The 2022 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Welcome to the 17th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards! This year, 22 unlucky recipients (with one shared) are honored for being awful people, terrible companies, and those who are jerks in every walk of life.  If there’s a theme, it’s the year of being a CEO or billionaire – or both as they’re throwing their power and influence around, […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Kanye West again a sore spot for black radio

West’s comments about Jewish people and George Floyd put him on the spot, but a lack of outrage (outside of social media) may keep him on black radio [Editors Note: This post was updated on October 30.] Here we go again: former Chicagoan and rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye, but for the purposes of this item we’ll call […]

The Media Notepad: WGN-TV scores ratings win in gubernatorial debates

Pritzker, Bailey showdown tops time slot in viewers, demos  Chicago viewers obviously love their politics: according to Nielsen in a press release from Nexstar’s WGN-TV, the first of two Illinois gubernatorial debates between incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Republican Darren Bailey was a big local ratings hit on October 6, winning the 7-8 p.m. time period with an exact total […]

The 2018 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Welcome to the 13th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general. We have 20 recipients this year just waiting to get their hands on these Golden Gobblers. And the losers are: President Trump. Well, duh. Megyn Kelly. NBC signed this former Fox News star for $69 million to get her […]

The Media Notepad: “GMA” expansion forces “The Chew” off the road

Also: New host of Check Please is a familiar name; Chicago radio still playing R. Kelly’s music; Peoria public radio in trouble; CBC cancels arts show who visited Chicago In a mind-numbing move, ABC announced Wednesday it was expanding Good Morning America to three hours. Only problem is… the extension is airing at Noon Chicago time, 1 p.m. Eastern time […]

Kanye West puts black radio stations in a bind

Backlash over comments made by the Hip-Hop star about slavery and over Trump have some wondering what to do Urban radio programmers are waiting to see what effect Kanye West’s recent comments would have on their stations with one outlet – Detroit’s WMGC-FM (known as 105.1 The Bounce) taking action and pulling his music. The Classic Hip-Hop station became the […]

Welcome to The Tronc

Michael Ferro rebrands Tribune Company into something we don’t even know As Hank Hill would say, “What in the Hell”? In probably the most inane decision I have ever seen from a media executive, Tribune Publishing Chairman Michael W. Ferro announced Thursday he was changing the name of the company who publishes the Chicago Tribune from Tribune Publishing to “tronc”. […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: What’s in a name?

  Spike Lee can call his movie whatever he wants – but its the content that matters Chicagoans whine about the “Chiraq” name, turning the city into a bunch of Jan Bradys When filmmaker Spike Lee announced the name of his new movie to be set in Chicago was going to be named Chiraq, it set the city into a […]

Think Tank Daily: The Sun-Times throws in the towel

Might as well write your obituary for the Chicago Sun-Times as the people running the paper have all but given up. As of Wednesday, the beleaguered newspaper decided to outsource national and international news to USA Today, retaining only its local columnists to do local stories. This is a huge mistake. Even though yours truly doesn’t think much of the […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Seattle’s KCPQ to stay with Fox after all

– Sun-Times reverses decision on endorsements – Premiere week shows cool off, but Jane The Virgin and Criestla debut to respectable numbers with cancellations coming from other places – Florida Panthers attendance woes * Fox announced Friday morning it had a new affiliation deal with Tribune Broadcasting’s KCPQ, but with a few catches – the deal only runs through July 2018 and […]

Playing media catch-up

Man, how long has it been since yours truly has written a post around here? Well, this is what happens when you get sick and have Writer’s Block at the same time (or, yours truly has just been lazy.) Anyway, yours truly is revved up (or more like riled up) and ready to go – here are some thoughts on […]

The 2012 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

Get the cranberry sauce ready: it’s time for the 7th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards where every Thanksgiving, yours truly honors the worst in the media business for the year and 2012 is filled with so many media turkeys! Without further ado, here are this year’s, um… “winners”: Animal Practice. Premiering after the Summer Olympics (or more aptly put, […]

WLS-FM dumps Oldies for Classic Hits

In a huge sweeping change, Cumulus’ WLS-FM (94.7) has undergone a format change – the first in approximately seven years – from Oldies to Classic Hits, focusing on more 1970’s and 1980’s rock songs. In addition, WLS-FM program director Jan Jeffries realigned the DJ shifts, replacing previously morning personality Dave Fogel (who was let go last Thursday) with a returning […]

The Sun-Times is a disgrace to Chicago. Again.

  Does the headline of this post look familiar to you? Well, aside from the “again” part. It should. I wrote this headline five years ago when the Chicago Sun-Times decided to put then-Chicago Bear Greg Olsen on the front page of the newspaper amid the controversy over a rap song he participated in while at the University of Miami, […]