Media Notebook--6-2-23

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

(By Rick Kaempfer)

RADIO/PODCASTS

 

 

*Danny Bonaduce Having Brain Surgery After Health Scare

=TMZ.com reported the news early this morning. Danny is quoted in the article, and explains his diagnosis (hydrocephalus), and prognosis.

*Mary Sandberg Boyle Interview

=The June issue of Illinois Entertainer came out this week and included my interview with WGN GM Mary Sandberg Boyle. Here’s a short excerpt.

“I’m a no-bullshit kind of person,” she says, “and I knew there were some tough decisions to be made. I understood that business decisions wouldn’t always align with my personal feelings, but I also knew I would be able to separate that from what needs to be done. I’m a very clear message person, and I’m able to communicate very directly. My husband always says that I’m really good at delivering bad news. My producer training probably helped with that. Being a producer, especially of a very high-profile show, you have to be tough. You’ve learned to take the shrapnel. You’ve learned personality management. A lot of GMs come from the sales side. Coming from the programming side gave me an advantage. I knew what could work, and what couldn’t work. And I understood the sales side because all high-profile shows deal extensively with client integration. I had to do a lot of that before. My background meant that it wouldn’t be too difficult to absorb that part of the equation, which is obviously an important part of the job too.”

=Read the entire interview here.

 

 *National Black Radio Hall of Fame

=The National Black Radio Hall of Fame announced their 2023 class this week. Tom Joyner will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. The rest of the inductees are listed here.

 

*Sherman & Tingle Pitch New Beer

=They call it Driver Nation American Premium Lager.

 

 

*Terri Hemmert Update

=It’s been a few weeks now since her traumatic gun incident in New Orleans. This week she updated her friends and fans on Facebook, along with a treatise about how this all ties in to the great Harry Nilsson. 

 

 

*The Loop Files

=Tuesday is the day I post another of my Loop interviews. This week it was with former AM Loop Program Director Jack Silver. 

 

 

*Leon Colvin Retires

=Leon had an astounding career at WBBM, nearly 53 years in the saddle. His colleagues praised him all over social media. This little note (and photo of Leon & Rob) is courtesy of WBBM NewsRadio’s Rob Hart: “September 21, 1970 was a big day in broadcasting. ABC aired the first edition of Monday Night Football and Leon Colvin started at WBBM. Today is Leon’s last day at the midday editor’s desk before retiring. He worked with all the greats at WBBM and he worked with me. Congratulations, Leon! Enjoy retirement and we’ll miss you!”

 

 

*Podcast Corner

=Who really broke up the Bulls dynasty? Scottie Pippen’s opinion on the matter is here on Stacey King’s Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast. 

=Veteran Chicago radio and podcast producer Keith Conrad hangs out his shingle for free-lance podcast producing/editing work. 

=Nearly half of Gen Z members are podcast listeners. 

 

 

*Whip Saves a Cat

=WTMX morning show member Brian "Whip" Paruch saved a cat this week. Here's part one of the story. Below is the finale.

 

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

 

 

*May 29—Felicia Middlebrooks birthday

=The former morning co-anchor at WBBM NewsRadio is also an author and an award-winning filmmaker 

 

*May 30—Dave Eanet birthday

=Dave is the sports director at WGN and can heard daily on Bob Sirott’s morning show. He has also been the radio play-by-play man for Northwestern University football and basketball for decades. (Photo: Dave on WGN-TV for Cubs World Series postgame. Far left)

*May 31—Jerry Agar birthday

=Jerry had stints at both WLS and WGN in Chicago. I got a chance to interview him during that time. He’s currently working north of the border in his native Canada.

*May 31, 2005—Watergate source Deep Throat revealed

=Have you been watching The Plumbers on HBO? Mark Felt, the deputy director the FBI, is one of the characters. A minor one in the series. A major one in real life. He was 91 when he revealed the news to Vanity Fair.

 

*June 1, 1974—WCFL Chart

=The Watergate scandal dominated the news. Larry Lujack was the star DJ on the station. And this is the list of songs WCFL was playing (courtesy of Chicago Radio Timeline)

 

*June 1, 1980—CNN Debuts as First All-News Network

=This was Ted Turner’s brainchild, and it was widely mocked at the time. (Who is going to want news 24 hours a day?). The husband/wife team of Dave Walker and Lois Hart were the first anchors. The headquarters was in Atlanta, but the network also had bureaus in Washington, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

 

*June 2—Dave Hoekstra birthday

=Hoekstra is one of Chicago’s most enduring writers, having written extensively for the Chicago Sun-Times over a 30-year period. Dave’s books include “The Supper Club Book,” “The People’s Place (Soul Food Restaurants and Reminiscences from the Civl Rights Era to Today” and “The Camper Book (A Celebration of a Moveable American Dream),” all published by Chicago Review Press. He’s also hosted a show on WGN Radio. This is a photo of Dave (right) with legendary DJ Bobby Skafish (left) after an interview at WGN.

 

*June 2—Geoff Dankert birthday

=Geoff is well-known behind the scenes in Chicago’s radio and television community. His trophy case is bursting with a Peabody, Murrow, and an Emmy award. Dankert is currently a writer/editor at WBBM NewsRadio.

 

*June 3—Jim Kirk birthday

=Jim is the publisher and executive editor of Crain’s Chicago Business. Before coming to Crain’s, he was the editor-in-chief of the LA Times. He also worked at the Chicago Tribune, covering a beat that I hold near and dear: the media.

 

*June 3—Dan Deibert birthday

=The former WGN Radio host is working as a comedian specializing in corporate gigs.  

 

TV/STREAMING

 

 

*Mike Flannery Calls it a Career

=Flannery was a great political reporter for Channel 2 and Channel 32 in Chicago for nearly 50 years. The Sun Times has the story about his retirement.

=My all-time favorite Flannery interview was the one he did with Congressman Gus Savage in 1989. It was a classic audio clip we played on the radio for many years after it happened. I couldn’t find the audio, but I did find this Tribune article describing it perfectly.

*Britain’s TV News Sex Scandal

=It involves the most popular morning show on British TV, and the scandal is almost exactly the same as the fictional scandal on the Apple+ TV show “The Morning Show”. The Washington Post has a pretty good primer on the story. 

 

 

*Succession Scores Huge Numbers

=The HBO series finale was the highest rated episode in the entire run of the series. The Hollywood Reporter has the details.

 

*Danny Masterson Guilty

=A jury of his peers found That 70s Show star Danny Masterson guilty of two counts of rape. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

 

*Cable News Corner

=There's a new COO at CNN

=Brooke Bower has left CNN, where she had been managing editor of CNN Politics, to become the executive producer of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on ABC.

=Another former CNN contributor, Lisa Ling, was hired by CBS News this week. 

=The suspected source of Tucker Carlson, Fox News leaks was revealed this week in a bombshell report. Fingers are being pointed at a Tampa Bay area media consultant.

*TV Star Deaths

Both of these 1960s TV stars were in their 90s.

=R.I.P. George Maharis

=R.I.P Ed Ames

 

PRINT/DIGITAL MEDIA

 

*Jim Avila’s 5 Media Sources You Can Trust

=I love this piece by former TV reporter Jim Avila. He spells out the legitimate news sources you can trust and describes how you can use those sources to inform you on what is really going on in the world in less than two hours a day. Consider this a disinformation-avoidance technique.

  

*Gannett Journalists to go on Strike

=Gannett owns 200 newspapers, and a few dozen of them across seven different states are facing a strike beginning on Monday. More information about that here.

*Journalism’s Essential Value

=New York Times publisher A.G Sulzberger has penned a lengthy piece for Columbia Journalism Review about the value and necessity of objective journalism. 

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

*Why TikTok Wants Trial To Be Held in Illinois

=Justin Kaufman of Axios explains why the social media giant is making this play in court.

 

*Twitter Could Soon Be Banned in Europe

=If Twitter doesn’t take steps to curb the flow of disinformation (which has exploded since Elon Musk took over), there’s a very good chance the EU will ban Twitter. More information here at the Wrap.

=This story certainly won’t help the cause.

EXCLUSIVE: Twitter is failing to remove 99 percent of hate speech posted by Twitter Blue users, new research has found, and instead may be boosting paid accounts that spew racism and homophobia. https://t.co/M4WA0HZrzy

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 31, 2023

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.

If you're interested in some of my other projects from this week...

The Fifth Edition (2023) of EveryCubEver is out now!  Buy your copy today

The Fifth Edition (2023) of EveryCubEver is also on amazon. Buy your copy today.

Minutia Men: Rudolf the Red Nosed Mayor

Minutia Men Celebrity Interview: Mrs. America

Minutia Men Celebrity Interview Classic: Actress Molly Hagan

Free Kicks with Adam & Rick: Final Relegation Battle

Meet the Eckhartz Press Author: Andrew Langert

From the Eckhartz Book Shelf: GelStrong by Mark Gelinas

My latest novel: Back in the D.D.R

Windy City Reviews Back in the D.D.R.

Podcast Interview about Back in the D.D.R: Military Family Museum Podcast

The Loop Files: Jack Silver

 

 I'm working on a special project this year about a certain radio station, so I've been going back into my files and pulling out some old interviews with former Loop colleagues and pals. I'll feature one a week here on the blog. This week, it's Jack Silver. Jack was the program director of the AM Loop during it's craziest time, in the early 1990s. I got a chance to interview him in 2009. At the time he was working as a program director in Los Angeles. We talked about a lot of things going on that time, but we also chatted a bit about his days at the Loop.

Rick: You’ve been out in LA a long time now, but you grew up here in Chicago. I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this before...but who did you listen to as a kid?

Jack: Easy one. I was a big WLS and WCFL fan. I’m 51, so we’re talking about the 60s and early 70s. I loved Kris Erik Stevens (photo), Larry Lujack, Joel Sebastian, really all of the guys at both of those stations. I would hang out and watch them doing their thing. In those days they’d actually let you do that. My buddies and I would watch from the windows at 360 N. Michigan for awhile (WLS), and then we would go over to Marina City (WCFL). I was always more into the jocks than I was into the music. All the big top 40 guys.

My brother and his friends would listen to WXRT and WVVX, which I think was out of Highland Park, but I never really liked that. They were into the music, and they would give me a hard time about listening to those “bubble gum tunes.” But it wasn’t about the music for me. It was those guys on the air. I’ve been real fortunate over time to get to know a lot of them. Kris Stevens, for instance, lives near me out here in LA, and we’ve become friends.

Rick: People in Chicago obviously remember you from your time at AM 1000. You were the program director of the station during its personality talk era, and you were on the air all the time with Kevin Matthews, Steve & Garry, et al. I know that’s a role you’re comfortable with because you’ve done it your whole career—including most recently with the Adam Carolla show. What do you think are the pros and cons of being such a public program director?

Jack: No cons. Zero cons. One of the things I learned is that the listeners have a boss too, so if you become a boss that can be made fun of, the listeners seem to absolutely love that. I probably met more of the listeners than any other program director, because they knew me. (In LA, they called me Jack-S, or jackass). This whole radio thing is about the listeners, and when you put yourself out there, they go out of their way to meet you. The guys that sit in the offices and don’t get out there are usually the guys who never been on the air, and don’t really understand what a personality is thinking or what they’re dealing with, that moment of panic that can set in when you’re not 100% what you’re going to say next. If you haven’t had that, haven’t experienced that, what good are you?

Jimmy DeCastro (photo), Larry Wert, and all those guys at the Loop in Chicago, they totally got that. There was no con in it. If you’ve ever spent any time in public with Danny Bonaduce, he’s a perfect example of the right mindset. I hired Danny in Chicago and LA, and now he’s in Philly, but going to an airport with Danny is an experience. It takes him a half hour just to get to his car because people stop him every few seconds. When you ask him about it, he always says: “These people pay my salary. I will take all day talking to them if necessary.” He means it too. Some of those other guys who don’t want to be bothered might be missing the big picture there.

Rick: You were the producer of the Rick Dees show in LA before you came back home to work at the Loop. I remember you used to tell the producers here in Chicago a few stories about your days with that show, just to make them feel better about the daily humiliations they had to endure. Is there any way I can convince you to share one of those publicly?

Jack: The one I always tell was the one that made me change my career trajectory. Rick Dees (photo) and I were in Florida at Disney World doing a live broadcast. The sun was rising in the sky and barreling onto Rick’s back and at one point, he looked at me and asked if I would mind standing behind him to block the sun. That was an eye-opening moment for me. I didn’t want to be a 31-year-old sun shield.

I actually went home after that broadcast and called Jimmy (DeCastro) and Larry (Wert). They had told me that if I ever wanted to join them in Chicago to let them know—and that was the moment I decided I wanted to pursue it. This isn’t a slam on Rick. Rick is actually a great guy. They all have their quirks—it’s what makes them the guys in the spotlight and us the guys in the background—but I decided that wasn’t the way I wanted to go anymore.

Next week: Jeff Hoover

Media Notebook--7/8/22

 

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

 

 

Radio/Podcasts

*Daily Herald media critic/writer Robert Feder stepped down last week after more than 40 years on the media beat. That’s a big loss for the local media community. Everyone, and I mean everyone, read him. I’ve always wanted to interview him, but he always politely declined over the years. Now that he’s stepping away from the beat, however, he did do this interview with his old friend and rival Eric Zorn (Read the whole interviewhere). I thought this was the most interesting quote, about what a successor (if any) should write about…

“I can't imagine they would focus on radio as much as I did. Radio has a declining role in the market. My daughter doesn’t even listen to radio. I’m sure your kids don’t, either. You could probably say the same about TV news and print newspapers. I would think the coverage in the future would be more about digital, about nonprofit newsrooms, about streaming, about new financial models, about all these new platforms that matter now.”

*Local Chicago radio and television showed their worth this past week with their coverage of the shooting in Highland Park. Despite the small weekend staffs, radio stations like WBBM-AM and WGN-AM did a fantastic job of covering the story. The national trade publication Radio Ink spoke with WGN Radio’s Sean Compton about their coverage. Here is what they wrote:

Like many other businesses WGN had a skeleton crew in place due to the long 4th of July holiday weekend. Once in place Compton says the radio team went live to cover the local press conferences, interview people at the scene and take calls from listeners and Chicago officials. Compton said, “it’s what we do. It’s the business we’re in.” The station had been playing a best-of talk show at the time of the shooting. Host Jon Hansen took over live after the 90 minutes of coverage from WGN-TV.

The Daily Herald’s Jim O’Donnell also talked to long-time Chicago television producer and host Mike Leiderman about his hometown of Highland Park. Jim’s piece is here. 

 

*Julian “Jumpin” Perez steps away from radio. From Friday’s RAMP newsletter: Longtime Chicago mix-master extraordinaire, Julian "Jumpin" Perez, whose four-decade Windy City radio career has taken him to WGCI, WVAZ (V103), B96 (twice), WKSC (103.5 Kiss FM), and WBMX (104.3 Jams), to name just a few, announced his departure from radio and his intention to "start his next chapter."

 

*Media Monitor released their list of the top radio advertisers in the country. #1 right now is Indeed. I haven’t seen the list for top podcast advertisers, but if Athletic Greens is not on the list, I’d be shocked. I hear their ads on virtually all the podcasts I listen to (and I listen to a lot of them).

*Lewis Black is suing Pandora. The music streaming giant also has spoken word content, and if this lawsuit is to be believed, they haven’t been ponying up the royalties. From Billboard:
            Pandora is facing yet another lawsuit claiming it has failed to pay legally-required royalties for comedy, this time by from comedian Lewis Black. In a complaint filed Thursday (July 7) in California federal court, attorneys for Black said Pandora “took and exploited his works solely to make themselves money while knowing it had no license and had not paid, and would not be paying, royalties to Lewis Black.” The case is the latest in a string of lawsuits filed by comics, including the estates of George Carlin and Robin Williams, who say Pandora is violating copyright law by refusing to pay the equivalent of publishing royalties for spoken-word content.

*In my opinion, the best podcast in the world the past few years has been Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast. I never missed it. The network has continued re-posting old episodes since Gilbert passed away a few months ago, but they have never had an episode with his co-host Frank looking back on his time doing the show with Gilbert. I wish they would. In the meantime, if you are a Sirius/XM subscriber, you can hear the last long form interview Gilbert gave. The RAMP Newsletter reports:

SiriusXM announced the release of a special installment of its audio documentary series, which will fondly remember comic legend Gilbert Gottfried, who passed away on April 12 at 67. Obsessive Comedy Disorder: Boomers - The Gilbert Gottfried Is Dead Special debuted yesterday on Comedy Greats Channel 94. In what is believed to be the last long-form interview done with the voice that became comedy gold, this 90-minute conversation is an expansive and hilarious deep dive into the mind and memories of one of comedy's most brilliant and unique talents. It was February 13, 2020, when Obsessive Comedy Disorder producer and host Dan Pasternack got together with Paul Provenza, director of the hilariously profane cult comedy The Aristocrats, to interview Gottfried about his experiences leading up to and during the comedy boom of the '80s.

 

*The Joe Rogan podcast was in the news again this week. And it wasn’t even for something that happened on his podcast. It’s for what has not happened on his podcast. Despite having the reputation of being pro-Trump (probably because of his anti-vax and/or mask views), Media-Ite reported that Rogan said the following on a podcast hosted by Lex Friedman:

“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once — I’ve said no, every time. I don’t want to help him,” Rogan revealed. “I’m not interested in helping him.”

 

 *A few local Chicago radio folks are celebrating birthdays this week. (The year I interviewed them in parenthesis, interview at the link.)

July 6—Nick Digilio (2022)

July 6—Steve Touhy (2008)

July 7—John Gehron (2009)

July 9—(the late) Dick Orkin (2012) 

 

*For my old Loop pals…

=Former WLUP program director Jack Silver was in the news this week. He was one of the victims of the Cumulus/Westwood One “reorganization”. The RAMP Newsletter had the news:

Jack Silver joined the company in July 2012, after programming Cumulus News-Talk KABC-AM and Classic Rock KLOS/Los Angeles. Silver previously served as a programming and air talent consultant, but is probably best known for his 11 years with CBS Radio Los Angeles, where he was VP of FM Talk Programming and PD of KLSX until it flipped to Top 40 as KAMP (97.1 AMP) in Feb. 2009. He can be reached at JackSilver36@gmail.com.

=15 years ago…July 8, 2007—my Dave Benson interview 

=3 years ago…our memorial for Chet Coppock in Arlington Heights 

 

Television/Streaming

 

*I don’t quite understand this move, but TV Newser reported it this week:  ABC News correspondent Kaylee Hartung is reportedly leaving the news outlet to join Amazon as the streamer’s first-ever Thursday Night Football sideline reporter.

*Attention soccer fans. The Associated Press reported this news for those of us who can’t get enough soccer on television/streaming: Streaming service Amazon will broadcast some live Champions League games in Britain for the first time when the competition expands in 2024. Amazon said Friday it secured rights to the top pick of the Tuesday games each week from the new expanded league stage through to the semifinals — a total of 16 each season — for the three years from 2024-27.

 

*The billion dollar lawsuit against Fox News for its reporting during the election aftermath now has a local Chicago angle. The LA Times reports: Fox News has hired veteran trial attorney Dan Webb to lead its defense against a defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims made during the channel’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election…Webb, co-chairman of the Chicago-based firm Winston & Strawn, replaces Chip Babcock, a Houston-based litigator who specializes in First Amendment cases. Webb‘s appointment is an indication that Fox News expects to go to trial in the Dominion case, in which the voting systems company is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.

 

*If you have any media news to share, e-mail rick@eckhartzpress.com. Rick Kaempfer is the media critic/writer for Illinois Entertainer and has written three books about the media, The Radio Producer’s Handbook (co-written with John Swanson), $everance (a satirical novel about broadcasting), and Records Truly Is My Middle Name (co-written with John Records Landecker). Rick also worked in radio for 20+ years at the Loop (WLUP AM/FM) and WJMK (Oldies 104.3)