MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
*Audacy files for
Bankrupty
=It’s a Chapter 11
restructuring, although it’s not exactly how they worded it in the company release. I don’t speak fluent corporate, so I thought
I’d just quote them here and maybe you can translate for me…
Audacy Reaches
Agreement with a Supermajority of its Debtholders on Balance Sheet Deleveraging
Transaction that Will Equitize Over 80% of the Company’s Debt and Establish a
Robust Capital Structure to Drive Long-Term Growth
=Audacy’s stock dropped 47% in the first day after the announcement.
=What’s next for Audacy? That’s the question everyone is asking. This piece provides some insight by looking at what happened to Cumulus during their similar bankruptcy in 2017.
=In Chicago, Audacy owns
WXRT, WSCR, WBBM AM & FM, WUSN, and WBMX.
*Chicago Radio Ratings
=The December radio ratings are out. No huge surprises here. The top ten stations (6+, M-Sunday, 6am-Midnight) are..
WLIT-FM (12.3)
WDRV (5.8)
WVAZ (5.5)
WBBM-AM (5.2)
WOJO (4.5)
WXRT (4.4)
WTMX (4.0)
WUSN (3.6)
WLS-FM (3.5)
WBMX (2.8)
WGN (2.8)
=The biggest jump went to
the annual holiday season winner, WLIT (+5.0), but WVAZ also jumped (0.5) and
so did WXRT (0.4).
=The biggest declines were
felt by WDRV (0.8) and WTMX (0.7). I suspect both will climb back now that the
holiday music season is over.
*ESPN Chicago Reacts to Ratings
=Jeff Agrest of the Sun-Times talked to the folks at ESPN Radio. Despite adding the Bears, the ratings were down a bit. He wanted to know how they reacted to that news.
*Illinois Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame Nominees
=The list of names was
released this week. You can see the full list here. Last year The Loop was
the radio station inducted, and Bob Sirott was the DJ. This year’s DJ
nominees are Bob Stroud, Mitch Michaels, Steve Dahl, Jonathon Brandmeier,
Terri Hemmert, and Herb Kent. This year’s radio station nominees are
WCFL, WVON, WDCB, and WWCT (Peoria).
*NPR’s News Content Found
Highly Trustworthy
=In this study, NPR was found safest for brand sponsorship opportunities because it handles sensitive topics more carefully than others.
*Super Bowl Ad
=I thought this was an
interesting piece…
*Rest in Peace
She worked as a DJ in
Chicago at WSDM before making her way out to Hollywood. Cindy is best
remembered for her portrayal of Lacey Underall in the film Caddyshack. She
was only 69.
*What’s Ailing the
Industry?
=Barrett Media
posted this story over the weekend: Radio’s Future Lies in its Past
=Tom Langmyer was
the GM at WGN Radio for a number of years. I think this analysis he posted on
Facebook of what ails the industry is dead on…
Was interviewed in this story.
It mentions that local radio stations are usually run by
sales executives, but that has been the case for some time.
However, sales
leadership should not be blamed for the woes of the parent companies. The
REASON for the issues at the station level lies not at the station level.
Stations are victims of
the decisions made well above them.
When a station turns OCF
for the parent company, but the parent company overpaid for media assets and is
also way over-leveraged, there’s the real culprit.
So where does the
company get the money to pay for THEIR malfeasance?
They gut the stations
that were providing the OCF!
Visionary product-rooted
and market leadership is less important, when you’ve decided your unique and
popular local restaurant is now a McDonalds.
The problem further
increases when the image of the industry is blamed on the radio stations
themselves.
It’s a bad image for a
good industry.
It’s about poorly run
companies, whose leaders only know how to manage decline.
But they get paid
millions of dollars to run companies into the ground.
A job for the greedy….
Who wants to give up a
job like that?
And these aren’t sales
managers nor programmers.
MBAs….
*WBIG
=Matt DuBiel is
purchasing another radio station. He has put in a bid to buy WBIG (AM 1280) from Pollack Broadcasting.
*Ex-Chicago Radio Update
=Abe Kanan, heard
most recently on WCHI in Chicago (but also previously with WKQX and WLUP) has landed as afternoon host in Sacramento.
=Bill Gamble, long-time Chicago program director, is now running a group of radio stations in South Bend. He was interviewed about his thoughts on radio this week.
*Podcast Corner
=Did you know there is a Podcasting Hall of Fame? Me neither. They announced the eight 2024 inductees this week. I’ve only heard of one of them.
=Chicago radio/podcast producer Keith Conrad has a new project. It’s called Dimension of the Lost. Listen to it here.
=Lara Trump joins Salem Media Group. Her podcast is called The Right View. It will be audio and video and will feature the whole spectrum of political guests…who agree with Trump.
*Sucherman Brothers
Reunion
=Joel is a top executive at NPR. Todd is the drummer of Styx. Paul is a lecturer at University of Wisconsin.
=Check out this classic clip
of the same brothers back in 1977. I love this…
*The Loop Files
=I’ve been blown away by the
great reviews of my latest book The Loop Files. This may be my favorite one.
Thanks so much, Christopher Sutter.
=Found this little item in my archives. It’s from this week in 1988. The Steve & Garry newsletter...
=I'll be out and about for
another book signing on January 21st. Really looking forward to this one. I'll
be at the Chicagoland Record show from 10am--2pm.
*January 7, 1944/Jim
Bohannan’s birthday
=He passed away in November of 2022, but not before leaving behind a National Radio Hall of Fame career.
=He was known as Elton Jim when he was a part of the Garry
Meier show on WGN Radio (because of the hundreds of times he has seen
Elton John in concert).
*January 8—Jacky Runice birthday
=She’s currently a columnist for USA Today, but
Jacky was once a radio personality in Chicago at WLS, WLUP, and WGN.
*January 9--Mark Grote birthday
=A veteran of both the Cubs and Bears broadcast teams. When I interviewed him for Illinois Entertainer in 2015, he was part of the
Chicago Cubs broadcast booth.
*January 9—Brendan Greeley birthday
=Brendan is part of Steve Dahl’s crew on
the Dahlcast. He was also part of Dahl’s show on WCKG and WLS-AM. Brendan
published a novel on Amazon called The Genius of 1990s Girls.
*January 9--Megan Reed birthday
=Megan had a great run in Chicago radio (WLIT, Rewind 100)
before passing away at the way too young age of 52 in 2016. I interviewed her in 2011 when she
was working at Rewind.
*January 9, 2007
=The iPhone makes its debut.
January 10—Kristyn Hartman birthday
=Kristyn had a long stint at Channel 2 as a reporter,
before moving on to a similar role in Cincinnati. In May of 2022, she left the station in Cincy, to return to her
hometown of Chicago to pursue options outside of television news.
=I first met Kristyn in 2008 when she came to my house
during the 2008 baseball playoffs. In this clip, I’m the idiotic Cubs fanatic.
January 11—Bill Wyman birthday
=The former NPR mainstay and Chicago
Reader staff writer is now living in Phoenix.
January 11—Bill Kissinger birthday
=Bill is a WGN-TV news writer and a podcast host (Best Song I Ever Wrote). Kissinger is married to Channel 2’s Dana Kozlov, and his sister Meg is the author of the highly acclaimed book "While You Are Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence." I interviewed her on my podcast late last year.
*January 12—Rabbi Doug
birthday
= His real name is Doug Zelden, but you may remember him as Rabbi Doug, a regular contributor to the Steve & Garry show back in the day. (He also contributed to Brandmeier’s show and John Landecker’s show on WJMK). Doug has been doing a cable access interview show Taped with Rabbi Doug for many years now. Tons of Chicago media figures have appeared on the show.
*January 13—Derrick Brown birthday
=Derrick is the VP/Programming at IHeartMedia Chicago, and the PD
of WVAZ, WGCI, and BIN 640
*January 13—Diana Steele birthday
=
Diana was a jock on WBMX for a few years, and I featured her in Illinois Entertainer in 2018.
*January 14—Jenny Milkowski birthday
=Jenny worked at CBS-2 and WGN-TV as a producer, and Fox-32 as a traffic reporter for a few years before moving on to greener pastures and better weather in San Diego.
*January 14—Joe McArdle birthday
=Joe has been a radio production guru (ESPN, Tribune, WXRT)
in Chicago for more than 30 years.
*January 14—Mike Krauser birthday
=Mike has been an anchor, reporter, producer, writer,
managing editor and a news director in Chicago since 1988.
TV/STREAMING
*Andy Shaw on Chicago’s
Dangerous Neighborhoods
=As someone who worked as a Chicago reporter for 40 years, Shaw has some creditability on the subject.
*A BFD from the BFA for
Norville
=Deborah Norville may have gotten her start here in Chicago at Channel 5, but she has obviously gone on to greater heights since. This week the Broadcasters Foundation of America announced that Norville will be receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award. Details are here.
*CNN anchor’s Cancer
Announcement
=This moving announcement has garnered her support across the media landscape...
*The Creative Arts Emmys
=This one focused on unscripted and documentary programs. Welcome to Wrexham was the big winner.
*Golden Globe highlights
Missed the show?
=Recap and highlights are here.
*Other Nominations Also Came
Out This Week
=The SAG Award Nominations for 2024
=The Director’s Guild Award Nominations for 2024
=ESPN. Incredible story about ESPN submitting fake names over the past 13 years.
*Purple Rain Heading to Broadway
=The film came out 40 years
ago. (I know) The Broadway adaptation is in the works. Entertainment Weekly
has the details.
*The End of the Aaron
Rogers-Jimmy Kimmel dispute
=It ended exactly as it
should have ended…
Aaron Rodgers Will No Longer Appear on The Pat McAfee Show After Jimmy Kimmel Controversy https://t.co/OengxtWKab
— E! News (@enews) January 10, 2024
=The New York Times revisited the locations used in The Sopranos on the 25th anniversary of
the show’s debut.
*Rest in Peace
The Designated Survivor star was only 42.
*Hasan Leaves MSMBC
=He announced the news on
the air at MSNBC…
Some personal news: I've decided to leave MSBNC.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 8, 2024
New year, new plans, new challenges:pic.twitter.com/A4ArRYk9d2
DIGITAL/PRINT
*Rest in Peace
=Mike Perricone
Perricone covered the
Blackhawks for the Sun Times for a dozen years, before giving it all up to be a
stay-at-home dad. He was only 72.
*Plagiarism Scandal at
Business Insider
=Max Tani has the latest details about the internal drama. It involves Harvard, a major hedge fund figure, his wife, Israel, advertisers, and more.
SOCIAL MEDIA
*Don Lemon Moves to X
(Twitter)
=And he announced the news
himself…
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) January 9, 2024
*TikTok Quietly Curtails Data-Tool
=According to this piece in
the New York Times, they did it because the tool was being used by
investigators monitoring controversial topics like the Israel-Hamas war.
