Abortion ruling could shake up media business

Roe v. Wade dissolution will have impact from New York to Hollywood, and from Washington D.C. to Chicago. If you think Friday’s decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion won’t have an impact on media…you’d better think again. The landmark decision to appeal the woman’s right to choose will have a ripple […]

25 years ago: The deal heard around the world

25 years ago this week, Fox’s Rupert Murdoch changed the TV world by inking a deal to trigger the biggest affiliation switch in history.  It goes back to what happened on December 17, 1993. The networks were complaining about paying too much for sports – the NFL in particular – as the packages were losing money and looking to pay […]

Media Notepad: WSHE makes changes in afternoons

Also: iHeartMedia likely to go bankrupt; Fox wants more stations – and it could effect longtime Miami affiliate. As first reported by Robert Feder Friday, Cara Carriveau has exited Hubbard-owned adult contemporary station WSHE-FM after approximately three years. Her replacement is Jenny Milkowski, who was recently the morning traffic reporter at Fox-owned WFLD-TV. She takes over starting Monday. “I am […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: “All In” special on Chicago violence draws decent numbers

Discussion on Chicago violence draws over a million viewers; also, news on CBS, The Bulls, and Big Bang As gun violence continues to plague Chicago, the national spotlight on the city isn’t dimming anytime soon with MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes the latest television program to come here to discuss the issue. Despite a last-minute scheduling change (originally scheduled […]

Boston’s WHDH loses NBC affiliation

In market’s fourth affiliation change, NBCUniversal to move affiliation to WNEU-TV WHDH owner Ed Ansin promises fight Politicians question move In a bold move, Comcast Corp. announced Thursday it is launching a new NBC-owned and-operated station in Boston, the nation’s eighth-largest market approximately a year from now. NBC plans to move its affiliation to Telemundo affiliate WNEU-TV (Channel 60), a […]

CBS 2 hires a Sarge

The anchor merry-go-around continues at the local chapter of The Church Of Tisch In the latest anchor change at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, co-anchor Kate Sullivan was fired Tuesday and replaced by Irika Sargant from sister CBS-owned station WFOR-TV in Miami, as first reported by Robert Feder on Tuesday. She gets the privilege of anchoring next to (or putting up with) Rob Johnson […]

“Hot Bench” renewed for second season; shifts to WBBM-TV

  In an unusual move, at least in this day and age, freshman first-run strip Hot Bench is changing stations locally in the middle of the season. As part of a CBS O&O deal, Hot Bench – syndicated by co-owned CBS Television Distribution – is shifting to WBBM-Ch.2 where it will air weekdays at 2 p.m effective as of March […]

Grab Bag: CBS in lead to snare Cubs’ radio rights

  * As first reported by Ed Sherman in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune, CBS Corp. is the leading candidate to land the radio rights to the Chicago Cubs in 2015 and beyond. The most likely destination would be WBBM-AM, who already hold rights to the Chicago Bears and whose sports station (WSCR) holds rights to the Chicago White Sox. Current rights-holder […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Julian Nieh exits B96

Another all-local edition of the Grab Bag… including an item on a possible sale of some downstate TV stations: – Julian Nieh, one half of the duo of B96’s (WBBM-FM’s) The JNiice & Julian Morning Show, exited the station on Wednesday to pursue other interests. The seven-year veteran of the contemporary-hit station was paired with Jamar “JNiice” McNeil in January […]

Confirmed: “Queen Latifah” to CBS 2… and WCIU

As reported here and on other trade sites last week, Queen Latifah’s return to daytime TV snared its first major deal with Sony Pictures Television: CBS’ owned and operated TV stations signed on for the show in sixteen markets. According to an article in Broadcasting & Cable last Monday, Latifah’s show will in fact, be shown on WBBM-TV next fall, […]

The race to replace Oprah: "Anderson", "Ellen" benefit

Modern Family syndication sales reaches up to 50 percent of the U.S. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution seems to benefitting the most thus far when it comes to replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show when it leaves this September, with Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk shows snapping up time slots soon-to-be formerly held by the queen of talk. Anderson has […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The mess at Channel 2

Sure is a great time to live in Chicago. Our transit service is about to scaled back or cut all together, our taxes have been raised, and to top it all off, our sports teams continue to suck, with the dysfunctional Bulls leading the way. This squad makes the ultra-stupid reality show Crowned more watchable than most of their games […]

Mora departs Channel 2 for WFOR in Miami

Antonio Mora is going back home to South Florida – the co-anchor of WBBM-TV’s 6 p.m. newscast is leaving for an anchor job in Miami at WFOR-TV, where he will front the news at 5 , 6, and11 p.m. He begins on January 28. His final day at the station is Friday. WBBM and WFOR are both owned by CBS. […]