MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago…
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Podcast Ratings
=Podtrac
ranks the podcasts based on their popularity, and during the month of October
here were the top ten rated podcasts in America…
*NASCAR on the radio
=WLS-AM (890) announced this week that they have signed a three-year agreement to air NASCAR races,
including the first ever Chicago Street Race. The Chicago Street Race agreement
between NASCAR/City of Chicago also runs three years.
*Bruce DuMont Steps Down
from Beyond the Beltway
=DuMont has been hosting
the show since 1980, but he told Axios-Chicago this week that a recent health
scare has caused him to take an indefinite hiatus. The nationally syndicated
show will now be hosted by Jeanne Ives and Eric Kohn.
*The Chuck Swirsky Media
Tour
=The Bulls radio play by play man has been making the rounds promoting a book my publishing company Eckhartz Press released: Always a Pleasure. He was on WGN-TV morning news, Steve Rosenbloom’s show on WSCR (the Score), and podcasts like Minutia Men Celebrity Interview (yes, hosted by me) and EDF Sports.
*Podcast Corner
=It seems like the Saturday Night Live world has gotten the memo that podcasts are now the thing to do. Another SNL alum entered the fray this week. Chris Parnell is hosting a new show about jobs that no longer exist, called This Job Is History
=Dana Carvey and David
Spade also co-host a podcast called Fly on the Wall, which is about
SNL. Every week they interview former cast members, hosts, or musical guests.
The stories are all pretty similar, but oddly engaging. It’s in my weekly
podcast library.
=There are so many more SNL-related podcasts. Here are ten of them.
=This one isn’t SNL related, but Mark Caro’s Caropop podcast scored a great guest this week too: Stevie Van Zandt. I previously wrote about Mark’s podcast in Illinois Entertainer.
*RIP MegaPros Joe
=He wasn’t technically a radio personality himself, but Joe Hogel, known on the air as MegaPros Joe, was a frequent on-air presence on WGN Radio. The station noted his passing on their website.
MEDIA
MILESTONES/BIRTHDAYS
*Herb Lawrence
celebrated his birthday on November 6th. You may know Herb as the
host of CHGO White Sox and Locked-On White Sox podcasts, or the producer of the
Joe Ostrowski show on the Score. He’s also a great follow on Twitter.
*November 7th was WGN-TV Morning News Co-Anchor Robin Baumgarten’s birthday. Robin is one of the biggest local television stars in Chicago. I’ve interviewed her a few times, including this piece going all the way back to 2009.
*Louisa Chu, food
critic for the Chicago Tribune, and former WLUP/WBEZ contributor celebrated her
birthday on November 8th.
*On November 8, 1957, WGN
Television started broadcasting select shows in color for the first time
(mainly just the syndicated programs that were available in color)
*November 9, 2013, former
Q-101, Loop, and Drive jock Carla Leonardo passed away. I was lucky enough to interview her the year before she passed away.
*November 9 was the
birthday of former Vince & Stony co-host (WLUP) Tony Frothingham.
Tony also worked as a radio producer but has since returned to his native
Massachusetts and now works in the wine business.
*WIMS/WHFB Partner/General Manager Ric Federighi’s birthday was November 10th. Ric enjoyed a long and successful career as a traffic reporter in Chicago before entering the world of radio ownership in Michigan City, Indiana. Iinterviewed Ric back in 2008 for Shore Magazine.
*Lou Brutus,
former afternoon man on Rock 103.5, and current nationally syndicated host,
also celebrated a birthday on November 10th. His heyday in Chicago
was the mid-90s.
*Today is Veteran’s Day,
and former Chicago newscaster Dave McBride posted this to honor the day.
Thanks to all the veterans out there who served our country.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
*RIP Louise Monger
=Tragic news this week.Former Windy City Live contributor Louise Monger was found in her
Westmont home with a gunshot wound in her chest. According to police, it
appears the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. Monger was only 40 years old.
*Howard Sudberry on
Chicago Fire
=If you did a double take
during this week’s episode of Chicago Fire, no, you were not seeing things.
That really was former Channel 2 sportscaster Howard Sudberry portraying a
truck driver who had just gotten into an accident. It was a speaking role for
Howard, who is trying his hand at acting these days.
*Election Coverage
=The national television ratings are in for election night. For the all-news channels, Fox News was far
and away the winner, beating both CNN and MSNBC combined. That’s nothing new.
The one wrinkle this year is that MSNBC beat CNN.
=As for national network
news ratings, ABC eked out a win over NBC and CBS.
*Dawn DeSart
=The former NBC-5 feature
and traffic reporter was also in the local news on election night. She was the
leading vote getter to DuPage County Board in the 5th district and
has been re-elected.
*Behind the Scenes at
Meet the Press
=Poynter’s media columnist Tom Jones was given great access and hung out at Meet the Press during a recent show. An interesting read.
*RIP Fred Hickman
=The former CNN
sportscaster was a big star back in the pre-internet days, along with his
colleague Nick Charles. Hickman passed away this week at the age of 66.
*Jimmy Kimmel to host the
Oscars
=It’s not Jimmy’s first time hosting the show, but it is the first time he’ll be hosting since he had to go on stage and let everyone know the wrong name had been read for Best Picture. Hopefully this one goes a little smoother. (It wasn’t Jimmy’s fault)
*Cable News Corner
=MSNBC cuts ties with Tiffany Cross.
=Speaking of cutting,
CNN’s new boss Chris Licht has been ordered to cut $100 million from the budget. I suspect we won’t be seeing another Stanley Tucci does Italy
show.
SOCIAL MEDIA
*Elon Musk’s Troubles Not
Abating.
=Read this piece in Reuters and tell me that Musk is not a man-baby. According to this article, marketers are being blocked. This piece talks about the failed rollout of his blue-checkmark plan. The mass exodus of executives has gotten the attention ofthe SEC. Musk also tweeted at the Security and Exchange Commission. That’s never good. And yesterday he told his employees that bankruptcy was possible. Remember the good old days (last year) when Time Magazine named him Man of the Year?
*Not Going Much Better at
Facebook
=Mark Zuckerberg
announced he is laying off over 10,000 Meta employees. He said it was all his
fault, which I’m sure will make the fired employees feel much better.
*Meet the new owner of
Politico
=He’s 6’7. He’s German.
And he’s a combination of Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk. This profile will give
you a better picture of Mathias Doepfner.
If
you have any media stories (Chicago or national) that you think I might like to
share in future columns, feel free to drop me a line at rick@eckhartzpress.com or
amishrick@yahoo.com
