Media Notebook--8-2-24

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

RADIO/PODCASTS

 

*Brian Sherman

=The latest issue of Illinois Entertainer came out yesterday and features my interview with WDRV (The Drive) morning co-host Brian Sherman. Here’s a small taste of the piece…

They don’t try to sugarcoat their flaws.

“You’re exactly right,” Sherman admits with a laugh. “Having those quirks makes you much more human and relatable to everybody else too. What you hear on the air is the real Sherman and Tingle. Just two guys talking and sharing things from their lives.”

 

*Marconi Finalists

=The NAB announced the finalists for this year's Marconi Awards yesterday, and Chicago is well represented. WLS is a finalist for legendary station of the year. "Behind the Song" by Janda Lane on WDRV is a finalist for Best Radio Podcast of the Year. WTMX was named in the AC Station of the Year category. WGRB is a finalist for Religious Station of the Year, and the Score is a finalist in the Sports Radio Station of the Year category. Congrats to all of them. The full list is here.

*WBBM-AM and WSCR-AM Moving to a New Tower

=Audacy’s two Chicago AM stations are moving to a new tower. It doesn’t sound like this will affect the range or quality of the sound too much (although WBBM will get a stronger daytime signal), but it’s necessary because of the bankruptcy of the broadcasting giant. They had to sell the land where they had their old towers. Inside Radio has more.

 

*Lon Helton to Host 2024 Radio Hall of Fame Banquet

=Helton is himself a Hall of Famer (class of ’22) and worked for a while in Chicago radio (WMAQ). The banquet will be held in Nashville this year.

 

*CBS Radio Executive Editor Sees Her Job as a Calling

=Jennifer Brown got her start as a Steve Dahl intern but has moved up to Executive Editor at CBS. Barrett Media talks to her about her career journey.

 

*J.J. Jeffrey to Leave Radio Ownership

=In the 1970s, J.J. Jeffrey was a big star in Chicago on WLS AM 890. When he left Chicago, he moved into station ownership in his home state of Maine. This week he and his partner announced they were going to be leaving the business. Inside Radio has more on this story.

 

*Most Common Radio Formats in America

=The top four most common radio formats in America are…Country, Religious, News/Talk, and Contemporary Christian. If you’ve taken a road trip this summer, I’m sure that tracks with your experience. The full list is here.

 

*Steve Albini May Get a Street Named After Him

=The late musician/producer had a studio on West Belmont in Chicago, and the city is considering naming a portion of that street after him. Block Club Chicago has more.

*It's Lolla Weekend

=Axios' Justin Kaufman examines the lessons learned by the country's best run music festival.

*Podcast Corner

=Vulture rates the top new podcasts of 2024, so far.

=Kelce Brothers are looking for a $100 million podcast deal.

=Look who has the number 1 podcast this week. It’s the Mooch and Katty Kay. Anthony Scaramucci is quite entertaining. I had him on my podcast this week too.

 

*Rest in Peace

=The Nelons

Plane crash. Gospel Singers Kelly Nelon Clark, 64, husband Jason Clark, and their daughter Amber Nelon Kistler, 35, were killed along with the latter's husband Nathan Kistler, 34, the Georgia-based band's assistant, Melodi Hodges, plus the pilot, Larry Haynie, and his wife, Melissa Haynie. Tragic.

=Martin Phillips

Co-founder of the band The Chills. He was 61.

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

*July 28--Walter Jacobson birthday

=Legendary Chicago TV newsman. Walter and Bill Kurtis dominated the ratings during their years at Channel 2 (CBS) in Chicago. At one point during his CBS era, Walter won an Emmy for political commentary ten years in a row. He also won a Peabody award. Walter later spent more than a decade at WFLD-TV (Channel 32), and currently still offers political commentary on WGN Radio. He turned 87 last weekend.

 

*July 28—Gehrig Peterson birthday

=Gehrig got his start in Chicago media as the manager for radio legends like Steve Dahl and Kevin Matthews but is best known for his years in concert promotion.

 

*July 28--Rick Kaempfer birthday

=That’s me. 61 this year. I don’t look a day over 60 ½.

 

*July 29, 1981

=750 million people worldwide watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. I don’t follow the royal family, but I’m sure that this fairy tale had a wonderful and happy ending.

 

*July 29—Andy Chanley birthday

=He’s the afternoon man and music director at WXRT these days. I recently interviewed him for Illinois Entertainer.

 

*July 29—Bill Souronis birthday

=Total Traffic Network

 

*July 29—Vasili Souronis birthday

=Total Traffic Network

 

*July 29—Rick Morrisey birthday

=Chicago Sun Times sports columnist.

 

*July 29—Geli Corbett birthday

=Long-time producer for Kevin Matthews.

 

*July 1994

=30 years ago the Blaze (103.5FM) became Rock 103.5. They soon debuted their new morning man Mancow Muller.  Before it became The Blaze, the frequency was known as WFYR. 103.5 FM is now known as KISS-FM.

 

*July 30—Tom Petersen birthday

=WGN newscaster for decades, working alongside the likes of Spike O’Dell, Bob Collins, and more.

 

*July 31—Irv Kupcinet birthday

=Probably the most famous newspaper columnist (with apologies to Mike Royko) in Chicago history. His column for the Sun Times began in 1943 and lasted 60 years. Kup hobnobbed with the big Hollywood stars, did color commentary on Bears broadcasts, and hosted his own television show. He now has a statue across the river from the old Sun-Times building. Kupcinet died in 2003.

 

*July 31—Bill Frink birthday

=Part of the legendary Eyewitness News Team in the 1970s. Frink was the sports anchor alongside Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly, and John Coleman.

 

*August 1, 1981

=MTV launches. “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles was the first video. Watch the launch.

*August 2—Kenneth Smith birthday

=Known to Mancow fans as Al Roker Jr.

 

*August 2—Ryan Baker birthday

=For the last five years he’s been hosting the morning show on Channel 2. Now he’s back on the 10:00 News, anchoring the sports desk.

 

*August 3—Scott Placko birthday

=Channel 2 cameraman/photographer Scott is the younger brother of Fox-32 reporter Dane.

 

August 3--Jerry G. Bishop birthday

=The anniversary of Chicago broadcasting icon Jerry G. Bishop’s birth was this week. His protégé (as both Svengoolie and in radio) was Rich Koz. When I interviewed Koz in 2009, he went into a little more detail about what Jerry G. meant to him. Worth a read.

 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Former President Trump Appears in Chicago

=He was interviewed Wednesday by a panel of print and television reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention. Among the panelists: Rachel Scott (ABC News), Harris Faulkner (Fox News), and Kadia Goba (Semafor). Needless to say, it was a controversial appearance. Trump really bristled at a question from Scott. And according to this report from WTTW, Trump’s team demanded that it end after 35 minutes even though it was scheduled for an hour.

 

*30 Years of Larry Potash

=Yesterday marked the 30^th anniversary of Larry Potash on WGN-TV. Since his arrival in 1994 he has arguably become the biggest star on the local television scene.

 

*Jennifer Lyons

=She has been named the new regional GM for CBS Detroit and CBS Chicago.

 

*Chicago TV Reunion

=Look who bumped into each other at a local suburban festival. That’s retired TV photographer/author Chuck Quinzio, Fox 32’s Dane Placko, and retired ABC-7 reporter Paul Meincke.

 

*20 Years of Dave Savini

=The award-winning investigative reporter just celebrated his 20^th anniversary at CBS-2 Chicago. This week they brought him in to co-host the morning show with Dana Kozlov. Savini shared some photos on his LinkedIn page.

 

*Is Hard Knocks a Curse?

=Jim O’Donnell examined that possibility in his sports media column in the Daily Herald. Normally I wouldn’t care about Hard Knocks, but the Bears are the subject of this year’s show.

DESPITE THE STRONG SUGGESTION of George McCaskey, the sports gods have yet to officially proclaim that "Hard Knocks" is a curse. https://t.co/bYEyG1D4kJ

— Daily Herald (@dailyherald) July 28, 2024

 

*The Bear? Never Heard of It

=Great piece in the Tribune this week. The reporter went to Little Italy to talk to some of the beef shops that inspired The Bear. They don’t watch it. They never heard of it.

*Norah O’Donnell Stepping Down after Election in November

=This was a surprise announcement this week. She was mired in third place as the anchor of CBS Evening News. 

 

*Venu Sports Announces Prices

=The much anticipated sports streaming service (combining Disney/Fox/Warner Brothers sports assets) announced they are starting up in the fall. The cost will be $42.99 a month. Awful Announcing has the details.

*Colin Jost to Host New Pop Culture Jeopardy

=30 years ago I would have killed in this game. Now, not so much. For more info about the show, click here.

 

*Olympic Commentator fired for Sexist Remarks

=He worked for the BBC, and let’s be honest. This is pretty cringe. Ballard said the women swimmers were "finishing up" and "you know what women are like... hanging around, doing their make-up."

 

*Warner Brothers Discovery Sues NBA

=This lawsuit was expected. They are upset about losing the NBA rights to Amazon. ESPN has the details. 

 

*New York’s Hot Weather Chaser

=Not hot weather. Hot weatherman. The internet is abuzz. The New York Times has the story. 

*Rest in Peace

=Jim West

From 1971-1979 Jim was the voice of the Chicago Blackhawks and the Cubs for WGN-TV. He was 95.

 

 

STAGE/SCREEN

 

*Deadpool & Wolverine Sets Box Office Records

=It has already grossed over $500 million dollars globally and it just came out last weekend. Crazy numbers

*Obama the Musical?

=You read that right. Check it out.

 

DIGITAL/PRINT

 

*Biden Secures Release of Gershkovich and others

=Emotional scenes at the airport last night. Jake Sullivan explained the news earlier in the day...

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan gets choked up during the White House briefing talking about the negotiations that led to the historic prisoner swap with Russia.

“Today was a very good day,” he told reporters. pic.twitter.com/3P1qXA6dnH

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 1, 2024

*Photo of Surfer in Mid-Air Goes Viral

=It’s an AP photo. The photographer is Jerome Brouilait. The surfer in the picture is Olympian Gabriel Medina. You can see it here. It really is stunning.

 

*100 Best Books of the 21^st Century

=According to the New York Times.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

*Justice Department Warns About TikTok

=According to a report this week, the Justice Department claims that TikTok collected US user views on specific issues like abortion and guns, and that they have communicated directly with the Chinese government.

 

*How do you solve a problem like Elon?

=The New York Times has a piece about Elon’s right-hand-woman Linda Yaccarino, and the challenges she faces because of her boss’s whims.

=Don Lemon is also suing Elon for $35 million because he backed out of their content deal.

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.

20 Years: Just One Bad Century

 

This year marks my 20th year as a professional writer. Over the course of 2024, I'll be sharing a few of those offerings you may have missed along the way.

In 2008 I founded my website Just One Bad Century. It was my effort to find out if there was a reason that God hated the Cubs. That was the 100th season in a row they didn't win the World Series. Along the way I discovered some very cool stories. Most of them made it into the book EveryCubEver. A few of them didn't, including these. 

They are timely for this week in history. 

~Joe E. Brown, born July 28, 1892 (Cubs fan/movie star)
His name isn’t remembered by many people today, but Joe E. Brown was an actor, comedian, and baseball nut. He was also one of the biggest movie stars in America during the 1930s. He made his mark in a series of baseball movies, and in his two biggest box office hits (“Elmer, the Great” and “Alibi Ike”) he portrayed fictional players on the Chicago Cubs. Both of those films were written by the great baseball writer Ring Lardner, and filmed in LA’s Wrigley Field. Brown called the character of Elmer his all-time favorite: a lovable, walking, talking, egocentric braggart. Elmer also does something in the movie that we can only dream of witnessing…he hits a grand slam to win the World Series for the Cubs. Several real-life Cubs were in that movie too: Babe Herman, Larry French, Tuck Stainback, and the man who allegedly served up the pitch for Babe Ruth’s called shot: Charlie Root. In his next baseball movie, “Alibi Ike,” Brown played another Chicago Cubs player, pitcher Francis X. Farrell. They called him Alibi Ike because he had an excuse for everything. One of his famous lines: “I coulda won more than 30 games last year, but I had malaria half the season.” Brown’s Ike is a clowning excuse maker that forgets what made him who he is as he pursues his rookie season with the Chicago Cubs. But, like all of Brown’s characters, Ike has a heart of gold, and eventually gets back together again with his estranged girlfriend (Olivia de Havilland). Ike realizes that she is more important to him than wearing a Cubs uniform, and it’s not until he realizes it that he fulfills his baseball potential.

###

July 30,1962

The All-Stars gather in Chicago's Wrigley Field to play their second All-Star game of the season. The first one was played in Washington in early July.

There are 21 Hall of Famers in the game on this Monday afternoon (yes, that's right, a Monday afternoon All Star Game). The American League has White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio in the starting lineup, and Brooks Robinson, Yogi Berra, Al Kaline, and Mickey Mantle on the bench. Their other two hall of famers are in the bullpen; Jim Bunning and Hoyt Wilhelm.

The National League might be fielding one of the best lineups ever assembled. Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, and Bill Mazeroski are in the starting lineup, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Richie Ashburn, Billy Williams, Stan Musial, and Frank Robinson are on the bench, and Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn are in the bullpen.

None of the Cubs (Banks, Williams, and George Altman) start for the National League, but all of them get into the game. Ernie Banks comes in the 5th inning, replacing Orlando Cepeda at 1B. He grounds out to first base in the bottom of the 6th, but triples to deep center field in the bottom of the 8th. He later scores on a Billy Williams’ groundout. Billy replaced Stan Musial in the 7th inning, and that is his only at-bat of the game. Earlier, George Altman pinch hit for Bill Mazeroski in the bottom of the 4th and flew out to end the inning.

Despite the powerhouse National League lineup, and the friendly National League crowd, the home team can't pull out a win.

LA Angels outfielder Leon Wagner is the MVP after hitting a two-run homer against Phillies pitcher Art Mahaffey. But he isn't the only one that belts a round-tripper. Red Sox infielder Pete Runnels and Cleveland outfielder Rocky Calavito both hit one too. Rocky’s is a three run bomb (in the 7th). He drives in four for the game. Dodger John Roseboro also hit a homer for the National League.

The final score was 9-4. The save is recorded by Baltimore Orioles (and future Cubs) pitcher Milt Pappas.

###

August 2, 1923

President Warren G. Harding dies unexpectedly. He wasn't from Chicago, but Chicago nevertheless played an important role in the his presidency. For one thing, in 1920 he was nominated by Republican party leaders in a smoke filled Chicago hotel room; Suite 4046 on the 13th floor of the Blackstone hotel. Harding had lots of powerful friends in Chicago who helped propel him to the Presidency. A minority owner of the Cubs, Albert Lasker, was actually one of those Republican operatives who helped Harding secure the nomination in that smoke filled room.

Harding even attended a Cubs game during the Presidential campaign, at the invitation of a big supporter and friend; Cubs majority owner William Wrigley. After he was elected, Harding invited his all-time favorite baseball player, Cubs legend Cap Anson to the White House. But it was another minority Cubs shareholder, Harry Sinclair, that really had an impact on the Harding Presidency. He was at the heart of Harding's biggest scandal, Teapot Dome. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Sinclair. When the Senate got wind of this, they investigated.

It was found that in 1921, Sinclair (photo below) also “loaned” Secretary Fall a large amount of money. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. Sinclair was acquitted, but was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury.

Most of this was discovered after Harding's death on August 2, 1923. That's not all investigators discovered. During his time in his office, his veteran Bureaus chief skimmed profits from war surplus sales, bootlegged drugs to dealers, and took kickbacks from purchasing agents; his Alien property Custodian took bribes—using Harding’s Attorney General’s personal aide as a bagman; and Harding also had a young mistress, mother of his illegitimate child, and another mistress, who was inconveniently married to one of his friends.

Nevertheless the Republican party and the Chicago Cubs emerged from these scandals unscathed. The Republicans won again in 1924, and the Cubs overcame the loss of Harry Sinclair. They finished the 1923 season 12 games over .500.

Studio Walls--July 31, 2024

 

A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.

Here are a few from the archives...

July 28, 1993—Robin Hood: Men in Tights debuts. 

=Listen to our interview with Little John, Eric Allan Kramer

 

July 29, 1981—Disney on Ice begins touring. 

=Little Tommy Kaempfer reviewed Toy Story on Ice. Will we play it this week?

July 29, 2021—Record setting belch. 

=One of the funniest bits in Minutia Men history. Listen here. 

 

July 30, 1966—England beats West Germany to win the World Cup. 

=Still comes up regularly when Rick and Adam discuss their favorite national teams on Free Kicks with Adam & Rick

 

July 31--Mark Cuban birthday

=The billionaire appeared on an early episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.  

July 31, 2017—Anthony Scaramucci fired. 

=We interviewed the Mooch three times. Here's the first one. 

 

August 1, 2012—Rick's article about George Martin appears in Shore Magazine.

=It's also appeared in audio form in Minutia Men a few times. The altered Martin interview audio may re-emerge this week again.

August 2, 1929—First suburb (Levittown, NY) founded. 

=We wrote a bit called Suburban Man that ran on the John Landecker show for several months. You just may hear the audio on a future Minutia Men episode.

August 2, 2017—Selling Dead People’s Things by Duane Scott Cerny released

=Duane appeared on Minutia Men Celebrity Interview to talk about it.  

August 2--Butch Patrick birthday

=Would you believe one of us had a personal brush with Eddie Munster while the planes were hitting the Twin Towers on 9/11? That story is in this episode. 

August 2^--Glenn Slater birthday

=We spoke to the lyricist for Alan Mencken and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber in this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.  

 

August 3—Molly Hagan birthday.

=The actress was a wonderful guest on this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview. 

August 3, 2020—Rick and Dave appear on Reconcile the Aisle

=We don't often get asked to appear on other podcasts as Minutia Men, but it did happen on this one. 

August 3—Martha Stewart birthday

=Yes, of course I have written a Martha Stewart song. Landecker & the Legends recorded it in 1996. Will we play it this week? 

August 3—Maria Breese birthday

=The "Shameless" actress appeared on this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.