T Dog’s Media Notepad: Back in the saddle again

Hello, and welcome back to T Dog Media! Here are some notable news and notes from the last two weeks: Tom Doerr has resigned as news director of Fox-owned WFLD-TV here in Chicago after just three years and six years overall at the station. Doerr is heading back to Florida to deal with personal family issues. During his tenure, ratings […]

Syndication 2016: Yawn.

Outside of Harry Connick Jr., there’s practically nothing on the market Looking for something new for the fall of 2016 in syndication? Good luck. That’s the consensus as the 2016 market has come to a crawl. Outside of NBCUniversal, who is marketing Harry Connick Jr.’s show this fall and Entertainment Studios pushing a new one-hour panel talk show, syndicators are […]

The Grab Bag: Tony Sculfeld heads to WSRB-FM

News and notes from around the industry – WSRB, a Crawford-owned urban adult contemporary station previously known as Soul 106.3, is trying its luck with an other former WGCI alum – Tony Sculfield, who’ll soon take over the evening slot vacated by Ramonski Luv, who was out after less than six months on the air. Recently, Sculfield was part of […]

Debmar-Mercury, Fremantle to launch “Buzzr TV”

Both companies strike deal with Fox Television Stations to carry new classic game show channel In news that would no doubt please classic game shows fans, a new digital subchannel featuring the genre is launching this summer thanks to Fremantle Media NorthAmerica and Debmar-Mercury. The two companies are launching Buzzr TV, a new classic game show channel molded in the […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sunday belonged to Cutler, “Walking Dead”

– Also: other Sunday, weekend rating results – The Game to stick around, while another The Game ends – Goodbye, Everybody Loves Mancow Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears’ winning performance Sunday also translated to a ratings victory – the game against the Atlanta Falcons drew a 31.5 Nielsen household rating according to Lewis Lazare at Chicago Business Journal – […]

WGN-TV slots “Celebrity Name Game” at 10 p.m.

Also: Hollywood Daily Live, Daily Helpline debut to microscopic audiences In a rather unusual move, Tribune-owned WGN-TV has slotted Craig Ferguson’s new game show, Celebrity Name Game from Debmar-Mercury at 10 p.m., starting September 22. As first reported by Robert Feder, Name Game would replace the failed revival of The Arsenio Hall Show, which was canceled in May. While other […]

It’s official: Cubs head to WBBM-AM

CBS scores 7-year mega deal with the Chicago Cubs Seattle (yes, Seattle) – could play a role on where the Cubs local TV rights would land in 2015 More information surfaced on the new deal the Chicago Cubs struck with CBS Corp.’s radio station group. The team held a press conference at Wrigley Field Thursday to officially announce the new […]

Report: WGN America to dump Chicago sports

Also: WBBM-AM nears deal to land Cubs telecasts Back in 1978, WGN-TV in Chicago joined WTBS in Atlanta and WOR-TV in New York (now WWOR) and uplinked their signal to a satellite to deliver their signal throughout the country as a “superstation”. In 2014, the “superstation” era is nearing the end. In a report surfacing on Crain’s Chicago Business website Friday, […]

Grab Bag: CBS 2’s Jay Levine attacked in a live shot

(Editor’s note: under circumstances not under my control, the videos for Jay Levine’s story have since been removed. You’ll just have to take my word for it. – T.H.) – In the latest incident of TV news personnel being attacked on (or off camera), WBBM-TV’s Jay Levine was attacked by a crazed protester in a live shot outside a restaurant […]

English-language programming returns to WGBO…somewhat

For the first time in twenty years, WGBO-TV is once again airing English-language programming. Well, somewhat. Spanish-language WGBO and other Univision-owned stations agreed a few months ago to carry a new English-language – yes, English-language digital subchannel network called Get TV from Sony Pictures Television, mainly featuring pre-1970 classic films from the Columbia Pictures Library, which Sony owns. Classic movies […]

Why “Bethenny” failed

Lack of experience, awkwardness, and arrogance kept viewers away from former Real Housewives star’s daytime talker In a project that never should have seen the light of day, Warner Bros. (or Telepictures, or Lorimar, or whomever) decided last week to put former Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel’s talk show out of its misery after just five months on the air. […]