The Media Notepad: Former MBC HQ won’t be used for migrant shelter after all

Also: The NAB is concerned about crime near their headquarters; ESPN 1000 owner drops Nielsen; WNBA’s New York Liberty strikes broadcast deal with Fox in New York The River North building where the Museum of Broadcast Communications was located won’t become a migrant shelter after all. Last November, city leaders led by Mayor Brandon Johnson were looking to house migrants […]

Jennifer Hudson lands new talk show at Fox-owned stations

  Fox 32 to air new show in fall Chicago-born Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar-award winning actress Jennifer Hudson’s new talk show from Warner Bros. is officially a firm go for September with a wide-ranging deal with the Fox-owned stations, including Fox 32 (WFLD) here. The program is also landing on Fox-owned WNYW New York and KTTV Los Angeles in nation’s […]

“Dr. Oz” future in question after host announces Senate run

FCC’s equal-time rules takes show out of New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh markets [Editor’s Note: This post was updated at 8 p.m.]  The future of Sony Pictures Television’s Dr. Oz is in serious question after the host of said show announced Tuesday he was running for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.  Mehmet Oz – who is a cardiac […]

“Field Of Dreams” game scores for Fox – and baseball

Featuring the White Sox and Yankees in Iowa was the highest-rated regular season game since 2005 If you build it, they will come. Well, they came all right – and proved to be a boon for Major League Baseball. The inaugural Field Of Dreams game – set in Dyersville, Iowa (located in the Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque market) in a newly-built ballfield […]

Fox Television Stations launch new streamer Fox Soul

Fox-owned stations launch OTT service targeting African-American viewers; Fox 32’s Later With Leon to be featured  In an ambitious move, Fox Television Stations announced Monday the launch of Fox Soul, a over-the-top service targeting African-American viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. The new streaming service is featuring live-streaming original programming in prime-time and late night, roughly from 8 […]

Dish sacks Fox-owned channels

Here comes another retrans dispute as impasse knocks Fox 32, My 50, FS1 off Dish  In a move that surprised and stunned a lot of observers – not to mention Dish subscribers, Fox Corp. announced Thursday it has pulled their signals off Dish. This means Fox-owned local channels WFLD-TV and My Network TV affiliate WPWR-TV are off Dish and their […]

“Roseanne” revival hits a home run

Premiere is highest-rated of the season A few weeks ago, a writer from Mediapost said the return of American Idol on ABC “saved” the television industry. He might want to revise his article. In stunning news, the revival of Roseanne won big time in the ratings for ABC – averaging a 5.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demo for ABC […]

The Media Notepad: Party’s over for Chi-Town Rising

Also: Dennis Welsh wades into soda tax controversy while his station profits off pro-soda tax ads; Tom Joyner returns to Dallas as Classic Hip-Hop format’s future is questionable; Fox’s late night plans may not include off-network sitcoms The star has fallen: organizers of New Year’s Eve celebration Chi-Town Rising threw in the towel Thursday and announced they would not bring […]

Ratings roundup: “Harry” off to decent start

Cubs score; NFL slides a bit (Editor’s Note: The YouTube video in this post was deleted.) With the new season a week away, new programming is already popping up – and getting decent sampling. The launch of Harry Connick Jr.’s daytime talk show Monday met ratings expectations, drawing a 1.4 household rating/4 share in 56 metered markets, according to Nielsen. […]

Think Tank Express: “Lew’s View” is a snooze

Fox GM’s criticism of mayor does nothing for New York viewers TV stations need leadership, not preachers  Perhaps one of the best things about Roger Ailes’ removal from his post as chairman of Fox News (due to sexual harassment allegations) is he is no longer head of the Fox Television Stations group. If you read this blog – and other media […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sports-talk war escalates with Finfer defection

* The first shot has been fired in the Chicago’s new sports-talk wars: Robert Feder reports that Tribune’s new Game has stolen Ben Finfer away from CBS’ The Score (WSCR), where he’ll serve as producer – but also as show host, being paired with David Kaplan at Noon and then joins Alex Quigley and Howard Griffith from 1-3 p.m. Finfer […]

Quick Hits and Bits: Dahl, Meier feuding again?

Welcome to the second edition of Quick Hits and Bits! – Oh God, here we go again… another radio legend has turned down Bruce DuMont’s invite to the Radio Hall Of Fame ceremony – this time its Steve Dahl, who he and Garry Meier who are being inducted November 9. Like Howard Stern last year, Dahl reportedly was not happy […]