Ugly Betty Is Beautiful

As expected, ABC picks up Ugly Betty for a full season: (Way to go, ABC!)

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10893

Although the show is losing to the increasingly bland Survivor in the key adult 18-49 demographic, it is beating the reality show in total viewers and households. (This is what happens when you divide the tribes by race and merge the teams too early. You got what you deserve, Mark Burnett! Viva Betty!)

"Shark" jumps one

Ripped from the headlines:


http://www.nypost.com/seven/10122006/tv/duke_and_cover_tv_adam_buckman.htm

Biggest waste of space since Skip Bayless' column

Just wondering... Does the Chicago Tribune really need an Internet critic? Given the fact that the guy writing the column is a complete, utter moron:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/technology_internetcritic/

Another waste of space in the Tribune's Tempo section.

It's October 13th. Time to get out the Christmas Decorations.

I guess it snowed here in Chicago yesterday for a reason:

http://www.wlit.com/main.html

Look at this way... Soon, we won't have to put up with any more of those f****n' Flashback Weekends for awhile.

The Girl Who Everyone Thinks Is A Nut

Monique Calhoun, who was eliminated on America's Next Top Model last week, would fit right in working for either Rod Blagojevich’s or Judy Baar Topinka’s gubernatorial campaigns:

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/
default.aspx?posting={716E5AB9-09A1-409E-8DB5-764C2F4411E9}

If Monique ran for governor, this loser would probably gather more votes than those other two losers.

(P.S. I hope Monique’s a Cub fan…)

Google Buys YouTube

There are 1.6 billion reasons why Google's buying YouTube (and none of them involve T.O.):

Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-google-youtube,1,1720320.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Broadcasting & Cable
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6379481.html

Television Week:
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10873

Mediaweek:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003223465

Deplorable!

If you read Robert Feder’s column yesterday, or logged on to radio-related message boards on the Internet, you probably know by now that Cara Carriveau was fired from WLUP-FM (97.9), “The Loop” -- all because she wrote a letter to Mr. Feder decrying the state of radio in Chicago. (The story actually broke last night in the Chicago Tribune courtesy of Phil Rosenthal):

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061004carriveau,1,1580100.story?coll=chi-news-hed


So, in Feder’s column today, Marv Nyren, vice president and general manager of WLUP explained his reason for firing Ms. Carriveau… (From Chicago Sun-Times):

“I don’t think Cara is a fan of what’s happening here”, Nyren said. “I have no problem with my people talking to you, but I want to have people here who believe in our industry and believe what we’re doing is right.”

Yep, good luck finding those type of people. And as for believing what you’re doing is right -- You guys are doing about as much right these days as Cubs management. (I wonder is that the new model for the radio business?).

Then in the article, Nyren stated that he and program director Tim Dukes felt that there were more talented individuals than Ms Carriveau. Like Turd.

You’ve got to be kidding me… Turd? Turd? More talented? That’s like saying the Oakland Raiders are more talented than the Bears. Certainly, you can see why the broadcasting business is in decline. You can see why listeners and viewers are fleeing to alternatives to radio and television such as satellite radio, YouTube, Internet radio, DVDs, etc., and as a result, their ratings go down, and so does revenue. And so, instead of winning back the public, what do they do? Go crying to Congress and try to have the rules changed -- like the FCC getting rid of fin-syn and loosing the rules so more irresponsible corporate nitwits can own more radio and television stations in a single market to make more money -- and guess what -- the Republican-backed Congress -- is willing to give these guys anything they want -- never mind they haven’t served the public in years.

So what do the remaining loyal listeners and viewers get for their years of faithful service? A shitload of crap, in the form of more commercials, bland chatter, annoying personalities (using the word “personalities” is a stretch because some of these guys don’t seem to have one), more tabloid-like news reporting, more reports on crime in the hood, dumb reality shows, According To Jim, etc.

Remember people, this is Emmis we’re talking about -- yes, the same owners whose hip-hop radio station in New York ran a tasteless Tsunami parody in 2004 and recently flipped a successful Country station in Los Angeles to another format. You think Emmis and their fellow corporate clowns give a damn about Chicago? Instead of dealing with worthless topics like foie gras and microchips in dogs, the Chicago City Council should investigate the sad state of radio in this market and these questionable moves these so-called “executives” are making. Even more strange, part of this decision to fire Ms. Carriveau was made by Mr. Dukes -- a former DJ himself (WFLZ -- The Power Pig in Tampa, Fla. in the early ‘90’s --). Man, talk about being a sellout.

It’s a shame that a talented long-time veteran like Ms. Carriveau was shown the door because she spoke out what basically is the truth in Chicago, and around the country. Apparently, she has more class than these jackasses who run our media outlets.

Links:

Robert Feder's article:

http://www.suntimes.com/business/feder/84110,CST-FIN-feder05.article

And posters are talking about it on this fine message board:

http://www.chicagolandradioandmedia.com/

He was "Kidnapped", but no one noticed that he's gone...

He Gone! The first cancellation of the season....

Link:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6378212.html?display=Breaking+News

(Fixed the link.)

Hung Up

The first casualty of the fall season: a cell phone. ESPN pulls the power cord on ESPN Mobile.


Television Week:
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10827

This “Game” needs the rapper or Triple H

Could this be the new fall season's worst sitcom?

(Hey, who can tell? They're so many of them....)

When you think of The Game, you either think of the rapper associated with 50 Cent or the WWE wrestler associated with DX. According to the Trib's Maureen Ryan and Media Life Magazine, we may not have a trifecta here…
Mo Ryan’s review from the Chicago Tribune:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/09/the_game_fumble.html

Media Life's review:

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7600.asp

I guess The War At Home won't be the only sitcom dung airing on Sunday Nights...

CBS Corp. Combines CBS Paramount, KIng World

http://www.cbscorporation.com/

Roger King, who became rich in the 1980's as the little company that could (Thanks to he and his brother Michael discovering Oprah Winfrey and acquiring the syndicated rights to "Wheel of Fourtune" and "Jeporady!"), will head the new CBS Television Distribution Group. The sales people will be selling CBS Paramount and King World syndicated product so they won't have to compete with each other anymore. The King World name will remain on existing shows they have (Wheel , Jeporady!, Oprah, Rachael Ray -- a move that was probably made so it wouldn't upset the ABC O&O's carrying the shows), but any future syndicated product will bear the CBS Television Distribution Group name.

Updated 2006-10-05 at 12:34 CT

LOL! That’s funny! Just as funny as "Happy Hour"

If you look on Page 1 of the Chicago Tribune Tempo Section in the lower right-hand corner, the “Tempo Subcommittee on Hissing Cockroaches” you can see why Tribune’s stock is sliding -- They obviously hired sitcom writers to write parts of their newspaper, namely the Tempo section (and Dennis Byrne’s crapfest of a column.) Look, if you want to make life more intresting, stop publishing this crap.

That's the rant of the day! Good night, everybody!

OLN changes name to Versus -- Nation yawns

I’m Back!

Sports-themed network OLN changes its name today to Versus. The network will feature lacrosse, Mountain West college football, The Tour De France, and NHL hockey games. You remember the NHL, don't you? That’s the league that should’ve folded with fellow low-rated entities UPN and The WB.

L.O.L!

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Here’s the link:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-versus25sep25,1,4282072.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

Meet MyNetworkTV’s new spokesperson: Randy Moss

In Tuesday’s TV Watch Blog from MediaPost.com , Wayne Friedman briefly talks about ESPN’s recent Monday Night Football game, in which the Jacksonville Jaguars shutout the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers 9-0 -- the lowest combined point score ever on MNF -- and wonders if that anthology should apply to MyNetworkTV -- The Oakland Raiders of network TV -- about its very slow ratings start:

Link:
http://blogs.mediapost.com/tv_watch/?p=525

Rover Is Over in Detroit

He Gone! (From the Motor City)

Rover drops dead in Detroit -- Cleveland’s Morning Glory, who bombed here in Chicago on WCKG-FM earlier this year, is now as done in the Motor City as the Lions are:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060918/UPDATE/609180424

Opie & Anthony replaces him immediately.

Jack meets Jim

Jack meets Jim

Today, Chicago’s dumbest radio station meets Chicago’s unfunniest comedian.

The “You Don’t Know Jack” promotion from 7:30am - 5:30pm on WJMK-FM (or Jack FM) in Chicago today featured alleged actor/comedian Jim Belushi’s voice tracks promoting the syndication premiere of According to Jim on WGN-Channel 9, tonight at 6pm. Whoopee! What a surprise!

Genius idea, isn’t it? F-level actor promoting his stupid show on a D-level radio station. What’s next? Michael Rappaport whoring himself out to B96 for a day to promote The War At Home?

According to Jim reruns and Jim Belushi should be banished to Chicago television’s version of Siberia -- My 50 Chicago (WPWR-TV). It fits well with those new sitcoms Desire and Fashion House.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome to the T Dog Blog. It’s the first day of the 2006-07 television season, and after months, and months of planning (and countless delays), we are finally open for business. I’m T Dog, and me and my “staff” will be your guide to the wackiest, zaniest, stupidest media blog this side of Chicago. Here, we’ll discuss what’s going on in local media, as well as what’s going on nationally. I’ve followed this business for 21 years, and it has gone through a lot of changes... from just the Big 3 television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) to the big 4 (Fox) to The Big 4 and two networks nobody cares about (UPN, The WB) to The Big 4 and two new networks nobody cares about (CW and MyNetworkTV). From syndication to cable, network TV to radio, from advertising to Hollywood, we’ll cover it all. (Most likely comment on it. The “staff” is too lazy to cover anything.)

On the right of the blog, you will see links that were hand picked and personally approved by T Dog -- the class of the class. Only the best Internet links in the world are good enough to appear here.

You’ll also see satire here as well, as we lampoon the industry. All right, at least we’ll try to. But at least it’ll be funnier than “According to Jim”. (See? Our first shot right there.)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll introduce some new features -- some you’ll like, some you won’t. Remember, this is a work in progress. Just like “According to Jim” which is always a work in progress (See, there I go again…)

So pull up a chair, grab your favorite beverage, and strap your self in for the ride. You’ll need Dramamine because you will get nauseous! Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Terence Henderson

Chairman of The T Dog Blog, Inc.

P.S. The T Dog Blog Inc. is wholly owned by the Fiction Corp. So, if you want to apply for a job here, forget it!