I said I was going to return Tuesday, but I just had to post this… From Sunday’s Trib: O.J. blunder hardly a first for television And here are some more.. From Mediaweek’s Marc Berman (subscription may be required): TV Turkeys, Part 3 I can go on forever adding to the list of blunders…. USA Today on TV, The Chevy Chase […]
Welcome to the first annual T Dog Blog Turkey Awards. We’re here to reward stupidity and simpletonism in the fields of broadcasting and in media in 2006 (so far.) Judging by the long list of winners (or shall we say “losers”? ), 2006 was a busy year for being stupid, ignorant, lame, boring, moronic, etc… You get the point. So, […]
John M. Higgins, the business editor of trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable, died of a heart attack today at the too young age of 45. John Higgins’ last blog entry: “Anyone Else Find the O.J. Decision Disturbing?” Memoriam from Television Week editor Chuck Ross Tributes from other colleagues
The chairman of News Corp. pulls the plug on the Fox special and the book after the O.J. Simpson stuff proved too hot to handle. Here is the official press release directly from News Corporation.
Fox stations owned by LIN, Pappas, and Prime Cities broadcasting decided not to show the controversial two-part interview featuring O.J. Simpson next Monday and Wednesday nights. The announcement of the special last week caught practically everyone off-guard, as it is being headed up by Mike Darnell, head of “alternative programming” at Fox. This, of course is a major November sweeps […]
The legendary University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler collapsed this morning while preparing to tape a program at WXYZ-TV in Detroit. He died later at a Southfield, Mich. hospital. Mr. Schembechler was 77. This comes a day before one of the biggest football games in the school’s history: #1 Ohio State vs. #2 Michigan in Columbus, Ohio. I saw […]
When you think of the name George Michael, you usually think of the former pop star who ****** himself in a public restroom some years ago. Well, even before the Wham! star became famous, there was another George Michael — one who’s a respected sports anchor on Washington D.C. television for 26 years and an institution to that market’s residents. […]
This has ramifications for both the television and radio industries. Details here: Clear Channel Sold for $26.7 Billion May’s Family Finds Buyers for Clear Channel, TV Stations for Sale Clear Channel Goes Private in $26.7 billion deal List of TV Stations to be sold by Clear Channel (courtesy of Michigan Buzzboard) List of radio stations to be sold by Clear […]
Mario Lopez clearly was the better dancer, but it was the popular vote that rode Emmitt Smith to victory on last night’s Dancing With The Stars. Meanwhile, the results show drew a season-high 27.2 million viewers while new serial drama Daybreak (haven’t we had enough of those?) tanked. (Updated 7:18pm 11-16-06)
First Arbitrends ratings radio report for the fall season: WGN and WGCI are tied for first, WZZN’s Oldies format is starting to pay dividends (best ratings for that frequency I’ve seen in least 18 years), The “feel good music” revolution is making WILV (Love FM) and WLIT feel bad, and WLUP (The Loop) and WKQX (Q101) continue to s(t)ink. Where’s […]
The continuing saga of the Tribune Co. continues to unravel: Fremantle Media, the producer of Family Feud, is dropping Tribune Entertainment as syndicator and is replacing it with Debmar-Mercury, a unit of independent film studio Lionsgate, Inc. effective immediately. It seems this program has been through more syndicators than hosts — John O’Hurley is currently the captain of this ship, […]
Geraldo At Large, Twentieth Television’s syndicated news magazine, is making a big splash in New York City on WNYW, beating Katie Couric in the adult 25-54 demo at 6:30pm. for the month of October. He also beat Couric at 6:30pm in Detroit on WJBK in that same demo (it helps to note that Couric’s news show airs on a station […]
Here is the latest: The Chicago Sun-Times has reported in today’s editions that Gannett Co. may be interested in buying Tribune’s newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. In today’s editions of Crain’s Chicago Business, the business paper asks if Tyra Banks can boost Tribune Co.? According to the article, Tribune’s CW stations in the top three markets (WPIX– New York, KTLA […]
A little late with this, but it does bear mentioning: Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that WMAQ-TV’s 11a.m. newscast and its checkerboard rotation of 11:30am syndicated shows are being axed for iVillage Live, a new interactive program that will air live from 11a.m. to noon (CT) on Channel 5 and nine other NBC O&O’s, and simultaneously on […]
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