We’re back this week with the Worst Person in Media This Week award, after a break last week (because of the Thanksgiving holiday). Although Carson Daly (for crossing the picket line) is a worthy nominee, handing out this week’s WPIMTW award is a no-brainer… Usually we give these awards to media people and politicians who are involved in the business […]
Good news for local fans of the TV series Scrubs: WCIU-TV has acquired the second cycle of the hit NBC comedy from Disney/ABC Domestic Television beginning in the fall of 2009. The move means the program will stay in broadcast syndication and not head for an exclusive deal on cable, which many off-network sitcoms have recently done (i.e. Home Improvement, […]
A melancholy happy trails to John Drury. The former WBBM-TV, WLS-TV and WGN-TV news anchor who retired in 2002, lost his battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He died last night at the age of 80. Drury got his started in television at Milwaukee’s WTMJ, where he was a staff announcer. He began anchoring the news at the station […]
Still on holiday, but this news is important since this involves FCC action against a local TV station: WMAQ-TV, owned by NBC Universal, was hit with a $10,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission for failing to publicize the “existence and location” of its children’s TV programming reports. Click here for more details. Also on the FCC beat, former CBS […]
With the Pumpkin Pie Awards for Excellence Welcome to the second annual T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards. Once again, we’re here to serve up the disasters in media in 2007. I have nineteen turkeys to hand out… so let’s get gobbling! And this year’s awards go to… – The Chicago Bears. A Super Bowl hangover this year. And especially Rex […]
Weigel Broadcasting’s Chicago independent WCIU-TV scored another urban sitcom coup by acquiring CBS Television Distribution’s Everybody Hates Chris. The program will air in off-network syndication as a strip beginning in the fall of 2009, assuming the CW renews the show for next season. WCIU is likely to pair Chris with Debmar’s Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, another urban sitcom that’s […]
Former WBBM-TV anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson are reuniting to teach a graduate level class at Columbia College on a lecture course regarding local journalism. Starting in January, both men will serve as professors. Click on this link to see Kurtis and Jacobson speaking together at the Chicago History Museum last March, as part of the “Chicago Treasures” series […]
While Two and a Half Men tied the weekly CSI: Miami for top off-network show, there is a surprise strong performer in the race: Warner Bros.’ other new off-net sitcom, The George Lopez Show. The sitcom, which aired on ABC until this past season, averaged a season-high 2.7 household rating in the latest Nielsen report. Lopez’s performance is strong thanks […]
New weekend off-network hours that are making the rounds for syndication in 2008 have cleared Chicago stations. Boston Legal, the Emmy-award series from Twentieth Television, has cleared WLS-TV in Chicago for weekend runs next fall, as well as fellow ABC O&O’s in Los Angeles (KABC), San Francisco (KGO), and Houston (KTRK). Other stations clearing the hour include Scripps’ WXYZ-TV in […]
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 […]
Lincoln TV, the former Jefferson-Pilot station group, was sold to Raycom for $583 million. The group includes CBS affiliates WBTV in Charlotte and WCSC in Charelston, S.C., and NBC affiliate WWBT in Richmond, Va. Lincoln’s sports production unit was also sold, and will be folded into Raycom Sports. Lincoln (and its predecessor Jefferson-Pilot), was responsible for syndicating a package of […]
The current writer’s strike in Hollywood may further hurt TV stations’ bottom lines, which are already reeling from a soft ad market and tight spot ad inventory. Stations, especially network affiliates, need fresh programming in the last hour of prime time to lead into their late local newscasts. With network programming likely to go into reruns the longer the strike […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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