T Dog’s Grab Bag: All Chicago, all the time

This is a double blue-striped, four red-star edition of the Grab Bag, containing nothing but local items! So fly the Chicago flag high over Rahm’s head and let’s get cracking: – As first reported by Robert Feder at Time Out Chicago earlier this week, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West – who were recently ousted by WBEZ on September 30 – […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: TribLocal makes changes after scandal

Notes and news – in this mostly local edition of the Grab Bag: – As mentioned briefly in the Tribune bankruptcy post on Saturday, the Chicago Tribune was recently caught using fake bylines and plagiarizing and fabricating stories in TribLocal, the paper’s hyperlocal network of websites and print properties serving Chicago’s suburbs. On Friday, the Tribune announced it was parting […]

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 […]

NBC-owned stations add Steve Harvey to fall ’12 lineup

The competition for syndicated daytime clearances for next fall has gotten hotter with the addition of Steve Harvey to the mix as NBC Universal Television Distribution cleared his new, one-hour talk show strip on NBC’s ten owned-and-operated stations, including WMAQ-TV here in Chicago. Harvey is competing with Disney-ABC’s Katie Couric and Twentieth Television’s Ricki Lake for talk show clearances for […]

WWWN: DOA

      I guess this is what happens when you use winning call letters without Charlie Sheen? The first full Arbitron PPM survey for September is out for Merlin Media all-news station WWWN shows the station is clearly not “winning”. In fact – it’s losing. Big. According to the PPM report, WWWN finished an astonishing low 48th place with […]

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. […]

Arbitron PPMs results for March: WOJO’s En Fuego!

This is based on 6+ numbers; the 18-34 numbers;  the 25-54 numbers: Male, Female, and Adults. Winners: WOJO-FM, WGCI-FM, V103 (WVAZ), The Mix (WTMX), The Drive (WDRV) , WBBM-FM, WKSC-FM (Kiss) Honorable Mention: US 99 (WUSN-FM), In the Top 5 overall, but very old skewing: WGN-AM Loser: WNUA-FM, ESPN 1000 (WMVP-AM) Results: All-news WBBM-AM may have been number one overall, […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – Don’t fumble it away

In honor of the Super Bowl this weekend, this is who scored the touchdowns this week –  and who fumbled it at the end zone. Touchdown! – WGCI and WVAZ gives back. Clear Channel’s WGCI-FM and WVAZ-FM (V103) are launching the Raise A Hand Campaign to encourage young people to perform good deeds for their schools and their community via […]

"Feud" gets another host – Steve Harvey

Back in 2002, The E! True Hollywood Story did a two-hour program on the game show Family Feud, whose hosts dealt with extortion, womanizing, bankruptcy, divorce, and suicide. It was dubbed the “curse of the Family Feud hosts”. Well, the curse has struck again! – somewhat. And unlike the Tonight Show situation, no one is getting stabbed in the back […]

T Dog’s Four Pack – We’ll have a grand old time

It’s been two weeks, so a T Dog Media Blog Four Pack is long overdue… with a little bit of a Flintstones twist… Hanging out with Fred and Barney. Yabba Dabba Doo! -V103. The most (and only) surprising item in the recently concluded Arbitron PPM November survey is the strong performance of Urban AC WVAZ-FM, who ranked second in 12+ […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

For the first time in awhile, it’s time for T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag: – Congratulations to legendary Chicago radio personality Herb Kent on a new world record he set: The Guinness Book Of World Records recently honored him for having the longest career by a deejay in radio history – which spans 65 years! His achievement will be celebrated […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag

Lots of items of note in today’s Grab Bag: – WCFS-FM (Fresh 105.9) has dumped morning man Mark LeBaron. Rick Hall will take over until a replacement is found. Is this a signal something big is coming? Or is the cancellation clock ticking for Fresh FM? – Speaking of which, the clock is up for The Beautiful Life, which CW […]

Chicago’s August PPM results

Here are the results for the August PPMs for 12+ and for adults 25-54. Among the findings: – Winners include WSCR, WPPN, WXRT, WUSN, and drumroll please…. Q101! Yes, Q101 – or WKQX-FM grew 27% in 12+ month-to-month. – The biggest winner of all is WTMX-FM (The Mix), who dominated the 25-54 ratings and 12+ with Eric & Kathy leading […]

Sam Sylk heads to Power 92

Former WGCI-FM afternoon personality Sam Sylk is headed back to Chicago to fill the same capacity at WPWX-FM (Power 92). Sylk kept WGCI at or near the top of the ratings during his tenure there, but left in 2006 to join WUSL-FM in Philadelphia to become the morning personality. Subpar ratings forced him out, and wound up at Cleveland’s WENZ-FM, […]