T Dog’s Think Tank: “You Got Shteirized”

On Sunday, New York Times reviewer Rachel Shteir reviewed three Chicago based books. But the reviews were less about the books in question and more about Chicago itself. In her review, Shteir – who is also a professor at DePaul University and moved to Chicago thirteen years ago – talked about “poor Chicago” and used every stereotypical crack associated with […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Boston bombing coverage edition

Last week was a heinous one for the news media as the Boston Marathon Bombing took place – not to mention an explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, which killed fifteen people and injured hundreds. Chicagoans had their own problems to deal with, as heavy rains brought flooding to the area, adding to the workload for already stressed-out […]

The Grab Bag: “Extra” renewed through ’17

But several others get the ax, including “America’s Most Wanted” and “Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated” – Warner Bros. has renewed syndicated entertainment news magazine Extra through 2017, covering 85 percent of the country, including WMAQ-Ch.5 here, who airs the series weekdays at 4 p.m. The deal includes WMAQ and seven other NBC-owned stations, in addition to outlets in the CBS, […]

Fox threatens to move its programming to cable

Is this legitimate? Or nothing more than an empty threat? Who’d thought something as small as a dime-sized antenna would cause this much trouble? The industry was a buzz about on Monday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters gathering in Las Vegas after comments made by News Corp. president and COO Chase Carey in the opening session, threatening to remove Fox […]

Nils Larsen out at Tribune

There’s a lesson to be learned – The Chicago Way usually doesn’t work outside of City Hall. As first reported by Chicagoland Radio and Media on April 2, Tribune fired Nils Larsen as president and CEO of Tribune Broadcasting. Larsen  joined Tribune in December 2008 during the Randy Michaels-Sam Zell era. Typical to how things work in Chicago politics, Larsen […]

WVON at 50

On Monday, WVON-AM turned 50 years old. Even though the station went through numerous frequency dial changes (1450 AM to 1390 AM to 1450 again to its current home of 1690 AM), the mission was the same – to entertain and inform Chicago’s African-American community. WVON (which originally stood for “Voice Of The Negro”, now “Voice Of The Nation”) launched […]

When analysts attack

Kendall Gill suspended indefinitely from CSN analyst role It’s never a dull day in Chicago media. The latest Barrel O’ Fun moment came last week in a rather bizarre incident between Comcast SportsNet Chicago Bulls analyst Kendall Gill and Big Ten Network’s Tim Doyle at CSN Chicago’s River North headquarters. According to Crain’s Chicago Business sports blogger Danny Ecker – […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: “Ellen” renewed through 2017

– Good news for fans of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show: Warner Bros. has renewed the strip through 2017 on more than twenty station groups, including all ten of the NBC-owned stations. Airing on WMAQ in Chicago at 3 p.m., Ellen is the top-rated program among women 25-54 in the time period, besting rival talkers Katie, Dr. Phil, and Maury. […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Harry Teinowitz out at ESPN 1000

– I guess he ain’t “winning” anymore: Harry Teinowitz is out as afternoon co-host at ESPN 1000 (WMVP). Teinowitz, who was paired up with John “Jurko” Jurkovic and Carmen DeFalco for the 2-6 afternoon shift, was given his walking papers Thursday after twelve years at the ESPN-owned radio station. Jurko and Carmen will continue with the show for the time […]

Analysis: ABC 7 dominates February sweeps… well, almost

Say with me everybody… ABC-owned WLS-TV (ABC 7) dominated the local news competition during the sweeps – this time is the February “book”, as it has done since 1987 (excluding Olympic years.) According to information obtained by Chicagoland Radio and Media, WLS won almost all local news time slots in households and the key adult 25-54 demo, with one major […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Chicago Tribune on the sales block

The Tribune Co. Unofficially puts its papers on the block; Oscar viewership is up over a year ago; and more Mancow is headed to your TV: – It looks like the Chicago Tribune is up for sale. As first reported by CNBC on Monday, the 166-year old paper and others in the chain are on the block by creditors who […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: “Hey, these things just snap right off.”

Okay, yours truly hasn’t done a winners and losers listing lately. Because finding winners in this industry is too hard to find? T Dog’s Six Pack is back with a hot Blackhawks team, while unless you’re CBS, network television has gone ice cold. Winners. The Chicago Blackhawks. This team is so hot, they’re practically melting the ice they play on! […]

Larry Wert heads to Tribune Broadcasting

In a move that is widely being praised by many local and national media observers, current WMAQ general manger and Chicago-area native Larry Wert was named the new president of local broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting on Wednesday. Poaching Wert from NBC is the biggest move Tribune has made yet since Peter Ligouri took over as CEO, which is coming off a […]

Swearin’ Super Bowl Sunday

  Super Bowl XLVII down from last year, but still pulls in an audience; CBS to be investigated for F-bomb; and so is WMVP for unrelated incident The Super Bowl matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers drew a huge audience on Sunday – but not as high as the two previous Super Bowls. According to Nielsen […]

More OTA choices coming to Chicago

Many viewers without cable or satellite in the Chicago area got good news – in threes as two lower stations – and owners of three full-powered rivals – beef up their diginet slate: – It seems like an unholy alliance from a Star Wars movie: Fox and Weigel are teaming up to launch Movies!, a new 24-hour diginet featuring uncut […]