"This" launches Nov. 1

What’s “this” you ask? This TV. The new classic movie digital channel from MGM and Weigel finally debuts on Saturday on WCIU digital channel 26.4, WDJT digital channel 58.3 in Milwaukee, and in 30 other markets. The channel features movies from MGM libraries (not the pre-1986 library, which is owned by Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment) as well as a handful of […]

Lions knocked off TV

And the first NFL blackout of the year goes to… the Motor City (and not Oakland for a change…) The Detroit Lions game against the Washington Redskins won’t be seen in the Detroit area on Sunday over WJBK-TV, the market’s Fox affiliate (an O&O – or owned and operated.) WJBK will air two reruns of Cops and a movie instead […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

– The ALCS Game 7 between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays on TBS last night drew a record-setting 13.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated baseball game in cable TV history. Boston made a historic comeback in Game 5 being down 7-0 and winning the game 8-7, and winning Game 6. But the Rays beat Boston […]

Items of note

Usually this post would be called “T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag”, a roundup of media notes, but an item here is a tragedy and it involves a helicopter and a radio tower: -Four people were killed Wednesday Night when a medical helicopter slammed into the radio tower in Aurora of west suburban WBIG-AM. Three adults and an one-year old were […]

Bruno the Great

More on Joe Ahern’s sudden departure from CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago: – The Sun-Times Robert Feder looks back at the The Life and Times of Joe Ahern – his rise at WLS-TV and his fall at WBBM. It’s a rather critical look at what he accomplished – or actually didn’t accomplish – at the station. – Phil Rosenthal has a […]

Ahern out at Channel 2

One of the deacons at The Church of Tisch has been shown the door. WBBM-TV General Manger Joe Ahern was fired today after six years at the CBS-owned station, this after they moved into new digs on Washington Blvd. in the Loop and started broadcasting their news in HD. Replacing Ahern is Bruno Cohen, who is currently GM at CBS’ […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

Back to the future with KOFY Granite Broadcasting has decided to bring back the KOFY calls to Channel 20 in the Bay Area. The call letters were in use on the frequency between 1986 and 1998. The independent station, which serves the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market, was previously known as KBWB-TV, a holdover of when it was a WB affiliate. […]

T Dog’s Four on the Floor – Edition 7

Yes, the four feature is back! But with a new name. The feature that was Who’s in your four is now the much-catchier T Dog’s Four on the Floor. Why the name change? Because the previous one no longer made sense (and T-Mobile has scaled back national advertising, meaning no more “who’s in your five” spots.) And it’s not original. […]

Minneapolis, Cleveland TV stations worry about LPMs

If you think radio stations in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles are worrying about Arbitron’s Portable People Meters – then you haven’t seen anything yet. Television executives in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Cleveland are sweating it out over the next several months as Local People Meters – or LPMs, become the standard of measurement for television ratings measured by Nielsen. […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

In celebration of post number 1400, let’s see what’s in the bag (some celebration, huh?) – How about this? With the White Sox victory over the Twins in last night’s tiebraker game for the American League Central Division Title, both the Cubs and the White Sox are in the postseason for the first time in 102 years. But if you […]

More on "Dr. Oz"

In the same Feder column from today, Fox-owned WFLD-TV (as well as WNYW-TV in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles) have purchased Dr. Oz from Sony Pictures Television for next fall. WFLD plans to air the show at 4 p.m. as a lead-in to a planned 5 p.m. newscast that could also launch next fall. Oz would replace syndicated […]

"Mother" sold to WFLD and WPWR

Twentieth Television has sold off-network repeats of How I Met Your Mother to the WFLD/WPWR duopoly in Chicago beginning in fall 2010. The CBS comedy has been on the air since 2005, and has seen its ratings rise this past season as part of the network’s Monday night lineup. WFLD/WPWR has already picked up The Office for next fall. In […]

Denver, St. Louis stations combine operations

Local TV and Tribune Broadcasting have agreed to combine operations and certain programming under a plan to reduce overhead expenses with their respective TV stations in St. Louis and Denver, in which is being called a “virtual duopoly”. St. Louis’ KPLR (CW) and KTVI (Fox) are combining operations in their market, as is Denver’s KDVR (Fox) and KWGN (CW.) KPLR […]

Tennis fans cry fault to WTSP

WTSP, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg Florida (and future home of soon-to depart-from WFLD weather person Tammie Souza), decided not to carry the re-scheduled U.S. Open Men’s Final where Roger Federer scored his fifth straight U.S Open Championship and the move angered the lob gods. It was moved instead to the station’s digital weather channel. Viewers slammed WTSP […]

Tribune scrubs CW logos off its stations

Tribune has scrubbed The CW monkier off almost all of its’ affiliates websites, and its sending a message to the beleaguered network – improve your ratings. Tribune has even changed the branding of many of its CW stations. For example, WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C. goes by the name “DC 50” instead of “CW 50”. For KWGN-TV in Denver, it’s now […]