1. Is the AP's North Korea office under control of the North Korean government?
That was the charge made over the weekend by a watchdog group who supposedly got a copy of the AP's agreement with the North Korean government, in which they vowed to print anything the government says it should. The article linked above is the AP's response to that charge and that document. Sounds to me like that was an earlier draft of the agreement (not the final), but they also aren't exactly denying it. Read it for yourself to make up your mind.
2. WXRT hires a new music director
This is something that only happens once a generation or so. People generally do not leave WXRT. The new MD's name is Kelly Ransford and she comes from two highly respected stations out west, KFOG in San Fran and the Mountain in Seattle.
3. Chicago Radio ratings were released over the weekend
From Tom Taylor's column: "Traditionally, urban ACs aren’t much affected by all-Christmas – and in fact iHeart’s AC/all-Christmas WLIT (3.8-3.7-7.7) almost didn’t win the 6+ crown, despite doing much better than last year’s December-book 6.5. This was a superb book for urban AC sister “V103” WVAZ, 5.7-5.9-7.3. Third is CBS Radio’s all-news WBBM and its FM simulcast, 5.6-5.7-6.2. CBS-owned country “US 99.5” WUSN was dented by Christmas, down 4.4-4.1-3.5. Also a bad book for Cumulus classic hits WLS-FM, 4.0-3.4-3.1. WLIT claims the cume lead, up from 1,824,800 to 2,427,500."
