Greg Jarrett heads to WIQI-FM

Former WGN-AM radio personality Greg Jarrett has landed a morning time slot gig on troubled news station WIQI-FM (101.1, FM News) beginning on Monday. Jarrett will anchor morning newscasts alongside Monica DeSantis from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. News of this hire was first reported Friday afternoon by Chicagoland Radio & Media. The hire of Jarrett – who was dropped […]

WNUA trades one Spanish format for another

In one fell swoop Tuesday, Clear Channel-owned WNUA-FM swung the ax to Spanish CHR Mega 95.5 and replaced it with a Regional Mexican format – El Patron 95.5 at approximately noon. Regional Mexican is the most popular music format among Hispanics in the U.S., and WNUA plans to take on two other stations with the same format – Univision’s heritage […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: WGN Radio loses steam in latest PPMs

A lot of stuff in this grab bag this week: – What’s this? A historic low for WGN Radio? The Tribune-owned talker . Even with Cubs baseball (and the you know the team sucks this year), WGN finished behind WVAZ (V103) and WTMX (The Mix) and also behind WBBM-AM and WDRV (The Drive). Other May PPM highlights include WGCI’s return […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: RIP Kathryn Joosten

Some sad news to start off this edition of notations: Emmy-award winning actress Kathryn Joosten died on Sunday after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 72. She was best known for her portrayal of presidential secretary Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing, and most recently, the nosy neighbor on Desperate Housewives. Born in Eustus, Fl. in […]

The Grab Bag: Mendete returns to Philly; Khloe’s out in Dallas

Here’s what in The Grab Bag on this Friday: – One day after Merlin Media re-launched WKQX as an Alternative Rock outlet, the company launched a new news/talk station in Philadelphia Monday with former WBBM-TV and Access: Hollywood anchor Larry Mendete as the centerpiece. Billed as “IQ 106.9” (WWIQ-FM), the station is being touted as an alternative to all-news KYW-AM […]

Chicago radio gets Q’d

For the last few months, Chicago-area radio listeners had no alternative rock station. As of Sunday night, Chicago-area radio listeners have… two? In a surprise move, Elmhurst-based WJJG-AM (1530) flipped from talk to Alternative Rock Sunday night – a day before Merlin Media was supposed to launch its new Alternative format on WKOX-LP (formerly Smooth Jazz outlet WLFM-LP, on 87.7 […]

He never listens… because he’s too busy dropping the soap

  If you’re been driving around Chicagoland for the last few weeks, you probably have noticed former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich unintentionally shilling for WIQI-FM, Merlin Media’s all-news station on 101.1 FM. The ads come months after Merlin purchased controlling interest in the former WKQX-FM from Emmis and launched on all-news format August 1 and basically took their sweet time […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: The week that was

It’s time for T Dog Media’s weekly (or actually bi-monthly… okay, occasional) look at the winners and losers in the world of media: Winners NHL. Despite the hand-wringing over the increase in violent play in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs (i.e. Phoenix Coyotes’ Raffi Torres violent hit on the Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa), ratings for the NHL postseason are up […]

ESPN radio broadens reach with New York City FM deal

For the second time in a week, a high profile local marketing agreement (LMA) has shaken up the radio landscape in a major market. This time, its ESPN 1050 programming in New York – or more specifically, WEPN-AM (1050) – is replacing the Urban Adult Contemporary format at WRKS-FM (aka Kiss 98.7 FM) effective at 12:01 a.m. on April 30. […]

Merlin Media to take over WLFM

Format change takes place this Monday Merlin Media announced today it was taking over operations of low-power frequency WLFM (87.7 FM) and is flipping the Smooth Jazz format to Alternative Rock on Monday. WLFM’s owner (Venture Technologies, LLC), will continue to own the station and the station’s license. Merlin already owns classic rock WLUP-FM and all-news WIQI-FM, which replaced former […]

Allstate to create Mayhem for WGN Radio

Watch out WGN Radio fans! Mayhem is coming your way. But don’t worry – the station’s listeners are still in “good hands”. First reported by Chicagoland Radio & Media Friday night, Tribune-owned WGN-AM radio made a deal with Northbrook-based Allstate Co. to rename its Michigan Avenue streetside studio the Allstate Showcase Studio. The studio is basically used for its afternoon […]

The radio firing squad

It’s a phrase we’ve been hearing for the last couple of years: it’s not a good day to be in the radio business. And no day was as brutal as this past Thursday. In addition to Cumulus cutting loose Chicago radio veteran Michael Damsky after four years at WLS-AM/FM, Clear Channel had to come and announce scores of layoffs – […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Picking up the slack

  With Crain’s Chicago Business’ Ed Sherman ending his business of sports blog, T Dog Media is now the only place to get your weekly winners and losers fix. Only there’s six items – three winners and three losers. And mostly doesn’t deal with sports. Okay, sometimes it does. Incidentally, credit for T Dog’s Six Pack should also go to […]