Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Bruno the Great

More on Joe Ahern's sudden departure from CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago:

- The Sun-Times Robert Feder looks back at the The Life and Times of Joe Ahern - his rise at WLS-TV and his fall at WBBM. It's a rather critical look at what he accomplished - or actually didn't accomplish - at the station.

- Phil Rosenthal has a profile of WBBM's new boss, Mark "Bruno" Cohen (his nickname is "Bruno", named for the former WWE wrestler, Bruno Sammartino.)He comes over from CBS' duopoly in Sacramento-Stockton of CBS-owned KOVR-TV and successful UPN-turned-CW affiliate KMAX-TV. Bruno oversaw the successful morning news show Good Day, Sacramento during his tenure and finally made KOVR competitive after years of being wasted away as a Sinclair Broadcasting-owned station, which it unloaded in 2005.

Fans of Guiding Light - don't worry, your soap will continue to air in Chicago. KOVR currently doesn't air Light - a provision that dates back to its Sinclair and River City Television ownership eras and is still in effect today even as a CBS-owned station.

KOVR was an ABC affiliate until 1995, when CBS affiliate KXTV dumped the Tiffany network to hook up with ABC. KOVR switched to CBS and was acquired by Sinclair in 1997. KOVR is also the only station on the West Coast to start its prime-time programming at 7 p.m.

2 comments:

Mario500 said...

The ABC daytime serial "Port Charles" never aired on WEAR-TV for its entire run from June 2nd, 1997 to October 3rd, 2003. The station was still owned by Heritage Media Corporation until Sinclair took ownership in 1998.

T Dog said...

Yes, "Port Charles" aired in a time slot (12:30 PM ET, I think?) that wasn't friendly to soaps over the years. "Ryan's Hope", "Loving" (despite its long run) and "The City" had struggles there as well, and it was a time slot often pre-empted by ABC affiliates. It wasn't uncommon to find "Port Charles" airing at 2:30 a.m. in a few areas.