The late-night battle for viewers is quite fierce. Battling for audience – and all those ad dollars, you have Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson, George Lopez, Chelsea Handler, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Monique, and Frank Woolanski. Wait a minute… who’s Frank Woolanski?? In news first reported by CRM yesterday, Tribune-owned WGN-TV announced it […]
For the first time in a long time, its been an active time here on the blog with a lot of breaking local radio news and the demise of Q101- and its only going to get busier with Comic-Con and the Television Critics Association Press Tour coming up and Fresh 105.9’s musty smell finally going away. Summer vacation? There’s no […]
In news that first broke Thursday afternoon by Robert Feder on Twitter, CBS radio has finally pulled the plug on WCFS-FM, or Fresh 105.9 after three-and-a-half years of underperforming ratings and is replacing the Adult Contemporary format with a simulcast of top-rated WBBM-AM beginning on August 1st. The move could be read as a preemptive strike against Merlin Media, which […]
These days when a format change takes place at a radio station, it usually happens without notice and the radio personalities are usually thrown out onto the street without the chance to say goodbye. Thankfully, that won’t be the case Thursday as WKQX-FM (Q101) prepares to shift from Alternative/Modern Rock to either all-News or News/Talk. Before handing the keys over […]
Remember when Merlin Media purchased a majority stake in WLUP-FM, WKQX-FM (Q101), and New York’s WRXP-FM from Emmis Communications and said it would take weeks for them to take over all three outlets, perhaps as soon as mid-August. Well, scrap that: those changes now take place this week. Merlin announced today it will take over the operations of all three […]
THIS was the announcement fans of Steve Dahl have been waiting for weeks? Speculation on “the big news” to be announced Monday at 12 Noon ranged from Dahl heading to Merlin Media to host a talk show at WKQX, a return to WLUP, or even a gig at WGN Radio. And when noon hit, this was “the big announcement”: if […]
For the first time ever, the three items in the Winner’s circle this week are all radio items – how about that? (of course its summer, and there’s very little TV news to report on. But still….)Winning Attitude. John Williams. WGN Radio’s John Williams raised more than $25,000 during his Thursday show for the Animal Welfare League to replace air […]
RTV: The R stands for “ruined”. – Good news for fans of Richard Roeper and Roe Conn – the duo at WLS-AM signed a three-year contract extension to continue their successful afternoon show through the year 2014. The move come as Cumulus is about to take over Citadel Communications, owners of WLS-AM and FM in a merger. If you want […]
More X Factor for everyone – whether we want it or not. This week, Randy Michaels makes a comeback – which sends the Alternative Rock format on the ropes; and the Crosstown Classic – not to mention interleague baseball – is a flop. The week’s winners and losers: Winners Randy Michaels. If this was on an ethics level, The Court […]
The Court Jester rides again. In a move that took everyone by surprise, Emmis Communications sold controlling interest in WLUP-FM (The Loop) and WKQX-FM (Q101) and a New York City station (WRXP-FM) to a constroium headed by former Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels and Chicago-based equity group investement group GTCR, Inc. The news was first reported yesterday as a tip […]
It’s like saying Power 92 is #1 in the Streets! Yep, it’s been a week of mistakes for some – ask the Miami Herald and the Toronto Star who declared some teams champions last week when they weren’t, and for anyone who went into Downtown Vancouver Wednesday evening. It’s not just some bizarre universe where Dewey defeated Truman for President […]
If you thought the 4:30 a.m. news craze was something… wait ’til you hear about the next one in the works – the 4 a.m. news craze. Tribune’s WGN-TV announced today it is launching a new 4 a.m. newscast beginning on July 11th, becoming the first station in the Chicago market to expand into the half-hour. The move comes as […]
Sorry, you guys never really were. It’s an all-local version of The Grab Bag! News and notes from Chicago media: – In news that broke Friday evening on Chicagoland Radio and Media’s website, Urban Contemporary WPWX-FM (Power 92) has drastically changed its weekday lineup by cutting loose several of its on-air personalities including late morning host Trey Da Chocolat Jock, […]
In a move which leaves neither big-time Chicago newspaper without a television critic, The Chicago Sun-Times fired Paige Wiser after a little over two years on the job after submitting several inaccuracies in a Glee Live! concert review, an offshoot of the popular Fox series. Wiser had been with the paper for the last seventeen years, mostly as an entertainment […]
Aqua Fraud? In this edition of the Six Pack: The biggest Oprah Winfrey diss ever, Chicago’s news media possibly aiding and embedding a cover-up by city officials, and a sequel of a series that turned out not to be a sequel after all: Winners WFTV and Bob Jordan. WFTV news director Bob Jordan (no relation to WGN-TV’s Robert Jordan) […]
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