To: Our Readers Over the last fourteen months, I have had the pleasure of writing about TV and radio to you, and we’ve had some fun along the way. But let me tell you something. When people – notably those who hate the media business (radio and TV) and say I’m wasting my time writing this blog, I say to […]
Last night’s first Chicago Blackhawks home game against the Detroit Red Wings averaged a household rating of 0.8, according to Nielsen Media Research. While that number seems disappointing (after all, it’s hockey), it was an improvement over the 0.4 rating it has averaged so far this season, it tied an October 31 game against Dallas for the season high (0.8), […]
After fourteen months on the air (and maybe a moral victory for Mancow), Alternative outlet WKQX (or Q101) has deep-sixed the The Morning Fix. The station is dumping comedy elements from its morning show and is keeping a skeleton staff on hand to do traffic, weather, and sports and re-foucsing its efforts on music in the daypart. The move comes […]
Let’s see what’s going on in local markets around the country: -According to Nielsen, KETC-TV in St. Louis was the nation’s highest-rated public TV station in October, even outperforming WTTW in Chicago. The station’s total-day ratings were up 8 percent from a year ago and up 39 percent in primetime. It’s same to assume that this station outdraws Sinclair’s weak-kneed […]
Syndicated radio personality Delilah is out at WLIT-FM after seven years at the station. Her last show was on Monday. Her replacement is John Symons, late of WILV-FM and its predecessor, WNND-FM. He is bringing his Love Notes show to the station beginning on Thursday. Love Notes originated on WNND in 1997. Symons will host Love Notes live Monday through […]
Hawks also looking for over-the-air broadcast partner The Chicago Blackhawks and Comcast SportsNet held a press conference yesterday to announce the home-game schedule that will air on the regional sports net. Click here to view the official press release and the schedule. The first of these games airs this Sunday, with the Hawks hosting the Detroit Red Wings at 6 […]
Anyone who had WCKG become Fresh 105.9 in the format pool – you win! The new Adult Contemporary format launched at 5 p.m. today. The station’s target audience is women 25-54 (or somewhere in between), the same as crosstown competitor WLIT, who switched to Christmas music on Friday. According to yes.com, here are the first five songs played on the […]
As expected, NBC has dumped the Bears-Seahawks game from Sunday Night Football on November 18 for what else? The undefeated New England Patriots against some team that will lose against them. I guess NBC doesn’t want another sinking ship on its schedule (it already has Heroes.) Bears-Seahawks has been rescheduled for 3:15 p.m. (CT) on Fox.
WCKG planned to switch to Christmas music at 7 p.m. tonight. That is, until WLIT launched its all-Christmas format at 8:30 this morning. Speculation centered on two Christmas formats competing for listenership. But late this afternoon, WCKG abandoned that plan at the last minute. Instead, they are running Dahl clips, as they have been doing all week long, until at […]
As of 8:30 this morning, WLIT is now your Jingle Bells all the time station, ahead of WCKG, which is switching to all-Christmas tonight at 7 p.m.
In a cost-cutting move, Fran Preston – who was vice president, station manager, and program director of CBS-owned WBBM-TV, was let go yesterday when her position was eliminated by CBS management. Preston worked with boss Joe Ahern at ABC-owned WLS-TV during their heyday and was a 24-year veteran of the station, has been at WBBM since 2002.
Contradicting a earlier report that WCKG was going to flip to Adult Contemporary on Friday, Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune is reporting that WCKG will flip to an all-Christmas music format instead, beating WLIT to the punch. WLIT has aired the Jingle Bells format for years during the Christmas season. In fact, WLIT had a countdown clock on it […]
Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun-Times took the hatchet on this Halloween to WBBM-TV boss Joe Ahern. In his article, he says it’s time for him to make like Michael Jackson and beat it. Ouch! I’m not going to make hay over this article, since yours truly pointed out the problems WBBM has in previous posts. But this is the […]
– As reported here last week, CBS Television Distribution’s new hour-long medical talk show The Doctors (working title) has cleared 50 percent of the country, and has been declared a firm go for next fall. It has been confirmed that Weigel’s WCIU-TV has picked up the show, but in a surprise move, the program will air in Chicago at 5 […]
Days before WCKG-FM flips its FM Talk outlet to something else, south suburban WYKT-FM in Kankakee flipped from oldies to become My 105.5 FM, a new contemporary-hit radio station yesterday morning. The move to CHR/Top 40 gives Kankakee and surrounding areas (Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno, and Momence, among others) a format reminiscent of the old WBUS-FM 99.9, or “The Bus”, which […]
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