T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

With so much stories to mention, I thought I throw them all together in a new feature. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the inagural T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag. Enjoy! -Tribune-owned WGN-TV has become the third station in Chicago to broadcast its news in 1080i high-definition. The station launched its HD newscasts over the weekend, with a new, […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: The incredibly bumbling, stumbling CW

In the Chicago area, a lot of people wonder how the mayor, the governor, and the Cook County Board President keep their jobs. In television circles, people pretty much feel the same way about CW network chief Dawn Ostroff. Ostroff recently held an executive Q&A with reporters during the network’s portion of the TCA Press Tour. And in the true […]

This Bud’s for You – In Belgium

Say goodbye to the American-owned beer maker. St. Louis – based Anheuser-Busch was sold to Belgium-based brewer InBev for $52 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions in history. It will be the world’s largest brewer, ahead of SABMiller, owners of the Miller brand. What this likely means is the company’s ad agency accounts could be up for review. […]

All about the Windy City

Broadcasting & Cable has a profile of Chicago in its issue this week, and it talks about how Chicago’s TV stations are handling the economy – as well as possible major events the city may be celebrating in the not-too-distant future (Obama’s presidential bid, a Cubs-White Sox World Series, an Olympic bid…) The article also talks about news expansion and […]

David Carradine drops F-bomb on WGN-TV

Oh boy, here we go… Kung Fu star David Carradine dropped the F-bomb on WGN Morning News today, who was immediately scolded by WGN anchor Larry Potash and apologizing on his behalf to viewers. Carradine was on the show to promote a new movie. Nothing to see here folks, move along. After all, this is Chicago…

WGN signs Mark Suppelsa to take on Katie, Brian, and Charlie

For the first time ever in Chicago, viewers will have a real option to the network evening newscasts. As expected, Tribune-owned WGN-TV has signed former WMAQ-TV and WFLD-TV Mark Suppelsa, renewed the contract of longtime veteran Steve Sanders and is expanding the station’s newscasts. Suppelsa left Fox-owned WFLD in a contract dispute a few months ago and was slated to […]

Darrin Jackson out?

Darrin Jackson, the color commentator on White Sox TV broadcasts for WGN-TV and Comcast SportsNet, may not be back next season in the role. The team has yet to renew his contract (which expires this year), and there are rumors he may replaced by Steve Stone, who held the same capacity during Cubs telecasts on WGN-TV for more than 20 […]

Is Tribune abandoning The CW? (updated)

Probably not, but if The CW doesn’t make it into season four, Tribune is creating a contingency plan – just in case. Tribune owns fifteen CW affiliates, including WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles. However, CW officials deny their network is going out of business anytime soon, pointing to the increased haul they took […]

Dancing With A Controversy

The folks at WGN-TV’s morning show are dancing mad – at rival WMAQ-TV for ripping off a segment of their program.For years, WGN has had a Friday Dance on its news show on – Fridays. Well, WMAQ recently started a new segment on its Friday morning newscasts. All you have to do is switch the words around of WGN’s segments […]

WFLD scores with weather coverage on Saturday

While the attention over the last few days has been on former WFLD anchor Mark Suppelsa joining WGN-TV, Fox-owned WFLD-TV has some good news: Its’ coverage of Saturday’s wild weather throughout the Chicago area drew good ratings (for a Saturday) and praise from viewers. Tornadoes hit the south and southwest suburbs on Saturday evening, tearing a path from Wilmington to […]

Suppelsa and Sanders

It looks like Mark Suppelsa’s move to Tribune-owned CW affiliate WGN-TV is all but a certainty, while handling Steve Sanders’ situation could be dicey, according to this article from Robert Feder in today’s Sun-Times. WGN is expected to sign Suppelsa to a contract after June 17, the day WFLD’s option to match any offer a competitor may have expires. If […]

Report: Mark Suppelsa headed to WGN-TV

Mark Suppelsa, the anchor who left Fox-owned WFLD-TV last March, is rumored to join Tribune’s WGN-TV later this summer, replacing Steve Sanders alongside Allison Payne on the station’s 9 p.m. newscast. Suppelsa is technically still under contract to WFLD – the station has a right to match any offer a competitor offers until June 17. WGN is likely to make […]

MRC unveils CW Sunday slate

Independent studio Media Rights Capital unveiled its Sunday night schedule for The CW, and is as follows (all times Central:) – 5:30 p.m.: In Harm’s Way, a reality show in the mold of fare seen on Discovery and TLC. – 6:30 p.m.: Surviving Suburbia, A new sitcom whose creator wrote a script, tucked it away, and forgot all about it […]

Superstation WGN changes name to WGN America

Kids’ WB changes name to CW 4 Kids on same day While were you sleeping in…. With little fanfare on Saturday, Superstation WGN changed its name to WGN America, while Kids WB’ officially became CW 4 Kids. However, no programming changes took place at either network – at least not yet (WGN America’s new logo resembles the old Movie Channel […]

WLS sweeps May, but WMAQ shines in demos at 10

Staying on the subject of local news, it was a good May book for all of Chicago’s news outlets -(second item) despite the fact the networks lost audience share due to the after-effects of the recent writer’s strike with something for everyone to crow about: ABC-owned WLS-TV’s newscasts won the May sweeps in households (second item) – however, NBC-owned WMAQ-TV […]