Also: Ten Milwaukee Bucks games head to WMLW; Canadian PM stemmed about Bell cuts Hoping to capitalize on the ever-growing audio-on-demand category, Cumulus’ Alternative Rock Q101 (WKQX-FM) launched a podcast platform last week with four new shows. “Q101 is a Chicago icon and adding an offering of new podcasts allows us to extend the reach of our brand even deeper […]
In a sale that could alter the power structure among which station groups purchase off-net sitcoms – and other programming in the future, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has sold CBS Monday night comedies Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls to Weigel broadcasting’s WCIU in Chicago and to thirteen non-CBS affiliated stations owned by CBS Corporation for fall 2014 […]
Howard Shapiro, chairman of Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, died from pneumonia today at the age of 86. A graduate in electronic engineering from Purdue, Shapiro was a electronics dealer, with a business called C.E.T. (Chicago Engineers of Television) and was one of the first advertisers who bought commercial time on WCIU, which was launched by the Weigel family in 1964, becoming […]
Off-net sitcom clears five more markets. Weigel’s WDJT/WMLW in Milwaukee gets syndie rights to show. Warner Bros. red-hot Big Bang Theory has now cleared five more markets a month after the show cleared ten Fox-owned and operated stations, including WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV in Chicago. Among the five markets cleared is Milwaukee, whose CBS-affiliated WDJT-TV purchased the show to air on […]
You’d think with recently disposed former NBC talk show host Conan O’ Brien possibly headed to Fox, you think the news would thrill affiliates, right? Well, think again. With news yesterday of Fox and O’Brien negotiating a deal to host a late-night talk show – something the network hasn’t had on a nightly basis since the debacle of Chevy Chase’s […]
It’s been a little while since yours truly has done a Grab Bag of news and notes – so here’s what’s going on in the world of media today: – Was yours truly wrong on Undercover Boss? People are still tuning in, and Ben Grossman of B&C offers up a great defense of the show and reality TV in general […]
– The ALCS Game 7 between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays on TBS last night drew a record-setting 13.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated baseball game in cable TV history. Boston made a historic comeback in Game 5 being down 7-0 and winning the game 8-7, and winning Game 6. But the Rays beat Boston […]
WTSP, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg Florida (and future home of soon-to depart-from WFLD weather person Tammie Souza), decided not to carry the re-scheduled U.S. Open Men’s Final where Roger Federer scored his fifth straight U.S Open Championship and the move angered the lob gods. It was moved instead to the station’s digital weather channel. Viewers slammed WTSP […]
TV Newsday’s Harry Jessell interviews Weigel Broadcasting executive Neal Sabin – the former general manager of WPWR-TV who jumped to WCIU in that same capacity in 1994 and now runs not only WCIU, but now a group of stations, including low power classic-TV formatted WWME-TV and ethnic WFBT in Chicago; and stations in Milwaukee and South Bend, Ind. Sabin talks […]
The latest from the convention: WCIU picks up Judge Penny: Independent WCIU-TV in Chicago picks up its first-ever syndicated program from Program Partners by acquiring the company’s new first-run courtroom strip Family Court with Judge Penny. The program has cleared 70 percent of the country, including Fox-owned stations in New York and Los Angeles. Additional clearances include CBS/CW stations in […]