In the latest Grab Bag, we have items on the departure of a legendary duo from Chicago radio; a welcome departure from the ABC exec ranks; and Bill Cunningham’s talk show is getting outrated by… a 45-year old Western? Steve & Johnnie Exit WGN Radio. It’s official: Steve King and Johnnie Putnam are exiting WGN-AM this Friday after nearly 27 […]
It’s been awhile, so let’s do an expanded edition of T Dog’s Six Pack – with an extra item in the winners and losers column this week. It doesn’t get any better than that! Okay, yes it can… Winning. Regis Philbin. After 28 years on daytime television. Regis Philbin steeped down as co-host of the popular morning chatfest Live With […]
Anderson renewed for a second season; Bill Cunningham is putting up solid numbers for WGN – but not in his home market of Cincinnati. It seems like syndicators are ready to party like its 1995 again, when a slew of Ricki Lake– talk show knockoffs flooded the market. Well, here we go again as already four talk shows have been […]
NBC to launch Non-Stop Network; Bounce expands to N.Y. and L.A. Significant developments regarding digital subchannels on Thursday: – Don’t you wish it would stop? NBC announced it was overhauling its strategy for its nine-station Non-Stop digital subchannels, which is on the .2 (Channel 4.2, Channel 5.2, etc.) of all-NBC-owned stations except the Hartford/New Haven market, where […]
Boo! Scared already? Then you will be as T Dog Media presents a Six Pack full of treats and tricks this Halloween: Treats The World Series. After a slow ratings start, the World Series matchup between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals dominated the ratings Thursday with an epic Game 6 people will be talking […]
Disney-ABC Domestic Television Distribution’s new fall 2012 talk show strip featuring Katie Couric has now been cleared in 60 percent of the country. Titled Katie, the series has now cleared though several broadcast groups including Allbritton, Belo, Cox, Hearst, Gannett, and Scripps, in addition to the entire ABC-owned-and-operated station group (including WLS-TV here in Chicago.) To no one’s surprise, most […]
Plus other news of note, including Rosie Show results; Brandmeier’s return; and a new game show in an unusual time slot. – Viewers welcomed back Tim Allen to network TV Tuesday night with open arms with strong sampling of his new sitcom Last Man Standing. On Tuesday, the series opened with 13.1 million viewers and grew […]
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 […]
If you tuned in to WMAQ-TV’s digital 5.2 Chicago Non-stop channel this past Friday night, you were in for a pleasant surprise (or maybe not, depending on your point of view.) Former WLUP-FM (The Loop) morning personality Jonathan Brandmeier quietly returned to television Friday night with the soft launch of Brandmeier, a new weekly half-hour series featuring Johnny B taking […]
Can you smell… what WJJG is cookin’? You most certainly can as another edition of The Grab Bag is upon us… -Mancow Mueller now has a new tag-team partner at WJJG-AM (1530 AM) with syndicated radio host Michael “Macho Man” Savage. Beginning October 3, the duo will enter the ring every day to grope and piledrive their liberal opponents into […]
Anderson Cooper’s new syndicated talk show began on Monday. Welcome to Life… After Oprah. Monday marked a new era in syndication as repeats of The Oprah Winfrey Show came to an end on Friday (her last original episode aired on May 25) as the broadcast business is without the queen of talk […]
This Grab Bag is for you – that’s right. You – the people. You have the right to gripe about yet another newscast or yet another new daytime courtroom show (We The People) on the horizon. You also have the right to have an alternative to the regular crap on TV – thanks to two new diginet TV channels. You […]
If you thought the 4:30 a.m. news craze was something… wait ’til you hear about the next one in the works – the 4 a.m. news craze. Tribune’s WGN-TV announced today it is launching a new 4 a.m. newscast beginning on July 11th, becoming the first station in the Chicago market to expand into the half-hour. The move comes as […]
Walter E. Smithe Furniture recently released a two-minute commercial honoring the 22-year legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Among those who appeared in the ad were local celebrities like George Wendt, Eric Ferguson from WTMX’s Eric & Kathy, fictional Alderman Ed Bus (from the 53rd Ward), and a few other Chicago dignitaries. Oh, and there were some local news […]
The Chicago journalism community is in shock after the sudden passing of WMAQ-TV sports anchor and reporter Daryl Hawks on Thursday. He was only 38 years old. Hawks was on assignment in Atlanta Thursday covering Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal between the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks when he missed a wake-up call at 9:30 a.m. in […]
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