T Dog’s Four on the Floor – Edition 7

Yes, the four feature is back! But with a new name. The feature that was Who’s in your four is now the much-catchier T Dog’s Four on the Floor. Why the name change? Because the previous one no longer made sense (and T-Mobile has scaled back national advertising, meaning no more “who’s in your five” spots.) And it’s not original. […]

Layoffs hit Denver’s KWGN-TV

As expected, Tribune Co.’s KWGN-TV announced layoffs after the station agreed to merge its operations with Local TV’s KDVR-TV. KWGN, the market’s CW affiliate, laid off “a significant amount of employees”, including its news director and veteran anchorman Ernie Bjorkman. Despite the fact both stations are under separate ownership, the stations are being run jointly, in a “local marketing agreement”- […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

– WWE’s move of Friday Night Smackdown to My Network TV drew 3.2 million in its first airing Friday night, finishing first in the time period among males 18-34 and 18-49, and giving the small net its largest audience ever. However, the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network drew 4 million viewers, setting a record as […]

Welcome to Floptober

Forget the goat, it’s this guy’s fault the Cubs didn’t win. There’s only one Floptober… Remember when I said Darkmane (from those X Games spots) couldn’t foil the X Games but could show up at Wrigley to foil the Cubs chances at going to the World Series? Not only he succeeded, but he also managed to find time to show […]

NBC subtracts Weather Plus

NBC and its affiliate board announced it was pulling the plug on NBC Weather Plus, a digital subchannel network focusing exclusively on weather, much like cable’s The Weather Channel, which NBC Universal recently acquired. A total of 90 stations used NBC Weather Plus, which launched as the nation’s first all-digital subchannel network in 2004. It provided stations with 24-hour weather […]

Chicago’s PPM results are here

Here they are… the first official Portable People Meter results for the Chicago market. Arbitron decided to release the numbers today instead of Wednesday for Chicago, New York, and six other markets to avoid an injuction by the New York State Attorney General, who isn’t happy with the system because he feels the system discriminates against minorities (never mind that […]

Inside "Soul Train"

As Soul Train rides into the into the rail yard for good (for now, anyway), an article in the Chicago Reader Thursday features a new book that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the dance program’s Chicago days at WCIU-TV in the early 1970’s.Titled A Critical History of Soul Train on Television, author Chris Lehman takes a look at the program’s […]

Minneapolis, Cleveland TV stations worry about LPMs

If you think radio stations in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles are worrying about Arbitron’s Portable People Meters – then you haven’t seen anything yet. Television executives in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Cleveland are sweating it out over the next several months as Local People Meters – or LPMs, become the standard of measurement for television ratings measured by Nielsen. […]

Peoria radio stations go dark

Man, how bad is the economy? So bad that now you even have radio stations shutting down. Two Peoria stations threw in the towel on Friday: Adult standards-formatted WOAM 1350 and Oldies WPMJ-FM, both owned by local businessman Bob Kelly due to “financial reasons”. The stations had been up for sale, but the current credit crunch had scared off many […]

Norman Ross dies

Former WLS-TV reporter Norman Ross died today from heart failure at his Chicago home. He was 86. Ross had been in broadcasting since the 1950’s, working at WFMT and WGN-AM, and was a reporter for ABC-owned WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) in the 1960’s. He left media shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the riots that followed. Ross went […]

Senate passes Webcaster Settlement Act

There may be light at the end of the tunnel for Internet radio fans. The Senate passed the Webcaster Settlement Act on Tuesday, which enables Internet streamers to negotiate lower rates with SoundExchange and the RIAA. The bill sailed though the House on Saturday, and is now headed to President Bush’s desk for signature. It allows SoundExchange to negotiate with […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

In celebration of post number 1400, let’s see what’s in the bag (some celebration, huh?) – How about this? With the White Sox victory over the Twins in last night’s tiebraker game for the American League Central Division Title, both the Cubs and the White Sox are in the postseason for the first time in 102 years. But if you […]