T Dog’s Six Pack: Win or go home

The Bears didn’t win. And they went home.  (Photo: Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune.) The Packers went to the Super Bowl and the Bears went home with a quarterback who has an iffy knee who gets blasted on Twitter while Chicago’s long-time rocker thinks you’re not getting enough Steve Miller Band in your listening diet. Yep, this week that was in the […]

NATPE News: WCIU picks up “Direct Access”

The legendary Fontainbleau Resort in Miami, where NATPE is being held  The NATPE convention rolls on in South Beach with news on Big Tigger, Daryl Hall and his house, and a new show featuring Fat Albert – whoops, I mean Father Albert – Litton Entertainment announced it was launching a new weekly half-hour syndicated series targeted for weekend late fringe […]

Judge Karen’s Court to stay in session

Santa was great to Judge Karen Francis-Mills this holiday season as her courtroom strip Judge Karen’s Court has been picked up for a sophomore season by Litton Entertainment with renewals from Chicago’s WCIU and New York City’s WPIX. In addition, WCIU upgraded Karen last month from an overnight slot to 9 and 9:30 a.m. on its weekday morning schedule, replacing […]

Two and a Half Times the second cycle

Want more Two and a Half Men in syndication? You got it. But if  you want more crazy Charlie Sheen going ape in a hotel room moments, you’ll have to wait – those come at random. In a story Broadcasting & Cable broke Wednesday, Tribune Broadcasting and Sinclair Broadcasting announced they has renewed Two and a Half Men for a […]

Local newscasts return to St. Louis’ KDNL

In Chicago, ABC-owned WLS-TV’s newscast have topped the charts for more than 20 years, completely dominating their time periods – and the same can be said for other ABC stations, including WABC in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WPVI in Philadelphia, WFTV in Orlando, and WSB-TV in Atlanta. KDNL-TV in St. Louis? Not so much. In fact, it doesn’t […]

ABC sells two stations back to previous owners

In a rare move in the industry, The Walt Disney Company announced the sale of two of its O&Os – back to its previous owners. According to Broadcasting & Cable, WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich. (serving the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market) and WTVG in Toledo, Ohio were sold back to SJL Broadcast Management, who sold the duo to what was then Capital […]

Make it Non-Stop

Today not only marks the beginning of a brand new month, but a brand-new channel on Chicago’s television landscape. NBC-owned WMAQ-TV is launching Non-Stop Chicago today on digital subchannel 5.2, Comcast channel 252, RCN channel 130, and other dial positions once occupied by NBC’s now-defunct WeatherPlus network. In the time since, WMAQ had been running a non-stop loop of weather […]

The Grab Bag: “Wendy Williams” renewed through 2014

Wendy Williams has gotten a new lease on life on her syndicated talk show: Debmar-Mercury announced Monday that the three-season old daytime talk show strip has been renewed by Fox O&Os currently carrying the show through 2014, including WFLD-TV, which airs the show at 10 a.m. and at midnight. Williams has been stronger in markets with large African-American audiences such […]

Lee Abrams: The rise and fall of

The resignation of Tribune executive Lee Abrams on Friday was pretty much expected, and came as no surprise. Abrams sent a company-wide e-mail on Monday featuring Not Safe for Work videos and angering employees company-wide, and was suspended Wednesday for doing so. Some of the videos featured stuff you would normally find on a Girls Gone Wild DVD.  And all […]

Tribune suspends Lee Abrams

Tribune Co. announced the supension of Chief Innoviation Officer Lee Abrams today after he e-mailed a rather racy memo to employees of the company on Monday. The suspension is indefinate, and further disciplinary action may take place, including termination. The story – ironically enough – broke Tuesday on Chicago Tribune’s website by Phil Rosenthal.  The move comes at a time […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag – Jerry Lewis may walk out that door

You’ll never walk alone? You might have to if Jerry Lewis walks out the door. – Did we hear Jerry Lewis sing You’ll Never Walk Alone for the final time? The Muscular Dystrophy Association announced this week it was cutting back its hours of its annual Labor Day Telethon from 21 hours to only six, regulating it from 6 p.m. […]

R.I.P. Ward Quaal (1919-2010)

Ward L. Quaal, a Chicago television and radio pioneer instrumental in laying the groundwork for WGN-AM and WGN-TV, died Friday at the age of 91. Quaal began his career in 1936 at a radio station in Marquette, Mich., and went to WGN Radio in 1941. As a staff announcer, he broke the news that Pearl Harbor was bombed, which brought […]

Lions-Bears leads Sunday TV fare

  The Lions’ Calvin Johnson catches a pass in Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears (Photo: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast/ESPNChicago.com) But ratings down 25% from year ago season opener The Chicago Bears may have lucked themselves into a victory on Sunday, but at least did the job in the ratings department. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the Bears season opener at […]

Syndication’s new season

Stations are hoping to strike it rich with “The Nate Berkus Show”.  While the official start of the 2010-11 television season is only a week away, syndicators rolled out their new programs this week per tradition, with several new faces. One is interior designer Nate Berkus, who hosts his own talk show courtesy of Sony Pictures Television. A lot of […]