New Bears season, same Bears prime-time result

Same old Sunday Night Football story for Bears I’m not going to bore you whining about why the Chicago Bears keep getting national prime-time TV appearances; I’ve covered the topic aplenty over the years, most recently here and here. But the decision to keep Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace around for another year is one of those “Chicago Way” type […]

Comic-Con….@Home

Pandemic wipes out annual San Diego fanfest but the show must go on Every in-person event this year (ranging from Lollapalooza to the Chosen Few DJs Picnic) has been wiped out due to an villain far more vicious than The Joker, The Riddler, and The Penguin combined: the Covid-19 pandemic. And this includes the annual San Diego Comic-Con, which would’ve […]

The Media Notepad: Univision Chicago, Chicago Reporter team to cover Latino community

Also: WLS-FM achieves historic feat; Nick Cannon to get new daytime show; MST3K canceled again Univision (branded locally as Univision Chicago) and the non-profit Chicago Reporter are teaming up to cover more of the area’s Hispanic community. As first reported by Broadcasting and Cable, the duo is forming a multi-platform news service named Latintext, and plans to cover important issues […]

Michael Ferro steps down from Tronc

He “retires” shortly before Fortune publishes a story about him sexually harassing two women In news shocking everyone, tronc chairman Michael Ferro resigned Monday morning and ceded control of the company to CEO Justin Dearborn. But later in the day, Fortune published an expose of Ferro – with two women accusing him of sexual harassment. The moves comes as tronc […]

2017: How did we do?

Back a year ago, yours truly did a look ahead into 2017. So how did everything turn out? I have the answers right here! 1. The FCC under a Trump administration. With a 3-2 FCC majority, issues the FCC championed under Tom Wheeler: net neutrality, preserving the cross-ownership rule, and other issues are going to get a hard look at […]

San Diego Comic-Con is ready to roll

The 48th annual gathering in San Diego has something for everyone – especially if you’re a TV fan San Diego may have lost the Chargers, but they’re keeping the Con. The city is preparing for the four-day festival known as San Diego Comic-Con, which starts tonight and runs for five days. The gathering began in a hotel basement in 1970 […]

The Media Notepad: Michelle Beadle becomes full-time host of NBA Countdown

Also: Page Six clears 90 percent  of country First look at new Defenders; ABC 7 drops “First Alert” branding; Frank Mathie retires. In an unusual move late in the regular season, ESPN announced earlier this week the promotion of Michelle Beadle as NBA Countdown host, ESPN/ABC’s pre-game show. She’ll also host halftime segments in-between games. Beadle returned to ESPN a few years ago […]

2017: A look ahead

With 2016 officially in the books, let’s look ahead on what to expect in the media business in 2017: 1. The FCC under a Trump administration. With a 3-2 FCC majority, issues the FCC championed under Tom Wheeler: net neutrality, preserving the cross-ownership rule, and other issues are going to get a hard look at – and likely change. 2. […]

“MST3K” revival heads to Netflix

Revival of cult ’90’s series arrives in 2017 The Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot branded about for the last year has now found a home: Netflix. Beginning in 2017, the streaming service will air new episodes of the former Comedy Central and SciFi (now SyFy) movie-mocking series. The news was announced during a MST3K panel at San Diego Comic-Con Saturday […]

Welcome back: Garry Meier returns

Longtime Chicago radio personality Garry Meier announced Tuesday he is launching a new online radio show via his recently launched website, garrymeier.com., scheduled to launch next year. He urged fans to sign-up for e-mail updates for future information on the new venture. Meier’s last gig was afternoon host at Tribune Media’s WGN-AM. Also coming on board is Leslie Keiling, who did […]

Welcome Back: MST3K to return

Thanks to Kickstarter, a cult classic rises again In this era of reboots and revivals comes an unlikely name surfacing: Mystery Science Theater 3000. And so it shall be done. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, the movie mocking series Mystery Science Theater 3000 – or MST3K, for short, is indeed coming back with fourteen new episodes – thanks to a […]

“Sharknado 3”: Oh hell, the thrill is gone

Amid all the product tie-ins, movie was a snooze. I guess the best thing to acknowledge Sharknado’s first two movies was the guilty pleasure aspect of it… the campness – you know, it was so bad it was good. It was the type of flick ready to be mocked by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew. But Sharknado 3: Oh […]

ABC, Scripps to launch LAFF

ABC, Scripps stations clear new diginet; ABC to keep LiveWell after all ABC and Scripps Broadcasting announced this weekend they are launching a brand new digital subchannel called LAFF, injunction with Katz Communications beginning on April 15, “tax day”. Details on what the planned comedy network would carry (hint: you can’t go wrong with Mystery Science Theater 3000 reruns) were […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: CW showing signs of life, while Fox ebbs

Also: MST3K, Wild Chicago holding fan events in Chicago this weekend  The latest items in the Grab Bag: – Once left for dead, it looks like there is signs of life at The CW: Three of their freshman dramas – Vampire Diaries‘ spinoff The Originals, The Tomorrow People, and Reign have all been picked up for the full season. The […]