Think Tank Express: Time to fire radio host Joe Walsh

WIND should fire controversial former politician for a tweet featuring racist comments and threatening the President. If not, yank the damn license. Enough is enough. Former politician-turned-talk show host Joe Walsh (not to be confused with the Eagles guitarist) should be terminated for his comments he posted on Twitter calling for President Obama and police brutality protesters to be attacked. As you […]

WGN Radio, WLS-AM make huge changes (Updated)

Big John Howell heads to WLS; Roe Conn to WGN-AM (Editor’s Note: This post was updated to add new information from WGN and to replace an incorrect Feder link in the article, as yours truly used the wrong one.  T Dog Media apologizes for the errors. -T.H.) In order to attract more listeners, Cumulus’ WLS-AM and WGN-AM made moves this week, with WLS […]

Dahl: WGN Radio “the worst”

Dahl calls out Tribune Media station in a rant. Too bad its something Chicago radio listeners already know. A T Dog Media Think Tank [Editor’s Note: contains strong language. Reader discretion is advised.] Last week, viewers flocked back to their television sets as the new fall season began, with new high-profile programs and a strong lineup of above-quality shows which […]

V103 shows Ramonski Luv the door

  (Editor’s Note: a more recent story on Ramonski Luv being released from V103 can be found here in The Media Notepad, fourth item.) How about this? You finish first in your daypart and what is your reward? You get shown the door. This is exactly what happened to Ramon Wade a.k.a. Ramonski Luv, who was let go from Clear […]

Chicago Cubs to leave WGN Radio; head to WBBM-AM

Welcome the newest member of the CBS family – the Chicago Cubs. After 56 years, the Chicago Cubs are moving to a new radio home – Newsradio 780, or WBBM-AM, which is long been speculated. A press conference has been scheduled for Thursday morning at Wrigley Field to announced the new, seven-year deal between the team and the CBS-owned radio […]

The 2013 T Dog Media Turkey Awards

It’s a blizzard of turkeys! Welcome to the 2013 T Dog Media Turkey Awards, where every Thanksgiving, we serve up turkeys of bad TV, bad radio, and bad decision making in media for the eighth consecutive year. This year, we have 24 turkeys to hand out. So batten down everyone, because here they come! Crowd Goes Wild. Fox Sports 1’s […]

Remembering Jerry G. Bishop

When you think of Svengoolie these days, you think of Rich Koz, the personality behind the character. But to a generation of Chicago TV viewers back in the 1970’s, Svengoolie went by the person who originally created and played the character for Screaming Yellow Theater: Jerry G. Bishop. Bishop, whose real name was Jerry Ghan, died Sunday in San Diego at […]

T Dog’s Six Pack is back

A return of a favorite… T Dog Media’s Six Pack is back! The week’s (or in this case, the summer’s) media winners and losers in a nutshell: Winners. Netflix. The investment in original programming seems to be paying off: House Of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and the newly revived Arrested Development each earned Emmy nominations, with Cards becoming the first web series to […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Don’t come back, y’all

Jacobson loses lawsuit; Rover gets busted; Birmingham format flip goes awry – As first reported by the Chicago Tribune Wednesday evening, a Cook County Judge threw out a lawsuit from WIND-AM morning co-host Amy Jacobson against CBS. She was fired from NBC-owned WMAQ-TV in 2007 after a cameraman from WBBM-TV caught Jacobson at a pool party at Craig Stebic’s Plainfield […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Steve Cochran returns to WGN Radio

Also: Brooke Hunter is hired by My 93.9 FM ; Susan Carlson heads to WLS-AM It has been a busy last few days in the Chicago radio – quite a bit of activity. So the next time someone tells you this medium is dead, point to this week – its never been more alive. – Steve Cochran abruptly resigned from […]

Chicago radio sinks to a new low – again – WIND to hire Walsh

I guess in Chicago media, you don’t need a degree to get a job. Just look pretty. Or be dumb. Or be an unfunny, talentless hack. Or just yell a lot. Welcome to the Chicago media freak show, former Representative Joe Walsh. In a town whose media outlets hired embarrassments such as Randy Michaels, Jim Laski, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Belushi, […]

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 […]

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 […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag… News and Notes

As of this writing, the “Groovy” is being dropped from “Grab Bag” title – but it is still newsworthy nonetheless:  …The Winter Television Critics Association press tour is currently taking place in Pasadena, Calif. Among the non-Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien items going on: – Simon Cowell made an appearance at TCA today to officially announce his departure from American Idol  to […]

Chicago PPM September results

Back to school, fool! Last month’s radio PPM results from Arbitron: (Remember, these are based only on 6+ numbers:) Winners: WOJO-FM, WGCI-FM, WDRV-FM (The Drive), WKSC-FM (Kiss), WILV-FM. WMVP-AM (ESPN 1000) Honorable Mention: WBBM-FM (B96), WIND-AM, WLFM Shocking Big Drop: The Mix (WTMX) Disappointing: WLS-AM, WLIT-FM (The Lite) Losers: WPWX-FM (Power 92), WSRB-FM (Soul 106.3), WPPN-FM, WKQX-FM (Q101) Analysis: – […]