The Media Notepad: Chicago Public Media to offer buyouts to selected employees of WBEZ, Sun-Times
Also: Meteorologist loses job due to social media post; new game show announced; Trump Country returns to SW Florida
With revenues falling short of expectations, WBEZ and Sun-Times owner Chicago Public Media announced Wednesday it was offering buyouts to certain employees, including journalists at the paper and business employees from the radio station. In a staff meeting Wednesday, newly installed CEO Melissa Bell stated CPM was looking to cut $3 million to $5 million from its budget through voluntary buyouts as the Sun-Times, which is facing a $12 million deficit in 2025. Philanthropic funding covers the budget through next year, but CPM wants to close the budget gap, and eliminating positions at the Sun-Times may be the only way to do so.
In a letter published in the Sun-Times on Thursday, Bell wrote the Sun-Times and WBEZ are committed to covering Chicago and appealed for donations. “We’re excited about this direction and what it promises for our readers and listeners,” she stated. “We’re on a path to creating a sustainable model for independent journalism that thrives in today’s media landscape.”
WBEZ newsroom employees, apart from the Sun-Times, are not being offered the buyouts.
The Sun-Times Guild was not happy with the news stating CPM should have done more to secure funding from philanthropists in the three years the non-profit has been in operation to avoid cuts. “While we understand this move is meant to cut long-term costs, it’s harder to swallow knowing the exorbitant executive salaries and bonuses we’ve seen CPM shell out in the past few years,” the union said in a statement.
For example, former CEO Matt Moog’s salary paid him $772,861 last year. Revenue for the Sun-Times was $27.9 million last year, down six percent from 2023, with the paper losing a little north of $1 million against $11.2 million in contributions and grants for fiscal 2024, according to an IRS tax filing obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
WBEZ made cuts last year, eliminating Vocalo and reducing its local programming to one hour a day, shifting much of its presence to digital. In her memo, Bell also stated her team is building a “Newsroom of the Future”, revitalizing their digital presence by combining their platforms into one website, reimagining the Sun-Times, and investing in innovation – building new audiences through new platforms. CPM claims its properties reach 4.3 million readers and listeners across Chicago.
CBS affiliate WDJT in Milwaukee fired Meteorologist Sam Kuffel Wednesday after posting criticism of Elon Musk on Instagram.
“Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said news director Jessie Garcia in a memo the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained. Kuffel posted criticism of what appeared to be a Nazi salute Musk gave at President Trump’s Inauguration on Monday. Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, is a Trump ally.
Conservative talk show host Dan O’Donnell from iHeartMedia’s WISN-AM noted her two Instagram posts and blasted Kuffel for “spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute” during the presidential inauguration and called her posts “vulgar.”
Musk denied he was giving a Nazi salute.
WDJT – whose calls stand for station founders and original license holders Debra M. Jackson and the late John Torres (yes, the initials are not named for you know who), was launched in November 1988 by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, owners of independent WCIU and MeTV. A CBS affiliate since 1994, WDJT is part of a cluster that includes independent WMLW and low-power stations WBME (MeTV), and Telemundo affiliate WYTU.
This comes at a time when station groups are lobbying the Trump administration to relax FCC ownership rules, including the number of how many stations one can buy in a market and either raising or eliminating the ownership cap, now at 39 percent. It also comes at a time when new chair Brendan Carr is cracking down on conservative bias in the news as he looks at complaints filed at the agency regarding CBS as Skydance is trying to buy its parent Paramount Global. Except to see more of this going forward as station groups and network-owned stations clamp down on what their employees do outside of the workplace – especially on social media.
With game shows a hot commodity in primetime (look to the success of CBS’ new Hollywood Squares as proof), first-run syndicators are jumping on the bandwagon as Keller/Noll, Crazy Legs Entertainment, and Playing Field Entertainment unveiled a new game show project, Scrambled Up, which they hope to sell to local stations and cable networks this fall.
The program is from producers Dave Noll and Cleve Keller, who also created CBS Media Ventures’ FlipSide. “So many places are looking for a big, colorful, fun, broad family show”, Noll told TVNewsCheck. “The industry has taken a turn away from narrowcasting and back to broadcasting.”
Not to be confused with Scrabble, Scrambled Up’s concept is where contestants have to unscramble word puzzles. Split into four rounds, contestants advance in a tournament-style event until the final person reaches the bonus round, where he or she could win $10,000 if a puzzle is unscrambled in less than a minute.
The show is currently in the planning stages, with at least 130 episodes set to go into production in Atlanta this summer (the number will likely increase since most stations double-run these types of shows.) No host has been named as of yet.
After a boom in the 1980s due to the success of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, game shows faded away in the 1990s after numerous high-profile failures such as Trump Card and Bill Cosby’s You Bet Your Life. It wasn’t until the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that game shows became cool again, becoming fixtures in prime time once again as it was in the 1950s before scandals erupted.
Currently, there are seven game shows in syndication, from longtime stalwarts Wheel, Jeopardy, and Family Feud to recent entries Pictionary, 25 Words or Less, and Flipside, which is expected to be renewed for a second season. Perfect Line from CBS Media Ventures, with host Deborah Norville, is also on tap for next fall and already sold to CBS’ independent stations.
With Donald Trump back in the White House, it’s only fitting the radio format inspired by him would return in Southwest Florida.
Ft. Myers/Naples’ WHEL-FM (licensed to nearby Sanibel) returned Trump Country to the airwaves Monday at Noon ET, the same time Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President, with Luke Combs’ “Hurricane” as the first song.
Also back is a Trump impersonator and the tagline “Make Country Great Again”.
Owner Sun Broadcasting drew national headlines when it first flipped to Trump Country in September 2020 from Active Rock. The format raised equal-time, campaign law, and NIL (name, image, likability) issues, such as using his name to promote the station. After Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 elections, the station rebranded as Hell Yeah 93.7 but maintained its country format.
After Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida in 2022, WHEL temporarily replaced the country music format with a Spanish-language one. Hell Yeah was shifted to a translator approximately a year ago for an all-Taylor Swift format on an interim basis and was discontinued on July 1. The Taylor Swift format segued into “Hot 93.7” a few days later as a Top 40 outlet, but drew even lower ratings than the country format it replaced.
Even though Trump Country finished well behind its in-market format competitors in its first life, WHEL feels the time is right to bring it back, given Trump’s popularity in Southwest Florida (he overwhelmingly carried Lee, Collier, and Charlotte counties in the 2024 Presidential election) and any legal concerns about using his name and likeness probably won’t be an issue as it was four years ago. The Ft. Myers-Naples market is one of the oldest skewing in the country, with 42 percent of the population in the 55-plus demo.