Friday, August 16, 2024

Media Notebook--8-16-24















MEDIA NOTEBOOK

A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.



RADIO/PODCASTS

 

 *Danny Parkins Leaving the Score

=Teased the possibility here last week. Confirmed by the Chicago Sun-Times early this week, and the next day confirmed by Parkins himself. He ended his time at the Score with his radiothon. Parkins will join the FS1 morning show. 

=Jeff Agrest suggests the Score should re-hire Jason Goff to replace Parkins.


 *Rest in Peace

=Kelly Mohr

This is a shocker. Much too young. Kelly was a part of the Danny Bonaduce show on WLUP and co-hosted a show with Pugs Moran on WCKG before heading down to Dallas and co-hosting a show with Pugs there for several years.

=Kelly was living in Corpus Christi when she died. The community reacted to her passing.

 

*Radio Coverage of DNC

=Look for an influx of national radio reporters next week for the Democratic National Committee. NPR, Premiere Networks, iHeart Media, and Red Apple Media will all be here.


*Podcast Corner

=Podcast Ratings for the 2nd quarter. Notice the lower rankings for the political podcasts. I suspect that will change in the 3rd quarter.

  1. The Joe Rogan Experience (Joe Rogan)
  2. Crime Junkie (audiochuck)
  3. The Daily (The New York Times)
  4. Call Her Daddy (Unwell)
  5. Dateline NBC (NBC News)
  6. SmartLess (Wondery)
  7. Stuff You Should Know (iHeartPodcasts)
  8. This American Life (This American Life)
  9. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (Theo Von)
  10. Morbid (Wondery)
  11. Club Shay Shay (iHeartPodcasts and The Volume)
  12. MrBallen Podcast (Ballen Studios and Wondery)
  13. Serial (Serial Productions)
  14. New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce (WSE Originals)
  15. The Ramsey Show (Ramsey Network)
  16. The Ben Shapiro Show (The Daily Wire)
  17. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Team Coco)
  18. My Favorite Murder (Exactly Right)
  19. Pod Save America (Crooked Media)
  20. 2 Bears 1 Cave (YMH Studios)

=Crooked Media settles with their union workers.

=5 Podcasts for the constantly online

=Coming soon to a phone near you…


*Rich Valdes

=Well, that didn’t take long. A few weeks ago we reported that WGN was removing Rich Valdes from their weekday late night slot. This week WLS snapped him up and is putting him on at night (9-Mid). He fits better at WLS because his show is mainly a right-wing political show.

 

*New York Radio Earthquake

=This would be like NewsRadio WBBM dropping its format. WCBS is an iconic news station that has been around for 100 years. One of the people let go in this massive layoff is former WLS (and WCKG) newsman Steve Scott…

=The Writers Guild was not thrilled.


*iHeart Layoffs

=I’ve been following the reports of layoffs at iHeart radio stations and haven’t seen too many that affected Chicago. Here is one. Michael Perez has been let go from Kiss-FM (103.5FM). He had been doing weekends.

=Ex-Chicago radio staffer Gina Ferraro was also let go this week as part of the national iHeart downsizing. She was a program director in Dayton. Gina previously worked in Chicago at WLIT, WUSN, WGN, and WIND.

 

*Rest in Peace

=Greg Kihn

The man behind "The Break Up Song" and the smash hit "Jeopardy". He also hosted a radio show in Bay Area for 20+ years. He was 75.


*38 Books About Chicago Radio

=Don Beno posted these on the Chicago Radio Archives and Memories page. Five are published by my publishing company, and I think I’ve read another ten of them. Check out the list (complete with cover photos) here.


*Life’s Been Good to Me

=Can you name the radio legends in this picture?*


 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

 

*August 11--Andrea Darlas birthday

 =The former WGN reporter/anchor (both radio and television) now works for her alma mater, the University of Illinois. I interviewed Andrea about that in 2023 for the Illinois Entertainer. Click on her name, and you can also read the first interview I did with her back in 2007.

 

*August 11—Barry Butler birthday

=The best photographer of all-things Chicago is also a radio man. For many years he worked at Hubbard broadcasting. I interviewed him for my podcast in 2019.

 

*August 12—Marianne Murciano birthday

=Murciano was the co-host of Fox Thing in the Morning (WFLD-TV) and also co-hosted radio shows on WGN and WLS with her husband Bob Sirott. I interviewed both of them in 2014 for Illinois Entertainer.

 

*August 12—Ron Smith birthday

=Ron was a well-regarded music programmer (especially in the Oldies genre) and wrote several books about Chicago radio music charts. I interviewed him in 2011 for Chicago Radio Spotlight. He passed away a few years ago.

 

*August 12--Lauren Jiggetts birthday

=The popular WGN-TV anchor is the daughter of former Chicago Bears lineman (and broadcaster) Dan Jiggetts.

 

*August 12, 1966

=Take a look at what Chicago was listening to this week in 1966. The Hollies song “Bus Stop” was #1 on WLS Silver Dollar Survey


*August 13—Danny Bonaduce birthday

=He was a star in the 1970s on TV, and in the 1990s on the radio in Chicago (The Loop). Danny recently retired from his morning show in Seattle. I interviewed him several times, most recently in 2021 for Illinois Entertainer.

 

*August 14—Rick Hall birthday 

=Rick is the music director and afternoon personality at Throwback 100.3 in Chicago.

 

*August 15—Justin Kaufmann birthday

=Justin is now with Axios Chicago, but he previously worked at WBEZ and WGN Radio. I interviewed him for Chicago Radio Spotlight in 2012.

 

*August 16—Scott Mackay birthday

=Mackay has been the morning man at The River for 16 years. He also co-starred on the Kevin Matthews show on CD 94.7 before that.

 

*August 16, 1954—Sports Illustrated debuts

=It may be a shell of its former self, but this year Sports Illustrated turns 70 years old. The first issue featured Eddie Matthews of the Milwaukee Braves slugging in County Stadium.


*August 16, 1977—Elvis Presley Dies

=Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?

 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

 

*Colbert in Chicago

=Next week Stephen Colbert is bringing his show to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Last night he had Sean Hayes on the show to do a bit about things that are going on this week in Chicago (outside of the convention). It was comedy gold. My hometown of Mt. Prospect even got a mention. 



*NBC Chicago Convention Coverage

=Channel 5 is bringing back Carol Marin to be part of their weeklong Democratic National Convention coverage. Political reporter Mary Ann Ahern will not only be covering the convention for local Channel 5 she will also be on Meet the Press on Sunday with Kristin Welker. Telemundo’s Iris Berrios will be part of the local coverage as well, for both Channel 5 and Telemundo. The NBC network coverage will be helmed by Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie.

 

 

*Glenn Marshall Leaves WGN-TV

=He announced the news this week…


 

 

*Should Sox Make Change in the TV Booth?

=That’s the question Chicago Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan posed this week.


 

*Chicago's Golden Bachelors

=Three of the bachelors featured in the upcoming "Golden Bachelorette" show on ABC-TV are Chicagoans. Axios tells us more about them.



*The VP Debate

=The date is set (October 1), and it will air on CBS-TV. More details are here.



*Matthew Perry’s Personal Assistant & Doctor Charged

=This story is an all too familiar one. Similar to John Belushi. Similar to Michael Jackson. Similar to Elvis. The fault is still with the victim himself, but without the enablers around these celebrities, this wouldn’t have happened.


 

*Victoria Jackson Has Inoperable Cancer

=The former SNL star (1986-92) made the announcement this week. Doctors give her 3-5 years. She is 65 years old.



*Katie Couric’s Criticism of new CBS Anchors

=CBS replaced Norah O’Donnell with two men, John Dickerson and Marcell DuBois. Katie Couric wrote an op-ed in the New York Times criticizing this move. Her reasons are here.


 

*Paramount Shuts Down TV Studio

=There are some drastic cuts coming to many of the properties currently owned by Paramount (including CBS). They have to cut $500 million in the coming weeks/months before the merger is finalized. First move is shutting down the TV studio completely. Reuters has more.


 

*Rest in Peace

=Peter Marshall

Former host of Hollywood Squares. He was 98.

=Bob Tischler

Former head writer for SNL. He was 78.

=Rachael Lillis

Voice actor from Pokemon. She was only 55.

=Grace Bentkowski

NewsNation creative producer. She was only 22.


 

PRINT/DIGITAL

 


*Why Haven’t Newsrooms Published Hacked Trump E-mails?

=They weren’t shy about sharing Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails in 2016. The Washington Post explains why they are handling it differently this time. Sounds like they realize they shouldn’t have done it last time.


 

 

*Kansas Police Chief Formally Charged in Newspaper Raid

=This was welcome news this week. The police chief was charged with obstruction after initiating a raid on the town’s local newspaper last year. Full story is here.


 

 

*Dennis Rodman Loose in Chicago

=Block Club Chicago has the story about Dennis Rodman being in town this week, hitting places like Jefferson Park and Rosemont.


 

 

*The 1968 Democratic National Convention

=Everyone will be comparing next week’s convention with the 1968 one. Here are a few good examples…

=Bill Kurtis remembers it from a media perspective for the Sun-Times.

=Johnny Conlisk remembers it from the son of the police chief perspective for my blog.


 

 

STAGE AND SCREEN

 

 

*Deadpool and Wolverine Top-Grossing R-Rated Movie of All-Time

=Over a billion dollars and counting. Variety has the info.



*Star studded weekend

=If you happen to run into one of your favorite movie stars this weekend, you'll probably assume they are in town for the DNC. Not necessarily. If it's Mark Hamill, Hayden Christensen, Rosario Dawson, William Shatner, or Marissa Tomei, it's because of FanExpo. They'll be signing autographs here.



*Rest in Peace

=Gena Rowlands

Two-time Oscar nominated actress. She was 96.

=Angel Salazar

He played Chi-Chi in the classic film Scarface. He was 68.


 


SOCIAL MEDIA

 

 

*Former Twitter Board Member Sues Musk for $20 Million

=Musk allegedly refused to cash out his stock, which was worth $20 million.


 

 

*Musk-Trump Interview on X

=It was a technical nightmare, much like Musk’s interview with Ron DeSantis last year.


 

 

*Rest in Peace

=Susan Wojcicki

Former head of YouTube. She was only 56.


 

*The radio legends in the photo above are David Berner, John Dempsey, Mitch Michaels, and Pat Cassidy.


As always, if you have any media story you’d like to share or think that I might be interested in sharing, drop me a line at rick@eckhartzpress.com or amishrick@yahoo.com. If you're in Chicago media and wondering why I didn't mention your birthday, it's probably because I don't know it. Drop me a line and let me know and I'll put you on my calendar.

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