Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Local TV roundup

- The Chicago Sky has signed a TV deal with Weigel's WWME-TV to carry eight games this summer. The WNBA Team previously had those games on sister station WCIU-TV. Of note is the June 3 game against the Los Angeles Sparks, which features former Naperville hoops star Cadence Parker.

-Phil Donahue is returning to the home that made him famous - the studios of WGN-TV. Donahue is appearing on the station's morning newscast on Thursday to promote his new anti-war documentary, Body of War. In addition, there is a re-enactment planned of the format he practically invented - complete with a live audience. Donahue did his talk show in Studio 2 at 2501 West Bradley Place from 1974 to 1982.

Donahue's show got its start in Dayton, Ohio at WLWD (now WDTN-TV) in 1967. Production moved to Chicago when WGN picked up the series in 1974 from WMAQ-TV. Donahue shifted production of his talk show to WBBM-TV in 1982, but left for Rockefeller Center in New York in early 1985. Ratings dropped against newcomer The Oprah Winfrey Show at 9 a.m., and the program moved to WFLD-TV in 1987, back to WMAQ (and in a 3 p.m. time slot) in 1990, and back to WBBM for one final season in 1995-96.

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