One hour weekday block to launch with Bill Leff, plus three hours on Saturday mornings On the same day Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang packed up their bags and headed to Apple TV’s streaming service, there was another announcement – one returning classic Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons back to broadcast television. Weigel Broadcasting’s MeTV announced Monday […]
After Monday’s announcement of The CW shifting to WPWR, where does these channels stand? Back in 2008, WGN-TV aired a retrospective of its 60th year in broadcasting. Hosted by Jim Belushi, the special looked back on the station’s local programming such as Garfield Goose, Ray Rayner, and Bozo. Airing on a Sunday night, the special did better in the ratings […]
On Sunday, New York Times reviewer Rachel Shteir reviewed three Chicago based books. But the reviews were less about the books in question and more about Chicago itself. In her review, Shteir – who is also a professor at DePaul University and moved to Chicago thirteen years ago – talked about “poor Chicago” and used every stereotypical crack associated with […]
News Corp.’s two networks (Fox and FX) went back-to-back days at the TCA Winter Press Tour last week and touted the new-look Idol, new drama The Following, and more: Executive session: Fox executive Kevin Reilly addressed the critics at the press tour on Jan. 8 and admitted the fall schedule wasn’t what he hoped for ratingswise – but at least […]
Another all-local edition of the Grab Bag… including an item on a possible sale of some downstate TV stations: – Julian Nieh, one half of the duo of B96’s (WBBM-FM’s) The JNiice & Julian Morning Show, exited the station on Wednesday to pursue other interests. The seven-year veteran of the contemporary-hit station was paired with Jamar “JNiice” McNeil in January […]
They might as well have renamed American Idol “Bozo’s Circus”. Become a clown is joining the judging panel. And I don’t mean Keith Urban. In news that leaked a few weeks ago, American Idol’s latest new judges are clownish rapper Nicki Manaj and country artist Keith Urban, announced by Fox early Sunday morning (because I guess observing the day the […]
Ward L. Quaal, a Chicago television and radio pioneer instrumental in laying the groundwork for WGN-AM and WGN-TV, died Friday at the age of 91. Quaal began his career in 1936 at a radio station in Marquette, Mich., and went to WGN Radio in 1941. As a staff announcer, he broke the news that Pearl Harbor was bombed, which brought […]
Station group signs Cincinnati radio host to do daily talk show There’s going to be a new Bozo taping at the Old Bozo studio (no, it’s not a new version of Bozo’s Circus, but there might be a circus nonetheless.) With an eye of getting back into the syndication business after a three-year hiatus, Tribune Broadcasting announced today it was […]
Last week, A memo Tribune CEO Randy Michaels sent through WGN-AM News Director Charlie Meyerson, had a list of 119 words and phrases his employees at WGN should not say on the air in order to “improve the product”. And if they say any of these “forbidden” words, other employees can “rat them out” by noting the precise date and […]