Arizona Uprising: Bally Sports near death in the Cactus State

Suns and Diamondbacks bail on bankrupt RSN The sun is setting on Bally Sports Arizona in the Valley Of The Sun as Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks are the latest team to bail on the company who runs the regional sports network.  A significant development took place Monday as Bally’s bankrupt owner Diamond Sports Group skipped its rights payment to […]

The Media Notepad: Cumulus Chicago’s Troy Hanson exits

Also: New Illinois member of Congress supports Standard General-Tegna; Toledo’s WNWO ends “local” newscasts; Phoenix’s basketball teams bail on Bally In what you can call a “weekend news dump”, Cumulus Chicago last Friday let Troy Hanson go from his positions at the cluster. During his time there, he wore several hats including PD of Q101 (WKQX), and VP of programming […]

WMAQ hires former “Survivor” contestant as an investigative reporter

If Tammy Leitner thought politics on a reality show was something, she hasn’t seen anything yet in regards to Chicago’s. As first reported by Robert Feder last week, Ms. Leitner has joined the investigative team of NBC-owned WMAQ-TV (known as NBC 5 Investigates) which currently employs Carol Marin, Rob Stafford, Marion Brooks, and others. Leitner started at NBC 5 Monday. […]

CBS powers its way to another Thursday night win

A night after more than 60 million tuned in to the Presidential Debates, viewer levels were back to normal Thursday night with CBS dominating the evening once again. All ratings are from the adult 18-49 demo, unless otherwise noted: – First hour of prime-time: the CBS Thursday Night Comedy Power Hour remains just that as The Big Bang Theory (4.9/16, […]

TV news and notes: WFLD/WPWR gets "Better"

A lot of television news and notes for a Monday: – Fox’s duopoly in Chicago (WFLD and WPWR) has acquired Meredith’s Better for airing this fall. The acquisition of the lifestlyle magazine show was a part of a deal that also included Fox duopolies in Orlando (WOFL/WRBW) and Houston (KRIV/KTXH). The program was also renewed at NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV in […]

WLS, WGN clear new weekend shows

New weekend off-network hours that are making the rounds for syndication in 2008 have cleared Chicago stations. Boston Legal, the Emmy-award series from Twentieth Television, has cleared WLS-TV in Chicago for weekend runs next fall, as well as fellow ABC O&O’s in Los Angeles (KABC), San Francisco (KGO), and Houston (KTRK). Other stations clearing the hour include Scripps’ WXYZ-TV in […]