A look inside WBBM-TV’s new studios

Arthur Greenwald of TVNewsday reviews CBS-owned WBBM-TV’s new digs in the Loop, which brings the station into the 21st century and a long way from its decrepit McClurg Court headquarters. The new building at 22 W. Washington Blvd. lets the station broadcast its news and local programming in HD and new high-tech equipment – such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro […]

WLS-TV, ABC dominate Election Night

ABC and its O&O in Chicago (WLS-TV) took home the ratings crown on Election Night, a night where Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. ABC led all networks on a national basis with 13.6 million viewers. Locally, ABC’s coverage led with WLS-TV leading the 10 p.m. hour (when Obama gave his victory speech) with a 17.6 household […]

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 […]

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’ […]

The Church of Tisch’s new digs

The Chicago Chapter of The Church of Tisch opens its new location on Monday. CBS-owned WBBM-TV opens its new “block 37” location in the loop on Monday, a new broadcast facility with its newscasts broadcast in HD. The new 22 West Washington St. location is dubbed “Heart of Chicago”. Sun-Times columnist Rob Feder noted today he didn’t get an invitation […]

"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 […]

Channel 2 shuffles anchor decks – again

CBS-owned WBBM-TV has decided to shuffle the anchor chairs again at its low-rated morning newscast – with the return of Roseanne Tellez from maternity leave, she will return anchoring the news at 5 and 11 a.m., paired up with weatherman Don Schwennker. They replace Jim Willams (who goes back to weekends) and Kristyn Hartman. Tellez, who co-anchored the station’s 5 […]

Off-network sitcoms on rebound… or are they?

Is the off-network sitcom drought about to come to an end in syndication? It very well may be. But stations may have other ideas. This story from TVNewsday reports on the off-network sitcom drought this coming season and the number of sitcoms coming down the pike in September 2009. For the first time in recent memory, there are no fresh […]

FavreWatch lands in the Big Apple

Photo courtesy of Fox Sports.com. The naked city just got one more story to add to its eight million. Television’s most fascinating drama landed in New York City on Thursday with the trade of Green Bay Packer Brett Favre to the New York Jets, ending his sixteen-year run as the Cheeseheads‘ quarterback. Favre originally retired from the game last March, […]

The Church of Ahern

According to an article from Robert Feder in today’s Sun-Times, CBS-owned WBBM-TV GM Joe Ahern threw himself a big birthday party at a trendy Loop restaurant two months ago. Guess who got the tab…. some of the station’s employees. After Ahern sought reimbursement from CBS, Channel 2’s controller turned him away. So, he made the department heads and managers pick […]

More news is never enough at WTMJ

Now the Favre watch never ends. Journal Communications’ WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee is adding a 3 p.m. newscast to its lineup beginning Sept. 8, as well as adding a 6:30 p.m. newscast at the end of August, which displaces the Warner Bros.-syndicated Extra from the time slot. The move brings the total number of local news hours at the NBC affiliate […]

All about the Windy City

Broadcasting & Cable has a profile of Chicago in its issue this week, and it talks about how Chicago’s TV stations are handling the economy – as well as possible major events the city may be celebrating in the not-too-distant future (Obama’s presidential bid, a Cubs-White Sox World Series, an Olympic bid…) The article also talks about news expansion and […]

WMYD to launch new newscast

Detroit-area residents finally now have another news operation. Granite-owned WMYD-TV, a My Network TV affiliate, is launching a new 10 p.m. newscast beginning on Monday titled TV 20 News at 10. The half-hour newscast is going head-to-head with Fox-owned WJBK-TV’s long established 10 p.m. show. This marks the first time there has been a competing newscast at 10 since 2005, […]