In a sale that could alter the power structure among which station groups purchase off-net sitcoms – and other programming in the future, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has sold CBS Monday night comedies Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls to Weigel broadcasting’s WCIU in Chicago and to thirteen non-CBS affiliated stations owned by CBS Corporation for fall 2014 […]
In one fell swoop Tuesday, Clear Channel-owned WNUA-FM swung the ax to Spanish CHR Mega 95.5 and replaced it with a Regional Mexican format – El Patron 95.5 at approximately noon. Regional Mexican is the most popular music format among Hispanics in the U.S., and WNUA plans to take on two other stations with the same format – Univision’s heritage […]
A lot of stuff in this grab bag this week: – What’s this? A historic low for WGN Radio? The Tribune-owned talker . Even with Cubs baseball (and the you know the team sucks this year), WGN finished behind WVAZ (V103) and WTMX (The Mix) and also behind WBBM-AM and WDRV (The Drive). Other May PPM highlights include WGCI’s return […]
Some sad news to start off this edition of notations: Emmy-award winning actress Kathryn Joosten died on Sunday after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 72. She was best known for her portrayal of presidential secretary Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing, and most recently, the nosy neighbor on Desperate Housewives. Born in Eustus, Fl. in […]
John Idler has been named President and General manager to succeed Emily Barr at ABC-owned WLS-TV here in Chicago. Idler takes over the position immediately, from a similar post at ABC-owned WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Barr left WLS a few weeks ago in order to take an executive position with Post-Newsweek TV station group, succeeding retiring Alan Frank. Idler takes […]
(Editor’s Note: The original version of this post stated that the Chicago White Sox had a nine-game LOSING streak when in fact, they had a nine-game WINNING streak. T Dog Media regrets the error and apologizes. This also makes yours truly qualified to work in the Los Angeles news media, where I can botch up names of Los Angeles Kings’ […]
On May 20, yours truly sent out a tweet stating the local stations did a good job on NATO coverage. Well, I’ve re-thought that statement – particularly after reading this brilliant guest commentary from Rich Jasculca at Crain’s Chicago Business’s website, and the feedback section (except for one comment) was also spot on. As Jasculca pointed out, the media coverage […]
Howard Shapiro, chairman of Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, died from pneumonia today at the age of 86. A graduate in electronic engineering from Purdue, Shapiro was a electronics dealer, with a business called C.E.T. (Chicago Engineers of Television) and was one of the first advertisers who bought commercial time on WCIU, which was launched by the Weigel family in 1964, becoming […]
As you know by now, Chicago is hosting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit at McCormick Place this coming Sunday and Monday. There are numerous street closures, parking restrictions, bus reroutes, and train station closures. Security is being beefed up all over town, including on public transportation and in downtown office buildings. And oh yeah… there’s going to be […]
Emily Barr, who has led ABC-owned WLS-TV here in Chicago as vice president and general manager, is exiting the station after fifteen years for a post with Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc. Barr is replacing current President and CEO Alan Frank, who is retiring after thirty years with the company. Post-Newsweek (a divison of the Washington Post Co.) is a chain of […]
For the last few months, Chicago-area radio listeners had no alternative rock station. As of Sunday night, Chicago-area radio listeners have… two? In a surprise move, Elmhurst-based WJJG-AM (1530) flipped from talk to Alternative Rock Sunday night – a day before Merlin Media was supposed to launch its new Alternative format on WKOX-LP (formerly Smooth Jazz outlet WLFM-LP, on 87.7 […]
WGN-TV anchor Mark Suppelsa released a statement Friday evening, announcing he was taking a leave of absence from the station for a month and is admitting himself to a rehabilitation facility in Minnesota to battle an alcoholism problem. To read his statement to WGN staff and to viewers, click here. Suppelsa has been co-anchoring the station’s 5 p.m. and 9 […]
If you’re been driving around Chicagoland for the last few weeks, you probably have noticed former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich unintentionally shilling for WIQI-FM, Merlin Media’s all-news station on 101.1 FM. The ads come months after Merlin purchased controlling interest in the former WKQX-FM from Emmis and launched on all-news format August 1 and basically took their sweet time […]
It’s time for T Dog Media’s weekly (or actually bi-monthly… okay, occasional) look at the winners and losers in the world of media: Winners NHL. Despite the hand-wringing over the increase in violent play in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs (i.e. Phoenix Coyotes’ Raffi Torres violent hit on the Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa), ratings for the NHL postseason are up […]
Format change takes place this Monday Merlin Media announced today it was taking over operations of low-power frequency WLFM (87.7 FM) and is flipping the Smooth Jazz format to Alternative Rock on Monday. WLFM’s owner (Venture Technologies, LLC), will continue to own the station and the station’s license. Merlin already owns classic rock WLUP-FM and all-news WIQI-FM, which replaced former […]
ABC ABC-Owned Stations ABC 7 Chicago American Idol CBS CBS Chicago CBS Media Ventures CBS News And Stations Chicago Bears Chicago Blackhawks Chicago Bulls Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox ESPN Family Guy FCC Fox Fox 32 Fox Television Stations Los Angeles Milwaukee NBC NBC 5 NBC Owned Television Stations NBCUniversal Syndication Studios New York City Nexstar Media Group Radio Ratings Sinclair Inc. Syndication The Big Bang Theory The CW The Simpsons Tribune Media Warner Bros. WBBM-TV Chicago WCIU Chicago WFLD Chicago WGN-TV Chicago WGN Radio WLS-AM Chicago WLS-TV Chicago WMAQ Chicago WPWR Chicago