MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Me-TV FM
=This month’s Illinois Entertainer is out and includes my interview with Me-TV FM program director Phil Manicki. Next month: New WXRT afternoon man Andy Chanley.
=Nerdette, Making and When Magic Happens were all canceled. Their podcasts were always high quality. In all, 14 staffers
were let go. Urban alternative Vocalo Radio (91.1) is also going to be
shuttered. Broadcasts will end on May 1.
*Colin Cowherd on Danny Parkins
=Here's what the nationally syndicated Cowherd said about Parkins (afternoon co-host at the Score) when he had him on his show this week: "The most talented sports talk radio host I think out there right now at his age…”
*WLS 100
=Three new interviews posted on the WLS website. Interviews with WLS legends John Records Landecker and Jeff
Davis, plus that interviewed teased in last week’s photo with media critic
emeritus Robert Feder.
*Loop Lisagor
=This happened over the weekend…
=The Webby Award nominations were announced this week. Full list of nominees is here. Nearly 13,000 podcasts submitted entries. Winners
will be announced on April 23.
=Coming soon to the world’s podcast library: Suits, the podcast. It will be hosted by two of the stars of the hit TV show, Patrick J. Adams and Sarah Rafferty.
*Tom Sochowski
=Former WJMK/WCKG/ESPN/WZFS Tom Sochowski has a big
day coming up on May 4th. For the last 30 years he has been serving
as PA announcer for Maine West basketball games in Des Plaines. For his many
years of outstanding service, he was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches
Association Hall of Fame.
*Ex-Chicago Radio
=Former WGN host Brian Noonan is killing it in Milwaukee at WTMJ. This week they moved him into the 1-3pm slot. More details are here.
=Former WCKG/WMET/WLUP jock John Fisher was the
victim of a format change this week in Seattle. His alternative rock station KPNW
switched back to country music.
=Former B-96 jock Julian Nieh is in the same boat
after another format switch at KPLZ in Seattle.
*Tommy Williams
=I’ve gotten quite a few notes and emails from Score and
former Score staffers about the passing of Tommy Williams. He was highly
regarded by his former colleagues. See if you can name all of the faces on this
throw-back ad from the Score, when they were still at the 1160 AM frequency.
The second to last one is Tommy Williams. (h/t Tom Shaer)
*Rest in Peace
The WCFL great was 81 years old. This is an aircheck of Larry on the air at WCFL in 1970.
*March 31—Dean Richards birthday
=Dean has been a key part of the WGN-TV morning show for
decades now. He’s also a major contributor to WGN Radio. I interviewed Dean back in 2008 for
Chicago Radio Spotlight.
*March 31—Orion Samuelson birthday
=He turned 90 this week. The man who taught Chicago radio
listeners about pork bellies worked at WGN radio for five decades. I had the honor of interviewing him on
the eve of that anniversary back in 2010.
*March 31—Jock Hedblade birthday
=Jock was a producer at WGN (Bob Sirott) and WLS (Roe Conn), and later produced for the Rosie Show at Harpo and the Steve Harvey Show during his time in Chicago. He is now the executive director of the Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
*March 31, 2008—CBS 2 Announces 17 Departures
=It was a bloodbath in the CBS 2 newsroom this week in
2008. Mary Ann Childers, Diann Burns, Mark Malone and 15
others were let go on the same day.
*March
31, 1994—Madonna’s appearance on David Letterman’s Show
=Such
a memorable appearance that Latenighter wrote this oral history of the
interview on its 30th anniversary.
*April 1—Rob Johnson birthday
=Rob is also a former
Channel 2 veteran. He was an anchor at WBBM-TV for 13 years, ending in 2019.
Rob is active in many charities including the Special Olympics, and currently
runs his own media consulting firm.
*April 1—Norm Van Lier birthday
=Norm was one of a kind and is still missed by those who knew him, including me. His former producer Tom Serritella wrote this tribute to Norm when he passed away in 2009.
*April 1—Bernie Tafoya birthday
=One of the top radio
reporters in Chicago, Bernie has been doing it for decades at NewsRadio WBBM-AM,
although he is now semi-retired. I
interviewed him about his career back in 2009 for Chicago Radio Spotlight.
*April 1—Jim Shorts birthday
=This is the listed
birthday of the Kevin Matthews show sportscaster. How many of
you have interviewed an imaginary character in a foreign language? One of the
oddest moments of my career. The English translation
of that interview is here.
*April 1—Penny Lane birthday
=Penny Lane was in your
ears and in your eyes in the 1970s as one of the gals on WSDM (a station with
all female jocks), which later became the Loop. She was also a very prominent
commercial voice-over artist for many years, and was married to the great Wayne
Juhlin (WFYR). I
interviewed her in 2011 about her memorable career
*April
1—Eddie Volkman birthday.
=Eddie is best remembered
for his days with Jobo on B-96, but he currently holds down the fort afternoons
on the Star network in Chicago’s suburbs. (Photo of Eddie & me taken back
in his podcasting days)
=WFYR
(103.5FM) becomes the Blaze, featuring hard rock and roll all day long. Leslie
Harris was there.
*April 2—Jim Johnson birthday
=The veteran WLS newsman
is struggling through dementia these days. His daughter often posts poignant
pieces about him on her Facebook page. I was lucky enough to interview Jim back in 2010.
*April 2--Dr. Demento birthday
=The king of the wacky song, Dr. Demento championed Weird
Al Yankovic and a whole generation of parody song writers. Including
me. When Stan Lawrence and I got our first songs on Dr. Demento during
our Ebony & Ivory days (1991-1992), it was one of the
highlights of our career. Dr. Demento retired from terrestrial radio in 2010
but is still hanging in there. This week he turned 82 years old.
*April 3—Paul Konrad birthday
=Konrad is one of the stars of the WGN-TV Morning News, the
top-rated morning television show in Chicago. He shares a birthday with someone
else on that show.
*April 3—Brhett Vickery birthday
=Brhett does traffic.
*April 3, 1975
=The first mobile phone call was made. Martin
Cooper stood on a sidewalk on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan with a device the size
of a brick and made the first public call from a cell phone to one of the men
he'd been competing with to develop the device.
*April 3—Ellen Miller birthday
=Ellen is the co-host of Out Chicago on WCPT, Sundays from 11am-1pm.
She previously worked at WXRT for many years as a senior account executive.
Ellen is married to Chicago radio newscaster Kathy Voltmer.
*April 3—Brian Noonan birthday
=Brian is a stand-up comic who graced the airwaves at WGN radio
for 15 years, usually in the evening and overnight slots. He can currently be
heard on the air in Milwaukee at WTMJ. I previously interviewed
Brian for Chicago Radio Spotlight back in 2008.
*April 4—Wayne Juhlin birthday
=Wayne would have been 87 years old this week. The former WFYR
morning man is uncle to Gregg and Dag Juhlin who both went into the media as
well, and husband to former radio personality Penny Lane.
*April 4, 1994—Hillary Clinton gets a wet one
from Harry Caray
=This incredibly memorable Chicago Tribune photo from this week in 1994 still haunts me…
*April 4, 2013—Roger Ebert passes away
=Hard to believe he’s been gone eleven years already. Roger was
one of the all-time greats. A Pulitzer Prize winner. A great storyteller. And
one of the most memorable people I’ve ever met. John Landecker wrote
about his friend Roger in his book Records Truly Is My Middle Name. You
can read that free excerpt here.
*April 5, 1948
=Broadcasts begin for WGN-TV on Channel 9. Still going strong 76
years later.
*April 5--Pat Brickhouse birthday
=Jack Brickhouse’s widow
Pat was a dogged champion of her late husband’s legacy. Pat was tough as nails,
and not afraid of anyone. She was the one who got the statue of Jack (on
Michigan Avenue) created. Pat
passed away in January 2022 at the age of 91.
*April 6—Dan Sorkin birthday
=When I asked Fred
Winston who he considered the greatest Chicago radio morning man of
all-time, he said a name that surprised me: Dan Sorkin. I didn’t
know about Dan at the time, but the more I researched him, the more I wanted to
talk to him. Sorkin was the morning man at WCFL in the early 60s and discovered
a local Chicago comedian named Bob Newhart. I
was lucky enough to interview Dan in 2010 for Chicago Radio
Spotlight. He
passed away in 2016.
TV/STREAMING
*WGN
at 3:30am
=Have
you checked this out yet? I’d recommend rolling tape. Jeff Hoover gave a
preview before the week began…
*Cable
News Corner
=The
Newsmax/Smartmatic case has a trial date: September 24. It wouldn’t be a
shock if this was settled out of court before then.
=Greg Gutfield signs contract extension at Fox News.
*Larry Potash's Backstory Returns for New Season
=The show returns this weekend (April 7) and there will be four new episodes. Backstory airs on Saturday nights at 7pm and Sunday nights at 11pm on WGN-TV, and also on the WGN+ app.
*Rest
in Peace
SCTV
veteran. Also appeared as the Czech security guard in Stripes. Great
comedy star. Don’t forget this character in Happy Gilmore.
No one could have played the role of Donald like Joe Flaherty did. His comedic delivery was perfect and his role alone made Happy Gilmore the classic it is today. He will be missed. Rest easy Joe pic.twitter.com/npdVOjQFpp
— Shooter McGavin (@ShooterMcGavin_) April 2, 2024
The
Academy Award winning actor was 87 years old.
PRINT/DIGITAL
*Lisagor
Award Finalists
=The
Chicago Headline released the finalists for this year’s Peter Lisagor Awards.
The full list is here, and of course, is led by the print powerhouses in
Chicago, the Sun Times and the Tribune. The Reader, The Daily
Herald, Block Club Chicago, New City, Hyde Park Herald, Crain’s, the Southside
Weekly, Chicago Health Magazine, The Windy City Times, the Evanston RoundTable,
The Crusader, Axios Chicago, the Invisible Institute and City Bureau, Bloomberg,
Reuters, the AP, Poynter, Chalkbeat Chicago, and the DePaulia all
garnered at least one nomination.
=Of
the radio finalists, WBEZ was the far and away leader, but WGN and the Score
were also finalists. As was Car Con Carne.
=The
television leader was WTTW, but NewsNation, Voice of America TV, and WLS-TV also
received nominations.
=Special congratulations go to the Lifetime Award winners: former Tribune writer Fred Mitchell, retiring meteorologist Tom Skilling, retiring traffic reporter Roz Varon, and WBBM radio's Craig Dellimore.
*The
National Enquirer
=Incredible piece in the New York Times magazine by Lachlan Cartwright, who worked
at the National Enquirer during the leadup to the 2016 election. A lot of this
will come out in the trial, but it is even sleezier and creepier than you
think.
*White House Correspondents Awards
=Among the winners this year, Peter Baker of the New York Times. Full list is here.
*The
Truth Hurting Truth Social
=More details emerged this week about the true financial status of Trump’s media company (it lost $58 million last year) and that has sent the stock plunging. It’s still ridiculously overvalued at this point.
=Truth Social was kept afloat before the IPO by a truly shady group of characters.
*X
Hires New Safety Chiefs to Repair Relationships with Advertisers
=I think that’s a better plan than Musk’s previous “Go F Yourself” approach (he
literally said that).
=Also,
X has reinstated blue check marks to any user with over 2500 verified followers.
Previously, he forced users to pay for that.
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.
