Popularity isn’t exactly overrated as 2021 ends a wild year in media Like mystery of the sphinx or crop circles, you just can’t explain the continued popularity of certain things despite questionable changes. After the firing of Mark Giangreco and seemingly public disdain for one of her former co-anchors, ABC 7 remains on top of local Chicago news ratings, […]
ABC-owned stations produced documentary on Blago – but you won’t see it on ABC 7 The ABC-owned stations are producing a new documentary on disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. But in a marked departure, the new series is not appearing on WLS-TV/ABC 7 or any of the ABC-owned stations themselves or even their digital channel Localish. It’s streaming […]
Do the time, land a radio show It seems there’s a common thing in Chicago radio where if you go to prison, you wind up with a job in radio. The perception was never truer than on Thursday when Cumulus Media – owner of conservative-talk WLS-AM, classic hits WLS-FM, and alternative WKQX-FM in Chicago, announced they signed former Illinois governor […]
Pulitzer-prize winning columnist out after less than two weeks Back some time ago, if there was a TV show so poorly received by critics and the viewing public, it would be off the air in three weeks. Mark Konkol lasted less than two weeks running a newspaper. In a move praised by many, the Chicago Sun-Times fired the Pulitzer-prize winning […]
I guess in Chicago media, you don’t need a degree to get a job. Just look pretty. Or be dumb. Or be an unfunny, talentless hack. Or just yell a lot. Welcome to the Chicago media freak show, former Representative Joe Walsh. In a town whose media outlets hired embarrassments such as Randy Michaels, Jim Laski, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Belushi, […]
MacFarlane panned at Oscars, but he wasn’t the problem with the show A few months ago on Twitter, yours truly said Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane wasn’t a good fit as host for the 85th Annual Academy Awards, aka The Oscars. Sunday’s telecast certainly verified that fact – well, somewhat. The first few minutes of MacFarlane’s gig actually got off […]
Happy New Year! The first Grab Bag of 2013 is here: – Countdown Chicago, ABC 7’s annual New Year’s Eve countdown special which aired from 11:08 p.m. to around 12:15 a.m., drew a huge 17.4 household rating and a 40 share – despite the annual bashing from viewers (after all, we still attend Cubs games, don’t we?) Hosted by WLS-TV’s […]
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, […]
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 […]
Former WGN-AM radio personality Greg Jarrett has landed a morning time slot gig on troubled news station WIQI-FM (101.1, FM News) beginning on Monday. Jarrett will anchor morning newscasts alongside Monica DeSantis from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. News of this hire was first reported Friday afternoon by Chicagoland Radio & Media. The hire of Jarrett – who was dropped […]
A lot of stuff in this grab bag this week: – What’s this? A historic low for WGN Radio? The Tribune-owned talker . Even with Cubs baseball (and the you know the team sucks this year), WGN finished behind WVAZ (V103) and WTMX (The Mix) and also behind WBBM-AM and WDRV (The Drive). Other May PPM highlights include WGCI’s return […]
Some sad news to start off this edition of notations: Emmy-award winning actress Kathryn Joosten died on Sunday after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 72. She was best known for her portrayal of presidential secretary Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing, and most recently, the nosy neighbor on Desperate Housewives. Born in Eustus, Fl. in […]
If you’re been driving around Chicagoland for the last few weeks, you probably have noticed former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich unintentionally shilling for WIQI-FM, Merlin Media’s all-news station on 101.1 FM. The ads come months after Merlin purchased controlling interest in the former WKQX-FM from Emmis and launched on all-news format August 1 and basically took their sweet time […]
Picking apart Feder from the Sun-Times today: – While other CBS-owned stations saw ratings increases in the just concluded November sweeps (I’ll have a post on November sweeps figures shortly), the free fall continues at WBBM-TV, whose ratings were flat in households and down 15 percent in adults 25-54. And this comes after one of the best investigative reports in […]