It’s official: the alternative rock format, which vanished from the 101.1 frequency in 2011 after Merlin Media took over, returned Friday morning at 9 a.m. prompt, simulcasting sister station WKQX/87.7 FM for a period of 30-45 days. The move came a week after Cumulus announced it was taking over operations of three Merlin Media stations in Chicago. According to Radio […]
Tribune Broadcasting scores a hat trick of good ratings Sunday and Monday Is no-longer-bankrupt Tribune Broadcasting becoming a “must watch” destination? Chicago’s WGN-TV lit the ratings lamp twice with a Blackhawks game Sunday night and Monday morning news coverage. Meanwhile, a few Tribune stations outside of Chicago lit the ratings lamp of their own Monday with the premiere of a […]
While 2013 is over and done with, its time to focus on what’s going to happen in 2014. Here are the top ten things to look for, in Chicago and beyond: 1. Aereo. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide this month whether or not they would hear the lawsuit brought by the major broadcast networks against the two-year old tech […]
Happy New Year! In 2013, a few have complained that they had a difficult time compiling a top ten best show list because there are – get this – too many good shows. Wow, how come yours truly didn’t have this problem? If we indeed are in “A Golden Age Of Television”, someone failed to notify yours truly. After all, […]
– Seth MacFarlane teaches fans a lesson – but it’s not the one you think – A test of fan loyalty – Jumping With The Sharks Yours truly was in the process of writing a Think Tank about Brian Griffin, the dog who died on Family Guy recently, and how it would affect the program going forward, both creatively […]
FCC approves purchases; deals close It’s a Holiday Week edition of the Grab Bag – will it be presents or several lumps of coal? Let’s find out: Both Gannett and Tribune received presents in their stockings thanks to the FCC approving their deals on December 20. Gannett purchased Belo last summer, while Tribune announced their takeover of Local TV, LLC […]
– But game still tops evening both locally and nationally – Also: Bulls ratings remain strong despite Rose’s injury – The Church Of Tisch does it again The Bears’ performance against the Philadelphia Eagles had to be the most pathetic thing to air on NBC since Do No Harm. Or Animal Practice. Or Welcome To The Family. Or Pink Lady […]
In a long overdue move, Disney-ABC Television Distribution canceled second-year daytime talk show Katie, with Katie Couric. The series is wrapping up production in June 2014. The handwriting for Katie was on the wall when Couric exited ABC a month ago to join Yahoo for an estimated $6 million a year. Even though Yahoo would let Couric continue with her […]
If there was one name associated with sports television in Chicago, it would be Jim Corno. Sadly, Corno passed away Tuesday at the age of 66 due to complications resulting from cancer. Corno’s career spanned more than forty years in the television industry, most notably for successfully running four sports channels in Chicago, known today as “regional sports networks”, or […]
Also: WLS-TV dominates November ratings With the NATPE gathering just weeks away, syndicators are gearing up their sales teams to pitch new projects for the fall of 2014, including Celebrity Name Game (see below) and The Real – both recently receiving “firm gos”. Several freshman and sophomore series are on the bubble including Queen Latifah, The Arsenio Hall Show, Katie, […]
In other news, rushed Ventra card special on WTTW strikes out A lot of people were hating it on social media (including yours truly), but viewers were fleeing into the entrances Thursday night to see Carrie Underwood in a live staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound Of Music Live! on NBC. The three-hour special – the first live network […]
It’s not everyday yours truly reports about a message board, but this is one a lot of those in the industry participated in and lurked at: the Radio Discussions message boards, whose origins lie within the original Radio-Info site, abruptly closed its doors Tuesday with really little explanation or advanced notice. An announcement regarding the site’s closure is what you’ll […]
– As first reported by Robert Feder, Newsweb WCPT-AM announced it was launching a new weekly program targeted to Chicago’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. Titled Out Chicago, host Scott Duff takes on issues relevant to the LGBT community in the Windy City and surrounding area. WCPT also plans to air Out Chicago vignettes, from 6 a.m. to […]
Rogers to sublicense games to CBC; TVA gets exclusive French-language rights; Bell Media’s TSN shut out In one of the biggest TV deals in North American history, Canadian cable giant Rogers Communications – which was founded as a vacuum tube company in 1925 and pioneered FM Broadcasting in Canada in the 1960s, reached a 12-year, $5.25 billion pact with the […]
CSN Chicago and WGN-TV face challenges to keep viewers Monday was a gray and gloomy day in Chicagoland and the city’s mood certainly matches the weather. (And your mood is probably worst if you’re a Family Guy fan…) Of course, we’re talking about the Derrick Rose’s second knee injury in nineteen months, suffered in a game against the Portland TrailBlazers […]
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