The fridge pack (plus one): The unlucky 13 of the decade

There are flops, and then there are….flops. For every success in the most recent decade, there were products coming off so badly, you don’t know how the hell they were even conceived in the first place – you basically had to see it to believe it! If you thought the 2000s version of “The Dirty Dozen” were bad, they have […]

The T Dog Media TV Hall of Shame

No one expected CNN’s Chicagoland to be a love letter to the city – but no one expected it to be a Rahm infomercial either. A critical and ratings flop, Chicagoland is the one of TV’s lowlights in 2014. Recently, the prime-time portion of The Simpsons marathon on FXX attracted more viewers than Chicagoland did. (As of May 2018, the […]

Marty Wilke jumps to WBBM-TV as GM

As first reported by Robert Feder at Time Out Chicago Friday morning, WGN-TV general manager Marty Wilke is exiting the Chicago CW affiliate and heading to CBS-owned WBBM-TV (CBS 2) in the same capacity. She replaces Bruno Cohen, who is returning to central California to run CBS’ duopoly of KPIX and KBCW in the Bay Area (consisting of San Francisco, […]

The axe swings on FM News in Chicago, New York

It’s safe to say this now: FM News 101.1 is the biggest bomb in the history of Chicago radio. But you knew that already, right? Merlin Media pulled the plug on its all-news stations Tuesday at WIQI-FM (101.1) here in Chicago and WEMP-FM (101.9) in New York City, nearly a year after their underwhelming debuts, which saw them still stalled […]

Chicago media just keeps serving up the has-beens

On the old PI Feedback forums at the former Mediaweek.com, a poster named “Twins12” often referred to the hit reality TV series Dancing With The Stars as Dancing With The Has-Beens, noting the program’s inability to land A-list celebrities, but those whose best days were behind them. In Chicago media, being a has-been can be beneficial – even if no […]

CBS revamps morning show – again

Here we go again: The Church Of Tisch is revamping its perennially low-rated morning show for the 284th time – and there may be changes to WBBM’s dawn patrol newscasts as well. CBS canceled The Early Show on Tuesday and is launching a new two-hour newscast with the rather odd pairing of Charlie Rose and Gayle King with Early Show […]

The latest Shame inductees: A Band of "Brothers"

            With the induction of Fox’s “Brothers”, it marks the first time two series with the exact same name are in The T Dog Media Blog Hall Of Shame. Both programs are unrelated to each other, except for the fact both are sitcoms and they both suck. Above, from top: Showtime’s version of “Brothers”, from […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Exit, stage left…

..and other media news of note: – Kevin Manno is exiting his afternoon gig at alt-rock WKQX-FM (Q101) to take a job hosting a yet-to-be named weekday show on MTV according to CRM. The new show debuts on September 20 and is scheduled to air weekdays at 5 p.m. Manno’s old shift is being filled temporarily by James VanOdsol. This […]

WBBM-TV cancels "Monsters"

What’s surprising about Monsters and Money in the Morning is the program actually outlived The Jay Leno Show – by one month. In what could be considered the biggest bomb in local television history, CBS-owned WBBM-TV canceled future T Dog Media Blog TV Hall of Shame inductee Monsters and Money in the Morning after six-and-a-half months of ultra-low ratings to […]

WBBM-TV names new 10 p.m. co-anchor

CBS-owned WBBM-TV is undergoing yet another change with its 10 p.m. weeknight newscast by pairing current anchor Rob Johnson with Kate Sullivan, a morning anchor at sister station WCBS-TV in New York City, also a CBS O&O. The report first surfaced Wednesday on Robert Feder’s blog at Vocalo. The change is expected to take place in September. Johnson had been […]

Join the dawn patrol

It looks like more and more stations are joining the extremely early morning dawn patrol. If you thought 5 a.m. was early, you haven’t seen nothing yet. In two big markets, local stations have or are in the process of expanding their morning newscasts – to 4:30 a.m. In Los Angeles, four stations already have 4:30 a.m. newscasts (compared to […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – Don’t fumble it away

In honor of the Super Bowl this weekend, this is who scored the touchdowns this week –  and who fumbled it at the end zone. Touchdown! – WGCI and WVAZ gives back. Clear Channel’s WGCI-FM and WVAZ-FM (V103) are launching the Raise A Hand Campaign to encourage young people to perform good deeds for their schools and their community via […]

"Monsters" off to a slow start

Monsters and Money in the Morning, the new morning sports and financial advice program on CBS-owned WBBM-TV, got off to a rocky start yesterday morning. According to Nielsen, the 5-to-7 a.m. outing could gather only a .6 household rating in the first hour and a .2 in the second hour. Among the 25-54 demo, it fared worse: Monsters averaged a […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – We’ll have a grand old time

It’s been two weeks, so a T Dog Media Blog Four Pack is long overdue… with a little bit of a Flintstones twist… Hanging out with Fred and Barney. Yabba Dabba Doo! -V103. The most (and only) surprising item in the recently concluded Arbitron PPM November survey is the strong performance of Urban AC WVAZ-FM, who ranked second in 12+ […]

WBBM-TV to handle Monsters and some Money in the Morning

In a surprise move, CBS-owned WBBM-TV announced it is dropping its current morning show and has hired Mike North, Dan Jiggetts, and financial analyst Terry Savage to host Monsters and Money In The Morning, beginning on February 1.The program is scheduled to run from 5 to 7 a.m., leading-in to the network’s Early Show. The program once again reunites North […]