Rewinding media in 2024: Tough all over
Linear TV, Chicago sports struggles, and election results made it a year to forget
If you are a Chicagoan, 2024 sure as hell wasn’t your year.
You saw your city’s sports teams play abysmally, including a record-loss-setting feat for the White Sox and seeing the Bears getting mauled every week. You also saw your government – here or in the suburbs, degenerate into chaos. And if you’re a Democrat, you saw Trump returning to the White House and promising to make Chicagoans’ lives a living hell for another four years.
Meanwhile, linear TV is living in a hell of its own, as its future is threatened on numerous fronts.
At least it’s not 2020 when COVID-19 ravaged the world, but we are grateful to see it ended much like four years ago.
To make sense of it all, here’s our annual year-end wrap-up of the media scene in Chicago and elsewhere, for better or for worse:
Chicago Media
The biggest news was the February retirement of the city’s biggest TV star, WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling, after 46 years. Skilling understood the weather more than anyone and gained tons of respect from competitors, broadcasters, and viewers.
Skilling wasn’t the only media personality to call it a career in 2024 – so did ABC 7 traffic reporter Ron Varon. Also retiring are longtime ABC 7 VP of news Jennifer Graves and WGN-TV GM Paul Rennie.
Two on-air personalities also exited but found new homes: Drew Walker traded US99 for Alpha Country, and longtime Chicago Tonight host Paris Schutz exited WTTW to replace Mike Flannery at Fox 32 as political editor.
There was upheaval in sports media with anchors Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris exiting their positions at NBC 5 and CBS Chicago respectively, but now together on The Score at least on Wednesdays as Harris replaced Danny Parkins at the Audacy sports radio station, who went to New York to co-host the new Breakfast Ball on FS1.
Among executives, Hubbard Jimmy Steal left his position at Hubbard to start his consulting firm. Matt Moog finally exited Chicago Public Media six months after announcing he would do so and was replaced by Melissa Bell. Also on the outs was iHeartMedia Market Manager Matt Scarano, who was laid off last fall.
In other news, The CW returned to its original home of WGN-TV on August 31 after ten years away, allowing former affiliate WCIU to return to its “The U” branding. Another former CW affiliate (WPWR) also made a branding change, dumping “My50” and becoming Fox Chicago Plus, further strengthing its ties to sister station Fox 32.
Weigel successfully launched MeTV spinoff MeTV Toons in June, and two months later, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show came to town during the Democratic National Convention.
But the biggest non-Tom Skilling story was the closure of NBC Sports Chicago after 20 years as the Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox partnered with Standard Media to launch the new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) on October 1. Despite signing a deal with WJYS’ over-the-air digital subchannels to increase reach – something this space predicted, CHSN could not get on Comcast, Chicago’s largest cable provider. More successful was the launch of NextGenTV, as CBS Chicago became the first local station to launch a signal in February.
Chicago radio saw significant cutbacks in 2024, with the closure of Vocalo and WBEZ shifting more local programming from terrestrial radio to digital platforms. Cumulus’ WLS-AM canceled its local afternoon programming and fired morning personality Steve Cochran. B96 also pulled the plug on its low-rated Morning Mess and replaced it with another forgettable morning show. Also out was Rock 95.5’s Angi Taylor, who was swept out in the latest batch of iHeartMedia layoffs.
The year’s only format flip came when Hubbard dropped SHE-FM and replaced it with a millennial pop hits format, Throwbacks 100.3, whose ratings haven’t improved thus far.
There were ownership changes – Bankrupt Audacy was taken over by George Soros’ hedge fund, sparking outcry from conservatives, who despise the billionaire. Another saw progressive talk WCPT sold to Heartland Signal, and Matt Dubiel buying Aurora’s WBIG-AM/FM.
In January, former Q101 Justin Nettlebeck sued owner Cumulus for sexual and other kinds of harassment while he worked at the station.
2024 was a tough year for journalism in Chicago. The NABJ invited President Donald Trump to its convention here in August in a move blasted by some in the organization. Trump took advantage and embarrassed them on stage, leading one to wonder why they invited him in the first place. Meanwhile, CBS Chicago invited former Mayor Lori Lightfoot for expert analysis during the DNC, burying any bad beef between them. Like his predecessors, Mayor Brandon Johnson showed a lack of respect for the press during an October event that masqueraded as a political rally for Chicago Public Schools.
While Chicago Tribune staffers struck for 24 hours over wages for a day in January, its Editorial Board published a racist piece on the Sky’s Chennedy Carter fouling the Fever’s Caitlin Clark – something not new at the paper.
Sports and sports media
If you thought 2023 was a bad sports year in Chicago, 2024 was even more of a disaster. And the futility touched every pro team in town.
The White Sox set the mark for the worst MLB record with 121 losses in September, while the Bears season unraveled with a last-second meltdown in Washington on a Hail Mary attempt, as they haven’t won a game since. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has been uneven at best and took more sacks than anyone in his position. The horrible ownership and management of both teams are completely mindblowing and made Chicago even more of a national laughingstock than it usually is.
And speaking of the absolute worst, the White Sox replaced Jason Benetti with John Schriffen, the most unqualified person ever to do play-by-play.
The Blackhawks had their problems as they fired PBP man Chris Vosters after two seasons and replaced him with Rick Ball as the team continues to toll away in last place. Bulls fans made asses out of themselves by booing Jerry Krause’s widow at a Ring Of Honor ceremony in January while the Cubs couldn’t catch the Brewers in the NL Central.
Despite drafting Angel Reese, the WNBA’s Sky couldn’t benefit, and they failed to make the playoffs, which saw the league tremendously grow thanks to Caitlin Clark but also went through a lot of growing pains.
The 2024 Olympics were a smash hit for NBCUniversal with rating records and streaming numbers and we’re a nice aversion to the crap baseball Chicagoans had to endure. And speaking of baseball – the good kind, the World Series averaged its highest numbers in seven years thanks to a major market matchup between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The NBA finally received its huge payday with an eleven-year, $76 billion deal with the return of NBC and the addition of Amazon, leaving Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT without a seat when the musical chairs stopped, resulting in a lawsuit against the league. WBD reached an out-of-court settlement with the NBA and will continue producing its popular Inside The NBA show for ESPN starting in 2025.
The way we consume sports as viewers continued to change in 2024. As they climbed out of bankruptcy, a few of Diamond’s regional sports networks closed as teams moved their games to over-the-air television, streaming, or both. Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Fox created a joint venture called Venu to offer their sports properties at a lower price, but this was blocked by a federal judge, who had an anti-trust trial set for next year.
Netflix entered the ring with the WWE, bringing Raw to the streaming service starting next month, and snared two NFL Christmas Day games. But their transition to a major sports broadcaster was not without its hiccups as a well-publicized bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul was a bust, marred by technical glitches.
National media
2024 will be remembered for a lot in the wheeling and dealing department. A merger between DirecTV and Dish fell through (again) as did Detroit’s WADL sale to Mission Broadcasting. Paramount and Skydance’s on-again, off-again marriage was on again, while Walmart decided to become a set maker by acquiring Vizio (so they can grab consumers’ data). And Comcast announced it was spinning off its cable networks into a separate company.
Retrans fights were plentiful, with Disney and DirecTV the latest example.
The continued decline of linear TV was felt across the industry as channels were either scaled back or closed. Allen Media Group shuttered Weather Channel En Español and This TV after losing clearances on the ABC O&O stations. And while trade publication TVNewscheck nearly died, the same can’t be said for Broadcasting + Cable, who ceased publishing after 93 years. Amazon pulled the plug on the FAST platform Freevee, folding it into Prime Video.
And if that weren’t enough bad news for linear TV, President-elect Trump installed FCC commissioner Brendan Carr as Chairman starting next month and promises a crackdown on bias in the media as he criticized CBS for allegedly editing a Kamala Harris interview and NBC for running afoul of the equal-time rules by having her appear on Saturday Night Live. And if Elon Musk has his way, over-the-air TV would vanish altogether.
Despite a lower profile than in years past, the syndication business continued to chug along with Ryan Seacrest succeeding the retiring Pat Sajak as host of Wheel Of Fortune on September 9, while on the same day, Jaleel White returned to television as host of the game show The FlipSide. However, the longtime relationship between CBS and Sony over Wheel and Jeopardy soured as both companies sued each other over the terms of their contract.
The NFL Network’s GMFB: Overtime began its syndication, while Judy Sheindlin expanded her syndication empire with Freevee’s Judy Justice. Local stations traded in Bob Belcher for Bob The Sock Salesman as Bob Hearts Abishola and The Conners replaced longtime stalwarts Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy in syndication, but the latter relocated to Comedy Central and is returning to Adult Swim next month.
Despite streaming stealing the spotlight again, the broadcast networks had something to crow about this year, especially if you’re CBS. The network successfully remade its Thursday night lineup, adding Georgie and Mandy, Elsbeth, and Matlock, with the reboot’s first episode being the best TV of the year anywhere – and yes, that includes streaming. Tracker launched successfully after the Super Bowl, while The Simpsons‘ season premiere and Funday Football telecast made 742 Evergreen Terrace a cool place to hang out again.
To be sure, streaming shows still had the buzz and critical acclaim most linear TV shows lack. Among the faves were Max’s Penguin, Apple TV’s Shrinking, and FX/Hulu’s remake of Shogun, while TV’s worst was the unfunny Fox animated sitcom Universal Basic Guys.
Even though it was uneven throughout most of its run, the final few episodes of Young Sheldon produced some of the best TV last season dealing with George Cooper Sr.’s death. Other fan favorites we bid au revoir, too, were Blue Bloods, The Good Doctor, NCIS Hawaii, and Yellowstone. A few execs departed in 2024, with Paramount’s Bob Bakish and The CW’s Dennis Miller departing.
In Memoriam
The TV world lost pioneering Emmy-winning talk show host Phil Donahue in 2024, who hosted his show in Chicago for eleven of the 29 years his show was on the air. Another legend with Chicago ties – Emmy winner Bob Newhart, who died in July at the age of 94.
Another passing occurred last week when CBS Sports’ Greg Gumbel died at 78, who spent seven years as sports anchor at WMAQ-TV, from 1973 to 1980.
Other Chicago media figures who died in 2024 include former WGN Radio executive Dan Fabian, former WBBM-TV boss John Lansing, and WLUP host Liz Wilde.
Other notables who died in 2024 include actor James Earl Jones; game and talk show host Chuck Woolery; ex-football player (and infamous figure) O.J. Simpson; actress Linda Lavin; former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons; and former President Jimmy Carter.
Happy New Year from T Dog Media and we’ll see you in 2025!