Changes ahead as the sports department is the hardest hit A fifth of Sun-Times employees – roughly twenty percent of the workforce, or thirty employees, have elected to take buyouts from the paper. which the paper offered to employees in January. Those exiting are longtime writers and editors. The sports department was hit especially hard – longtime columnists Rick Morrissey […]
Leaves the agency with just one Democrat Democrat FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks announced Tuesday morning his intention to resign from the agency later this spring, creating a vacancy President Trump needs to fill. In a statement, Starks said the following: “Today I sent a letter to the President and Leader Schumer indicating that I intend to resign my seat as […]
Warner Bros. renews newsmagazine for 32nd season while dumping True Crime News after one season Warner Bros. Discovery announced Monday the renewal of the long-running newsmagazine strip Extra for a 32nd season after securing a deal with Fox Television Stations to carry the show for another year. Extra had been on the bubble with two other Warner shows Fox carries: […]
He’s off for a week after a confrontation with a user over a fishing incident; this comes as Audacy announces a new CEO and management team Don’t think Babe Winkleman ever had to put up with social media trolls. But Audacy’s 670 The Score (WSCR) host Dan Bernstein did after he posted on Friday a picture of a fish he […]
So far, no impact has been felt – but it’s early If you put this trade war in an entertainment context, it’s Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake on a much larger scale. President Donald Trump is taking on the country where Drake is from, slapping tariffs on Canada, urging them to become the 51st state (although the District of Columbia and […]
Some relief for starved Chicago sports fans – but will they take advantage? As hinted at when it was announced in January, DirecTV is adding regional sports network add-ons to its MySports skinny bundle, including CHSN and Marquee for Chicago-area viewers, just in time for baseball season as the former features the Chicago White Sox, and the latter for the […]
Sale includes Sinclair’s SSA agreements in Springfield and Decatur [Editor’s note: This story was updated March 14 and again on March 15.] In a surprise, Sinclair, Inc., the nation’s second-largest station group, announced Tuesday that it is selling five stations, including three in Illinois as first reported by The Desk. The five are being sold to Rincon Broadcasting, a […]
Claims they air “faith-based programming” – or something like that So what does the term “faith-based programming” mean? FCC Chairman Brendan Carr seems to be playing fast and loose with the definition as he blasted Google-owned YouTubeTV for not carrying a pair of channels owned by Great American Media: Great American Family and Great American Faith & Living. The former […]
Majority-Black cast looking to resurrect daytime serials and daytime TV It’s been 25 years since a daytime serial debuted on television when Passions premiered on NBC. Since then, the soap opera genre has lost steam through the 1990s and 2000s, as younger viewers defected toward the more real-life (if you can call it that) drama of daytime talk shows such […]
Former Scripps News stations on board Back in 2020, the fallout from George Floyd’s death led syndicators and cable networks to pull all law enforcement-related programming from the air. A&E canceled Live PD. Syndicated repeats of Cops and Live PD: Police Patrol were pulled. Texas even passed a law banning televised police ride-a-longs. What a difference five years makes. […]
Sony putting game veteran game shows up for bid Two longtime prime access game shows are finally joining the streaming age. Sony Pictures Television is soliciting bids from streamers to air next-day episodes of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy starting this fall, putting new episodes on the platform for the first time. The streamers and tech companies Sony plan […]
WBBM-AM, WBEZ are up from Holiday survey; increasing number of streams showing up in ratings With the Christmas music season over and audience patterns returning to normal, two trends have emerged in Nielsen’s January PPM numbers. The change in Presidential administrations and the Los Angeles wildfires has sent ratings for all-news and news/talk stations upward, with WBBM-AM/WCFS-FM (Newsradio 105.9) […]
Viewership high in U.S. but fails to outdraw Super Bowl in Canada The United States may have lost in overtime to Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off in overtime Thursday night but did beat them in another metric: the ratings. The hotly contested series between the two countries drew an eye-popping 9.25 million viewers on ESPN, marking the most-watched hockey […]
Also: Dr. Phil to end syndication run; new FAST channel launches from NESN and Pam Grier Chicago radio mainstay Scott Childers has landed a new job as Operations Coordinator at Jazz outlet WDCB-FM (90.9 FM), located at the College of DuPage in west suburban Wheaton. “I’m excited to share that I’ve accepted the role of Operations Coordinator at 90.9 WDCB, […]
Sock ’em robots match a hit with viewers [Editor’s Note: This piece does contain profanity. Reader discretion is advised.] Remember when some guy named Terence initially dismissed the 4 Four Nations Face-Off as a quick money grab and would flop hard on the ice? I have never made such a miscalculation in the 19-year run of T Dog Media […]
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