Supreme Court to take up FCC ownership rules case

High court agrees to hear longstanding argument There is a lot at stake with the U.S. Supreme Court now taking up the case of the FCC’s ownership rules dilemma, a battle raging for some 40-plus years. For one, this case would be the biggest one yet for the media industry as a decision on the FCC ownership rules have the […]

Sun-Times’ future hangs in the balance

Things are starting to get desperate at Wrapports. As reported by Crain’s Friday, the owner of the Sun-Times is giving a group led by former Alderman Edward Eisendath until today to submit a bid to buy the paper. If not, it would pursue a merger with tronc, as planned. If the Justice Department blocks the deal, Wrapports says it would […]

Supreme Court to Aereo: You’re Out

Ending months of wondering and worrying, the nation’s major broadcasters dodged a major bullet Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of them in their case against Aereo (ABC v. Aereo), an Internet startup company which took (or some say stole) broadcasters’ signals and allows subscribers to watch on their laptops, smartphones, and other devices – without Aereo […]

2014: A look ahead

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 […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Blackhawks slipping back to old ways?

An update to Friday’s story regarding Susannah Collins: As speculated, Collins’ firing was indeed ordered by Blackhawks’ owner Rocky Wirtz who, according to Robert Channick of the Chicago Tribune Saturday, sent a letter to CSN Chicago, showing his concern about those SportsNutz videos she was in during 2009 and 2010. The copy of the letter was cc’ed to Jerry Reinsdorf […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Jim, Tom, and the two Bobs

WLS-AM’s Jim Johnson calls it a career; Bob Newhart hits out of the park;  Bob’s Burgers sold in off-network to Adult swim – Jim Johnson is calling it a career: after 45 amazing years as a newsman for WLS-AM, Johnson announced his retirement earlier this week, officially departing when his contract expires in June. Johnson joined The Big 89 in […]

Fox threatens to move its programming to cable

Is this legitimate? Or nothing more than an empty threat? Who’d thought something as small as a dime-sized antenna would cause this much trouble? The industry was a buzz about on Monday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters gathering in Las Vegas after comments made by News Corp. president and COO Chase Carey in the opening session, threatening to remove Fox […]