Media Notebook--11-1-24

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 October numbers are in, and here are the top ten rated radio stations in Chicago (6+, M-Sun, 6am-Mid)

WBBM-AM (6.3)

WDRV (6.0)

WVAZ (5.4)

WLIT (4.8)

WLS-FM (4.5)

WXRT (4.5)

WOJO (3.8)

WUSN (3.8)

WRME (3.5)

WKSC (3.0)

=The three stations who had the biggest jump this month were WTMX, which rebounded to just outside the top ten (+0.6), Spanish Language WPPM (+0.3), and news/talk WGN (+0.6). They find themselves in 11^th, 12^th and 16^th place respectively.

=The biggest drops belong to WXRT (-0.5) and WVAZ (-0.4), but both stations still performed well.

 

 

*Dan McNeil

=What has former Sports-talker (The Score, ESPN, WDRV, The Loop) Dan McNeil been working on lately? Turns out Danny Mac has been hard at work writing a book about his beloved Bears. That's why Dan and the Bears are the subject of my latest Illinois Entertainer column. You can read it here. (Dan’s book is an Eckhartz Press release)

 

 

*It’s Christmas Music Time

=Halloween was yesterday. You know what means at WLIT. It’s Christmas time in the city. Ring a ling. The tunes begin at 1pm today.

=My tribute to Teri Garr is later in this column, but do you remember her ties to WLIT in Chicago? She did this commercial…

 

*Steve Bertrand Announces Parkinson’s Diagnosis

=He discussed his diagnosis with John Williams on WGN Radio this week. You can listen to their discussion about it here.

 

*Lou Manfredini Re-Signs with WGN

=His three decade run at 720AM will continue. Lou’s Fix-It show airs Saturday mornings from 6am—10am. He also does weekly appearances on the air with Bob Sirott, Lisa Dent, and John Williams.

 

*Mitch Rosen’s Letter to the Editor

=Gotta give Mitch credit for this one. With all the uncertainty surrounding the Bulls TV broadcasts, he sent The Chicago Sun Times a letter to the editor, reminding everyone that the Bulls games are easily found on the radio. Mitch is VP at the Score. Here’s a small excerpt…

Play-by-play on the radio has been a choice for fans for generations. By listening to the call of the game, fans develop a bond with their favorite team and its announcers, taking advantage of the intimacy offered by radio that can be heard at home, the office, the car or anywhere else fans want to tune in. Fans can literally take the games anywhere in this modern age using a cellphone, free apps such as the Audacy app, smart speakers, smart televisions and other devices…Chuck Swirsky, our Bulls play-by-play voice, is one of the best in the business. Next to him is analyst Bill Wennington, a member of three of the ‘90s championship teams. Postgame host Alyssa Bergamini, who hails from Chicago’s South Side, offers sharp insight, as she knows the game very well.

*Faith Rock and Roll

=Hosted by former WXRT General Manager Paul Agase…

*Podcast Corner

=The Signal Award winners for podcasts were announced this week. Among the winners: Kara Swisher, George Clinton, Anderson Cooper, Abby Wambach, Trevor Noah, and Jon Lovett. See the full list here.

=Hoping to revive his career after some very weird #MeToo stories derailed it, Armie Hammer is launching a podcast.

=See WBEZ’s The Moth live on stage December 13. Tickets are here.

=Joe Rogan’s Trump episode gets over 40 million listeners.

 

*Music News

=A 200-year-old unknown Chopin Waltz discovered.

=A Leopold and Loeb opera?

 

*Rest in Peace

=Phil Lesh

Bassist from the Grateful Dead. He was 84.

=DJ Clark Kent

Hip Hop legend. He was 58.

=Wally Kennedy

Philadelphia Hall of Fame broadcaster. Originally from Wilmette (Loyola Academy/Columbia College). He was 76.

=Lee Alan

Detroit radio legend. Inspired future Chicago jocks like Joel Sebastian, John Landecker, and more. He was 90.

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

 

*October 27-- Liz Wilde birthday

=She worked at the Loop in Chicago in the mid-90s, but has also been on the air in Miami, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas and more. Liz passed away a few weeks ago. She was only 52.

 

*October 28--Bill Zehme birthday

=The great media writer passed away in March of 2023.

 

*October 30, 1938

=Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds" radio hoax, causing mass panic in US.

 

*October 30—Jim Volkman birthday

=Best known for his spot-on Harry Caray impersonation.

 

*October 31—Jim Shorts birthday

=The (totally real) sportscaster was born on Halloween. (I've interviewed him in English, and German, The German one is here, if you'd like to hear it.)

 

*October 31-- Jane Pauley birthday

=She obviously went on to bigger and better things, but she did a stint here locally at WMAQ-TV, Channel 5.

*October 31--Bill Gamble birthday

=Former Chicago radio program director (Q-101, CD-94.7, et al). I interviewed him for Chicago Radio Spotlight back in 2009.

 

*October 31—John Candy birthday

=The late great comic actor also hosted a radio show that aired on AM 1000 back in the day. It was called Radio Candy.

*November 1-- Tom Sochowski birthday

=Former radio producer/host  (WJMK, WCKG, ESPN, The Fish).

 

*November 1-- Judy Pielach birthday

=Former WGN & WLS newscaster 

 

*November 2—Ron Gleason birthday

=Former program director of The Score and NewsRadio WBBM.

 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Brad Edwards Leaves Journalism

=A few months ago I reported that Brad had left Channel 2. The station never made an official announcement, and neither did Brad. Until this week. He talked to Justin Kaufmann at Axios about his new plans.

=This is my interview with Brad from 2020, just after he began as the main anchor at Channel 2.

 

*The Chicago Ghoul Who Would Not Die

=Nice piece on Chicago favorite Svengoolie in the Chicago Tribune last weekend. Tis the Svengoolie season.

=I’ve interviewed Sven many times over the years. This is the most recent piece from the Illinois Entertainer.

 

*Channel 7 Anchor Judy Hsu Hit By a Foul Ball at World Series Game in LA

=It happened on Friday night during Game 1. Don’t worry, she’s fine. The story is here.

 

*Chicagoan in Final 3 for Golden Bachelorette

=His name is Pascal Ibgui, and he owns a salon in Glencoe.

 

 

*Bob Costas Retiring

=The 72-year-old made the announcement yesterday that he will be retiring as a play-by-play man. He'll still be working in television, and most likely in sports, but his play-by-play days are over. Remember his days with the Bulls?

*WCIU Celebrates its Independence

=Axios spoke with Neal Sabin at WCIU about the newly independent local television station, the U.

 

*Late Night

= Jon Stewart signs for another year. He made the announcement on The Daily Show Monday night. That was his last Daily Show before the election, but he’ll be on board now through the end of 2025.

=Jimmy Kimmel’s special monologue for Republicans.

 

 

*Cable News Corner

=Brian Williams is hosting election night for Amazon. Obviously this is a slightly different direction for Amazon. Will it be a one-off?

=I hope your beeper doesn’t go off? A pretty low moment on CNN. The guest has been permanently banned.

Girdusky to Hasan: I hope your beeper doesn’t go off pic.twitter.com/YmHhYnkDZ3

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 29, 2024

=Tucker Carlson was mauled by a demon. Yup, you read that right. Here’s the video of him talking about it.

=Who may have the hardest job in television? Jessica Tarlov, the resident liberal on the Fox News show The Five.

=Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show Mitchell Reports will end its 16-year run after the election.

=Sean Hannity vs. Stephen A. Smith. Memorable interview.

=I don’t think Geraldo Rivera (self-proclaimed JewRican) is on board with his good friend Donald Trump this time around. Just a feeling I get…

Latino men, for the love of your parents and children, for your pride and your honor tell this little gringo shit to go fuck himself. https://t.co/ClpvYzsGQU

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) October 28, 2024

*Disney Pays $500 Million to Air Grammys

=CBS had the Grammy broadcasts for decades. No longer. The Wall Street Journal has the details.

 

 

*A Little Less Wrexham

=Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are selling a minority stake of Wrexham Football Club to the Allyn family. With that money, they are buying one of the oldest breweries in the UK, Wrexham Lager.

 

 

*Rest in Peace

=Tom Jarriel

Former ABC News correspondent. He was 89.

=Sarah Danser

Star of “Naked and Afraid” on Discovery Channel. She was 34.

 

 

STAGE/SCREEN

 

*Jeremy Allen White as The Boss

=The first photos of White portraying Bruce Springsteen for a biopic were released this week. Variety has the story.

 

*What ended the Seth Rogen-James Franco Friendship?

=It all comes down to the MeToo charges against Franco. People Magazine has more.

 

*Rest In Peace

=Teri Garr

One of my all-time favorite comic actresses. She was 79. I will always remember her fondly for her performance in the classic Young Frankenstein.

 

DIGITAL/PRINT

 

*Continued Fallout at Washington Post

=A day after receiving a Pulitzer Prize, David Hoffman stepped down from the editorial board of the Washington Post. The reason is Jeff Bezos’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate.

=Jeff Bezos wrote an op-ed on Tuesday explaining his decision. It didn’t exactly calm down his staff or his readers. Over 250,000 readers have cancelled their subscriptions.

=Robert Kagan, who quit the Post last week, announced that he will be joining the Atlantic.

 

*America’s Largest Newspaper Chain Also Won’t Endorse

=Gannett owns the USA Today and 200 more publications. None will endorse this year.

 

*The Economist and Bloomberg Endorses Harris

=The Economist argues that Trump is simply too risky. It’s the third presidential election in a row that The Economist argued against Trump. In previous years they did endorse Reagan and George W. Bush.

=Michael Bloomberg laid out his reasons in an op-ed.

 

*News Deserts

=How bad has local news coverage gotten? Most US counties no longer have any local news at all.

 

*Rest in Peace

=James Ledbetter

Former media writer, long-time business editor and writer. He was 60.

=Steve Morse

Long-time music critic for the Boston Globe. He was 76.

=John Gierach

Author of 20 books. Expert fly-fisherman. He was 77.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

*YouTube Made $50 Billion This Year

=That’s billion with a B. $6 billion more than Musk paid for Twitter. In one year.

*TikTok introduces Access Hollywood Tape to Generation Z

=They were too young to be aware of it when it came out eight years ago, but after Trump's comments this week about protecting women "if they want it or not", his Access Hollywood tape re-emerged on Tiktok, and has gone viral. The Washington Post has more.

*On Elon Musk’s X, Republicans go Viral while Democrats Disappear

=That’s the headline in the Washington Post this week after analyzing tweets on the social media platform. Full analysis is here.

=Here’s the analysis from CNN.com. Misinformation is pumping out on X at a level that can’t be counteracted by election officials.

 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 8-26-22

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

RADIO/PODCASTS

 

*Changes to the Kiss-FM morning show

=The Fred Show on Kiss-FM (WKSC, 103.5 FM) has two new cast members/contributors. KeKe Hampton and Jason Brown are joining the show. Both of them come from within the iHeart world. KeKe has been the digital content manager for the company in Chicago and had done weekend shifts at sister station WGCI. She was named as 2021 Future African American Radio Leader by Radio Ink. Jason had been the promotion director for the station for the past seven years and had frequently appeared on The Fred Show. He has also appeared on TMZ. Both are Chicago natives.

 

*Pat Hughes named to Cubs Hall of Fame

=The other two in this Cubs Hall of Fame class include former coach/scout Buck O’Neil (already a baseball HOFer) and Jose Cardenal. But I thought the way the Cubs handled this announcement live on the air was excellent.

Pat Hughes finds out he's being inducted into the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame: pic.twitter.com/gKgQoOdMLh

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 25, 2022

 *Jeff Award Nominations for Harry & Spike

=Anyone who saw the excellent play When Harry Met Rehab during it’s run won’t be surprised by this news. Spike Manton and Harry Teinowitz have been nominated for Jeff Awards for New Works. The two collaborated on the script, just as they collaborated for many years behind the microphone at AM 1000 and The Game. The full list of nominees is here. 

=When the play first came out, I interviewed Harry Teinowitz about it for Illinois Entertainer. The play is obviously about Harry’s very public struggle with sobriety.

 

*Blackhawks Announcers

=WGN announced this week that Joe Brand will continue to do the pre and post-game shows for the Hawks this coming season (which begins at the end of September) and will host the “Blackhawks Live” program on the station. That show airs weekly. Details here. 

=On the TV side, Troy Murray and Patrick Sharp will both join the Blackhawks TV booth in a split role. The Chicago Tribune has the full details on that story. 

 

*Rewound Radio

=Fans of old school Top 40 radio will want to check out Rewound Radio over Labor Day weekend. They will be featuring entire shows of WLS and WCFL jocks from that era on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend. To find out more about Rewound Radio, click here. 

 

*Steve Dahl recovering from surgery

=Listeners of the Dahl-cast have been following the saga of Steve Dahl’s surgery. His wife Janet posted an update on Facebook on Tuesday… “Steve is resting and dealing with the surgical pain, but discovered he had a structural anomaly in his knee that probably explained the rapid failure, as well as made it a little more time intensive to fix. But fixed it is, and straight. Steve has wandered around, eaten a meal, amazed and astounded me with his walker skills and is trying to deal with Level 8-9 pain.”

=Hearing about Steve’s surgery is one of the inspirations for my dipping into the writing archives this week for this piece I wrote about my five favorite moments as part of the Steve & Garry show (many, many years ago). 

=Another former Steve & Garry producer, Louisa Chu, has gone on to become a Chicago Tribune food critic. She is interviewed in the latest episode of Chicago Media Talks. 

 

*Dave Eanet feature in Axios

=Dave is leading the WGN Radio Northwestern broadcasting team over to Dublin Ireland for the football game tomorrow. Axios Chicago talked to him about that, and did a nice little feature-ette about Eanet. Click here to read it.

*NPR teams up with YouTube

=NPR is really going all in on their podcasts, many of which are among the highest rated podcasts in the world. Over 20 NPR podcasts will now also be on YouTube. NPR SVP Anya Grundman said: “It’ll be great to have our public service journalism searchable and accessible in ways it never has been before, and to have a new space to explore content ideas.”

=For more information about the NPR/YouTube connection, check out this piece in Podcast Business Journal. 

=Here’s a new NPR podcast that has me excited. It’s a soccer podcast coming out in time for the FIFA World Cup (this fall) and will be produced in two different languages.  

 

*What are the top podcast genres?

=Inside Radio took a deep dive into the genres of the top 200 podcasts in America.  Of the top 200, 55 of them are comedy podcasts. The other genres in the top 5 are (in order), True Crime, News/Politics, Society & Culture, and Sports.

 

*Kevin Matthews Coming to Town

=Kevin comes to town to promote his Broken Mary book fairly often. Here’s the latest…

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

The following media figures are celebrating birthdays this week. If you’d like to read my previous interviews with them, click on their names. The year I interviewed them is in parenthesis.

 

*August 21, legendary news anchor Joel Daly (2014) 

=My publishing company Eckhartz Press published the late Joel Daly's book The Daly News in 2014. I got to know Joel well and really miss him. My co-publisher David Stern and I would have monthly breakfasts with Joel in his neck of the woods until he got too sick, and we would talk about some of the people he met in his life like Martin Luther King, Jr, Mayor Richard J. Daley, and the Beatles. He was a great storyteller. This was the promotional video for his book...

 

*August 22, trailblazing sportscaster Alison Moran (2012) 

 

*August 27, Star 105.5 morning man Joe Cicero (2017) 

 

*August 27, sports-talkhost Dan McNeil (2004) 

=I’ve interviewed the former Score, ESPN, Drive, and Loop host many times over the past few decades, but I think this 2004 piece I wrote about him for Lake Magazine is the best.

=For a more recent profile, how about this one from Barrett Sports Media, which posted just this week. It’s a pretty revealing portrait of McNeil. 

 

 

TELEVISION/STREAMING

 

*Neal Sabin Named Broadcaster of the Year in Illinois

=Sabin is Vice Chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, and the man behind Me-TV and, more recently, ME-TV FM. The Illinois Broadcasters Association has named him this year’s winner of the IBA/Vincent T. Wasilewski Broadcaster of the Year award. IBA CEO Dennis Lyle had this to say about Neal in the release announcing the award…”Neal Sabin single-handedly changed the landscape of digital television. I’ve long admired his genius, his creativity, and his passion for the industry. He is a true visionary and is more than qualified for selection as IBA’s Vincent T. Wasilewski Broadcaster of Year.”

=By the way, October 1^st Svengoolie is getting his own primetime special on Me-TV called Svengoolie Uncrypted (8pm Central), which will be followed the season 2 premiere of Sventoonie (9pm Central). They’ll also be showing Halloween episodes of all the great classic sitcoms including The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Happy Days, My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Green Acres, and Beverly Hillbillies the following night. The channel is calling the entire month Svengoolie’s Halloween BOOnanza.

 

*Who is this billionaire changing CNN?

=There has been a lot written about the show Reliable Sources being canceled and what that bodes for the future of CNN. It appears that the news channel has made an internal decision to change tactics and be less confrontational with Fox News, but that’s not the whole story here. The man who appears to be calling the shots behind the scenes (although he says he wasn’t directly involved in this decision) is John Malone, an influential member of the Warner Brothers-Discovery board, the parent company of CNN. You may remember him as the former CEO of cable giant TCI. Al Gore nicknamed him Darth Vader in those days. He is also the largest shareholder in Liberty Media, which owns the Atlanta Braves, Formula One, Sirius/XM, and Live Nation Entertainment. He also once owned a 32 percent stake in Fox.

=On the one hand, getting rid of Brian Stelter has made the people at Fox News very happy. Howard Kurtz was dancing on his grave during his show, saying “So now, there’s only one media analysis program on national television, and you’re watching it.” Greg Gutfield reported the news of Stelter’s firing this way: “First of all, we have some sad news for this show. Brian Stelter is leaving CNN. I know. Yes. Apparently he wants to spend more time with his food. I kid.”

=On the other hand, CNN also announced they will be doing a seven-part series on the Murdoch family in the fall. I can’t imagine that’s going to fit into the “less confrontational with Fox News” basket. It will be based on the New Yorker profile of the family from 2019.

 

*Chris Stirewalt

=You may remember his name. He was the man at Fox News who called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night, and suddenly found himself out of a job. He testified to the January 6^th committee in an earlier hearing, and now he’s speaking out against Fox in the New York Times and in a new book. Among the things he said is that the network inspires “black helicopter level paranoia and hatred.” 

 

OTHER MEDIA

 

*The Twitter Whistle-Blower

=You’re going to be seeing quite a bit of Peiter “Mudge” Zatco over the next few weeks. He came forward as the Twitter whistle-blower this week, and the story he tells about security lapses on the social media giant’s site has ignited a firestorm. He should know, he was once head of security. Congress has already called on him testify. CNN has the story.

 

TURNING THE TABLES

 

*Radio Girl Interviews Me

I’m normally the one conducting the media interviews, but this week Margaret Larkin, aka Radio Girl, turned the tables by interviewing me. That podcast is posted below if you’re interested...

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