Rewinding media in 2023

it’s Elon Musk, 2023 had No Chance In Hell to be a quiet year. (LA Times) A year dominated by labor strife, awful Chicago sports teams, and – oh yeah, Elon  If you watched the WWE, you remember Vince McMahon playing himself as an arrogant CEO and billionaire, ruling over anything and everything – the ultimate heel. It’s a real-life […]

Fox Chicago duopoly announces Sheila Oliver as new VP/GM

Succeeds the retiring Dennis Walsh in role Fox’s Chicago duopoly quickly found a new leader by announcing Tuesday the hire of Sheila Oliver to run Fox 32 (WFLD) and My50 (WPWR). Oliver moves over from the Fox-owned Seattle duopoly of KCPQ and KJZO. “Sheila is a Fox Television Stations veteran of both news and sales who leads with her Midwestern charm […]

Fox 32 and My50 GM Dennis Welsh announces retirement

Was in position since January 2013 After nearly a decade at the helm, Fox 32 and My50 General Manager Dennis Walsh has called it a career, announcing his retirement after 26 years at Fox Television Stations with the last nine at the duopoly of WFLD and My Network TV’s WPWR.  Welsh is stepping down at the end of the month […]

Chicago Wolves, My50 hook up for games

With the Blackhawks exiting over-the-air television, Wolves step up in a big way Looking for some local sports on broadcast television this season? Don’t worry, the Chicago Wolves got you covered. The AHL team announced Monday a partnership with Fox-owned WPWR (My50) to televise 40 regular-season games for the 2019-20 season, the most games ever carried by the station. In […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: B’s rule

News on Blackhawks; Bob’s Burgers, and Bethenny Frankel. Oh, and the soda tax is dead. Are you ready for some hockey? Chicagoans sure are. Thursday night’s home opener against the Stanley Cup-defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins drew a eye-opening 5.1 Nielsen household rating for the newly renamed NBC Sports Chicago channel (formerly CSN Chicago). The number is impressive given the amount […]

The Media Notepad: Party’s over for Chi-Town Rising

Also: Dennis Welsh wades into soda tax controversy while his station profits off pro-soda tax ads; Tom Joyner returns to Dallas as Classic Hip-Hop format’s future is questionable; Fox’s late night plans may not include off-network sitcoms The star has fallen: organizers of New Year’s Eve celebration Chi-Town Rising threw in the towel Thursday and announced they would not bring […]

WFLD embroiled in “Hatgate”

A memo from a Fox 32 news producer about women wearing hats in live shots in winter lands him in hot water  For once, it wasn’t WGN’s Morning News making headlines…but the other local morning news show – and not in a good way, of course. As first reported by Robert Feder, an e-mail memo circulated by WFLD-TV news producer […]

The 2013 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

It’s a blizzard of turkeys! Welcome to the 2013 T Dog Media Turkey Awards, where every Thanksgiving, we serve up turkeys of bad TV, bad radio, and bad decision making in media for the eighth consecutive year. This year, we have 24 turkeys to hand out. So batten down everyone, because here they come! Crowd Goes Wild. Fox Sports 1’s […]

Robin Robinson demoted, Anna Davlantes out at Fox 32

The ironwoman streak is over for Chicago news veteran Robin Robinson. 26 years and six co-anchors later, Robinson – whose local career started at CBS-owned WBBM-TV in the 1980’s, is losing her longtime 9 p.m. anchor slot at Fox-owned WFLD-TV, being assigned to special reports. No replacement has been named, but sources speculate that former WLS-TV midday anchor Sylvia Perez […]

WFLD GM’s editorials a dumb idea

From the station where bad ideas usually flourish: A few months ago, Fox-owned WFLD introduced editorials at the end of their 9 p.m. newscasts on occasion featuring General Manager Mike Renda, who now runs sis station WJBK in Detroit, with former WOFL/WRBW GM Dennis Welsh, as his replacement. Well, Welsh has continued the practice and thus far appeared in two […]

Phyllis Schwartz exits WFLD

It looks like its back to the beach for Phyllis Schwartz. The WFLD vice president and news director exited the station Tuesday after nearly a year. She replaced Carol Fowler in the same capacity on January 6. A former WLS-TV and WMAQ-TV executive, Schwartz returned to Chicago from San Diego where she ran her own consulting company and was previously […]

Mike Renda out at WFLD; Dennis Welsh in

In the 27 years yours truly has followed the media business, I’ve never encountered anyone who is arrogant, incompetent, and stupid – aside from Randy “Court Jester” Michaels and his minions – in running a radio or TV station as Fox-owned WFLD and WPWR General Manager Mike Renda. On Friday, Fox management – which is proven to be every bit […]