The Media Notepad: ABC 7’s Jim Rose the latest TV news personality to call it a career
Also: WBD inching closer to exiting RSN business; WGN to air ACC Football through The CW
[Editor’s Note: The second item in this post has been updated.]
We have another local TV personality announcing his retirement – this time it’s Jim Rose, the longtime ABC 7 (WLS-TV) sports anchor, who announced Monday he was stepping down from the station after 41 years as his contract with the station expires next month.
“They were just wonderful with the whole aspect of it, and I will tell you this: the quote I like to use is, nobody beats Father Time,” Rose told the Chicago Tribune. “Now that said, I turned 70 in July and I’m in excellent health. I get a health checkup every six months just because I want to, and my health is, as pilots say, right on the glide path and glide center. But this seemed like the perfect time to call it a career. I have had more of a career than a man is really entitled to.”
Born in Providence, R.I., Rose started his career at WPRI-TV and came to WLS in 1982 from Syracuse’s WIXT (now WSYR) and was a sports reporter/anchor for most of the time he was at the station, the longest-tenured employee currently at the station. At the time of his arrival, WLS was mired in last place among local TV news stations but in four years, shot to the top of the ratings where its remained ever since. In addition to sports, Rose co-hosted the Bud Billiken Parade for ABC 7 and inducted to the Silver Circle for the Chicago chapter of NATAS in 2013.
“The excellence Jim has shown as a reporter in the locker room and behind the anchor desk has been invaluable to us as a station,” said WLS president and general manager John Idler in a statement. “But even more important, Jim has served as a role model for countless young men in our community. Thank you, J.R., for these four remarkable decades.”
His departure has nothing to do with the possibility of ABC and its owned stations being on the sales block as Disney chairman Bob Iger has hinted he may sell his linear TV properties as the studio – like all others – are pivoting to streaming.
Rose’s retirement is the third in recent months in Chicago TV news circles, following the departures of Corey McPherrin earlier this month and Mike Flannery on June 30, both of Fox-owned WFLD. Anchor Alan Krashesky, who arrived at ABC 7 the same year Rose did, retired last year.
Rose departs September 15.
In the clearest evidence yet Weigel’s WCIU could be losing its CW affiliation – perhaps as early as next year, a TV listing for Saturday September 9 is showing Nexstar’s WGN-TV airing an ACC college football game between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh as The CW is airing its first sporting event outside of LIV Golf.
Looking to expand its sports portfolio, The CW announced last moth the acquisition of fifty college basketball and football games in a deal starting this September and lasting through the 2026-27 season. The CW plans to carry a football game every Saturday in either afternoon or primetime dayparts, and will air 28 men’s and nine women’s ACC basketball games starting in December (don’t look for any Duke-North Carolina matchups as those are the exclusive property of ESPN.) The package was the same one sold in syndication and to other RSN carriers, including Marquee Sports. The games are being produced by Raycom Sports, now owned by Gray who bought the former station group.
“We are thrilled to be adding The CW to our weekly television lineup for ACC football and basketball games,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “The CW’s national distribution will directly benefit our student-athletes, teams, alumni and fans. We appreciate ESPN and Raycom working together and look forward to the partnership with The CW.”
“We are committed to making The CW a destination for live, appointment-viewing sporting events,” said Dennis Miller, President, The CW Network. “The ACC is home to some of the most decorated college football and basketball teams in the country and we look forward to welcoming these avid sports fans to the network as we continue to broaden our audience.”
The CW recently acquired rights to air NASCAR Xfinity series starting in 2025.
But it appears WGN would be getting rights to all CW sports properties this season, as Nexstar now owns 75 percent of The CW. Earlier this year, WCIU passed on carrying LIV Golf tournaments, with Nexstar-owned WGN airing them instead. The future of “CW 26” is increasingly looking iffy as Nexstar is shifting its stations in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Tampa to CW affiliates Friday after the CBS-owned stations declined to renew their affiliation agreements after parent Paramount Global reduced their stake in the network from 50 percent to 12.5 percent, as did Warner Bros. Discovery.
Meanwhile, Nexstar has succeeded in filling holes in the remaining five markets where it doesn’t own a station including Atlanta (WPCH/Peachtree TV, the former WTBS), Sacramento (KQCA), Pittsburgh (WPNT), Detroit (WADL, where Nexstar affiliate Mission Broadcasting is in the process of buying the station), and Seattle, where The CW is moving to a newly-created subchannel of Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate KOMO.
Nexstar is also shifting The CW to its owned station in Oklahoma City – longtime independent KAUT, exiting Sinclair’s KOCB in the process.
Will Nexstar reunite The CW with its one-time affiliate WGN? Stay tuned, the answer’s coming soon.
It looks like the saga involving the future of AT&T Sportsnet is closer to ending as on Monday, the Boston-based Fenway Sports Group is taking over AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, currently home of the Penguins and the Pirates. The deal closes in October at the start of the NHL season.
Fenway owns a majority stake in NESN, the New England-based regional sports network who carries Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins games.
“With the recent changes at AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, Warner Bros Discovery, the Pittsburgh Penguins and NESN have been working collaboratively to ensure that fans have access to their favorite teams this fall,” the Penguins and Fenway said in a joint statement. NESN already has a direct-to-consumer option which let people buy an app for about $30 a month (without a cable/satellite subscription) and one would be developed for the Pittsburgh RSN as well.
This likely means the AT&T SportsNet name will likely change to NESN or NESN Pittsburgh, though it’s yet to be known if the Pirates would be along for the ride. The team could sign with Fenway, but could also let MLB take over production of the games next season similar to what the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres recently did after they left Bally Sports.
Meanwhile, AT&T’s Houston RSNs are expected to be taken over by the Astros and the Rockets in a joint venture as negotiations are still ongoing. Both teams were involved in the short-lived Comcast SportsNet Houston venture until it went bankrupt in 2013, with AT&T taking over operations a year later. Also, current AT&T Rocky Mountain tenant Colorado Rockies could join the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche at Altitude Sports Network, though the RSN is still not available on Comcast’s Xfinity systems, but adding the team could help them gain carriage.
Three other teams available in their respective AT&T Rocky Mountain regions – the Utah Jazz, (Las) Vegas Golden Knights, and Las Vegas Aces teams already moved on to new ventures with over-the-air and streaming partners.
Back in February, Warner Bros. Discovery announced they would close their AT&T SportsNet networks by March 31 but each earned a stay of execution as they pledged not to close them during the MLB season. But now that we’re in late August, Warner Bros. Discovery is now beginning to winding down the each operation.