Rewinding media in 2023

  A year dominated by labor strife, awful Chicago sports teams, and – oh yeah, Elon  If you watched the WWE, you remember Vince McMahon playing himself as an arrogant CEO and billionaire, ruling over anything and everything – the ultimate heel. It’s a real-life trend we’re seeing as we close 2023. Led by billionaire Elon Musk, CEOs – whether […]

The Media Notepad: ABC 7’s Ryan Chiaverini named lead sports anchor

Also: SAG-AFTRA strike ends; Jennifer Hudson’s ratings grow; Disney names two cable networks as possible sale candidates It’s official – Ryan Chiaverini was named lead sports anchor by ABC-owned WLS-TV Thursday, succeeding Jim Rose, who retired in September after 41 years at the station. “Ryan knows Chicago sports inside out and cuts right to the heart of what this city’s […]

The Media Notepad: Introducing the Sven Squad

  Also: ABC’s stations team up with Nat Geo on another water special; Spectrum says they will drop more under performing channels; Houston’s Space City Home Network launches You heard of The Mod Squad, right? Now meet The Sven Squad.  Just in time for Halloween, MeTV’s Svengoolie is adding cast members for the first time. Joining the horror movie host […]

Bears flounder on the field and in the ratings

Bears sink in ratings locally despite gains for football – pro and collegiate elsewhere Last year, Chicago football fans had hope the Bears would drastically improve as they finished 3-14 and earning the first draft pick, whom they traded to the Carolina Panthers to get even more draft picks and acquiring a few standout veterans such as DJ Moore and […]

Marquee Sports Network, NBC Sports Chicago battle for Bears fans

Marquee expands Bears programming by adding “Bears Post Game Live” ; NBC Sports Chicago resumes similar shows Even though neither Marquee Sports Network and NBC Sports Chicago carries any Chicago Bears games, it doesn’t mean the two regional sports networks are ignoring them – in fact, both are stepping their game bigtime to serve fans who are looking for more […]

Report: TV news crew robbed on North Side

Second incident in a month If you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to crime in Chicago…now we have TV news crews getting robbed while covering…robberies.  According to local crime blog CWBChicago, a local news crew was ready to do a live shot around 5 a.m. on the Near North Side near the intersection of Division and Milwaukee […]

“The Conners” head to off-net in 2024 thanks to Lionsgate

Subsidiary Dembar-Mercury to handle domestic sales Also: Big Bang Theory reruns shift to WGN next month [Editor’s Note: This post was updated August 22. See below.] If you forgotten about ABC’s The Conners, well…it’s still around – long enough for it to now enter off-network syndication.  Lionsgate announced Wednesday it has acquired the rights to past and future episodes of […]

Fox 32 re-ups with the Bears to be the “official station” of the team

  NFL team took team’s non-regular season game rights to market, opts to stay with Fox While the Chicago Bears are now expanding their search for a new home to suburbs other than Arlington Heights, at least the team isn’t going anywhere when it comes to official team programming on local TV (and answers one of our ten questions in […]

Fox 32 and My50 GM Dennis Welsh announces retirement

Was in position since January 2013 After nearly a decade at the helm, Fox 32 and My50 General Manager Dennis Walsh has called it a career, announcing his retirement after 26 years at Fox Television Stations with the last nine at the duopoly of WFLD and My Network TV’s WPWR.  Welsh is stepping down at the end of the month […]

The Media Notepad: Chicago Fire strike a radio deal with WLS-AM

Also:  “The Fred Show” to be syndicated; WGN has its own vault “discovery”; Fox TV stations delivers for Amazon In good news for Chicago Fire fans, all Chicago Fire soccer games are being broadcast over Cumulus Media’s news/talk WLS-AM beginning this weekend, according to a report Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The deal was officially announced Wednesday morning on the […]

Chicago media criticized for lack of Loop mayhem coverage Saturday night

Twitter users call out local media outlets for failing to inform public Saturday night’s disturbances in downtown Chicago are raising questions on how the local media covers – or fail to cover in these types of instances and whether or not social media – particularly Twitter -fills the void. With temperatures soaring into the 80s, hundreds of teens swarmed the […]

ESPN 1000 to Bear Down

Good Karma is new flagship home of the Chicago Bears – and they may looking for a new TV partner as well While the Chicago Bears are remaking their team for the future by trading away players for future draft picks, the team also made a major move on the radio front and may look to do so on the […]

The Media Notepad: Bears don’t deliver for Amazon Prime

Also: prime-time’s future debated; Pluto takes streaming lead  You wonder if Amazon has a return policy for defective football games: Much like the teams on the field, the October 13 edition of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football was completely forgettable. The newly renamed Washington Commanders played the Chicago Bears on a 40-degree night and viewers figured the game between two […]