News & Notes

The alternative title is being used to describe today’s News & Notes, as there is sad news to report: – Chicago Defender sports journalist Larry Gross passed away Wednesday at the age of 59 due to complications from lung cancer. Gross covered mostly local sports for the paper, including Chicago Public School Prep action. The wake will be held Feb. […]

This TV clears 60 percent of U.S.

    This TV, the new digital movie channel launched by MGM and Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting on November 1, 2008, has now cleared 60 percent of the country on digital subchannels, including several major markets. This features movies mostly from MGM’s library (though not from the pre-1986 library, which Turner/Time Warner owns), as well as classic TV series such as […]

Off-network sitcoms on rebound… or are they?

Is the off-network sitcom drought about to come to an end in syndication? It very well may be. But stations may have other ideas. This story from TVNewsday reports on the off-network sitcom drought this coming season and the number of sitcoms coming down the pike in September 2009. For the first time in recent memory, there are no fresh […]

More NATPE News

– Twentieth Television has renewed The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet for a second season the Fox O&O’s, including WFLD-TV in Chicago. The program has done on many stations, especially in southern markets such as Birmingham (WBRC) and Greensboro, N.C. (WGHP). Other pickups include San Francisco (KTVU), Seattle (KCPQ-TV), and Portland, Ore. (KPTV). – Mighty Oak’s Whacked Out Sports […]

TV sell-a-thon days in Wichita

New Vision has acquired NBC affiliate KSN-TV in Wichita from Montecito Broadcast Group, making it the third TV station to be sold in that market this year. Earlier, Schurz Communications purchased Banks Broadcasting’s KSCW-TV to pair with its KWCH-TV in a duopoly, and Fox affiliate KSAS-TV was sold by Clear Channel (as is the rest of its TV group) to […]