WGN adds Wood and Dempster, plus Manley’s idiotic comment Media Life magazine article on iHeart causing a stir Empire roars back BET to add “Soul Train” WGN-AM has recruited former Cubs pitchers Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster to provide weekly baseball analysis on Thursdays for the Tribune Broadcasting-owned radio station. Beginning this week, Ryan Dempster will talk baseball with Steve Cochran […]
On Monday, WVON-AM turned 50 years old. Even though the station went through numerous frequency dial changes (1450 AM to 1390 AM to 1450 again to its current home of 1690 AM), the mission was the same – to entertain and inform Chicago’s African-American community. WVON (which originally stood for “Voice Of The Negro”, now “Voice Of The Nation”) launched […]
Howard Shapiro, chairman of Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, died from pneumonia today at the age of 86. A graduate in electronic engineering from Purdue, Shapiro was a electronics dealer, with a business called C.E.T. (Chicago Engineers of Television) and was one of the first advertisers who bought commercial time on WCIU, which was launched by the Weigel family in 1964, becoming […]
The television, music, and radio industries lost a legend today with the passing of Dick Clark. Clark suffered a massive heartattack a day after after an outpaitent procedure in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82. Born in 1929 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Clark got his first job at his family-owned radio station in Utica, where he started in the […]
Many tributes are being planned this weekend and in the coming week in light of Don Cornelius’ death on Wednesday: – WCIU and new diginet Bounce are both simultaneously airing a seven-hour Soul Train marathon this Saturday night starting with the first syndicated episode from October 2, 1971, which featured musical guest Gladys Knight & The Pips and his final […]
The television and music industries are mourning the death of Soul Train host and creator Don Cornelius. He was found dead in his home in Los Angeles Wednesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Cornelius’ health had been declining for the last few years and was reportedly showing signs of dementia. Cornelius also had brushes with the law; he was […]
As Soul Train rides into the into the rail yard for good (for now, anyway), an article in the Chicago Reader Thursday features a new book that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the dance program’s Chicago days at WCIU-TV in the early 1970’s.Titled A Critical History of Soul Train on Television, author Chris Lehman takes a look at the program’s […]
Is Soul Train about to make a comeback? The venerable program, which ended its long run in 2006 after 35 seasons with little fanfare (the program simply went into weekly reruns afterward) may return in the future. MadVision Entertainment, a company formed two years ago, has bought the rights to Soul Train from Don Cornelius Productions in a deal which […]
Music awards show is also gone -for now. But a Soul Train Movie is in development In the post below, I mentioned the fate of U.S. Farm Report, one of two programs which were left hanging after the shuttering of Tribune Entertainment. Now the other shoe has dropped for the other show. The Soul Train Music Awards was canceled this […]