Think Tank Express: A long way to go on diversity

Deadline article, Bernstein’s comments prove women and minorities still face a hostile environment in the media business  It’s interesting we have a “communications” as a college major, and yet have a lot of people who don’t know how to communicate – especially when it comes to gender and race issues. And this week, the point was proven more than once. […]

Think Tank Daily: “CSI: Cyberjunk”

  CSI: Cyber proves overextending a franchise isn’t a good idea  Wednesday night saw the underwhelming premiere of CSI: Cyber, and it goes to show you even in a so-called “Golden Age Of Drama”, how banal some of these programs still are. The “new” CBS drama featured “Academy Award Winner” Patricia Arquette as a FBI “agent” who heads a task […]

Think Tank Daily: Oprah closes Harpo Studios in Chicago

Editor’s Note: This is an experiment yours truly is trying out for the next few weeks or so… in order to put more material on the website, I plan to write a daily media news analyazation piece between 200 and 400 words – a shorter version of the Think Tanks opinion pieces, which averages between 1000 and 1500 words. Even though […]

Chicago is “Empire’s” kind of town

Chicago-produced hip-hop drama is city’s top-rated show Despite its New York setting, Chicago is becoming Empire’s kind of town. While the locally-shot Fox drama is showing unprecedented ratings growth (at least in this day and age), more and more Chicago viewers can’t get enough of the Lyons. In a ratings report as part of an overall look at the Chicago market […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Mike Caplan, Lesile Keiling ousted

– Life’s tough in the business: ABC-owned WLS-TV meteorologist Mike Caplan was let go from the station last week after 21 years on the air. There was speculation WLS was going to release one of their meteorologists after hiring WMAQ exile Cheryl Scott late last year. In fact, WLS announced it was going to feature Scott during the 4 and […]

2015: A look ahead

With 2014 now behind us, here’s what to expect in 2015: 1. The Cubs’ new media homes. This year, the Cubs enter a new era: a new over-the-air TV home (WLS-TV/ABC 7) and WBBM-AM, after 90 years with WGN-AM. What’s left unresolved is a package of 45 games, whose TV home is yet to be determined. 2. As the WGN […]

Bubble Bustin’ Thursday (or Wednesday)

Thursday night actually saw some high drama – and I’m not talking about the NFL draft. ABC decided to announce the programs it picked up and renew existing shows – creating a little bit of drama of their own on Texas A&M QB Johnny Manizel’s big night. Fans of several shows – notably Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – were forced […]