The Media Notepad: Chicago Fire strike a radio deal with WLS-AM

Also:  “The Fred Show” to be syndicated; WGN has its own vault “discovery”; Fox TV stations delivers for Amazon In good news for Chicago Fire fans, all Chicago Fire soccer games are being broadcast over Cumulus Media’s news/talk WLS-AM beginning this weekend, according to a report Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The deal was officially announced Wednesday morning on the […]

The Media Notepad: Steve and Johnnie return to WGN Radio for Saturday nights

Plus:  MeTV expands Svengoolie; MLS and Apple makes linear broadcasting deals; PBS stations to stream on LocalNow. One of the top-rated overnight voices in Chicago radio is coming back for an encore.  The husband-and-wife team of Steve King and Johnnie Putnam will be returning to WGN Radio on Saturday nights starting January 7, where they’ll have a weekly show airing […]

Apple TV Plus, MLS strike landmark streaming rights deal

Deal is for a decade; RSNs, WGN-TV odd men out  In a landmark rights deal, Major League Soccer announced Tuesday they are shifting all of their rights to Apple TV Plus, reportedly in a ten-year, $2.5 billion pact. This means every single game is going to be streamed and produced by Apple TV Plus –  usurping any existing local or […]

Chicago Fire FC strikes deal with WGN, returns to broadcast TV

MLS team brings live sporting events back to WGN. It may not be one of the four major sporting leagues, but it’s good enough for WGN-TV. The Nexstar-owned independent station announced Wednesday it has struck a deal with the Chicago Fire (now re-branded as Chicago Fire Football Club, or Chicago Fire FC)  to air 24 games locally beginning March 7 […]

The 2019 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Welcome to the 14th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general. We have 17 recipients to announce, so let’s get gobblin’: Survivor. The way CBS handled – or mishandled the latest Survivor controversy leaves a lot of be desired. An extra side turkey is given to Jeff Probst for what […]

Fire games to stay on ESPN Plus for 2020

With team set to move back to Soldier Field, there are no plans to alter deal with streaming service With the Chicago Fire heading back to Soldier Field for the 2020 season, there is new optimism over the soccer club. But one thing that isn’t changing next year is the television deal. In an article in Saturday’s Chicago Sun-Times, the […]

NBC Sports Chicago may vanish from Dish, DirecTV

Chicago to become next battleground in retrans battle between RSNs, satellite providers If you are going to gloat when Marquee launches with a lack of distribution while NBC Sports Chicago is in your Dish and DirecTV channel lineup, you might be in for a rude awaking come October 1. That’s because with the Cubs dropping out of the NBC Sports […]

“New Fox” passes on Disney RSNs

New entity not interested in reacquiring regional sports networks In a setback for Disney, “New Fox”, the entity formed after the bulk of the original 21st Century Fox was sold to the company, said in a filing Friday it has no plans to re-purchase the 22 regional sports networks, or RSNs put up for sale as part of the deal. […]

Rewinding 2018 in media

Year marked by scandals, futility, and other things 2018 wasn’t exactly a repeat of the last two horrendous years in the media world, but scandals and deceit still ruled the roost. Though not topping 2017’s Disney-Fox deal, 2018 had some mega transactions – though the second-biggest merger of 2017 went bust as Sinclair Broadcasting’s $4 billion deal to buy Tribune […]

White Sox local ratings collapse into basement

Rebuilding team has trouble drawing viewers; Cubs’ ratings grow; Cardinals top MLB In a signal the “rebuild” isn’t chugging along as it should, the Chicago White Sox’s season ratings fell into a ravine this season. According to Nielsen and Forbes, the White Sox fell into last place among Major League Baseball’s 29 teams, averaging a 0.68 household rating on NBC […]

Chicago Tribune cuts Blackhawks, White Sox coverage

Eliminates beat coverage in cost-cutting move This is something you’d expect in a much smaller market. But not in sports-crazy Chicago. But this is what we have here, and as first reported by Robert Feder Thursday, the Chicago Tribune announced it has cut beat reporters for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Blackhawks, despite the recent success of the latter […]

Chicago Fire strikes exclusive deal with ESPN Plus

Three-year pact means no linear TV – for now If you want to watch Chicago Fire, you can still watch it on NBC. But if you want to watch the soccer team of the same name…well, you are out of luck – for now. The Major League Soccer team announced Friday it has struck a deal with the new over-the-top […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Disrespect of Chicago’s South Side continues

Despite White Sox World Series Championship in 2005 and native son President Obama making history as first African-American in the White House, the city’s South Side continues to disrespected by the national media Ever since Chicagoan Barack Obama announced he was running for President of the United States in 2006, the Windy City has been under the national spotlight. Mostly, […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Mike Caplan, Lesile Keiling ousted

– Life’s tough in the business: ABC-owned WLS-TV meteorologist Mike Caplan was let go from the station last week after 21 years on the air. There was speculation WLS was going to release one of their meteorologists after hiring WMAQ exile Cheryl Scott late last year. In fact, WLS announced it was going to feature Scott during the 4 and […]