Presenting your new Loop girl
She is Kelly Campbell, from west suburban Lombard. She gets the lucky job of the representing the classic rock station for the next year – a.k.a. making appearances at high-profile events and promotions. Oh yeah…
Chicago to get new courtroom show
New court show from Warner Bros. featuring Jeanine Pirro to be taped here; new show is part of new Warner-supplied daytime block on CW Chicago is getting another television production to be beamed coast-to-coast. The new show from Warner Bros. is Judge Jeanine Pirro, a new daytime courtroom strip, which will be taped at NBC Tower, where Warner’s Judge Mathis […]
Chicago’s CBS stations to join forces to talk about crime
CBS-owned WBBM-TV and WBBM-AM are teaming up to air a town hall meeting on Saturday, May 10 called Speaking Truth: A Town Hall Meeting On Violence, which airs on both WBBM-TV and WBBM-AM (Newsradio 780) from 10 p.m to 11:30 p.m., with Channel 2 preempting their local newscast for this night only. The special is being held to call attention […]
WPWR acquires "Law & Order: SVU" strip
Fox-owned WPWR-TV has acquired Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a nightly strip from NBC Universal Television Distribution beginning in September 2009. SVU is already airing twice in syndication every weekend, where it has done exceptionally well. This comes as WPWR and nine other Fox-owned My Network TV affiliates are experiencing success with Law & Order’s sister show, Criminal […]
WGN, WPIX, KDAF sign deal with LATV
Three Tribune-owned stations – WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX-TV in New York, and KDAF-TV in Dallas have signed deals with bilingual digital network LATV. The Hispanic-targeted network is landing on one of the digital subchannels of each of the three stations. LATV replaces The Tube on these channels, which ceased operations last September. With the new adds, LATV now airs on […]
"Soul Train" derails
Music awards show is also gone -for now. But a Soul Train Movie is in development In the post below, I mentioned the fate of U.S. Farm Report, one of two programs which were left hanging after the shuttering of Tribune Entertainment. Now the other shoe has dropped for the other show. The Soul Train Music Awards was canceled this […]
Oh, that Jim Elia!
The week of April 25, 1983 was quite memorable. Harold Washington was elected Chicago’s first African-American mayor, yours truly celebrated his 11th birthday – and then- Cubs manager Lee Elia’s went nuts on the team’s fans! In an article in today’s Tribune, Teddy Greenstein talks about how Chicago news stations were jockeying to get a tape of a rant that […]
WLS-TV’s Cheryl Burton attacked downtown
And the violence is spreading to the Loop as well – WLS-TV reporter Cheyrl Burton was attacked along with five other people as a mentally ill man was wondering around the Loop, striking people with his fist randomly. Police have the person in custody.
WGCI stops the hits to address Chicago violence
Doing what they should be doing when a community in is crisis, WGCI-FM abruptly stopped playing music this afternoon and evening to address the shootings and killings that has plagued Chicago’s minority communities over the past week. The impromptu move came after five people were gunned down inside a house on Chicago’s South Side this afternoon. WGCI invited leaders from […]
WFLD gets Bears pre-season games and a whole lot more (updated)
Once again, the Chicago Bears have a new broadcast partner. And it’s with a Fox. This time, and for the first time, Fox-owned WFLD-TV will carry pre-season Bears games and is the new official television station of the team. WFLD outbid the previous carrier, NBC-owned WMAQ-TV. The move also means Spanish-language games broadcast over NBC’s WSNS-TV is also ending. WFLD’s […]
About WGN’s 60th Anniversary Celebration…
Good thing you didn’t take my advice. Yours truly did watch WGN’s celebration and it turned out to be well done. Jim Belushi actually did a decent job of hosting (yes, I’m surprised myself) – though he was a little wooden. Personally, I would’ve preferred Dean Richards or Bill Murray, but Belushi did an alright job. (This blog praising Jim […]
Larry Wert promoted (updated)
WMAQ-TV general manager Larry Wert has been promoted to president, Central and Western region, of the NBC Local Media Division. Among the stations Wert will be overseeing include WMAQ (which he’ll continue in his role as GM) and fellow NBC O&Os KNBC-TV Los Angeles, KXAS-TV Dallas, KNTV San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, and KNSD-TV San Diego. NBC also named a new GM […]
Collins, Lujack honored by different HOFs
The late Bob Collins was nominated to the Radio Hall of Fame in a long overdue move, while another Chicago radio legend (Larry Lujack) gets his induction into the National Association of Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame (scroll down.)
WLS-TV wins TV Week award
In the magazine’s TV Managers of the year, Midwest division -apparently, being number one for 22 years (as well as capitalizing on your competitors’ mistakes – and there are a lot of them) doesn’t hurt, either. And yours truly thinks this is obviously the right choice. Dominant ABC affiliates in Philadelphia (WPVI-TV), Dallas (WFAA-TV), and Atlanta (WSB-TV) and NBC affiliate […]