WVON’s program manager placed on leave

A phone call from a listener sparks investigation As first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business Friday afternoon, the program manager for Midway Broadcasting’s Black news/talk WVON-AM (1690) has been placed on administrative leave pending the official outcome of an investigation over his status as a registered sex offender.  The person’s name is Devin Randle, a 56-year old who was listed […]

Newsy to become Scripps News

Rebrand comes only a year after re-launching news channel  Continuing a trend of station groups expanding their news footprint, Scripps announced Thursday the rebranding of their 24/7 news channel Newsy to Scripps News effective January 1. The name change comes as the company is merging its national news resources into a single national news division and approximately one year after […]

Ed Lover exits 104.3 Jams

Gives up morning show to do a nationally syndicated project with Audacy As first reported by Radio Insight Wednesday, Ed Lover is ending his run as morning personality at 104.3 Jams (WBMX-FM) after five years as he prepares to launch a new, nationally syndicated evening show with Audacy, the parent owner of the station. There were no details readily available […]

The Media Notepad: Fox 32 gets Amazon Thursday night Bears game – report (updated)

Also: local Atlanta station removes popular syndicated show to air more news; controversial political ad removed from local airwaves; the GOP looking to deregulate the media business even more; Ramsey Lewis dies [Editor’s Note: There is an update to the second story in this piece. See below.] Thursday Night Football may have left Fox, but its owned stations certainly haven’t […]

Remembering the NBC “Checkerboard”

On September 14, 1987, NBC’s owned-and-operated stations decided to launch a bold experiment, airing a different sitcom every weeknight leading in to prime-time. It was a disaster.   Before streaming, where you can watch what you want when you want – or what day you want, there was a time where local stations did something called “checkerboarding”. As you know, prime-time […]

Chicago radio ratings: The Drive, 93.9 Lite FM share lead

WOJO takes home crown in demos; sports talkers grow The August PPM ratings for Chicago radio stations were released Tuesday and it showed a tie at the top. Hubbard’s The Drive (WDRV-FM) and iHeartMedia’s 93.9 The Lite (WLIT-FM) each finished in a tie for first place, both ahead of their competitors by nearly one ratings point. However for classic rocker […]

The Media Notepad: CBS 2 to launch 9 a.m. newscast

Also: NewsNation add late morning news block; Scripps adds digital subchannels to DirecTV; Samsung bulks up Plus TV  As expected, CBS 2 (WBBM-TV) is launching a new 9 a.m. half-hour newscast, starting September 12: https://twitter.com/AudrinaBigos/status/1567089635217620995 Anchoring the newscast are Audrina Bigos and Ryan Baker, with Laura Bannon on weather.  The move is part of an initiative by CBS News And […]