Showing posts with label Joe Brand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Brand. Show all posts

Friday, September 20, 2024

Media Notebook--9-20-24















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…


 

 *Why was Laurence Holmes Missing from his Score Show this week?

=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

=An Ode to Kathy & Judy

=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.

=Dave Grohl’s love child.

=Diddy in the clinky

=Billie Eilish and Finneas endorse Kamala Harris too.

=The end of the road (literally) for REO Speedwagon…


 

*Rest in Peace

=JD Souther

Singer/Songwriter wrote the song “Heartache Tonight” for the Eagles. He was 78.

=Tito Jackson

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.


 

*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.



 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.

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Friday, September 06, 2024

Media Notebook--9-6-24















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

=The ratings for August are out, and the following are the top ten stations in Chicago for the month (6+, M-Su, 6am-Mid)

WDRV (6.5)

WVAZ (6.1)

WBBM-AM (5.7)

WLIT (5.3)

WXRT (4.8)

WUSN (4.7)

WLS-FM (4.2)

WOJO (4.2)

WRME (3.5)

WBMX (2.6)

WTMX (2.6)

=The biggest jumps this month belong to Spanish language WOJO (+1.2) and WUSN (US-99), which recovered from their bad July numbers (+0.7).  WKQX (Q-101) also had a big month, finishing just outside the top ten with a 2.5 (+0.6), and WBBM-AM returned to their perch near the top of the ratings with a gain of 0.5. This is the highest they’ve ranked in over a year.

=Meanwhile, this is the lowest that WLIT has been for more than a year (although still respectable). They dropped 0.6 this month. Luckily, Christmas music is just around the corner.

=Also, it should be noted that if you add the Score’s over-the-air ratings with their streaming numbers, they would slip into tenth place overall (2.4 + 0.9).

=In the talk radio battle, it’s WGN (2.4), WBEZ (2.3), WLS-AM (1.5)

 


*Joe Brand to the Penguins

=WGN Radio lost their Blackhawks pre- and post-game radio host this week. Great opportunity for Joe Brand…


 

*Chicago Media Departures

=I’ve reported on all of these over the previous six months or so, but Axios’ Justin Kaufmann did a nice job of chronicling all the recent Chicago media departures in one story. You can check that out here.


 

*Craig Schwalb

=Congrats to WBBM Program Director Craig Schwalb for being named as one of the top program directors in the country.


 

*Isaac Hayes vs. Donald Trump

=The song “Hold On I’m Coming” was written by the late Isaac Hayes. His family wants Donald Trump to stop using that song at his rallies. This week the courts sided with the Hayes estate.


 

*J.J. Jeffrey

=Chuck Knapp posted this scoop about former WLS jock J.J. Jeffrey this week…


 

*Rest in Peace

=Steve Zana

Northwest Indiana radio legend. He was 63. I interviewed him in 2008 for Shore Magazine.

=Fatman Scoop

Rapper. Collapsed on stage. He was 53.

=Rich Homie Quan

Rapper. He was 34.

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES



*September 2--Bill Cochran birthday

=Cochran isn’t just one of the great voice-over guys in radio (WXRT, WNUA, ME-TV), he has a band that recreates classic albums on stage. I got a chance to talk to him about that back in 2017. 

 

*September 2—Jim DeRogatis birthday

=Jim is the co-host of Sound Opinions with Greg Kot, which is now a podcast, after a long run on WXRT and WBEZ. The show originally got it’s start on Eddie Schwartz’s overnight show on AM 1000 (with Bill Wyman in place of Kot).  

 

*September 2—JoBo Colborn birthday

=Jobo was on B-96 for 26 years. An incredible run.

 

*September 4-- John Howell birthday

=Formerly of WUSN, WJMK, WIND, and WLS. I interviewed John for Chicago Radio Spotlight back in 2007 when he was co-hosting a morning show with Cisco Cotto at WIND.

 

*September 4--Chris Base birthday

=The former WVON talker now hosts an internet show called BaseLine Saturdays.

 

*September 4-- Patrick Kampert birthday

=I like to joke with Patrick that people constantly mistake me for him because of the similarities of our names. He is the far more distinguished of the two of us, a former Chicago Tribune editor and reporter.

 

* September 4, 2014--Roy Leonard death anniversary

=Hard to believe Roy has been gone for ten years. I was lucky enough to have a lengthy chat with Roy back in 2010  and we covered his entire career. After I posted the interview he e-mailed me and said: “Did you actually post every word of our conversation? Nobody wants to hear that much about me.”

 

* September 5-- Johnnie Putman birthday

=The better half of WGN’s long-time overnight team Steve & Johnnie (that’s Steve description) talked to me for Illinois Entertainer back in 2016 

. 
*September 6-- Nick Friedell birthday

=The former ESPN Chicago reporter is a go-to NBA expert.

 

*September 7—Jonathan Hood birthday

=I interviewed the ESPN Radio morning co-host (with David Kaplan) in 2010. 

 

*September 7—Steve Scott birthday

=The former WLS Newsman was a victim of the format change at WCBS in New York. I chatted with him in 2008 shortly after he left us for the big Apple.


 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

* WGN-TV Morning Show anniversary


=On September 6, 1994, the WGN-TV morning show as we know it today debuted (with Robin Baumgarten, Larry Potash, and Paul Konrad). I don’t think they could have possibly foreseen the ratings juggernaut it would become. I’ve written about the show a few times, including for Shore Magazine eleven years ago. Here’s a short excerpt from that article…

            Is there anything they’ve ever refused to do?

            “I won’t dress like a woman,” Potash admits, drawing the line.

            “I won’t dance,” Konrad adds.

            “Um,” Robin says, thinking about it. “Wow, well, let’s see. I’m trying to think if I’ve ever said no to anything before. Maybe that’s part of my problem.”

 

 

*Dave Wannstedt

=NBC 5 Chicago (WMAQ-TV) has announced former Chicago Bears head coach/renowned NFL analyst Dave Wannstedt will be joining the station’s signature sports program, Sports Sunday, as its lead Bears/NFL analyst beginning Sunday, September 8.

 

 

*Nick Olczyk

=Son of the great Eddie Olczyk continues his own NHL broadcasting climb. This year he’s moving from Seattle to Salt Lake City, to be part of the new club in Utah.


 *Cable News Corner

=Brian Stelter has returned to CNN as the editor of Reliable Sources. He is once again the chief media analyst at the cable news outlet, two years after having been fired by the network. 

=The succession battle in the Murdoch family is playing out in secret behind the scenes and the other major news outlets are asking a court to make it public. My money is still on Kendall...er, I mean Lachlan. His brother James endorsed Kamala Harris.


 

*Brian Lamb retires from C-SPAN

=After a mere 47 years on the job. His last day was Friday.


 

*Rest in Peace

=James Darren

Star of Gidget and TJ Hooker. Former teen idol. He was 88.


 

 

STAGE & SCREEN

 

 

*Angelina Jolie’s Comeback

=Her new movie was just released at the Venice Film Festival and she is getting some Oscar buzz.



 

*Making Fun of Nepo-Babies

=Jack Robbins, son of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, has done a series of videos making fun of Nepo-babies (like himself). The New York Times has the story.


 

 

DIGITAL/PRINT

 


*New York Times Publisher Writes Op-Ed in Washington Post

=A.J. Sulzberger's piece is called "How the Quiet War Against Free Press Could Come to America." You can read it here.



*Mary Mitchell Retires from Sun Times

=After 34 years. Her last column was in Friday’s paper.


 

*What Journalism Isn’t

=Great substack piece by former Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times editor Mark Jacobs. Among his observations (provided in list form)… Journalism isn’t helping unnamed sources take anonymous potshots at their enemies.


 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

 

*Russians Funding Right-Wing Media Operation in America


=It’s a very disturbing story. Russia has successfully infiltrated right wing media.

Among the commentators listed on Tenet Media’s website are right-wing personalities Benny Johnson and Tim Pool. Both have millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms. Pool interviewed Trump on his podcast in May.

=Tim Pool, by the way, is a Chicagoan. The Sun-Times has the scoop. I'm sure he wasn't suspicious that he was being paid $100,000 per episode. For a YouTube podcast.


 

*Iran Working Against Republicans

=Meanwhile, according to this piece, Iran is doing the opposite. They are spreading misinformation to hurt Donald Trump and the Republicans.




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.


 

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