Plus: LA’s KTTV news director “resigns” after only two years Fox’s WFLD fortified its news anchor lineup late Tuesday, detailing changes being made to its Good Day Chicago morning show and its 9 p.m. newscast. Former WMAQ sports anchor Jon Kelley is being paired with former KDVR/Denver reporter-anchor Melody Mendez for GDC and Natalie Bomke, who joined the show last […]
The ironwoman streak is over for Chicago news veteran Robin Robinson. 26 years and six co-anchors later, Robinson – whose local career started at CBS-owned WBBM-TV in the 1980’s, is losing her longtime 9 p.m. anchor slot at Fox-owned WFLD-TV, being assigned to special reports. No replacement has been named, but sources speculate that former WLS-TV midday anchor Sylvia Perez […]
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 […]
Time to see what’s in this week edition of the Grab bag: – With This TV leaving for WGN-TV November 1, Weigel Broadcasting is replacing it with Bounce, moving from its 23.2 subchannel position to the much stronger 26.5 position, according to an item on WCIU’s website. Bounce is an African-American-targeted subchannel targeted to adults 25-54. The move comes as […]
Another surviving member of the Saturday Morning cartoon wars has passed on. Lou Scheimer, who helped found Filmation with Hal Sutherland, passed away at the age of 84 Thursday, as first reported by Cartoon Brew. Filmation had a fierce rivalry in from the late 1960’s through the 1980’s with William Hanna and Joseph Barbara of Hanna-Barbera Productions. From roughly 1967 […]
Once again, it’s a busy Friday afternoon in TV land as the major networks made some major announcements: – Well, that didn’t take long: NBC made its first cancellations of the season, pulling the plug on the inane Welcome To The Family after three weeks and the unneeded revival of Ironside after four episodes. Both series join ABC’s Lucky 7 […]
Yours truly is testing a brand new feature titled Quick Hits and Bits, a quick roundup of the latest and not-so-latest television, radio, and Internet news – along with a few editorial quips. This is not meant to replace “The Grab Bag” column I’ve been writing about for the last few years, but wanted to get more media items on […]
Chicagoans and local media haven’t forgotten – maybe we’d be better off if they did Remember when the word “Bartman” meant a silly dance (and song) from Bart Simpson? Even yours truly would yearn for its reemergence. Since October 14, 2003, the name “Bartman” has been synonymous with Steve Bartman interfering with then-Chicago Cub Moises Alou, causing the team to […]
– Tech difficulties or something else behind the scenes? Mike McConnell’s new online venture at WGN Radio doesn’t seem to be going well. McConnell’s online show and subsequent podcast has been offline for a week due to “tech issues”. But it looks like McConnell may be headed back to Cincinnati: it appears a tentative agreement has been reached on the […]
Remember the days when CBS Monday nights were comedy gold? You’d think I Love Lucy. The Andy Griffith Show. Here’s Lucy. M*A*S*H. Rhoda (before she left Joe.) Evening Shade. Newhart. Murphy Brown (well, maybe. Yours truly hated Murphy Brown.) Everybody Loves Raymond. Monday nights on CBS is where you’d usually find the best of the best in sitcoms. These days, […]
Super Fun Night has Super Fun ratings Crazy Ones decline; NBC Thursday sitcom block flops Judging by all the viewing parties held nationwide for this show (yours truly even got an invitation to one,) you’d think Scandal would be the hottest thing since the advent of the pancake. You’d be right. Scandal skyrocketed in popularity over the past year thanks […]
ABC canceled hour-long drama Lucky 7 on Friday after two low-rated episodes and became one of the shortest-lived dramas in the network’s history. The Tuesday drama premiered on Sept. 24, with a 1.3 adult 18-49 demo and dropped to a 0.7 in its second airing, declining 46 percent week-to-week and drawing just 2.6 million viewers opposite CBS’ Person Of Interest, […]
A few days ago, Oprah Winfrey announced she put her Harpo Studios up for sale. The facility, which hasn’t been used much since her talk show ended in 2011, could fetch over a million bucks in the real estate market. On Thursday, the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg slammed her for not being “Chicago” enough, or something. Great article. If it were […]
Blacklist still strong on Monday Is it time to hit the panic button at Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters? S.H.I.E.L.D. took a spill in its second week as ratings fell 30 percent week-to-week in the adult 18-49 demo (4.7 to 3.3), finishing behind The Voice (4.5) and NCIS (3.5) in the first hour of primetime Tuesday. Despite its third-place finish, […]
Disastrous season on both sides of town had fans fleeing for the exits – but at least they’re not the Astros After the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup June 24, most local sports fans checked out for the summer, thanks to the inept play of both the Chicago Cubs (66-96) and Chicago White Sox (63-99), each finishing last in […]