MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Chicago Public Media CEO Steps Down
=Chicago Public Media announced this week that Matt Moog will step down as CEO. He’ll stay in
the job until a successor is named. It was Moog who oversaw Chicago Public
Media’s acquisition of the Sun Times.
*It’s not Your Imagination: Traffic Really Does Suck
=Barry Butler’s not just a radio exec
and great photographer, he was with Shadow traffic back in the day…
*Operation: Santa Paws
=Tis the season for the
Drive morning co-hosts Sherman & Tingle to raise money for the
Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago. This year was their 7th annual
Operation: Santa Paws, and they raised over $19,000 in pet food, supplies, and
cash.
*Top Rated Radio Formats
in America
=You can learn quite a bit by taking a
look at the national ratings of radio stations by format. Right now, it’s the following
in order…
Newstalk, Adult-Contemporary, Country, Classic Hits, Classic Rock, Sports, Urban adult contemporary, CHR, Hot AC, Contemporary Christian.
=What does this list tell me? First and foremost it tells me the age of
radio listeners. Four of the top five formats are dominated by older listeners.
*Audacy News
=America’s Largest Bank
Expresses Low Confidence in Audacy. Needless to say, it
is not good news when JPMorgan Chase
steps down from its role as Audacy’s Letter of Credit and Swing Line Lender. As of September 30, Audacy reported having $57.38 million in
cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, but they have $51 million payment
coming due soon. Now that JPMorgan Chase has bailed, Wilmington Savings Fund
Society has become Audacy’s new Administrative Agent and Collateral Agent.
= Management Shuffle at Audacy. Chicago Market Manager Rachel Williamson becomes President of Local Sales Strategy and Innovation. Kevin Cassidy will succeed her in leading Audacy’s Chicago cluster. He comes to Chicago from Audacy New Orleans.
*Rest in Peace
=Denny Laine
Just saw him in concert this year as
part of the Rubber Soul tour. Interviewed him on WLS back in 2018. He told us
the heartbreaking story of attending a Paul McCartney show in Chicago
(actually Tinley Park), and asking to see his longtime bandmate backstage, only
to be denied. I hope they made up before Denny’s passing. (L-R: Mark Hudson,
Dave Stern, Denny Laine, Neil Innis, Rick)
*Another Billboard
Surprise
=First it was the Beatles
returning to the top of the charts (“Now and Then”). Next it was Dolly
Parton with her rock album. Now, would you believe it’s Brenda Lee?
Her first hit since 1960, the eternally popular “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is #1.
*Podcast Corner
=Apple Podcasts names Julia Louis
Dreyfuss podcast “Wiser Than Me” its 2023 Show of the Year. But, the top rated Apple
podcast of the year is Crime Junkie
=Spotify’s top rated podcast of the
year is Joe Rogan’s show.
=The New York Times top ten podcast list contains zero podcasts I’ve heard, so maybe there’s a few good leads here.
And maybe not.
=The top podcast on Time Magazine’s list is the haunting The Retrievals, but my current obsession (McCartney: A life in Lyrics) is also in their top ten.
*Spotify in the news
=Weird Al’s joke on Spotify
about Spotify
=Spotify laying off 17% of work force
*The Loop Files
=I’ve been doing a ton of interviews
about this book. This one was fun. The host (Scott Miller) surprised me
by getting audio endorsements of the book from Jonathon Brandmeier, Buzz
Kilman, Garry Meier, Bob Stroud and Matt Bisbee.
=Two more signings coming up before
Christmas. This is the first one…
*December 3—Mark Bazer birthday
=Mark wrote for the Trib and hosts The
Interview Show for WTTW.
*December 4, 1971
=A fire inspires only song every
guitarist (even me) can play
This day in Rock history: The Montreux Casino in Switzerland burned to the ground in 1971, inspring the classic "Smoke On The Water" by @_DeepPurple. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore claimed the riff was his interpretation of the inversion of Beethoven's Symphony #5. pic.twitter.com/kXE3RqISzS
— Bill Jacobs (@radiobilljacobs) December 4, 2023
*December 5, 1933
=A headline celebrated around Chicagoland…
Prohibition was over, ninety years ago today: pic.twitter.com/QFxba4fKju
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) December 5, 2023
*December 6—Noreen Heron
birthday
=A titan in local Chicago PR. CEO and
founder of Heron Agency.
*December 7—Joe Callahan Jr. birthday.
=Joe is formerly part of the Kevin
Matthews show, and an administrator of several Facebook groups including
Chicago Rocks, Steve & Garry Fan Group, and Brandmeier Nation.
*December 7—Carole Simpson birthday.
=Carole got her start in Chicago radio
on WCFL and WBBM. She later became an esteemed television newscaster. She was
the first African American woman to anchor a major network newscast (NBC), and
the first woman of color to moderate a presidential debate (1992-Bush/Clinton/Perot). She wrote a book about her career
called Newslady.
*December 8, 1980
=John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman. This is how most of America heard the news...
*December 8—Sam Kinison birthday.
=It’s hard to believe that Sam has
been gone for 30 years now. I previously wrote about my personal
brush with the legendary comedian. It was a memorable one.
*December 8—Al Fleishman birthday.
*December 9—Jim Kerr birthday.
=Jim is in the National Radio Hall of
Fame, mostly for his impressive career in New York, but as a
young man he also worked in Chicago radio for a time at WDAI and WLS.
*December 9—Harold Lee Rush birthday
=Unfortunately Harold passed away last
year. He was a part of WGCI’s heyday. Robert Feder talked to him about those days back in 2020.
*December 9—Scott Childers birthday.
=Scott has worked at virtually every
station in Chicago and the suburbs in various different capacities (traffic
anchor, air personality, program director and engineer.) I interviewed Scott for Chicago Radio
Spotlight in 2008. He’s also the keeper of the WLS History
website, which is truly incredible. In that role Scott was very
helpful to me while I was working with John Landecker on
Landecker’s memoir Records Truly Is My Middle Name.
TV/STREAMING
*Channel 5 New Years Eve
Show
=Airing Sunday, December 31 beginning at 11:00 PM CT
on NBC 5 Chicago, A Very Chicago New Year will feature an all-star lineup
of hosts including Chicago Smashing Pumpkins founder Billy Corgan and
his wife, fashion designer Chloe Mendel in Highland
Park, Chicago Today hosts Matt Rodrigues & Cortney
Hall in Bridgeport and NBC 5 News anchor Evrod
Cassimy and Country Music Television host/Chicago-area native Marley
Sherwood in downtown Chicago.
*Rest in Peace
Probably the greatest television producer of all time. He
was 101 years old. Me-TV is paying
tribute to Norman on Sunday night beginning at 5pm, playing the Christmas episodes
of his shows “All in the Family”, “Good Times”, and “Sanford & Son” along
with the 200th episode of “All in the Family”.
He was the producer of the Ed Sullivan Show and oversaw the appearances of the Beatles. Precht was 93.
*The Critics Choice Award
Nominations
=The streaming shows are dominating, including The Crown, The Morning Show, The Diplomat, Star Trek, Ted Lasso, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Succession. Full list is here.
*The Kennedy Center
Honorees
=This year the honorees include Billy Crystal, Queen
Latifah, Barry Gibb, and Dionne Warwick. The event took place on
Sunday night, and airs on CBS on December 27th.
*Tucker Carlson Producer
Accused of Harassing Fellow Fox Employee
=Pretty strong charges. This allegedly happened while both still worked for Fox.
PRINT/DIGITAL
*Time Magazine’s Person of
the Year: Taylor Swift
=She certainly is the most popular person in the country in
2023.
*Washington Post
Workers Go on Strike
=It was a 24-hour strike to make a point, and it was
yesterday. They released this letter to explain what they were doing and to ask
for reader support.
*Layoffs hit major
publications
=This piece talks about the Christmas layoffs at places like the New Yorker (including satirist Andy Borowitz) and the Washington Post, among others.
*Murdochs Settle Yet
Another Lawsuit
=This one is in England and is part of the Murdoch-owned tabloid practice of hacking phones of celebrities and political officials.
*Trump goes after Drudge
=For decades the Drudge Report was the go-to site
for conservatives because Matt Drudge curated the news in a way that promoted
conservatives and highlighted liberal wrongdoing. But when he spoke out against
Trump, the former president went after him.
SOCIAL MEDIA
*Meta faces multi-million Euro
lawsuit in Spain
=The claim is that Meta broke Spain’s data protection laws. ABC-News has more on the story
*Misinformation Expert Says She Was Fired from Harvard
for Investigating Meta
=She alleges this happened because Mark Zuckerberg was in
talks with the university over a potential $500 million donation. Harvard denies it.
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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