All about the Windy City

Broadcasting & Cable has a profile of Chicago in its issue this week, and it talks about how Chicago’s TV stations are handling the economy – as well as possible major events the city may be celebrating in the not-too-distant future (Obama’s presidential bid, a Cubs-White Sox World Series, an Olympic bid…) The article also talks about news expansion and […]

R.I.P. Tony Snow and Bobby Mercer

Two men had different paths in life, and both die of the same disease – cancer. Former Fox News commentator and White House press secretary Tony Snow and former Yankee great Bobby Mercer both died yesterday from cancer. Snow died at the all too-young age of 53 from colon cancer. He was one of the original Fox News personalities when […]

TCA Notes: Spending a day with Turner

Turner’s networks took center stage on Friday at the TCA Tour with a added bonus – a preview of Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars: –CNN: The all-news network unveiled its latest gizmo: A high tech touch screen used during this election system to break down election returns from counties. Yours truly saw this first-hand when it was used during the Indiana […]

How to fix The CW

Michael Schneider of Variety is the doctor and he has a spot-on prescription for what ails The CW. (as well as a commenter below – well, aside from the Moonlight plug.)

TCA Notes

Cable continues its ride through the press tour, with an emphasis on going green: Discovery Networks (Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC.) -Discovery: The Discovery Channel had a panel at the tour discussing a film titled Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy, which chronicles the find of Leonardo, a extinct dinosaur found in Montana – which still stands with 90 percent of its […]

WMYD to launch new newscast

Detroit-area residents finally now have another news operation. Granite-owned WMYD-TV, a My Network TV affiliate, is launching a new 10 p.m. newscast beginning on Monday titled TV 20 News at 10. The half-hour newscast is going head-to-head with Fox-owned WJBK-TV’s long established 10 p.m. show. This marks the first time there has been a competing newscast at 10 since 2005, […]

David Carradine drops F-bomb on WGN-TV

Oh boy, here we go… Kung Fu star David Carradine dropped the F-bomb on WGN Morning News today, who was immediately scolded by WGN anchor Larry Potash and apologizing on his behalf to viewers. Carradine was on the show to promote a new movie. Nothing to see here folks, move along. After all, this is Chicago…

TCA Notes

More from The TCA tour in La-La Land: Viacom/MTV Networks: (CMT, MTV, VH-1, Comedy Central, TVLand) – Comedy Central introduced a slew of projects, including a new version of camp classic The Gong Show with new host and alleged comedian Dave Attell. He’s about as funny as Olivia Munn (hey, I used up my Jim Belushi jokes…) The last time […]

TCA Notes

As you know (or may not know), the Television Critics Association (or TCA) Press Tour is underway in Los Angeles, with cable nets rolling out its programs over the next couple of days: –Hallmark: The network’s original programming on tap this fall includes stars Jane Seymour, Ed Asner, Cheech Marin, Florence Henderson, and Donna Mills (If it features Donna Mills, […]

Spike O’Dell in the home stretch

It looks like longtime WGN-AM morning host Spike O’Dell is heading into the home stretch. The Sun-Times is reporting the longtime morning personality is expected to either retire at the end of the year. With a large salary and Tribune’s cash crunch, it is unlikely O’Dell will return, unless he wants a cut with pay (and the way he sounds […]

The Osbournes to head variety show

The Osbournes hosting a variety show? Yes, it’s true… Fox has ordered six episodes of a variety show hosted by Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly, and Jack from producer FremantleMedia, set to air next year. The Osbournes of course, headlined their own reality show on MTV from 2002 to 2005. Thought: Remember the last segment that aired on The Simpsons’ 138th Episode […]

Chicago Tribune to cut 80 newsroom jobs

Mirroring the struggles the newspaper industry is experiencing nationwide, The Chicago Tribune announced Tuesday it is laying off 80 people in its newsroom and is reducing the number of pages in the publication. The number laid off is actually 55, since 25 of those jobs were unfilled positions, left over from the last round of layoffs. The Tribune’s sister paper […]

New hire at Tribune

Remember when I said last week about Cara Carriveau returning to radio and one of her former bosses was out of the business? Well, that individual has landed a new job as well. Tim Dukes, who was fired by WLUP-FM in February 2007, has landed at Tribune Co. as Vice-President of promotions for its broadcasting and interactive. Dukes previously held […]

Amy Jacobson sues Channel 2

Former WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson has sued CBS Corp. and its owned-and-operated station here in Chicago (WBBM-TV) for airing a video of her last year in the backyard of Craig Stebic’s house, wearing nothing but a bikini top and a towel around her waist. Craig Stebic is the husband of missing woman Lisa Stebic, who vanished over a year ago, […]