Chicago drops to fourth place in African-American homes in the U.S.

TV rank drops to fourth as market’s black population moves out Chicago may be home to the hottest show with TV’s number one show among African-Americans with Empire, set in New York City but filmed here. But when it comes to attracting and keeping blacks in the area, Chicago is in a deep freeze. A recent DMA (designated market area) report issued […]

WGN-TV takes heat for on-air offensive screw-up

Tribune Media’s WGN-TV was getting hammered on social media for putting up a graphic during Tuesday night’s newscast demeaning to the Jewish community. WGN-TV was doing a story on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday celebrated in late September. While fill-in anchor Tom Negovan was reading a story on the holiday, a Gold emblem graphic appeared on-screen. Problem is, the graphic […]

Think Tank Express: “Best Time Ever”. Not

A T Dog Media TV review This embarrassment even makes Johnny B. On The Loose watchable  Maybe there should be a class action suit against NBC and Neil Patrick Harris for their new Tuesday night “variety” show, Best Time Ever, because it is blatantly false advertising. This program features stuff we haven’t seen on Ellen or Jimmy Fallon’s shows before – […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Bears stumble, fumble in the ratings

Haven’t done the Notepad in a while – plus, I’ve been busy with other stuff, so let’s play catchup and see  what’s going on: –The Chicago Bears are back – but apparently, someone forgot to tell the fans: September 13’s heavily hyped home opener between the Lakefront’s NFL Team and their long-time nemesis Green Bay Packers drew a surprisingly low […]

Chicago enters the New Year’s Eve game

For the first time in decades, Chicago is holding a big celebration downtown on New Year’s Eve. As first reported by the Chicago Tribune Thursday, city planners are creating a huge event to ring in 2016, with music, fireworks, and more fun stuff along the Chicago River between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive. Dubbed Chi-Town Rising, the event is being […]

CBS 2 hires a Sarge

The anchor merry-go-around continues at the local chapter of The Church Of Tisch In the latest anchor change at CBS-owned WBBM-TV, co-anchor Kate Sullivan was fired Tuesday and replaced by Irika Sargant from sister CBS-owned station WFOR-TV in Miami, as first reported by Robert Feder on Tuesday. She gets the privilege of anchoring next to (or putting up with) Rob Johnson […]

Think Tank Express: Colbert makes his CBS debut

Stephen Colbert – yes, the real Stephen Colbert – finally made his long-awaited hosting debut last night on The Late Show, only the third time a comedian has hosted under this title. Colbert is no longer chained to his “Stephen Colbert” character he played on his Comedy Central show. While judging a program by one episode doesn’t do it justice, […]

Bob Sirott, Marianne Murciano out at WGN

The married duo exits amid a programming squeeze WGN Radio’s early afternoon husband-and-wife team of Bob Sirott and Marriane Murciano were squeezed out of their slot amid programming changes the Tribune-owned station announced Wednesday, resulting in the exit of the duo after just two years. The pair’s final show is Friday. The change is being made to accommodate the expansion […]

Think Tank Express: Media’s bizarro summer

Radio is experiencing a renaissance  and television in the dumps? Welcome to the summer of the bizarro world. You’ve probably read several articles lately proclaiming radio’s resurgence, with Nielsen reporting a record reach of 245 million listeners and usage up from years past, with more reach than any other medium. Great news, indeed. But what the corporate spinmeisters won’t tell you […]