The Media Notepad: Chicago Fire strike a radio deal with WLS-AM

Also:  “The Fred Show” to be syndicated; WGN has its own vault “discovery”; Fox TV stations delivers for Amazon In good news for Chicago Fire fans, all Chicago Fire soccer games are being broadcast over Cumulus Media’s news/talk WLS-AM beginning this weekend, according to a report Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The deal was officially announced Wednesday morning on the […]

B96 changes course, adds more rhythmic-oriented “flashbacks”

Legacy Top 40 station shakes up playlist in order to lure back listeners There was speculation several weeks ago that a major change was coming to either one or two Audacy-owned stations in the Chicago market. After a few behind-the-scenes changes, Friday saw contemporary hit radio/Top 40 B96, or WBBM-FM add more gold hit product to its current hit playlist, […]

Chicago media criticized for lack of Loop mayhem coverage Saturday night

Twitter users call out local media outlets for failing to inform public Saturday night’s disturbances in downtown Chicago are raising questions on how the local media covers – or fail to cover in these types of instances and whether or not social media – particularly Twitter -fills the void. With temperatures soaring into the 80s, hundreds of teens swarmed the […]

ESPN 1000 announces on-air talent for Bears games

Good Karma-owned station takes over radio broadcasts this fall With the all-important NFL Draft approaching, ESPN 1000 (WMVP) announced its game day lineup for Bears games this upcoming season.  Gameday starts with the Network Pre-Game Show (assuming the word “network” is a placeholder for a yet-to-be named corporate sponsor) with Marc Silverman (known on-air as Silvy), Dionne Miller (of ABC […]

NBC Chicago names Ramirez, Harrison to news executive positions

NBC’s over-the-air duopoly in Chicago Monday named two new executives to lead their news operation Chicago’s NBC stations announced some executive moves on Monday: Sally Ramirez was named into a newly created position of Senior Vice President of news for both NBC’s WMAQ and Telemundo’s WSNS, who both share NBCUniversal as a owner. A native of Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, Ramirez […]

PBS follows NPR’s lead and exits Twitter after inaccurate labeling

Elon Musk defends “government-funded” label; Chicago affiliates not affected  The Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS has decided to follow National Public Radio, or NPR off of the Twitter platform after a flap regarding both being labeled as “government-funded media”.  This came as NPR stopped using Twitter last week, saying the labeling was inaccurate, noting only fifteen percent of PBS funding […]

To The Max: Warner Bros. Discovery rebrands streaming service

Warner Bros. Discovery unveils revamped HBO Max without the HBO name It’s entertainment… to the Max. That’s what Warner Bros. Discovery is offering as the media conglomerate announced Wednesday at a press event the long-awaited rebranding of its four year-old streaming service as it removes the “HBO” from its name and merges its content with those of Discovery Plus. The […]

The Media Notepad: Judge Marliyn Milan returns to TV in a new show

Also: B96 hires Canavah’s replacement; Diamond Sports Group skips payments to Guardians and Twins; Extra renewed for season thirty  The other shoe has dropped in Warner Bros.’ decision to exit the court genre as Marilyn Milian has signed with Allen Media Group for a new hour-long court show, Justice For The People With Judge Milan, debuting this fall.  “We at […]

Let’s Go Brandon: Johnson wins mayoral race

Tightest margin of victory ever as election night coverage was OK, but WGN-TV bricks hard  In one of the closest mayoral races in the modern media era, Cook County Board member Brandon Johnson pulled off a shocking upset by beating former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas to become Chicago’s 57th mayor with a margin of around 12,000 votes (not […]

WGN-TV at 75

Station’s rich history celebrated. But what about the next 75 years?  It was on April 5, 1948 when Col. Robert McCormick fired up the transmitter to join the herd in taking advantage of a then-brand new medium to reach the masses – television.  People stood outside of Tribune Tower in Chicago to see what the hubbub was about. It was […]

Longtime Audacy exec Todd Canavah exits

Wraps up 33-year career In advance of rumored changes at the cluster, longtime exec Todd Cavanah exited Audacy Tuesday after 33 years at the company, in one form or another.  Cavanah began his career at WBBM-FM/B96 in 1990 as an on-air personality, associate program director, and music director, years before the original CBS, Inc. owned the station and before radio […]