-offs I’ve ever seen from a host. The result: new found respect from the public, including yours truly. Chicago […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: A tribute to Oprah Winfrey

After 25 years on the air, The Oprah Winfrey Show – one of television’s most successful daytime programs – rides into the sunset. Her final show airs on September 9, 2011 as the world gathers around their sets to say so long to one of TV’s most successful shows. So in honor, The T Dog Media Blog honors and salutes […]

Settlement reached in Sacramento radio case

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed nearly three years ago by a family whose mother died from the aftermath of a radio stunt. The Strange Family was awarded $16.6 million from a jury who felt the radio station – Entercom-owned KDND-FM in Sacramento, known as The End, was neligient in the stunt. The jury only held the […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Chicago’s lament

WARNING: This Think Tank contains material not suitable for more sensible readers (but of course, so has every item on this blog for the last three years!) Reader discretion is advised. This piece is rated B – for brutal. On Friday, the International Olympic Committee told Chicago to get lost as the organization picked Rio as the site of the […]

Dancing with disaster

Don’t drop Cheryl, Tom! Or she’ll be like The Tribune… All right, I’ve seen some absurd items on Chicago Tribune’s editorial page before… but this one takes the cake. One of Wednesday’s  editorials in the paper was titled “Dancing With DeLay” , about former disgraced Texas congressman Tom DeLay competing on the newest season of Dancing With the Stars. You’ve got […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The joke’s on us

In a recent column in the Chicago Tribune, Steve Dahl wondered what the country – and the world – thought of Illinois thanks to Patti Blagojevich (former Governor Rod’s wife) appearing on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! He said it gave Illinois a Hollywood feel, but a Third World one at the same time. Of course, we […]