I’ve noticed that hardly anyone has come up with a worst TV show list for 2008 (too easy, perhaps?) Maybe the economy was bad enough not to talk about any bad TV… Anyhoo, here are the worst, the inane, the horrible, horrible, stench of what was left behind in 2008 in terms of media – and remember, we’re not just […]
Happy New Year, everyone! Instead of listing just TV shows, yours truly has decided to include items other than TV shows in the annual Excellent 10 and Toilet 10 lists across this year. Two history-making events happening in 2008 – Michael Phelps’ Olympic Gold Medal run and Barack Obama’s acceptance speech here in Chicago after becoming the first African-American President […]
Longtime political reporter Andy Shaw is retiring from ABC-owned WLS-TV after 25 years.Shaw has covered the political beat at WLS since 1983, when he covered Harold Washington’s rise to history when he became Chicago’s first African-American mayor and ending with Barack Obama becoming the first African-American President – not to mention the fall of Governor Rod. Shaw began his television […]
Jeff Kiernan has been named the new news director at CBS-owned WBBM-TV (CBS 2), being charged of cleaning up the mess former news director Carol Fowler left. Kiernam is a native of nearby Munster, Ind., and has been in charge of news operations for CBS O&Os stations in Minneapolis (WCCO-TV) and Boston (WBZ-TV.) While at WCCO, Kiernan kept WCCO competitve […]
Score one for Chicago’s perennial news underdog: Fox-owned WFLD-TV’s coverage of the arrest of Governor Arrogant finished first in the ratings among adults 18-49 and second in adults 25-54 with its continuous coverage from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Moreover, they beat archrival WGN-TV at noon in adults 18-49. Also, all-news WBBM-AM’s website surged on Tuesday with page views jumping […]
Former WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson speaks out in candid detail in this interview conducted by Chicago Magazine’s Lucinda Hahn. Ms. Jacobson talks about the events that led to a downfall of her career – and her personal life, including the infamous videotape shot by rival WBBM-TV (the management running the station at the time has since departed) while she was […]
Well, it’s that time of year again… It’s Thanksgiving… and it’s time for the third annual T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards, celebrating the worst in media. Gobble, gobble… – Media Rights Capital’s Sunday lineup on CW. The network leases its Sunday lineup to MRC, and programs it with junk like Valentine and Easy Money. The results? CW’s ratings go […]
Foxhas announced it is trading in Sonic the Hedgehog – for a bunch of people riding around in Hoveround chairs. In a move that ends children’s programming on Fox after 18 years, the network announced it is dropping the 4KidsTV block it had been airing on Saturday mornings. This comes after 4Kids sued Fox for a refund, alleging it owed […]
Yeah, we knew this was coming: News director Carol Fowler of CBS-owned WBBM-TV was fired today after six years. She was brought in as a stooge of former general manager Joe Ahern, who was fired last month. During her tenure news ratings failed to move upward and still placed behind most of their rivals, including ABC-owned WLS-TV and CW affiliate […]
Yes, the tough economic times has yielded another unexpected result – competitors working with each other. NBC-owned and Fox-owned decided to pool their news-gathering sources with the title Local News Service, or LNS. This affects only markets where NBC and Fox O&Os are competing with each other. Chicago is included, along with New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Washington […]
ABC and its O&O in Chicago (WLS-TV) took home the ratings crown on Election Night, a night where Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. ABC led all networks on a national basis with 13.6 million viewers. Locally, ABC’s coverage led with WLS-TV leading the 10 p.m. hour (when Obama gave his victory speech) with a 17.6 household […]
Allison Payne, the co-anchor of WGN-TV’s 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. newscasts, is being sidelined again for the third time this year due to complications from “mini-strokes” she has been having for quite sometime now. Ms. Payne made the decision to take some time off so she can “fully rehabilitate”. Micah Materre will fill in alongside Mark Suppelsa on the […]
As what Amy Jacobson did a few weeks ago, the Stebic family has now followed “suit” with a suit of their own. Craig Stebic and his family filed suit against CBS and its owned TV station here (WBBM-TV) and a couple of principals involved, including GM Joe Ahern and news director Carol Fowler. Also named in the suit was anchor […]
I was stunned and a bit saddened when I read that Robert Feder was stepping down from his longtime position on the TV/Radio beat after 28 years at the Chicago Sun-Times to take a buyout. The Sun-Times offered employees who worked there more than 25 years a full year of pay and benefits and Feder took them up on the […]
More and more individuals from the Sun-Times are speaking their mind on Jay Mariotti’s sudden departure from the paper – and here’s the most notable of them all – Roger Ebert’s letter to Jay Mariotti – in which he calls Mariotti a rat – totally a great read. Also, baseball writer Chris De Luca weighs in on Mariotti’s departure. And […]
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