The Media Notepad: White Sox for sale?

Also: WFMT host files suit after dismissal; Bally rebrands to FanDuel  As the Chicago White Sox are coming off their worst season in history and the new CHSN has distribution woes, now comes this piece of news: 88-year-old owner Jerry Reinsdorf is “open” to selling the team, something fans have long wanted.  But there’s a catch – the party in […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The White Sox uses the CBS Chicago blueprint for its Fan Alienation Plan

Chicago’s South Side MLB team resembles CBS Chicago’s ratings disasters in every way possible  In the early 2000s, then-Chicago Tribune media critic Steve Johnson noted the management at CBS-owned WBBM-TV implemented what he called a “Viewer Alienation Plan”, a series of bad decisions repelling viewers from the station throughout the 1990s, including tabloid newscasts, awful anchor pairings, and a deer-in-headlight […]

Report: Bulls, White Sox, Blackhawks to bolt NBC Sports Chicago for Stadium

Jerry Reinsodrf’s digital network could be the new home for all three teams As first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times Monday night, the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox are looking to exit their expiring deal with NBC Sports Chicago and launch a new regional sports network named Stadium, an existing streaming platform whose IP is owned by Bulls and […]

Media unloads on Jerry Reinsdorf for White Sox woes, stadium plans

One of those media members takes a hypocritical stand The local media was busy lately bashing Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf – that is when they’re not discussing who Justin Fields is following or not following on social media. Now the national media is joining in on the fun. Sports media website Awful Announcing slammed The Chairman Friday […]

Chicago White Sox name John Schriffen as new play-by-play man

Becomes first Black play-by-play voice for the team as the White Sox may be looking at a new stadium in the South Loop. In a rare positive move for the often-beleaguered team, the Chicago White Sox announced Thursday the hiring of John Schriffen as their new play-by-play voice, replacing Jason Benetti who departed for the Detroit Tigers in the same […]

The 2023 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Your winners/losers in the 18th annual roundup of the worst in everything: Donald Trump. He’s back.  Elon Musk. I’ll tell you what. You can click on this link, which leads to every story this space has featured on the arrogant billionaire, none of it positive.  Jerry Reinsdorf. Speaking of arrogant billionaires, the 87-year-old is currently one of the worst owners […]

White Sox exiting? Team may leave Guaranteed Rate Field

  Could throw the future of NBC Sports Chicago into question A report in Crain’s Chicago Business Monday suggested the Chicago White Sox may be looking to leave the South Side.  With six years left to go on their lease at Guaranteed Rate Field, the baseball team is looking at some options, including a move to the suburbs, somewhere else […]

The Media Notepad: Bulls, White Sox owner gains control of Stadium

Also: Richard Mline’s wife dies; DirecTV retains NFL Sunday Ticket….for business customers; Standard General-Tegna merger called off  Sports business website Front Office Sports reported Monday evening the owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls acquired a majority stake in Stadium, the multiplatform sports network seen on over-the-air digital channels and streaming. The network is based out of the […]

NBC Sports Chicago re-ups with Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox

Deal calls for exclusive rights for all regular season, non-network games plus multi-platform streaming rights WGN likely loses rights After weeks of speculation, Comcast Corp.’s NBC Sports Chicago announced Wednesday it has struck a multi-year deal to continue carry Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, and Chicago White Sox games well into the next decade beginning in October. The new pact reportedly […]

Cumulus seeks to end contracts with Merlin Media, Bulls, White Sox

Chapter 11 forces company to dump pricey agreements. At last, I can sum up the sorry state of Chicago sports AND Chicago radio all in one post. In news breaking Friday and first reported by Robert Feder, Cumulus announced it was seeking to get out of money-losing contracts of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox in a filing with […]

It’s official: White Sox, Bulls head to WLS-AM

Also: NBA adds Saturday Night games to ABC Two of Chicago’s sports franchises will have new radio homes in 2016. As first reported by Robert Feder on Thursday, The Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls both struck deals with Cumulus Media’s WLS-AM starting with the 2016 season. Financial terms were not released, but the deals runs through 2021. Currently, […]

Report: WGN America to dump Chicago sports

Also: WBBM-AM nears deal to land Cubs telecasts Back in 1978, WGN-TV in Chicago joined WTBS in Atlanta and WOR-TV in New York (now WWOR) and uplinked their signal to a satellite to deliver their signal throughout the country as a “superstation”. In 2014, the “superstation” era is nearing the end. In a report surfacing on Crain’s Chicago Business website Friday, […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Blackhawks slipping back to old ways?

An update to Friday’s story regarding Susannah Collins: As speculated, Collins’ firing was indeed ordered by Blackhawks’ owner Rocky Wirtz who, according to Robert Channick of the Chicago Tribune Saturday, sent a letter to CSN Chicago, showing his concern about those SportsNutz videos she was in during 2009 and 2010. The copy of the letter was cc’ed to Jerry Reinsdorf […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Four thoughts – one column

(Editor’s Note: The original version of this post stated that the Chicago White Sox had a nine-game LOSING streak when in fact, they had a nine-game WINNING streak. T Dog Media regrets the error and apologizes. This also makes yours truly qualified to work in the Los Angeles news media, where I can botch up names of Los Angeles Kings’ […]