Every weekday in 2014, I'll be keeping an eye on what's happening in the media. My focus will be on some of my favorite subjects...the moguls, the pundits, the broadcast news biz, show business, and the publishing business. (Read "$everance" if you want a crystallization of my positions on those subjects.) And, of course, I'll also keep tabs on Chicago's media.
Chicago Media
~Don Geronimo Launches Podcast
The former WLS jock (and co-host of Don & Mike) is joining the podcast world currently inhabited by the likes of Steve Dahl and Tom Leykis, by launching his own podcast. The cost is $9.99 a month. Radio Insight has more details at the link.
The Moguls
~How do you know when a board of directors is a bit of a sham?
When they re-elect a 91-year-old chairman without any debate, and they conclude their yearly meeting in 23 minutes. That's what happened at the multi-billion dollar Viacom yesterday. Sumner Redstone still runs that place with an iron fist at the age of 91. He controls 79% of the shares.
~Robert Iger may not retire in 2016 after all
This is part of the Buzzfeed article about Iger....
“Iger could certainly extend his contract again,” said a source familiar with the company who talked about the Disney CEO on the condition of anonymity. “He will leave before it is too late, but that could well be sometime past 2016.” A second source close to the company who also asked not to be named talking about Iger publicly put it more bluntly: “He’s not going to retire when he says he is going to retire.”
~As the Rupert Turns
Not a good day in the hacking trial yesterday for Rupert's cronies. According to Clive Goodman's testimony yesterday (one of the people initially accused, who has since pleaded guilty), News Corp hacked phones "on an industrial scale". He specifically implicated Andy Coulson, and provided specific examples of times they hacked phones from the Royal family. (You'll remember that last week Rebekkah Brooks made the preposterous claim that Princess Diana turned over the Royal phonebook, and that's how they knew all this stuff).
The Radio Biz
~Another politico loses job thanks to wacky radio show
But based on what I'm reading here, she's gained lots of fans. From Tom Taylor's NOW Column:
Press secretary fired for calling Montreal’s CKOI to talk about – her adult toys. That’s not all she talked about – she confessed that she wears red underwear, once had sex in a hot tub, and (says Jean-Francois Racine in a QMI Agency report in the Toronto Sun), that she once kissed a girl in a bar...this was a call-in from Audrey Croteau, who – until this regrettable lapse – was a press secretary for the Quebec political party known as CAQ. The Masked Avengers opened the phone lines Monday morning, and Audrey happily participated. She didn’t mention her last name, though as journalist Racine reports, she “made it clear she was an attaché” for a local CAQ candidate in Quebec City. The world now knows that she owns a couple of sex toys, and visits sex shops once a month. The CAQ party now says she’s been “let go for her lack of judgment.” For the Masked Avengers, it’s just another chapter in their fabled career at Cogeco-owned French contemporary music CKOI/96.9.
