American Top 40 at 50

The iconic countdown show turns 50 this Saturday and a year-long celebration is planned One of America’s iconic radio shows is turning 50 this Saturday, and the party is going to be one year-long celebration. Premiere Networks announced Tuesday plans to celebrate American Top 40 as it marks its 50th year in radio. (although it did not air in 1996 […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Cubs outslug singers and dancers

Cubs ratings; Carsey-Werner comedies head to LAFF; Media Life radio survey and more The Chicago Cubs have started off the 2016 season in style and viewers are watching: Monday’s home opener against the Cincinnati Reds drew a whopping 11.4 household same-day live rating, easily finishing as the most-watched program of the evening topping ABC’s Dancing With The Stars (always popular […]

Mancow wins WLUP morning gig

The “contest” saw Mancow beat out three other competitors. Was the fix in?  Given this is Chicago, you knew the outcome before this was even thought of. To no one’s surprise, Erich “Mancow” Mueller has won WLUP’s morning personality search (The Chicago Way, of course), beating out three other competitors jockeying for the job: former WKQX jock Abe Kanan; former […]

Dick Clark dies

The television, music, and radio industries lost a legend today with the passing of Dick Clark. Clark suffered a massive heartattack a day after after an outpaitent procedure in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82. Born in 1929 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Clark got his first job at his family-owned radio station in Utica, where he started in the […]

The Grab Bag: It’s Chicagolicious!

The Grab Bag today includes a revival of a classic game show – with a hip-hop bent; a local time slot change for syndicated reruns of 30 Rock; and Chicago lands another reality TV show: – Oprah and Rosie are long gone from the Windy City, but believe it or not, television production is expanding in Chicago – of the […]

Casey Kasem’s "American Top 40" returns to Chicago radio

Casey is counting them down again – only this time in rerun form. As reported by Robert Feder on his blog at Time Out Chicago Wednesday, WLS-FM will begin running Casey Kasem’s American Top 40: The ’70’s on Sunday mornings from 7 to 10 a.m. from Premiere Radio Networks, effective this weekend. The countdowns are primarily from 1970 (when the […]

"American Top 40" to celebrate 40 years

American Top 40 – the legendary radio program which counted down the week’s popular hits from number 40 to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gave us the Long Distance Dedication, marks its 40th anniversary on July 4 – the exact day the program was born back in 1970, when it was heard on only seven stations. Two […]

Dr. Demento ends long radio run

The Doctor is no longer in as far as radio is concerned. In a move that doesn’t really come as a surprise, Dr. Demento has pulled the terrestrial radio plug on his show after 40 years on the air and just a month short of his anniversary of airing his first show over a Pasadena, Calif. radio station, Chicagoland Radio […]

Rick Dees heads to ABC Radio Networks

Venerable radio personality Rick Dees is heading back to ABC Radio Networks after signing a development deal with the company. Dees, who was the morning personality at Top 40 outlet KIIS-FM in Los Angeles for 23 years (until he was replaced by Ryan Seacrest in 2004) and now is in the same capacity at Emmis’ KMVN-FM (Movin 93.9), will develop […]

Dan Kelly out as Hawks play-by-play man; Foley to return?

No surprise here: Blackhawks play-by-play man Dan Kelly was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, which could pave the return of Pat Foley, who handled the chores for a little over twenty years before being unceremoniously dropped for Kelly in 2006. Foley currently is the play-by-play man for the Chicago Wolves (Chicago’s AHL franchise.) Even Wolves owner Don Levin […]

The Pickle goes sour

Days before WCKG-FM flips its FM Talk outlet to something else, south suburban WYKT-FM in Kankakee flipped from oldies to become My 105.5 FM, a new contemporary-hit radio station yesterday morning. The move to CHR/Top 40 gives Kankakee and surrounding areas (Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno, and Momence, among others) a format reminiscent of the old WBUS-FM 99.9, or “The Bus”, which […]