Also: No relief in sight for those missing CBS on DirecTV; Dish drops Fox RSNs; WCIU drops new CW 26 trailer; This TV future? Entercom country-music outlet uS 99 WUSN-FM finally announced their new morning show last week, featuring Jason Pullman and Chicago-area native Katie Bright as they replace Stylz & Roman, who were dismissed in May after three years. […]
Also: WLS-AM announces new PD; WBBM reigns supreme; New York’s WPIX sold One of Chicago’s prominent sports radio hosts has a new contract – and a new weekday slot. Longtime WSCR-AM (The Score) veteran Laurence Holmes is getting his own midday slot weekdays from noon to 2 p.m., beginning March 28 – coinciding with the start of the baseball season. […]
DFW-area company to buy Chicago-based broadcaster for record price (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with new information.) Nexstar Broadcasting is purchasing Chicago-based Tribune Media for $4.1 billion or $46.50 a share, making them the country’s largest broadcaster. The bid is larger than the one Sinclair made for Tribune in May 2017 before the FCC derailed the deal due […]
Five shows now vying for time slots as new game show joins pack In a marked reversal from the last few selling seasons, syndicators are amping up their pitches to stations as a wealth of new product is about to flood the marketplace two months before NATPE begins. The latest entry came from Twentieth Television, who announced a deal with […]
Only two new shows in syndication this fall (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated. See below.) If you love the true crime genre, you are going to be happy with what’s going to air on local stations this fall. In fact, their are just two new shows: CBS Television’s Face The Truth and Debmar-Mercury’s Caught In Providence, featuring an […]
After nearly a decade, The CW is back in the Sunday night race Signaling they are not going anywhere, The CW announced Wednesday their intentions to return to programming Sunday nights after a nine-year hiatus. The expansion gives the network twelve hours a week to program, all in primetime beginning this fall. The move comes as The CW has received […]
WGN morning show sports anchor gets his own show He may not own – or maybe even drive – his own car, but he now has his own TV show. Tribune Broadcasting’s WGN-TV announced last week the creation of a weekly late-night comedy show centered around WGN Morning Show sports anchor Pat Tomasulo. Titled Man Of The People, the series […]
Could be a liability for some local stations Bottom Line With Bill may be coming to a station near you. Reports are surfacing once again regarding Bill O’Reilly heading to Sinclair Broadcasting. According to NBC news’s Claire Atkinson, Sinclair is in talks with the former Fox News host as he could anchor a two-hour block on their stations – including those […]
Rachael Ray returns to WGN; “Mom” gets the shaft in top markets (Editor’s Note: Hurricane Irma coverage may impact the debut of shows in some areas.) The 2017-18 television season doesn’t begin until September 25, but outside of primetime, new programming and schedule changes are occurring as soon as Monday. The biggest news is the debut of Steve Harvey’s new […]
Mega deal is the biggest in television history: 42 station-group sold to Maryland-based broadcaster Ends local ownership of WGN-TV and WGN Radio after more than 60 years Sinclair’s purchase of Tribune Media will change the landscape of local television as we know it. For one, Tribune – with roots in television going back to 1948 as the WGN Continental Broadcasting […]
Search for new CEO is underway Four years after he arrived, Peter Ligouri is heading toward the exit door. Ligouri told staffers at Tribune Media Wednesday he was leaving his post as CEO of the Chicago-based media group, effective March 1. Ligouri was recently named to Sony Corp.’s board as an advisor, but that’s not the reason why he’s leaving […]
A hate crime video shot live on Facebook has stations debating the use of such content In a city whose news stations are accustomed to airing gruesome video and reporting on daily shootings and murders, even this was too much to take. Chicago’s five television newsrooms were debating earlier this month on whether or not repeated airings of a disabled […]
Off-network series premieres in syndication in fall 2017 WGN-TV has bolstered its schedule by adding off-network reruns of CBS’ hit comedy Mom, starting next fall. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has sold the show in syndication on a cash-plus-barter basis to seventeen Tribune markets, including the newly independent WGN-TV. Many Tribune stations plan to pair Mom with Two And A Half […]
Off-network deals include WGN-TV, WQAD In good news for off-network sitcom-starved stations, Sony Pictures Television announced it has sold ABC Wednesday night sitcom The Goldbergs in syndication starting in the fall of 2017, starting with eighteen Tribune markets. Cash-plus-barter deals include WGN-TV in Chicago and ABC affiliate WQAD-TV in the Quad Cities area, consisting of Davenport, Ia., Rock Island, and Moline, […]
WGN-TV to drop CW affiliation in September; moves to Fox-owned WPWR Tribune Broadcasting renews agreement to carry CW programming in twelve markets Tribune Broadcasting finally renewed its CW affiliations this weekend. But in a surprise move, it didn’t renew its affiliation with WGN-TV in Chicago. Where The CW affiliation wound up is a even bigger surprise. As first reported by Robert […]
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