MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
RADIO/PODCASTS
*New Blackhawks Studio Host
=Now that Joe Brand
is gone to Pittsburgh, WGN needed a new studio host. Meet Charlie Roumeliotis…
=It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not related to the Bernstein/Barstool blowup last week. He has been dealing with a dental issue. Details are here.
*Podcast Corner
=The latest TV show to go audio is 60 Minutes. They now do a podcast.
=From the “everybody has a podcast these days” files, add another name to the list: Nikki Haley.
=John Heilemann interviews the 2nd Gentleman, Doug Emhoff. It’s a 90-minute interview.
=How about a podcast about the media? Tom Jones from Poynter is now hosting one.
=Slate’s podcast is also about the media. It’s called “Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News”
*Music News
An unusually busy week for
music news…
=Jane’s Addiction cancels tour after on-stage fight.
=Billie Eilish and Finneas endorse Kamala Harris too.
=The end of the road (literally) for REO Speedwagon…
REO SPEEDWAGON announces permanent cessation of touring:
— Mitch Lafon (@mitchlafon) September 16, 2024
“To our fans: Bruce has intended to be Back On the Road Again by now. If it were up to just him, he’d be back on tour… but it's not up to just him. The consensus opinion was that he had not recovered sufficiently to be… pic.twitter.com/8MD9OTOoZZ
*Rest in Peace
Singer/Songwriter wrote
the song “Heartache Tonight” for the Eagles. He was 78.
The most memorably named
of the Jacksons. He was 70.
MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES
*September 17—Bobby
Skafish birthday
=Bobby was my very first interview for
Illinois Entertainer back in 2013. He
later authored a book for my publishing company Eckhartz Press called We Have Company.
*September 17—Matt
Spiegel birthday
=Spiegel got the Chicago Radio
Spotlight treatment back in 2010.
*September 17—Randy
Merkin birthday
=The former ESPN producer
published Behind The Glass for Eckhartz Press in
2021. A little birdie told me he might be working on another one.
*September 17/Peter
Bowen birthday
=Long-time Chicago radio
executive (CBS, Cumulus, Entercom, iHeart)
*September 17/Chuck
Quinzio birthday
=Retired WFLD
photographer, and author of the Eckhartz Press book Life Behind the Camera
*September 19—Ryan
Arnold birthday
=Until very recently Ryan was part of the WXRT air-staff. He remains in town, running his own PR firm. My 2017 interview with him is here.
*September
19--Mike Tomano birthday
=Mike has
bounced around the suburban radio scene for decades now. He’s currently the
morning host and program director at Milner Broadcasting. Way back in 2008, I interviewed him for Chicago Radio Spotlight.
*September 19--Jimmy Fallon birthday
=The boyish Tonight Show host turned 50 this week.
*September 20—Ed
Curran birthday
=Back in the
day, Ed was part of the radio duo of Al & Ed on WGN Radio. He became a
meteorologist and is now delivering weather reports for Channel 2.
*September
20--Jill Egan birthday
=During her
radio career Jill was an air personality and producer at the Drive and the
Loop.
*September 21—Janet
Dahl birthday
=The most
famous spouse in radio history. Janet Dahl has probably been on the air more
than 90% of the full-time personalities on the air today.
*September
21--Bill Kurtis birthday
=The pairing
of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson at Channel 2 might just be the
most popular news team in Chicago television history. Bill still is the voice
of WWDTM on NPR and has an ultra-successful production company. I interviewed him for my podcast a few years ago.
TV/STREAMING
*Bulls
& Blackhawks TV Crews for 2024-2025 season
=New network
(Chicago Sports Network), but familiar faces…
=As for the
Bulls, Jason Goff, Kendall Gill, and K.C. Johnson will be
handling the pre and post-game show. Will Perdue will not be back.
*Midwest
Emmy Award Nominations
=Tis the
season. Full list of those nominated is here.
=The local NBC family garnered 34 nominations this year.
*Coming
this October: Svengoolie’s Halloween Boo-Nanza
=Svengoolie
and the Sven-Squad will host the month-long celebration of Halloween on Me-TV
again this year. There will be back-to-back scary movies every Saturday night,
and full weekend lineups of Halloween episodes of your favorite shows from the past, including
a full day of Halloween westerns on October 6th.
*Meet the
new SNL Cast Members
=The New York
Times has profiles of all three, Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakum, and Jane
Wickline. The 50th season begins this month.
=The first five shows look pretty darn good.
first five shows!!! #SNL50 pic.twitter.com/P3hYWANlLz
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) September 18, 2024
*Dancing
with the “Stars”
=The new
season began this week. As usual the new crop of “stars” may need those
quotation marks. How many have you heard of? I’ve only heard of four of them.
"Real
Housewives" star Phaedra Parks
Former NFL
player and two-time Super Bowl champion Danny Amendola
Former
"Bachelor" star Joey Graziadei
Olympic rugby
player Ilona Maher
Actress Chandler
Kinney
Fake Heiress Anna
Delvey
Actor Eric
Roberts
Model Brooks
Nader
"Family
Matters" actor Reginald VelJohnson
"Beverly
Hills, 90210" star Tori Spelling
Former
"Bachelorette" star Jenn Tran
NBA star Dwight
Howard
Olympic
gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik
*Interviewing
Candidates for WGN-TV General Manager
=Paul
Konrad takes the helm…
*Whatever
Happened to Steve from Blues Clues?
=To kids in
the 1990s and early 2000s, Steve Burns was a superstar. Those same kids are
adults now and they’ve re-discovered Steve. These days he’s hanging out on TikTok.
*Connie
Chung
=The former
CBS news anchor has a new memoir out. The New York Times has a preview.
*The Emmy
Awards
=Full list of winners is here.
=The Washington Post declares the most shocking and surprising moments.
=I thought Jimmy Kimmel’s tribute to Bob Newhart was a nice moment too.
=Ratings were way up. 54% higher than last time.
*Fox News
Drama
=People are
confused what this behind-closed-doors Rupert Murdoch trial is about. It’s
about Rupert’s irrevocable trust. I thought the Daily Skimm described
this perfectly this week…
Rupert,
who retired last year at 92, will make the
case to amend his irrevocable trust so that when he dies, his eldest son (and
chosen successor) Lachlan becomes his “number one boy.” The change would give
Lachlan “exclusive” rights to 40% of the voting stakes in each company (read:
major control of the firms). That might sound like a snooze until you get to
this plot twist: Lachlan’s siblings, James,
Elisabeth, and Prudence,
are fighting so that they each get equal voting shares, as the trust originally
states. Cue: the dramatic
music.
=Now Mark
Cuban wants to buy Fox News.
=Fox fired another producer for sexual harassment this week. Reported by Brian Stelter’s CNN Reliable Sources newsletter…
Robert
Samuel, a
nearly 20-year veteran of Fox News, was terminated last week after allegations
of sexual harassment surfaced internally, according to two sources with
knowledge of the matter. Samuel was an executive producer on Sean
Hannity's prime time show, where he served as #2 under boss Tiffany
Fazio.
=Last week I
posted a link explaining what Sane-washing was. This piece is specifically about how Fox News does it.
*Wojnarowski
Leaves ESPN
=NBA reporter
Adrian Wojnarowski has left his reporting duties behind to become the general manager of the St. Bonaventure basketball team.
=He is walking away from $20 million.
DIGITAL/PRINT
*Scientific
American Endorses Kamala Harris
=In the 179
years of this magazine, it’s only the second time they have endorsed apresidential candidate. The other one was Joe Biden.
SOCIAL MEDIA
*Facebook
Bans RT
=They did so
via an announcement on Monday: "After careful consideration, we expanded
our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya
Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps
globally for foreign interference activity."
*Instagram
Changes Settings for Teens
=They are
implementing some pretty big changes for the under 18 crowd, including shutting
off notifications between 10pm-7am, and making all under 18 accounts private.
The New York Times has more information on this story.
