Media Notebook--2-3-23

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

RADIO/PODCASTS

*Waking up with Brian & Justin

=The latest issue of Illinois Entertainer came out this week and features my interview with Q-101’s morning team. A fun interview with a twist at the end. You can read it here. 

 

*The Last Great Chicago DJ?

=This was a front page story in the Chicago Tribune this week (January 27). The full title of the piece is The Last Great Chicago DJ? With Lin Brehmer’s Death and Rise of AI, are Radio’s Glory Days Over? Read it and see if you if you agree. It was written by William Lee.

 

*RIP Jay Marvin

=The former WLS talk show host had been in declining health for many years. His wife Mary announced that he passed away on Tuesday. Marvin was a country music DJ, who later became a lefty talker on a predominantly right-wing station here in Chicago. The published author spent his final years in Colorado.

=I never got a chance to meet him in person, but I did interview him on the phone in 2007 for Chicago Radio Spotlight. 

=Radio Ink and Inside Radio both mentioned the news, but neither really captured what Marvin was like.  For me, this piece by Eric Zorn is the best and most comprehensive account of Jay that you’ll find on-line. Zorn went back into his archives and reposted three columns he had written about Marvin over the years. Well worth the read.

 

*Larry Kudlow Show on WLS

=Larry Kudlow, former Trump advisor and current on-air host at the Fox Business Network, will debut a new weekend show this Sunday on WLS. The Larry Kudlow show will air from 5-8pm. 

 

*The Loop Files

=My weekly mining of my interviews with former Loopers continued on Tuesday, in case you missed it. This week’s feature is Bruce Wolf. 

*Harper College Radio a Chicago Reader Finalist

=Tis the time of year the Chicago Reader asks people to vote for their Best of Chicago favorites in a long list of categories. One of those is best radio station. Not surprised to see perennial favorites WXRT or WBEZ in the list of five finalists, but how about 100-watt 88.3FM Harper Radio? Congrats to the local music aficionados at WHCM. The other two finalists, by the way, are Vocalo Radio and Chirpradio (107.1 FM). The poll is open through February 15th, if you want to vote. Winners are announced in their April 6 edition.

 

*Folk DJ Hall of Fame

=John Platt, one of the people who launched WXRT in Chicago, is the latest member of the Folk DJ Hall of Fame.  Platt was in Chicago for about ten years but has also made his mark in New York and Philadelphia radio.  You can read more about him here.

*The Day the Music died

=Today is the anniversary of the plane crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper in 1959. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to meet and talk to people who had a deep knowledge of the subject matter. The man who introduced them on stage at their last performance in Iowa was future WLS Big 89 jock Bob Hale. I worked down the hall from Bob when I was at WJMK and he was at WJJD. He told me the whole “The Day the Music Died” story for Chicago Radio Spotlight.

=Bob Dearborn became famous during his days at WCFL when he analyzed the mysterious lyrics of the song “American Pie” by Don McLean. Bob also was kind enough to write this piece for my blog explaining why Buddy Holly was so important to him.

 

*The Mix and Fitz

=Last October the Mix morning show auctioned off a private perfomance by Fitz and the Tantrums, and this week the band came into town and delivered the promised accoustic set to a select group of listeners at 167 Green Street. The money raised went to the American Cancer Society. The band played at the Vic last night.

*50 Years of Bill & Walter

=Dave Plier always seems to get the biggest guests on his WGN radio show. This past week he managed to reunite Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson for the 50^th anniversary of their pairing. A fun listen.

*Jen Weigel to interview Kathy Hart

=February 19 at Madame Zuzu’s in Highland Park. A spiritual discussion is sure to ensue.

*Podcast Corner

=WGN Radio’s Lisa Dent was interviewed by Brandwidth on Demand podcast hosts Kipper McGee and Dave Martin this week. I love these radio-on-radio conversations.

=Acclaimed novelist Adam Langer (a former WXRT intern) has a new podcast that examines the history and back-story of the Pulitzer Prize winning play The Diary of Anne Frank. 

=Nick DiGilio is doing another live podcast (The Nick D Show) at Zanies in Rosemont on February 21^st. Amy Guth will be there with him, filling in for co-host Esmeralda Leon.

=My podcast, Minutia Men, posted our 300^th episode this week. I’m still having a ball doing the show with my Eckhartz Press co-publisher David Stern. The 300^th episode is titled “Shopping with your German mother”. It’s very high-brow.

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

 

*January 30—Chuck Swirsky birthday.

=Chuck is not only the play-by-play man of the Chicago Bulls. He’s also an author. His book Always a Pleasure came out during the holiday season.

*January 30, 1935—Warner Saunders birthday

=Warner Saunders had a long and distinguished television career in Chicago at NBC-5. He retired in 2009 and passed away in 2018.

 

*January 30--Lisa Dent birthday

=Lisa hosts afternoons on WGN Radio. I was lucky enough to interview her for Illinois Entertainer in 2016, shortly after she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (during her days at US-99). 

 

*January 31—Josh Liss birthday

=The morning sports anchor for WBBM News Radio was featured in the December 2016 edition of Illinois Entertainer.

 

*January 31—Nick Shepkowski birthday

=Shepkowski was a producer and host at the Score for 15 years. 

 

*February 1—Lisa Miller birthday

=Lisa has been one of the most powerful media agents in Chicago for the past four decades. She is married to Channel 5 meteorologist Brant Miller.

 

*February 3—Karen Conti birthday

=Karen has been a legal analyst and host at WGN Radio for many years. 

 

*February 3—Dan Roan birthday

=Dan retired as the sports director of WGN-TV last year. I snapped this photo of Dan and his fellow WGN-TV colleagues at Rich King’s book launch party last May, just a week or so before Dan retired.

*February 3—Steve Sanders birthday

=Steve also retired from WGN-TV last year and is also in that photo above (second from the right).

 

*February 3—Lisa Greene birthday

=Lisa did stints at several radio stations in Chicago, including WJMK. I interviewed her for Chicago Radio Spotlight in 2008. She currently lives in California.

 

*February 3—Steve Bertrand birthday

=Steve has been a news mainstay at WGN radio since the mid-80s. I interviewed him for Chicago Radio Spotlight in 2012.

 

*February 4, 2009—Eddie Schwartz died

=Eddie was the overnight voice of Chicago for decades, first at WIND, then at WGN, and finally at WLUP. He had such an unusual sounding voice that he sparked impersonations from the likes of Steve Dahl and Kevin Matthews. Kevin even created a band to impersonate Eddie. He called it Ed Zeppelin. When I interviewed Eddie in 2007, he was already in declining health and was difficult to understand. Still, I’m glad I got the chance to get him on the record while I could.

 

*February 4—Jim Williams birthday

The Channel 2 news anchor recently celebrated his 20^th anniversary at the station.

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Lisa Parker leaves NBC5

=If you feel like they are dropping like flies at NBC5, you aren’t alone. Here’s another one…

 

*Marcus Stroman appears on CBS News

=Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman appeared on the national CBS News morning show to talk about his new children’s book, and his baseball career. Not an everyday event for a Chicago athlete. 

 

*DECADES remembers actresses Cindy Williams and Lisa Loring

=We lost two beloved sitcom stars this week, Cindy Williams and Lisa Loring.

=This weekend, Weigel Broadcasting honors Cindy Williams with tributes on MeTV and DECADES. MeTV will present four selected episodes of Laverne & Shirley that Williams said were her favorites, airing on Sunday afternoon from 2-4pm. DECADES will pay tribute with a Weekend Binge of 36 back-to-back Laverne & Shirley episodes beginning Saturday, February 4 at 11am. 

=DECADES will pay tribute to Lisa Loring beginning at 5am on Sunday, February 5 with a special binge of 48 back-to-back episodes of The Addams Family celebrating her character, Wednesday Addams. 

 

*Cheryl Scott Welcomes a New Colleague

=The Channel 7 weather department grew by one this week. Cheryl Scott welcomed her newest colleague Jaisol Martinez. Jaisol is a native Texan. Hopefully the Chicago weather doesn’t scare her off.

 

*Cable News Corner

=In a move that was teased a few weeks ago, CNN signed comedian Bill Maher for Friday nights. It should be interesting to see how he adjusts after having complete freedom at HBO for many years now. Maher is known to be a bit prickly.

 

*The mystery of ABC journalist answered

=James Gordon Meek was a top producer at ABC News. It made news last year when he abruptly resigned his position after the FBI raided his apartment. He basically disappeared after that, cutting off all contact with his former colleagues. This week’s unsealed court filing probably answers the reason why. Meek was charged in a child pornography case.

*The End of the GM3 Drama

=The titillating scandal involving the extra-marital affair of GM3 hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes appears to have been resolved with the hosts leaving the network after a settlement was reached. Semafor reports that ABC Talent VP Galen Gordon is also on thin ice because he knew about the affair and didn’t alert his bosses.

 

*Giving back to their alma mater

=Alex Maragos and Mike Lowe may be on different channels in Chicago (NBC5 and WGN), but they are from the same alma mater (Loyola Academy) and spoke to students at the school last Friday.

 

 

PRINT MEDIA

 

*Newsworthy week in Chicago print media history.

Three big changes were announced…

=The Chicago Tribune named a new managing editor.

=The Chicago Sun Times announced their CEO was leaving.

=The Chicago Reader named their new Publisher and CEO

 

*Trump Sues Bob Woodward

=Yet another (probably) frivolous lawsuit was filed by the former president this week. This time he’s suing Bob Woodward for releasing the audio tapes of the on-the-record interviews he conducted with Trump. Presumably, the tapes include Trump agreeing to be taped. That’s something I always get on tape, and I’m sure Bob Woodward did the same.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

*TikTok CEO to testify before Congress

=If you haven’t noticed, the new Congress is going hard after TikTok. They have called TikTok’s CEO to testify and justify TikTok’s modus operandi.

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.

Media Notebook--8-12-22

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

RADIO/PODCASTS

 

*Chicago Radio Ratings

=Inside Radio has the latest Chicago radio ratings. (Click here)

=The Top Five stations currently are The Drive (6.1), Lite-FM (5.4), WBEZ (5.1), WVAZ (5.1) and WBBM-AM (4.6). That’s a big jump for the Lite, which is pulling in these numbers without their annual Christmas music bump. The other four stations have all been in the top spot at least once this year.

 

*Podcast of the Year award winners

=Adweek’s annual Podcast of the Year award winners were announced this week. (Click here to see the full list)

=Among the winners…Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Best Comedy Podcast), The Right Time with Bomani Jones (Best Sports Podcast), Bridgerton: The Official Podcast (Best Television and Streaming Podcast), and The Problem with Jon Stewart (Best Interview Podcast).

*Bears Broadcasts Leaving WBBM-AM

=According to this piece by Jeff Agrest in the Sun Times, Audacy has been losing money on the Bears radio broadcasts, so they are not renewing their deal after this season. Am I the only one who has a hard time believing they are truly losing money? I listen to the games. They have more commercials than action. In any case, this is a seismic change in Chicago. The Bears/WBBM releationship goes back 22 years. Agrest reports that Joniak and Thayer will remain on the broadcasts, but they will be moving to either ESPN (AM 1000), or WCHI (95.5 FM).

=This week Axios Chicago ranked the best sports play-by-play teams currently working in Chicago. Did Joniak and Thayer make the list? See if you agree/disagree with their choices. 

 

*RIP Ken Draper

=He was the program director of WCFL during the famous 1960s battles between WLS & WCFL. Super CFL was one of the most creative and memorable radio stations in history, and Ken Draper was the man who put it all together. He passed away this week at the age of 89.

=Former colleague Jim Hampton (in Radio Ink):

“When he took over, WCFL was owned by its namesake-the Chicago Federation of Labor. He figured if he could just get one half of WLS audience he would be doing incredibly well. So, a lot of the things he pioneered at KYW in Cleveland along with some of the people that were there; he brought them to town. Management gave him carte blanche. He believed in the talent; he wasn’t going to hire somebody and then tell him to shut up. He wanted them to be who they were…he wanted them to perform. To put on a show. You couldn’t just do a record hop…he sent all of the guys out together to the events, to represent the station. He was very, very competitive. He believed that News could be just as exciting as any record that was played, if it was presented properly. They had a huge News Department, it was unionized and paid well. He showcased the News and made it into something really important.”

=Arguably the biggest star at WCFL was Ron Britain. I got a chance to interview the late great jock about ten years ago, and he was quick to give Draper the credit…

”So I flew up to Chicago and met with the folks at WCFL. I thought, you know what? This is a great radio town. Maybe this is where I should go. Ken Draper, the guy who hired me, and Jim Runyan drove me into the city. All these lights were lit along Michigan Avenue, and they told me that they decorated the city just for me. I took the job, but I was scared to death. I had never worked at a place that had so much talent. It was just unbelievable—I was intimidated by it. They had guys I really respected like Jim Runyan and Joel Sebastian. I thought, how I can work alongside great talent like this? I was so scared when I went on the air the first time—I didn't know what to do. I thought what I had been doing before wasn’t good enough. My first night on the air, I was using squeaky toys, and I got a note from Ken Draper. The note said "We hired Ron Britain not Pinky Lee." Of course, he was right.”

=Draper was even indirectly responsible for the creation of the incredible Chickenman bit. He hired Dick Orkin to do production. I spoke to Dick in 2012 and he also gave credit to Draper…

            “The origin of Chickenman was the direct result of the popularity of the television show "Batman". It was huge. It was camp. It was fun. Draper decided that each of the DJs should choose a campy superhero mascot, and for the Jim Runyon show, we came up with Chickenman. I sort of based the character on the Broderick Crawford sheriff character--that sort of straight, know it all delivery of his. It seemed like a fun thing to parody. It began with that. I wasn't thinking about a chicken.”

=This video was done by Jim Hampton. If you’re interested in the legacy of Draper, you’ll love it.

 

*Radio formats with most upscale listeners

=The Sound Answers blog from Katz Radio Group did an analysis of the average net worth of radio listeners in every format, and they conclude that 17 different radio formats have listeners with an above average net worth. (Full details are here)

=The five radio formats attracting the most upscale audiences are All News, Classical, Public Radio, News/Talk and Jazz.

=Other music formats classified as having an upscale listenership: AAA, Alternative, Adult Standards, Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Soft AC, and Hot AC.

*Another Big Player Expands Reach in Podcast World

=Apple has signed a deal with Futuro Studios to produce more original podcast content. Bloomberg has the details 

 

*Rick on the Radio

=Tune in to WGN Radio tonight. I’ll be on the Phil Manicki show talking about this column, my publishing company, and our upcoming books. Plus we’ll get into my radio background a bit and discuss my former roles on the shows hosted by Radio Hall of Famers Steve & Garry, and John Records Landecker.

*Museum of Broadcasting tribute to rock radio

=Don't forget! This Sunday August 14^th (3pm) at the Des Plaines Theater, a few local radio legends will be part of a discussion about the heyday of rock radio (including John Landecker, Tommy Edwards, and Bob Stroud). Other rock radio legends from around the country will also be joining via zoom. Wendy Snyder will the host/moderator. Get your tickets here.  All proceeds benefit the Museum of Broadcast Communications. (Photo: WGN-TV's Dean Richards interviews John Landecker & Tommy Edwards)

*Former Chicago Radio Alert

=Sending out positive vibes to Jay Marvin, once a talk show host at WLS in Chicago. Apparently, he is not doing well. This is what he posted on his Facebook page this week...

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

I’ve interviewed quite a few Chicago media figures who are celebrating birthdays this week. Click on their names to read the interviews. The year I interviewed them is in parenthesis.

 

*August 9—Bob Sirott (2021) 

 

*August 9--Fred Weintraub (2020) 

 

*August 11--Andrea Darlas (2007) 

 

*August 11—Barry Butler (2019) Audio interview 

 

*August 12--Marianne Murciano (2014) 

*August 12—(the late) Ron Smith (2011) 

*August 12, Lauren Jiggetts

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to our very own @laurenjiggetts! 🥳🥳🥳 pic.twitter.com/4bMM0oSHU3

— WGN Morning News (@WGNMorningNews) August 12, 2022

*August 13--Danny Bonaduce (2021)

 

*August, 2004—Infamous Dave Matthews Band Poop Incident

=This week in 2004, hundreds of pounds of human waste was dumped out of their tour bus, and splattered all over people on a Chicago River tour. Bobby Skafish was the first one to interview Matthews about that day, and a partial transcript appears in his book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters  Here’s an excerpt from that chapter…

            We had a strict allotment of time for this interview which I’m not proud to say I exceeded, but I wanted to wait for the right opening to broach the Chicago River incident, which of course was nicknamed by some “Poopgate,” and had not been commented on publicly by anyone in or surrounding DMB.

My opening came when I asked about the band’s charitable organization known as Bama Works, which began in 1999 in the band’s ground zero, the Charlotteville, Va. area, but had since spread out nationally and internationally, and supported all sorts of causes including, as Boyd Tinsley reminded me, the Amazon rainforest…

Bobby Skafish: “…which makes this Chicago River incident all the more unexplainable.  Everyone I know has always thought of DMB as being a green band, and then this incident popped up…”

Dave Matthews (cutting in): “Well, certainly if we could turn it around, if we had any control directly over that event…I mean it’s contrary to everything we believe and the thing that kinda kills me about it is if someone else had done it, I’d be furious. And if I was in Chicago, I’d be furious about it. And we’re just so embarrassed and we’re truly, truly sorry about what happened in Chicago, and we will keep doing things to try to keep that river clean, we will keep doing things to try to help out in Chicago until this thing is only remembered for what good came out of it. We want to do our best to turn this thing around because, honestly, I can’t tell you enough how contrary to everything that event was for us, and everything we believe and everything we think about Chicago. Chicago’s been an awesome part of our career, always a place that is sort of a home for this band. It was our first journey west and the first place to embrace us. It’s just horrible and we couldn’t be more sorry.

 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Keenan Thompson Hosting the Emmys

=The longest-running cast member of SNL has been named to host this year’s Emmy Awards broadcast in September. The Associated Presshas the story.

 

*Chicago TV Job Alert

=Whenever I see job openings like this in Chicago, I'll share them....

Interested in working on our studio productions at NBC Sports Chicago?

We're looking for a part-time freelance Associate Producer

Apply here: https://t.co/rt1KZk8Rfi

— Kevin Anderson (@Kevin_NBCS) August 7, 2022

*Rachel Maddow’s Next Step

=Vanity Fair has a long piece on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow  It addresses what she is planning on doing next, and also touches on the highly unusual mega-money contract she just signed to do less.

 

*A Revised/Alternate Plan for CNN Plus

=After CNN+ went belly up, it appeared there wouldn’t be a streaming outlet to watch some of the original programming CNN has aired over the years. That has changed, thanks to Discovery+. Beginning August 19^th, there will be a special hub on Discovery+ for CNN Originals. Among the shows you can see there… Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown; Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy; The History of the Sitcom; United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell; and The History of Comedy.

=One of the Discovery+ shows that has my attention is the House of Hammer. Army Hammer comes from the famous Hammer family who created the brand of baking soda you probably have in your refrigerator to keep it smelling nice.  A new television show will soon reveal the dark underbelly of the entire Hammer family. Here’s the trailer…

*TV's Effect on Political Polarization

=Niemann Labs has done a study of political polarization and information silos, particularly regarding television news. Here's a short excerpt from their findings...

    Besides being more politically siloed on average, our research found that TV news consumers are much more likely than web consumers to maintain the same partisan news diets over time: After six months, left-leaning TV audiences are 10 times more likely to remain segregated than left-leaning online audiences, and right-leaning audiences are 4.5 times more likely than their online counterparts. While these figures may seem intimidating, it is important to keep in mind that even among TV viewers, about 70% of right-leaning viewers and about 80% of left-leaning viewers do switch their news diets within six months. To the extent that long-lasting echo chambers do exist, then, they include only about 4% of the population.

OTHER MEDIA NEWS

 

*Another media columnist bites the dust

=I’m starting to think the idea of covering the media isn’t such a great idea. The New York Times media writer Ben Smith left at the beginning of this year and hasn’t been replaced. Robert Feder left the Daily Herald and hasn’t been replaced. Here’s yet another example of a media columnist leaving the business, Margaret Sullivan at the Washington Post. She talked to Vanity Fair about why she is leaving. 

 

*Axios sold for $525 million

=You read that right. Axios just sold to Cox for $525 million. Details are here. 

 

*How hot is it?

=The New York Times  has the story about how much the unprecedented heat has affected summer outdoor performances…

Smoke from a raging wildfire in California prompted the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel a recent performance of “The Tempest” at its open-air theater. Record flooding in St. Louis forced the cancellation of an outdoor performance of “Legally Blonde.” And after heat and smoke at an outdoor Pearl Jam concert in France damaged the throat of its lead singer, Eddie Vedder, the band canceled several shows. Around the world, rising temperatures, raging wildfires and extreme weather are imperiling whole communities. This summer, climate change is also endangering a treasured pastime: outdoor performance.

 

*Chicago Job Alert

=Another media job possibility…

friendly reminder —

we’re hiring for a Digital News Editor at @TheTRiiBE.

salary range: $54K-$58K, based on experience.

application deadline: Aug. 31

here are some of the News stories that have come out of The TRiiBE. 🧵https://t.co/qzG9IhXLKK

— Tiffany Walden (@Waldens_Block) August 5, 2022

 *RIP David McCullough

=David McCullough has passed away. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies: Truman in 1992 and John Adams in 2001. McCullough is also known for narrating Ken Burns’ 1990 PBS series “The Civil War.” The New York Times has the obituary. 

 

*Burt Constable Exit Interview

=Eric Zorn got a chance to interview outgoing Daily Herald columnist Burt Constable. Burt sounds like a man who is definitely ready to hang up his keyboard. (Read it here)

=I was part of Constable’s column exactly twice, twenty years apart. His interview with me in 1999  and in 2019 

If you have any media stories (Chicago or national) that you think I might like to share in future columns, feel free to drop me a line at rick@eckhartzpress.com or amishrick@yahoo.com