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 14th (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--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?
— Kevin Anderson (@Kevin_NBCS) August 7, 2022
We're looking for a part-time freelance Associate Producer
Apply here: https://t.co/rt1KZk8Rfi
*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 19th, 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 —
— Tiffany Walden (@Waldens_Block) August 5, 2022
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
=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
