Could be a liability for some local stations Bottom Line With Bill may be coming to a station near you. Reports are surfacing once again regarding Bill O’Reilly heading to Sinclair Broadcasting. According to NBC news’s Claire Atkinson, Sinclair is in talks with the former Fox News host as he could anchor a two-hour block on their stations – including those […]
Mega deal is the biggest in television history: 42 station-group sold to Maryland-based broadcaster Ends local ownership of WGN-TV and WGN Radio after more than 60 years Sinclair’s purchase of Tribune Media will change the landscape of local television as we know it. For one, Tribune – with roots in television going back to 1948 as the WGN Continental Broadcasting […]
Search for new CEO is underway Four years after he arrived, Peter Ligouri is heading toward the exit door. Ligouri told staffers at Tribune Media Wednesday he was leaving his post as CEO of the Chicago-based media group, effective March 1. Ligouri was recently named to Sony Corp.’s board as an advisor, but that’s not the reason why he’s leaving […]
Network, station group may split; CW considering OTT option Can this marriage be saved? In a possible blow to The CW, Tribune Broadcasting has reached an impasse with the network on a renewal deal, which could have ramifications for the TV industry. According to TV Newscheck, Tribune – owner of thirteen CW affiliates, is balking at […]
For the first time in decades, Chicago is holding a big celebration downtown on New Year’s Eve. As first reported by the Chicago Tribune Thursday, city planners are creating a huge event to ring in 2016, with music, fireworks, and more fun stuff along the Chicago River between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive. Dubbed Chi-Town Rising, the event is being […]
Full plate ahead for Chicago sports fans The San Francisco Giants (remember them?) may have won the World Series in 2014, but you wouldn’t know it judging by the hype a certain Northside team is getting. The Chicago Cubs are opening the 2015 season Sunday Night with a nationally televisied game against the archrival St. Louis Cardinals on ESPN2 (Sunday […]
Deal with WGN sends selected Cubs and White Sox games to former CBS affiliate; nine other Midwestern markets also cleared In order to fill a programming void left by CBS, a local Indianapolis TV station is turning to two Chicago institutions. Media General-owned WISH-TV announced Friday it was planning to air a package of Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games produced […]
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional information since being published on Saturday. – T.H. It’s the end of an era as the last “superstation” rides off into the sunset. By the end of this month, WGN America – which once carried WGN-TV programming across the country, is converting into a basic cable network in most areas […]
– Meredith Vieira off to so-so ratings start – Utopia falls out of the gate – Bulls release 2014-15 TV schedule – Despite the troubles of the Chicago Bears and the NFL in general, ratings for pro football continue strong. The season’s first game featuring the Bears and the Buffalo Bills drew a 30.3 household rating locally for Fox, with viewers sticking […]
The Television Critics Association’s Press Tour got underway last week at the Beverly Hills Hilton in Beverly Hills, Ca. For the next two weeks, TV and media critics will be listening to executives talk a lot of BS, see actors whining, and asking tough questions while tweeting away. But there is also the potential for some fun moments (remember a Downton […]
Also: WBBM-AM nears deal to land Cubs telecasts Back in 1978, WGN-TV in Chicago joined WTBS in Atlanta and WOR-TV in New York (now WWOR) and uplinked their signal to a satellite to deliver their signal throughout the country as a “superstation”. In 2014, the “superstation” era is nearing the end. In a report surfacing on Crain’s Chicago Business website Friday, […]
But Tribune CEO throws cold water on party The CW unveiled its 2014-15 schedule to advertisers Thursday, but it was Tribune CEO Peter Ligouri who really stole the show. On the same day CW revealed its fall lineup, Ligouri said at the Moffer Nathanson Media and Communications Summit that he is “not pleased where the CW is” despite the fact […]
A man named Easterly is heading west to become WGN-TV’s new general manager. Tribune Broadcasting announced Monday the hiring of Greg Easterly as president and general manager of WGN-TV, moving over from the same capacity at WJW-TV in Cleveland effective April 14. Easterly is a seventeen-year veteran of the Cleveland Fox affiliate, with a news background. He spent the first […]
News briefs from Chicago and beyond: – Cumulus-owned WLS-AM has been fined $44,000 from the Federal Communications Commission for failing to disclose eleven news items it broadcast were advertisements. The “news items” aired on WLS between March and May 2009 (during the ownership reign of Citadel, Inc.), for Workers Independent News, who pretended to interview a local politician. Workers failed […]
In a sign WGN America is moving ahead with its transition from a Chicago-based Superstation to a national cable network, the channel held its first-ever TCA Press Tour Presentation this past weekend. And it was here it announced its biggest project ever. WGN America has ordered ten episodes of The Ten Commandments from the Weinstein Company. Each episode is being […]
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