Wednesday, October 01, 2008

T Dog's Groovy Grab Bag

In celebration of post number 1400, let's see what's in the bag (some celebration, huh?)

- How about this? With the White Sox victory over the Twins in last night's tiebraker game for the American League Central Division Title, both the Cubs and the White Sox are in the postseason for the first time in 102 years. But if you don't have cable (all the divisional game and the ALCS are on TBS), you're out of luck.

- NBC-owned WMAQ-TV debuts a new weekly lifestyle series this weekend titled LX. TV after Saturday Night Live. The program is a half-hour look at entertainment hot spots in the Chicago area (similar to WFLD's Upscale Chicago, which airs a half-hour later at 12:30 a.m.) The LX. TV concept started out on NBC-owned stations in New York (WNBC) and Los Angeles (KNBC) and is landing on NBC's six other O&Os as well. LX. TV was purchased by NBC Universal earlier this year.

And case if you are wondering, yes, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen is still on the air - with NEW episodes?

- Arbitron has rejected a plea by Ilinois senators - Presidential Candidate Barack Obama and Dick Durbin to delay the PPM measurement, which launches next week in Chicago and several other cities. The two claim the Portable People Meter does not measure minority audiences accurately.

Excuse me, but where were they in this fight over the royalties regarding Internet radio? Haven't heard a word. Luckily, a settlement is near - hopefully. But it is disappointing our two senators haven't recoginzed the fact that diversity is threatened if Internet radio goes away. Regardless of what the PPM entails, WGCI and other terristial radio stations - urban and non-urban - will survive.

- And you thought the stock markets are cratering: Ratings for the five major networks during premiere week were down 4. 3 percent from last year. When you have shows like Opportunity Knocks and a remake of Knight Rider - a show nobody cared about when it first aired in 1982 - on network schedules, you can see why.

And as for Heroes (down 28 percent), it may be time for NBC to do the same thing the Bears did with Rex Grossman this season - send it to the bench.

No comments: