Cubs dominate the ratings

This summer’s reality shows are taking a back seat to the ultimate reality show: The Cubs chase for the National League’s Central Division Championship. Wednesday night’s Dodgers-Cubs game was the highest rated program in prime-time and the entire broadcast day in Chicago, according to Nielsen with a whopping 11 rating and 19 share (second item. Yeah, there’s a first item, […]

WPWR gets more movies for weekends

Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution announced a deal with ten Fox-owned My Network TV affiliates, including WPWR-TV in Chicago, for their new 35-title movie package. It was also sold to 123 other markets, bringing the clearance rate to 90 percent of the U.S. Titles include Batman Begins, March of the Penguins, Million Dollar Baby, Ocean’s Twelve, and two Harry Potter […]

WCIU’s fall schedule

Weigel-owned independent WCIU is out with its fall schedule. To see it, click here (Adobe Acrobat required.) Pretty stable schedule, particularly in daytime…. Notables: -Jury Duty, a new syndicated courtroom show (yeah, we need another one of those) with C-list celebrities serving as jurors, airs at 9 a.m., beginning Sept. 17. –CBS Television Distribution’s Half & Half, a former UPN […]

WPWR’s fall schedule

We’re gonna turn it on… we’re gonna turn on the power… at Fox-owned WPWR this fall. But the power’s been off for a few years now at the station. Like other big-market MNT affiliates (WWOR and KCOP in N.Y. and L.A., respectively), WPWR has performed poorly, often placing last in total-day ratings among Chicago’s English and Spanish commercial TV stations. […]

T Dog Media Think Tank: Nine-FM’s not an alternative

Yours truly remembers two years ago when Nine-FM – the triplecast of WDEK, WKIE, and WRZA – ran promos that stated “Give corporate radio the finger.” But today, it seems that a corporate radio-like atmosphere has taken over Nine-FM – and it’s not owned by one of the big radio chains. It’s a issue that’s being debated hotly on Chicago […]

Matt DuBiel heads to "The River"

Matt DuBiel has resigned as programming director and afternoon personality of the Nine-FM triplecast (WKIE,WDEK,WRZA-FMs) to become operations manager at NextMedia’s WERV-FM (95.9), or “The River” in west suburban Aurora. DuBeli will also have an airshift to be determined later. He will join the classic rock station on Sept. 10. For more on Nine-FM, check out the T Dog Media […]

Yes, CSN!

While basketball and hockey playoff ratings were dead in the water this past spring, The New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs are on fire this summer, and so are the regional sports networks that carry them. Tuesday’s Brewers-Cubs game on Comcast SportsNet drew a 8.1 Nielsen rating, easily outranking other fare on both broadcast and cable in the Chicago […]

The Fall of Me

Thanks to Sitcoms Online, we’ve got the complete fall lineup for Weigel’s retro TV station WWME-TV, or MeTV. To see the schedule, click here. As mentioned before, new to the schedule are The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Cosby Show, and Cheers (which is now airing on sister WCIU.) Bonanza and Taxi (debuts 10/1) are also joining the weekday schedule, […]

WGN’s, WFLD’s new weekday fall lineups

Have WGN’s and WFLD’s weekday fall lineup, courtesy of Zap2it. Among the changes starting Sept. 10 (unless otherwise noted): WGN: -As noted before, Family Guy will air at 6:30 and 10, and Two and a Half Men will air at 6 and 10:30. – Teacher vs. student – The Steve Wilkos Show will air at 2 p.m. -up against Jerry […]

What’s old is new again

Editor’s Note: The link provided in this story may require registration. Fox-owned WFLD is changing the name of its 7-9 a.m morning show back to Good Day Chicago, the original name of the morning newscast which launched in June 1993. After a slow ratings start, the show changed to Fox Thing In the Morning in January 1994 when Bob Sirott […]

The T Dog Media Blog Think Tank: White Sox sliding into oblivion

This story from Crain’s Chicago Business from the previous week has an item about the Chicago White Sox – the 2005 World Series Champions who are struggling on the field this year – and in the ratings and at the box office, too. As a result, the team has decided to put its ad agency account up for review. Like […]

Local news stations flunk geography quiz

From WMAQ-TV’s (Channel 5) website this afternoon: CHICAGO — The National Weather Service in Chicago has issued a tornado warning for portions of Cook and DuPage counties. The warning is in effect until 4 p.m. CDT. At 3:09 p.m., NWS radar indicated strong rotation in a severe thunderstorm near Winfield, moving east at 50 mph. A second warning was issued […]

"Insider "moved back to 5 p.m.

This move must have bombed in the ratings: WCIU is moving The Insider back to 5 p.m. from 6 and to 11 p.m. from 10:35 p.m. next Monday (Aug. 27) instead of waiting for Sept. 10 when newly syndicated repeats of The George Lopez Show takes over at 6 p.m. Girlfriends, which is being withdrawn from broadcast syndication nationwide on […]

Radio rating trend

First trend for Chicago stations – WGN a dominant number one (thanks to the Cubs), with WGCI (and WLIT) performing like the White Sox…

Tribune sale sunk?

It looks like Wall Street isn’t high on the sale of the Tribune Co. to Sam Zell, given Tribune’s sinking sale price. And yours truly is having second thoughts about the sale, which would keep all the properties (except the Cubs) together, even though this blog voiced support for the sale and to keep the media properties intact – but […]