Merlin vs. CBS in a "Fresh" smackdown

Meet Merlin Media's new mascot. Don't let the Florida Marlins garb fool you. 


Ladies and gentlemen... grab a ringside seat because it's time for the Chicago radio smackdown between old standby The Church Of Tisch and newcomer Merlin Media!

In what promises to be the first of many clashes between CBS and Merlin, the two exchanged not-so-friendly letters to each other regarding the use of the word "Fresh".

The corporation that was once ruined by cheapskate Laurence Tisch sent a "cease-and-desist" letter to the company founded by the Court Jester. In it, CBS legal counsel Lauren Marcello warned Merlin Media COO Walter Sabo that WKQX-FM's (now known as WWWN-FM) use of the word "Fresh" infringes on their  copyright as The Church of Tisch uses the moniker for some of its AC stations around the country, including its soon-to-expire WCFS-FM here in Chicago, which simulcasts all-news WBBM-AM beginning on August 1. In the letter (which you can read here), CBS uses language such as "trademark infringement" and "unfair competition" and "cease and desist".

So how did Merlin respond? By sending a letter of rebuttal (which you can read here) to The Church Of Tisch penned by The Merlin Marlin, The New  101.1 Mascot, denying the use of the word "Fresh" on air.

Mr. Marlin also pointed out two Chicago businesses who uses the Fresh name in their  title and their respective websites. The letter concluded by saying the term is used by hundreds of Chicagoland businesses and has no plans to be one of them (and the letter was signed with a smiley face.)

So, you wonder who The Church Of Tisch would go after next? Will Smith, who was once known as The Fresh Prince? Or what about Kool & The Gang, who had a 1985 hit titled Fresh, which went to number nine on the Hot 100, and number one on both the R&B and Dance (12 inch sales) charts?

Yes, Fresh describes CBS Radio's inane way of thinking - keeping a format which turned out to be one of the biggest bombs in recent Chicago radio history - and The Church Of Tisch clowns' blocking local management from instituting needed changes. Ironic why The Church Of Tisch would be pissed off at Merlin for using the word "Fresh" - it was never in CBS Radio's vocabulary to begin with... just look at CBS' lame attempts at Top 40 radio in New York and Los Angeles...

Old cheapskate Larry Tisch - who never approached a "Fresh" way of running CBS  - would be proud.

T Dog’s Think Tank: Fox Chicago News: Major Fail.

Your official mascot for Fox Chicago News.


A little over two weeks ago, yours truly was channel surfing on the night the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit in Japan and landed on Fox-owned WFLD-TV around 9:02 p.m. or so. While almost every news organization in the world led off with the disaster in the far eastern country, what did Fox News Chicago lead off with?

The NFL lockout, which began the same day.

You have GOT to be kidding me - a conflict between greedy owners and players in a sport that rakes in millions of dollars a year takes precedent over TWO catastrophic events that killed thousands of people in Japan and left the country in peril?

Somebody at WFLD needs to have their ass kicked. Seriously.

For the last 24 years, WFLD’s news operation has been treated like a joke in Chicago media circles, and moronic decisions like these is the reason they still are. It's no surprise the head dork in charge of its news operation is none other than Carol Fowler, who was the genius in deciding to air a video of former WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson coming out of suspected murderer Craig Stebic’s house back in 2007 while she was news director at CBS-owned WBBM-TV – who was one of the many hires of Joe Ahern at The Church of Tisch – yes, she was the one who clubbed you over the head with a collection basket if you didn’t make a "voluntary financial contribution" for Ahern’s lunch. Since she’s taken over WFLD, many longtime veterans of the station – including Jack Conaty and Lilia Chacon – were shown the doors.

And the incompetence is showing in the ratings – WFLD trails rival WGN’s newscasts and during one night in the February sweeps, WFLD’s newscast from 9:30 p.m.-9:45 p.m. was even beaten by a Seinfeld repeat on its WPWR sister station, which is also struggling (and they even couldn't keep him - Seinfeld recently defected to the better-marketed and better-managed WCIU.) While you can make the excuse the 9 p.m. hour (10 p.m. ET) is tough for every broadcaster right now due to the success of cable programs in the time period (notably MTV’s Jersey Shore) and heavy DVR use, WFLD’s ratings should be better, or at least competitive with WGN's.

On Chicagoland Radio and Media's message board this past week, a poster mentioned the head honchos at Fox Television Stations (who oversees all the Fox O&Os and ten Fox-owned My Network TV stations in the group) are not pleased with the situation at WFLD and are demanding changes. One thing you can forget is a news expansion, which was targeting 5 p.m. weekdays and weekend mornings. Among all of the Fox O&Os who run newscasts at either 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., WFLD’s is the lowest-rated, and the two stations in the Fox duopoly are the weakest performers in the entire group of 27 stations, though a case can also be made for New York’s WWOR-TV.And the arrival of Mike Renda from sister station WTXF in Philadelphia haven't helped matters; if fact, the ratings situation has only worsened.

Bringing back Bob Sirott to pair with Robin Robinson at 9 p.m. hasn’t worked, and the longer, in-depth segments aren’t getting the job done. For example, bringing Pro Football Weekly’s Hub Arkish to talk to sports anchor Lou Canellis about the lockout was not necessary (anytime the unlikable Arkish appears on radio or TV is enough to turn the dial) Overall, WFLD’s newscasts are completely the worst, with ambush-like interviews and embarassing gaffes, including a Cook County Judge who sued the station for defaming him, claiming he was home on a weekday afternoon while he should have been at work. Only problem is, the footage WFLD showed wasn't even his house. Not surprisingly, mush-for-brains Fowler was named in the suit.

As for the pairing of Corey McPherrin and Anna Davalantes for the station’s Good Day Chicago morning show... well, you know your morning show is bombing when it finishes behind CBS This Morning, The Early Show, or whatever program The Church of Tisch is airing these days at 7 a.m. You have to ask what once-rising star Ms. Davalantes was thinking when she took a job with this failing news organization. It reminds yours truly of Buffy The Vampire Slayer moving from The WB to UPN in 2001 – the show fell right off the buzz meters when it did.

As for the rest of the station, WFLD’s overall ratings – and those of sister station WPWR  - are weak with the duopoly getting clobbered by other stations in the market, including WCIU. Despite airing some top-notch syndicated fare (notably Dr. Oz and repeats of The Simpsons and The Office), viewers continue to stay away in droves. This fall, WFLD has the rights to the new Anderson Cooper talk show and reruns of The Big Bang Theory, but it remains to be seen if those programs will attract an audience to the Fox duopoly.WPWR usually is seen as Chicago television's version of Siberia as I've noted before; just look at the ratings for Everybody Loves Raymond, which hasn't been a success for WPWR or any of the My Net stations since they took the off-net sitcom from five Tribune stations in 2008.

The state of WFLD and WPWR reminds yours truly of the woes the old WGBO-TV faced back in the day. The not so "Super 66" was your home for endless reruns of Knight Rider, Mayberry RFD, and The Rifleman, and plenty of fourth-rate first-run syndicated programming, infomercials, and lousy movies -  all of which produced a wonderful 2 share. In the mid-1980's, Milt Grant, the owner of then-English-language independent ovespent on programming nobody wanted to see, and went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly thereafter. By 1989, WGBO (and Grant's other stations in Philadelphia and Miami) went into receivership and wound up being owned by a bunch of creditors calling themselves Combined Broadcasting, who put very little money in marketing WGBO - similar to what Fox is doing now with its Chicago duopoly. Combined finally unloaded WGBO to Univision in 1994.

Recently, WLNE-TV in New Bedford, Mass. - one of ABC's weakest-rated affiliates - went into receivership and was won at auction by Citadel Communications (no relation to the radio company of the same name.) Like WFLD in Chicago, WLNE's newscasts have been treated as a joke for decades given its distant third (or sometimes fourth) place standing in the Providence market. WLNE recently made headlines for airing infomercials instead of its local newscast at 7 p.m., including one for the Genie Bra.

Apparently, the local Fox duopoly won't go into receivership anytime soon. But I'll tell you one thing - the clueless dorks running both stations have until June to get their act together, or they're history. Then again, Fox did renew perennial ratings-loser Fringe for another season, so who knows? In the meantime, WFLD should adapt Twitter’s FailWhale as a station logo – after all, their newscasts and the duopoly overall are a major fail.

Maybe WFLD should take the lead from WLNE and air bra infomercials at 9 p.m. every night instead. Given the "boob" who run the station's news operation, even a paid program featuring women showing off their curves would be better than watching another Fox Chicago newscast.

T Dog's Think Tank: Did Journalists cross the line? Nope, they annihilated it

Walter E. Smithe Furniture recently released a two-minute commercial honoring the 22-year legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Among those who appeared in the ad were local celebrities like George Wendt, Eric Ferguson from WTMX's Eric & Kathy, fictional Alderman Ed Bus (from the 53rd Ward), and a few other Chicago dignitaries.

Oh, and there were some local news anchors from three TV stations.

In fact, CBS-owned WBBM-TV's Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson - who both recently returned to anchoring the station's 6 pm newscast - congratulated Daley on his tenure - right from the newsroom.

Among other news people who appeared in the ad include NBC-owned WMAQ's Allison Rosati and Natalie Martinez, and Fox-owned WFLD's Bob Sirott. Also appearing was WMAQ GM Larry Wert. Some of the short interviews were shot at a party at the Paris Club thrown by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. on April 14 honoring Daley, and the interviews were complied into the two-minute video.

Guess the Smithe brothers couldn't find time to squeeze in news anchor Tom Tucker from Family Guy.

The matter was brought up last week in Robert Feder's blog in Time Out Chicago, who questioned why the journalists appeared in the ad, their fawning over Daley, and whether or not their appearance violated journalism ethics. Shortly thereafter, Walter E. Smithe edited the WBBM and WFLD journalists out of the ad on their website, but the full two-minute ad was still available on YouTube as of this writing.

Then it was learned that WBBM officials did not grant Smithe permission to use their personnel in the video, leading the furniture chain's sales and marketing chief (Tim Smithe) to apologize for doing so.

The video from Smithe was nauseating and painful to watch to say the least. You need to grab a barf bag when you watch - just be careful not to vomit all other the new furniture you bought from there. While creative advertising is a must in an era where you can skip over any spot with a DVR, The Smithes try way too hard. What is attended to be creative instead turns out to be annoying.

For the record, Smithe has only one store in Chicago proper - in the city's affluent Lincoln Park neighborhood. In fact, Smithe has no stores in Chicago's Southland - not even in just-as-affluent Flossmoor or Olympia Fields - let alone the South Side, sans for a store in Orland Park. Daley must've given Smithe some um... favors (tax breaks!) for that one Chicago store. Why else would the Smithes would be praising him?

But the big thing here is the journalists inclusion in the ads.

It's kind of jarring to see them kissing up to Daley - kind of off-putting to say the least - especially when the guy hasn't exactly been friendly to the media. I pointed this out in a Think Tank from April 13, 2008 (Can you smell what the Mayor is Cookin?) Daley ripped into Chicago's two major newspapers for criticizing his idea of moving the Children's museum from Navy Pier to Grant Park.

Not once has Daley or his administration said anything about the dangers of media consolidation or the frat antics at the Tribune Tower. But he did find time to endorse Comcast's (a leader in providing lousy service and raising rates faster than the rate of inflation) 51 percent purchase of NBCUniversal.

Wow, no wonder WMAQ boss Larry Wert was eager to appear in the Smithe video.

Most galling of all was Kurtis and Jacobson taped their congrats to Daley from the news desk - yes, the very place Jacobson has often criticized Daley for his policies in his Perspective. How could WBBM not know what was going on here? Do we now take Jacobson seriously the next time he rips into a politician? The Church of Tisch might as well hire Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory or even Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force to front those Perspective segments instead.

Not surprisingly, many have filed this in the "who cares" file. Probably because our expectations - not to mention the bar - for local news and for television in general have lowered so much, its practically on the floor. Remember when yours truly slammed the writers of The Simpsons for changing the backstory of the series of one episode? They still have jobs and The Simpsons still isn't as funny as it used to be. As I pointed out, TV viewers watch the tube passively these days, not actively. They could care less about the quality of what's on the screen as long as they're entertained (see Celebrity Apprentice and Jersey Shore.) Quality television? Quality writing? Quality journalism? That's about as outdated as the Compact Disc. Remember the slogan "Quality is Job #1"? In the television business, it's now #16.

Many - especially younger viewers - are not surprised because they already know local news is a joke for the most part. News execs can care less about attracting the next generation of news viewers (after all, The Church of Tisch did rehire Kurtis and Jacobson.) At 9 p.m., young viewers go to cable, not WGN and certainly not WFLD. At 10 p.m., they either go to Conan or The Daily Show on cable, not The 10 O'clock News. They know local news is a sham with the daily respite of shootings, stabbings, car crashes, killer garage doors, killer clowns, spaceships, government spaceships, and government corruption - some of which created by Daley's own administration. Maybe this is a reason why these anchors appearing in a Daley tribute ad isn't a big deal - many of them don't even vote in city elections.

But aside from all that, it was time to party. At the end of the video, all the gang at the party gather around Daley and sing Our Kind Of Town.

But the journalists have to return to the newsroom to report on some breaking news: aliens who resemble  Glee's Jane Lynch are about to land their spaceship in Dolton, and they're ready to attack: armed with at least a million megaphones, they have a humongous plan to harm people's eardrums.

Bill and Walter have dibs on that story.

The Church of Ahern

According to an article from Robert Feder in today's Sun-Times, CBS-owned WBBM-TV GM Joe Ahern threw himself a big birthday party at a trendy Loop restaurant two months ago. Guess who got the tab.... some of the station's employees.

After Ahern sought reimbursement from CBS, Channel 2's controller turned him away. So, he made the department heads and managers pick up the tab instead, ordering them to write personal checks to him for $100 or more. No word if wore an usher suit and passed around a collection plate at the station to collect the tab.

This comes after reports surfaced that a new marble shower was installed in the washroom of his office - not to mention recently having a lunch that cost $5,000.

Wait, there's more. A Tribune story last week blasted Channel 2's new video screen outside its new soon-to-open Loop headquarters with many complaining about being too tacky, too small, and being a distraction.

All of this expense comes after the network - fiscally ruined for life by penny-pincher Larry Tisch (who once owned CBS) - made cutbacks and laid off a lot of staff at its owned-and-operated station division. Tisch made similar moves in the late 1980's where during his tenure, CBS fell to third place (fourth place in younger demos behind up-and-comer Fox) in the prime-time ratings and WBBM-TV's ratings almost dropped to the basement.

(If you've read Three Blind Mice: How the Networks Lost Its Way- a book by Ken Auletta about the networks and how they survived after they were each sold in the 1980's - then you know what I'm talking about.)

So can anyone figure out why Ahern still has a job? Easy. They belong to the Church of Tisch. It's a denomination where you don't stack 'em deep but run 'em cheap. That's how you keep your job. Dawn Ostroff is a member: she still has a job at The CW (which is co-owned by CBS and Time Warner), where she continues to lead it right down the toilet. I guess soon, we can expect Ostroff to hit up CW employees to keep the network running. What else do you expect from the Church of Tisch, where Ahern, Ostroff, and CBS boss Lesile Moonves are direct descendants? They are the "ministers" while the congregation foots the bill.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

CBS founder William Paley must be turning over in his grave. I know Larry Tisch is smiling in his.

Ahern out at Channel 2

One of the deacons at The Church of Tisch has been shown the door.

WBBM-TV General Manger Joe Ahern was fired today after six years at the CBS-owned station, this after they moved into new digs on Washington Blvd. in the Loop and started broadcasting their news in HD.

Replacing Ahern is Bruno Cohen, who is currently GM at CBS' duopoly in Sacramento, KOVR-TV and KMAX-TV.

Ahern was brought in to boost the ratings for the perennial low-rated station in 2002 by conducting talent raids, purchasing more viable programming (including Rachael Ray, Judge Judy, and stealing Dr. Phil from crosstown rival WMAQ-TV), and increasing the station's presence in the community.

But it was all to no avail as WBBM continued to struggle in the ratings, well behind the station he used to work for, ABC-owned WLS-TV.

Ahern recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons from having employees foot the bill for an expensive lunch to marble showers installed in his private bathroom. He was also named in a lawsuit by Amy Jacobson and one member of the Stebic family, for secretly videotaping Jacobson at their house and putting the video on the air. As a result, Jacobson lost her job at WMAQ.

Thought: For anyone who thought Joe Ahern turned WLS-TV into a powerhouse and thought he would do the same for WBBM, you're wrong. Keep in mind when Ahern started at WLS in 1985 succeeding Dennis Swanson, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and The Oprah Winfrey Show were already there - not to mention WLS' hiring of familiar faces like Jerry Taft, Linda Yu, Roger Ebert, and John Drury. All of this happened under Swanson's watch. He bought the shows, he hired those personalities, he turned WLS around from a laughingstock to a ratings dynamo. When WLS took over the top spot in local news in March 1986, Ahern was only there a couple of months.

Give Ahern credit though, for keeping WLS on the top of the ratings charts during the twelve years he was there. Though he acquired hit syndicated shows under his watch (Win, Lose, or Draw and Inside Edition), there were misses as well (game show strip The Challengers, and talk shows hosted by Carnie Wilson and Byron Allen.)

But one of the most asinine things he did at WLS was forbade the station's personalities from appearing on local telethon or on WTTW's Chicago Tonight because they aired on competing stations. It's understandable for your talent not to appear on your rivals - but not for a telethon or a non-profit public TV station? Give me a break.

When Ahern arrived at WBBM, he did acquire Judy and Phil - but accomplished little else (he did hire Diann Burns away from WLS. Does that count?) There was no Oprah Winfrey to groom (that was Swanson's job, anyway.) There was no Wheel or Jepoardy! -type of blockbuster for them to air. The station is no better off before he arrived.

If he really wanted to accomplish something, maybe he could have improved both the analog and HD over-the-air signal (which I still can't get) for WBBM. Instead, he did nothing and decided to dump WBBM's signal on Channel 22 on cable for Comcast subscribers. One person from Indiana noted on a local message board that he can get a clearer signal on nearby WSBT-TV in South Bend than over WBBM where he lived. And WSBT is on an UHF channel.

It's a shame America's most watched network is ranked fourth or fifth in the ratings locally. Poor programming decisions have been part of the problem, from whomever decided to schedule the schlocky Real TV at 3 in the afternoon back in 1998 to canceling the 6 p.m. newscast for Hollywood Squares two years later (and the all-time toppers - airing the very horrid Dr. Joy Browne and Dr. Laura afternoon talk shows in 1999 and 2000, respectively.)

And oh yeah, the newscasts. When the station debuted in HD on September 22, the station unveiled what I thought was the worst news set I've ever seen in any market. Are all those monitors behind the anchors really necessary? Or is that the legacy of Joe Ahern in the back? (or perhaps Bill Applegate?)

No, Ahern's legacy will be remembered as a tyrant who made people do what he wants the way he wanted it. Whether it's making you pay for his lunch or his marble shower, he symbolized the boss every employee loved to hate. And to think this man was employed by the same people who employed Bill Kurtis, Walter Jacobson, and Walter Cronkite. But when the ownership changed from the legendary William Paley to Larry "Cheapskate" Tisch, everything started to suffer. And much like the days when Tisch ran CBS - and into the ground mind you - someone had to take the fall when things go wrong. And that's true not only under current CBS ownership, but of all the major broadcast networks and a few broadcast groups (like Sinclair.)

You know what they say: What goes around - comes around. Ahern may be gone - but his stench remains and will take a lot of time to get rid of. With the ghost of Larry Tisch hanging around, it's not going to be easy.

T Dog's Think Tank Archive: The Mess at Channel 2

T Dog's Six (Nine) Pack: Upfronts edition

It's an special edition of T Dog's Six Pack - a supersized one with nine items related to last week's upfronts in New York as advertisers, media buyers, and the networks  now have the hardest job ahead of them - negotiations. Here are the hits and misses from last week's presentations:

Epic successes:


The return of the sitcom. Just when you've written them off... they're back... with eleven comedies on the fall lineup - the most in five years -  and more on tap midseason - the sitcom is healthy as it has ever been.Show with the best buzz? CBS' 2 Broke Girls, which is sure to be a hit.

Dramas. Speaking of healthy... one-hour drams continue to be hot - fourteen new shows  coming this fall, with good buzz for Pan Am and The Playboy Club, and for Good Christian Belles for midseason. 

Steve Koonin. When Turner's upfront presentation went south due to technical glitches, Steve Koonin saved the day with his quick wit and thinking.

Adult Swim. They're here because it's less about the presentations and more about the partying! Jay-Z was at Adult Swim's upfront, where he performed a full set for an hour.

Cable. With ratings for programming that equals - and often surpasses those on the broadcast networks, Turner's TBS and TNT and Disney's ESPN have more than earned their seat at the table during upfront week.

Epic FAILS:


ABC Upfront Presentation. Lots of buyers were happy with the shows - but reportedly, not the presentation. Though Jimmy Kimmel made them laugh. Allegedly.


The Church of Tisch security woes. A reporter from Broadcasting & Cable was threatened by a security guard (who may or may not look like Katie Couric) for tweeting away at the CBS presentation at Carnegie Hall - so much so that the guard told all reporters they were not allowed to use any technology in the building whatsoever. Sorry, any 21st century innovations are not allowed at in the halls of The Church of Tisch, because management is still stuck in the 20th Century. How else you can explain the return of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson? There were also reports that everyone inside had to make a mandatory donation going toward Les Moonves' expensive lunches.


Me-Me-Me focused reality shows. The fall lineup on the networks features just two non-scripted shows - and just one is in the vein of the celebrity/housewife/acting-like-a-jackass crap - which thank God - are regulated to cable channels that are easy to avoid. However...

H8r. One of those type of shows is premiering in September on CW where celebrities are paired up with people who hate them. How about me being paired with the moron who thought of this idea? This might be the first show to land in the T Dog Media Blog TV Hall Of Shame before it even airs. Don't be surprised if the first "celebrity" lined up on the show is Bears QB Jay Cutler.

Steve Dahl out at Jack FM

(Editor's note: I apologize for the lateness of this post, as I had Internet connection problems that knocked me offline for awhile this evening. - T.H.)

The ax swung again at CBS Radio at a highly-paid radio personality - and this time - and to no one's surprise - it was Steve Dahl.

The venerable and legendary personality left WJMK-FM (Jack FM) after his show ended at 9 a.m. this morning, ending speculation about his future at the CBS-owned station. Dahl had two and a half years left on his contract.

Dahl anchored afternoons at the old WCKG-FM, where he did very well in the male 25-54 demo. But the station did not draw an audience outside of his show, and Dahl agreed to move to the morning drive at the struggling WJMK on November 5, 2007 after CBS decided to flip WCKG to adult contemporary.

Dahl's new morning show actually got off to a good start in late 2007, when his morning show finished did well among key demos under the old diary system. But when the new Portable People Meters became active in this market, the new measurement showed Dahl's ratings plummeting among those same key demos.

The move was disastrous, as his audience didn't follow him to his new time slot - similar to what Larry Lujack went through- only in reverse, as he moved to afternoon drive in 1986 after years of being in morning drive at WLS-AM (he retired from the station a year later.) The conversion to PPMs and Dahl's show being shortned by a hour last August were apparently the final nail in the coffin.

Rumors have circulated about Dahl's future at the station ever since Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon were fired from sister station WBBM-FM two weeks ago. All three personalities made huge salaries, which were clearly being cut from the company. The evidence of his possible departure was piling up more and more during the last 48 hours, as message boards were buzzing.

At the end of today's show, Dahl said he was "being pulled from the air" and management asked him at least to finish out the year. Dahl declined and left, mentioning that he wasn't retiring. He said "Aloha" and the last song he played was "If You See Me Getting Smaller, I'm Leaving." by Jimmy Webb.

Also out was Dahl's entire staff, including Buzz Killman and producer Mary Van Deele.

Thought: Personally, I can't really comment about the quality of Dahl's program in recent years since I've never really listened to it. But I'll say this: the way Dahl's bosses handled this - from the WCKG format flip to his move to the mornings - was quite poor. Dahl clearly was not the perfect fit for the WJMK-FM's music format, as he could not connect with the music they played, especially if he didn't want to talk about Huey Lewis, Rick Astley, or Def Leppard (and who here really does?)

With Dahl gone from Jack FM, the future of the station is up the air. With WJMK in sixteenth place in the core adult 25-54 demo and sinking, the axe is getting ready to swing. Despite his poor ratings, Dahl was basically the only attraction to the station. And because of those ratings, he was being pulled off the air - with nobody going in. Without Dahl, the station is back to being a terrestrial MP3 player, playing anything it wants. We saw how that worked out for Nine-FM here and WCBS-FM in New York, which dumped "Jack" last year to return to an oldies format.

CBS clearly wasn't getting a ROI with Dahl, so they cut him loose. And now they're stuck paying the man for the next two and a half years, with a buyout unlikely for the cash-strapped radio conglomerate. But the bad news for Dahl is, his active contract keeps him off the air for the next 36 months, or so.

And of course, the recent axings at the network's radio division locally shed some light on the business practices at The Church of Tisch, a place more known for cost-cutting than for hiring and nurturing talent. It's been that way since 1986, when el cheapo Larry Tisch bought CBS and has had the stigma ever since. I was surprised Steve Dahl wasn't hit up for a "mandatory donation" to pay for former WBBM-TV boss Joe Ahern's lavish lunches and marble showers.

With the ghost of Larry Tisch showing up more often, it's little wonder we never see the ghost of legendary CBS founder William Paley. It's probably because Tisch has Paley locked in a Public Storage locker somewhere in heaven.

As for Dahl, his career in radio was indeed a great one - and quite interesting. From Disco Demolition to his often turbulent relationship with Garry Meier, if he ever writes an autobiography about his career, his readers would never get bored. It's too bad this chapter of his story turned out to have a very bad ending. But at least he has time now to work on that book.

Tribune to go ahead with "Big Willie"

CBS to launch The Talk to replace As The World Turns

Despite anemic ratings, poor reviews, and Twitters unanimously dissing it, Tribune Broadcasting is apparently going ahead with Bill Cunningham's new talk show, which is now targeted for a Fall 2011 launch.

During the four-day test, the program averaged an 1.1 Nielsen household rating in seven markets, including Chicago. While the number was down from its lead-in and underperformed year-ago time period levels, the rating is basically average for the fragmented world of daytime syndication.

Big Willie now clears all Tribune markets, including WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles and of course, WGN in Chicago, where the show is to be taped. The program's title is also likely to change.

Cunningham hosts a weekday radio program on WLW-AM in Cincinnati. He plans to do a few shows per week in Chicago, while taping his TV talk show.

In a recent  interview in the Chicago Tribune, Cunningham states he would like to do a traditional talk show and not one with his political persona which he displays on his conservative radio talk shows.

The move comes as a shake-up in daytime and early fringe programming is upon us since Oprah Winfrey is departing her talk show next year. But the projects announced - Big Willie included - have been major yawners thus far.

CBS announced its own lackluster project in the vain of The Talk, featuring a panelists of six celebrity moms, which is basically a rip-off of The View (and even the name of the show isn't original - the title of the show is used by NBC-owned WMAQ-TV for its Sunday morning public affairs show, hosted by Marion Brooks.)  The Talk debuts this fall, replacing long-time time occupant As The World Turns.

The show is the brainchild of former Roseanne star Sara Gilbert, who besides a few appearances on The Big Bang Theory, has been on the tube hardly at all.

The announcement of Big Willie and The Talk shows the lack of innovation that plagues this industry, and nowhere it is evident than it is in daytime (and prime-time for that matter.)

And there's the predicament of how all of this gets on the air. It's simple: Bill Cunningham used to work for Randy "Court Jester" Michaels and Sean Compton, both former employees of Cincinnati-based Jacor Communications, which was absorbed into Clear Channel Communications a decade ago. One of the hosts of The Talk (Julie Chen, who also hosts CBS' Big Brother) just happens to be married to Les Moonves, who is the CEO - or Bishop - of The Church of Tisch. It's the old-boy network where just like Chicago politics, cronies get what they want, when they want, and how they want (how else you explain why The Simpsons is still on the air and the horrid writing staff still have jobs?) The result? Safe, uninnovative projects that hit the airwaves.

As for Big Willie, the program's launch still isn't guaranteed. Tribune hopes to land a syndicator, likely a small distributor. Among the suitors being discussed include Litton, Program Partners, Byron Allen's ESTV (I doubt it), Trifecta Media & Entertainment, and Debmar-Mercury, among others (Tribune closed its syndication business in December 2007.) Then it needs to clear at least 70 percent of the country to get on the air.

The strange thing about this - or maybe not so strange - is despite the poor performance, Tribune is still going ahead with this daytime show. Once again, broadcast television execs misread the market and air programs no one wants to watch. Compton claims the ratings weren't important as what worked and said Big Willie "wasn't a disaster". Well, maybe he should have looked the words Big Willie up on Twitter and see almost unanimous poor reviews for the show. Television execs only use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social-networking tools to promote and shove their crap down our throats instead of monitoring feedback for a show while still relying exclusively relying on Nielsen ratings - which they completely misread.  And you wonder why the broadcast television business is in trouble.

And it may get worse. Lisa Wu Hartwell of The Real Housewives of Atlanta fame - a reality show known for catfights, hair pulling, and other Jerry Springer-like material, is leaving the show to pursue "other opportunities".

Let's hope one of them isn't a talk show with Tribune. But I'm guessing Randy "Court Jester" Michaels already has a studio reserved for her at Bradley Place and has her on speed dial, since they may need a companion show for Big Willie. Yeah, I can totally see that happening.

The Church of Tisch's new digs

The Chicago Chapter of The Church of Tisch opens its new location on Monday.

CBS-owned WBBM-TV opens its new "block 37" location in the loop on Monday, a new broadcast facility with its newscasts broadcast in HD. The new 22 West Washington St. location is dubbed "Heart of Chicago". Sun-Times columnist Rob Feder noted today he didn't get an invitation to come to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, mainly because of his constant bashing of the station's general manager, Joe Ahern (don't feel bad, Mr. Feder.. I'm just as critical of the guy and I didn't get one, either... Not that I ever wanted to go...)

A special showcasting the new HD facility titled - you guessed it - Heart of Chicago, airs Sunday at 6 a.m., 1 p.m., and 10:35 p.m. on Channel 2, giving you three chances to ignore it.

The Rev. Les Moonves may be in town Monday to preside over the service - I mean, the ribbon-cutting ceremony. A mandatory donation is being collected during the homily by head ushers Dawn Ostroff and Katie Couric. If you plan to attend, you'd better give - or they'll shake you down. Hard. After all, somebody's got to pay for Mr. Ahern's marble showers and expensive lunches.

After all, The Church of Tisch is in "The Heart of Chicago".

The 2010 T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards

Here's a jive turkey - LeBron James took an hour of ESPN's time - and wasted the rest of ours - by announcing he was signing with the Miami Heat.  The move so far hasn't worked out well for the self-titled King. 


Breakout the turkeys, because it’s that time of year again – it’s the 5th annual T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards. Gobble up this goodness of mediocrity!

Jersey Shore. Enough said.

Democrats. The party… to the left… to the left… got sacked in this year’s elections as much as Vikings quarterback Brett Favre has (on Twitter, yours truly said Bears QB Jay Cutler, but the joke is now outdated for some reason...)


Randy Michaels, Sam Zell, and Lee Abrams. The media business’ version of The Three Stooges screwed up Tribune co. so badly with their poker parties, NSFW videos, and sexual harassment allegations - not to mention possible fraud surrounding the sale of the company to Zell in the first place. It’ll take years for the company to recover. Their departures won’t be missed.


Kevin Metheny. Pig Virus took over WGN Radio and made a mess of the schedule, resulting in a decline in ratings and revenue with the one-time Howard Stern nemesis losing his job.

Jim Laski. Seriously. No, seriously. This guy? As a radio talk show host? An 88 year-old woman could do a better job than Jim Laski, who was fired on the same day Kevin Metheny was.


Big Willie. This four-episode daytime run featuring Cincinnati radio host Bill Cunningham was tested in a few markets last summer with bargain basement production values and inane topics. A future T Dog Media Blog TV Hall of Shame Nominee if this series even makes it on the air.

ESPN Baseball Today. When podcast co-host Peter Pascarelli was suddenly replaced by former WEPN-AM New York host Seth Everett, the show went south in a hurry. It should be noted Everett is now pre-game and post-game host on New Jersey Nets radio telecasts - a job even worse than working for Pig Virus.  

Jay Leno. After his prime-time show flopped, he got his Tonight Show gig back – at the expense of Conan O’Brien, who moved to TBS. And the long-chinned one seem less than gracious about it in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. And his late-night ratings since his return? The adult 18-49 numbers have been awful, and he's running neck-and-neck with David Letterman. Congrats Jay, you've received your second straight turkey award.

NBC. And speaking of NBC, this network is now a regular in this column, winning their fourth turkey award thanks to their handling of the Conan-Leno mess. Their continued prime-time woes give a new meaning to the phrases “PR disaster” and “black eye”.

CBS 2 News (WBBM-TV). The return of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson did nothing to boost their  6 p.m. news ratings and the station also has the worst late-night newscast. Can those people at The Church of Tisch ever get anything right? Their second turkey award.

Monsters And Money In The Morning.  And here's another blunder from The Church: you can call this The Jay Leno Show of morning TV. Mike North’s and Dan Jiggett’s ultra-low local show on WBBM-TV was painful to watch. Clearly one of the biggest bombs in Chicago television history, Monsters lasted exactly six months.


Minnesota Vikings. This soap opera featured Brad Childress, Randy Moss, Brett Favre (who has his own subplot) among the cast of characters. The result? 3-7, out of the playoff picture, Moss out of town, and Brad Childress out of a job. And now Favre is the target of an investigation over a sexual harassment claim with a now-former New York Jets employee when he played for the team. He un-retired for this?

Jay Mariotti. Another frequent turkey award winner, this asshat smacked around his woman and brought the former Sun-Times columnist an indefinite (and likely permanent) suspension from ESPN’s Around The Horn and his termination from AOL’s Fanhouse. Once a turkey, always a turkey.


The Marriage Ref. Perhaps the most inane program to air on network TV in the last year (and no doubt a T Dog Media Blog TV Hall of Shame nominee), it's no surprise NBC would be dumb enough to air such crap. Since when the networks started airing fare only sustainable for first-run syndication? And here's another example....

Minute to Win It. Stacking cups in a minute. Balancing a marble on your nose. Shooting rubber bands in a cup. Yes, this is actually a prime-time show in the United States of America.  Thanks again, NBC!

LeBron James and ESPN. The Decision was an hour of television that made you want to throw out your television. Another low for The Worldwide Leader in B.S. , which is actually a compliment to them.


My Generation and Lonestar. Two network series which lasted just two episodes.  Two turkeys.


Outlaw. Jimmy Smits decides to step down from the Supreme Court to become a small-town lawyer in this now-canceled farce – an premise so unbelievable, the 1980's sitcom with the girl robot was more realistic.


One in a Million.  Mark Burnett's plan to launch a daily syndicated talent-singing talent competition for fall 2011 ran into a brick wall when the proposed project was soundly rejected by stations.

Nate Berkus. People will watch Oprah Winfrey's interior decorator on her show - but are viewers watching his own show? So far, the answer is no.

Martha Stewart's move to Hallmark. And their not watching her, either. 

Heroes. For its insipid and uneven storytelling and Tim Kring calling his fans dip- wait a minute… this isn’t on the air anymore? Sorry, force of habit.

Survivor: Nicaragua. The Young vs. Old gimmick didn't work, the only likable player - Fox football analyst and former coach Jimmy Johnson was eliminated in the third week, leaving us with a bunch of idiots who are clearly qualified to be Chicago politicians.


Scooby-Doo, Mystery, Incorporated. This disappointing reboot of the classic Saturday Morning series has been turned into an unappealing CW soap opera knockoff, with awful dialogue and romantic entanglements. Since this is the second Scooby-Doo series to receive a turkey award, maybe they need to leave well enough alone.
 
Happy Thanksgiving!

updated at 7:30 a.m. on 2010-11-29

T Dog's Six Pack: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

As you may know - if you've been following on Twitter - The T Dog Media Blog is leaving Blogger and is moving to a new home as part of the new website I'm launching officially on September 19, when the sixth season of The T Dog Media Blog begins. Visit http://www.tdogmedia.com to view the progress of the site as yours truly works on it. It's currently in Beta, so the look of the site will change several times as the 19th gets closer.

Due to a major tagging project for the new website, yours truly haven't been able to do much writing in the blog as of late (which unfortunately, meant no Comic-Con or TCA Press Tour posts.) But the tagging project is finally over, so its back to writing about the wackiness and fun that is local and national media. In the meantime, you'll see postings on both the Blogger version of The T Dog Media Blog and on the T Dog Media site. But on September 19, all new material will be exclusively on the new site.

Speaking of goodbyes, there are a lot of them in this edition of the Six Pack - a well-respected media columnist is moving to a new online home; a legendary businessman stepping down due to health issues; a pair of TV show cancellations; and two managers at a local TV station who ought to be packing their bags. A lot to get caught up on, so on we go - the winners and losers for the months of July and August:


Winners


Windy City Live. While it was a given the new local morning would not match the numbers for the program it replaced (The Oprah Winfrey Show),Windy City has done decently well, topping Regis & Kelly, Today, and Good Day Chicago in recent ratings reports, meeting WLS-TV's expectations - not to mention attracting a significant amount of African-American viewers.

Sorry haters - Windy City Live is here to stay.

Steve Jobs. The Apple CEO officially resigned this past week due to health issues, but he'll be remembered for changing the way we consumed entertainment though iTunes, iPods, and iPads. While Hollywood might not want to admit it, Steve Jobs was a visionary who helped give the public more control over when to watch their favorite TV shows and movies and making the Walkman obsolete. 

Marc Berman. It's sad to see the Programming Insider go after twelve years - thanks to Mr. Berman's departure from Adweek this past Friday (Berman originally wrote for the now-defunct Mediaweek, which folded into Adweek after A.C. Nielsen sold the magazines.) But the good news is, you can follow him to his new home at TV Media Insights where you can sign up to receive his new daily column and visit him at his new Mr. TV website. Both links will be included into the blogroll when the new T Dog Media website launches on September 19 (the old PI Feedback site was shut down Friday evening.)

To read his final Programming Insider newsletter, click here.

Best of luck to Marc Berman in his new home! With such a great talent for writing about TV and media, he'll fit in his new home fine.

Losers

As usual, there is a multitude of losers to choose from - the return of the insipid Bachelor Pad, Chicago baseball, the Bears Family Night fiasco, Kim Kardashian and her new, temporarily unemployed NBA "superstar" leech of a husband, Mancow whining about the now-defunct Q101 again (dude, let it go already), the unimpressive debut of WWWN-FM's all-news format (absolutely NOT "winning") and more. But these are the three that stand out:

Judge Jeanne Pirro. The thing is, she's now back to being just Jeanne Pirro: Warner Bros. canceled her Chicago-based daytime courtroom show after four seasons, the first two on CW; the other two in syndication.The departure of Pirro leaves just Judge Mathis and Rosie O'Donnell's soon-to-launch talk show as the only national daily programs produced in the Windy City.


Lopez Tonight. There won't be a Lopez Tomorrow: TBS canceled George Lopez's late-night talk show after two low-rated seasons, which took a ratings hit after being downgraded last November to make room for Conan O'Brien.


CBS 2 blows it again. Continuing our "...blows it again" franchise... CBS-owned WBBM-TV aired a story last month during its barely-watched 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. newscasts regarding a shooting in the city's Grand Crossing neighborhood, and featured a 4 year-old African-American child who stated on camera he wanted a gun when he was older - giving the impression that the kid wanted to be a gangbanger when he becomes an adult.  But what the station didn't show was footage with the kid saying he wanted to be a police officer to help battle the bad guys. The edited video wound up on YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

The station was criticized by the NAACP, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), and many other journalist watchdog groups, including The Maynard Institute. Station officials admitted the mistake but never apologized, and there hasn't been any disciplinary action taken that I know of. If you've read this blog for the past five years, you know how really screwed up CBS 2 management has been over the last few decades - from erroneous reporting regarding Fred Hampton's death in 1969 (those "bullets" were just ordinary holes in the wall) to coverage of a "pot party" in 1971 to the tabloid-like newscasts that dotted the station in the '90's to the Amy Jacobson bikini fiasco in 2007. And oh yeah, there's the matter of a boycott by Operation PUSH in the mid-1980's after the Harry Porterfield debacle at a time when CBS ownership was in turmoil.

And you wonder why the station has never been able to attract African-American viewers. And Les Moonves' and other CBS executives' silence on the matter speaks volumes.

Yep, just another typical day at The Church of Tisch.

To borrow a phrase from Chicago Tribune's Steve Rosenbloom... News director Jeff Kiernan and GM Bruno Cohen: your plane is boarding. Hopefully, we'll see WFLD's GM Mike Renda and news director Carol Fowler on the same flight out of town.

TCA: CBS looking to stay on top

The  semi-annual Television Critics Association Press Tour got underway this week at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in this upscale section of Los Angeles. Many critics complained about the air conditioning in the ballroom and lackluster wi-fi connection, which rivals the poor signal one usually gets at the Harold Washington Library in the Loop. The only difference is the security guards won't toss your ass out for opening a Milky Way.  First up: CBS.

The Church of Tisch's presentation got underway with an executive session featuring Nina Tassler, where she talked about how the network stacks up among the others, and reacting to the sudden depature of ABC Entertainment Chief Steve McPherson (more on that when I do ABC's TCA wrap-up.) Her reaction? "He got out of press tour!"

- She addressed the issue of the lack of gay and lesbian characters on the network's shows, and stated she will be adding more in the future.

- Talked about the new surprise hit Undercover Boss and hadn't held any discussions on late night star David Letterman cutting back his workload.

- She also reassured fans of Two and a Half Men that Charlie Sheen's legal woes won't affect production of the show.

- On to S#!% My Dad Says, a sitcom based on a popular Twitter feed with William Shatner playing dear old Dad. Shatner said the word "Shit" should have been used as the title, saying he doesn't know what the big deal is all about. The role of the son is being recast, but given how similar this show is to the 1970's NBC hit Sanford & Son, I'm surprised they didn't give the job to Desmond Wilson.

- William Shatner is also guest starring on The Big Bang Theory this season, which will lead into S#!% My Dad Says on Thursday nights. The cast and producers basically repeated what they said at Comic-Con about the day and time period switch. Mayim Bialik returns as Sheldon's possible "love interest" this season. Bazinga!

- Survivor is also on the move - to Wednesday, with the cast divided into two tribes: people under 40 and people over 40. A notable contestant in this year's Survivor is former Dallas Cowboys head coach and current Fox Football analyst Jimmy Johnson, which marks the first time a celebrity has been participating on Survivor.

- Chuck Lorre talks about his third sitcom on CBS, titled Mike & Molly: "Television normally would have cast Chris O' Donnell AND Courtney Cox who meet at Overeaters Anonymous." Heard there were a lot of fat jokes in the pilot. Throw in Nell Carter and three kids and you have an updated version of Gimme A Break. The only thing going for it is the show in set in Chicago. Um, wait a minute...

- The revival of Hawaii Five-O brought complaints that the show was too violent and too dark. Um, guys... so was the original. Alex O'Laughlin noted the original Hawaii-Five-O was taken off the air "40 years ago". So, what he was saying was Hawaii Five-O ended two years after it began in 1968. Funny, the program I saw on Me-TV the other day had a copyright of 1974.

- Blue Bloods' panel featured Tom Selleck and former New Kid on the Block member Donnie Wahlberg. The New York police drama isn't wowing critics, and may likely get canceled before November.

- The CBS Corp. portion of the tour extended into Thursday, with the first part of the day devoted to Showtime programming, featuring Dexter (who announced a showrunner change), Laura Linney's new drama The Big C, The Real L Word, and tons of made-for-cable movies.

Next up: The CW.

Fresh goes stale

In news that first broke Thursday afternoon by Robert Feder on Twitter, CBS radio has finally pulled the plug on WCFS-FM, or Fresh 105.9 after three-and-a-half years of underperforming ratings and is replacing the Adult Contemporary format with a simulcast of top-rated WBBM-AM beginning on August 1st.

The move could be read as a preemptive strike against Merlin Media, which plans to flip WKQX from Alternative/Modern Rock to either all-news or News/Talk station. But basically, this move means CBS Radio can gain higher ratings and revenue from the simulcast on 105.9 FM. CBS recently started all-news simulcasting on a FM station in the Bay Area and has been a success from a ratings and revenue standpoint.

Launched on November 5, 2007 at 5 p.m. to replace talker/rocker WCKG-FM, Fresh was a lame, ill-convinced attempt to target females 25-54, using mostly uptempo pop acts. With the field already crowded with female demo powerhouses WLIT and WTMX, Fresh's on-air presentation was lacking at best. In addition, employee turnover was high with low advertiser revenue. Fresh disappointed as usual in the most recent PPM survey with a tie for 20th place - clearly earning its cancellation stripes.

You knew something was wrong with the "Fresh" branding when one of the artists played on the station is Kool & The Gang (which incidentally, had a single called "Fresh".)

With the long overdue plucking of this turkey, Fresh goes down as one of the biggest format flops in Chicago radio history, alongside Jammin' Oldies and the original version ('80's format) of The Zone. The Church of Tisch radio executives out of New York had the gall to think this format still had the potential for success. Even a few local CBS Radio executives wanted the Fresh format out as early as a year-and-a-half ago so they can simulcast WBBM-AM on 105.9. Unfortunately, Chicago CBS Radio execs were vetoed by The Church of Tisch morons in the Big Apple. It took the switch of WKQX-FM's format to all-news for CBS to finally take action. They basically slapped a "Fresh" label on something that was clearly stale. 

With the end of Q101 and now WCFS-FM, Chicago is left with two less music stations on the FM dial.

CBS, Time Warner to The CW: We got your backs

Memo to all CW employees from Time Warner and The Church of Tisch: We have you backs. By the power and the salvation of the almighty dollar, The CW will be saved from a fate worst than anything: cancellation, thanks to Pastor Les Moonves and Deacon Dawn Ostroff.

WBBM General Manager Joe Ahern will now make the rounds with the collection plate for your "donation".

In letters mailed to CW affiliates yesterday morning, Time Warner and CBS executives addressed their concerns about the fledgling network and remain 100 percent committed to the cause.

The announcement comes amid reports Tribune and others are making alternative plans to program prime-time just in case CW goes under, and a few stations are re-branding themselves without the CW name.

Ratings for CW are down 15 percent from a year ago, which was hard hit by the writer's strike. The network's ratings remain low despite the most buzzed-about shows on television. The network also recently rented out Sunday nights and Saturday mornings to outside suppliers.

Even worse, one of the network's "prize jewels" (Gossip Girl) was recently outrated in the teenage demo by ABC Family's The Secret Life Of The American Teenager, though Gossip was in repeats.

The network is being criticized for airing too many look-alike dramas featuring young, affluent spoiled brats and only targeting an audience (women 18-34) that is abandoning television for entertainment from other sources.

CW has a lot riding on this season with the revival of 90210, which I'm sure they'll declare a hit after the first hour of its two hour premiere on Sept. 2.

It is no one's surprise CBS and Time Warner is hanging on to this embarrassment of a network. After all, with members of The Church of Tisch running things, no wonder it's going to pot.

When the numbers for 90210 come out on Sept.3, you wonder if CW execs are going to be rewarded with an expensive lunch and marble showers...

Tribune, Univision, and CBS' "The Talk" undergo exec shake-ups

Numerous executive shake-ups in the last few days... in the offices and behind the scenes:

Another protege from the Court Jester era is out the door... Tribune Broadcasting President Jerry Kersting exited on Tuesday and his position eliminated while Nils Larsen was elevated up to CEO of Broadcasting. Effective immediately, Larsen will be responsible for Tribune's 23 television stations, cablers CLTV and WGN America, and WGN Radio. Larsen (a Sam Zell protege) is also retaining his titles as Chairman of Tribune Broadcasting and Chief Investment Officer.

Kersting was brought on in April 2008 by former Tribune CEO Randy (Court Jester) Michaels as yet another former Clear Channel/Jacor employee. Last year, Kersting replaced syndication veteran Ed Wilson as President of Tribune Broadcasting.

Larsen promotion to his position may be short-lived. The ongoing saga surrounding Tribune's bankruptcy (which it entered in 2008) is expected to be resolved in court this summer, with a new Board of Directors elected. With this, the board will more than likely select a new CEO and make changes in the executive ranks. 

Meanwhile, in the "Wow...that didn't last long file"

- One-time WGN-TV vice-President and General Manager Peter Walker has decided to exit after nearly a year as President of Univision Local Media, as reported Monday by Robert Feder at Time Out Chicago. Walker was hired to manage Univision's Spanish-language media properties in Chicago, including WGBO/WXFT-TV and several radio stations including WOJO-FM.

- But if you think lasting less than a year on the job is something, how about lasting just a week? That's exactly what happened to Susan Winston, who exited as Executive Producer of CBS' The Talk last Friday after just one week, in a story that broke first on B&C's website. Winston was hired to replace original EP Brad Bessey, who exited after only a few months.

The Talk is a horrid rip-off of ABC's The View -  with five female co-hosts who are mothers. It helps to note the format did spawn two failed ripoffs: 2001-03's The Other Half, which featured male co-hosts, and 2004-05's forgettable Life & Style, perhaps the worst daytime talk show ever produced (How bad was this show? One former co-host of Life pulled an Harlan Ellison and had her name removed from the show's IMDB page.)

Having to work with co-hosts Leah Remini, Sharon Osbourne, and Ms. Church of Tisch herself, Julie Chen (husband of Church of Tisch pastor Les Moonves), you can easily see why Ms. Winston wanted to bolt from the premises after only a week.

CBS makes post-Super Bowl slot decision

The Church of Tisch has done it again.

CBS announced it will slot Undercover Boss in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot on February 7. Undercover Boss is a new reality show which features a supervisor who goes undercover to see if can do a real job at his company.

This marks the first time in over a decade a new program is being launched in the post-Super Bowl slot. Fox launched Family Guy after Super Bowl XXXI on January 31, 1999 as a special preview. The series returned three months later. 

Thought: This sounds like a plot from some B-level sitcom - in fact, it is - Diff'rent Strokes aired an episode during the 1984-85 season in which Mr. Drummond disguised himself as a worker in one of his factories. (The episode was titled Blue Collar Drummond, and it aired on March 9, 1985.) Good grief, is this where ideas for television shows are coming from now? Can't wait for the reality show featuring kids hanging out a bicycle shop just waiting to be molested by the owner.

In one of the most incoherent posts yours truly has ever wrote on a message board (believe me, there have been many), here's what I had to say about the matter on PI Feedback (scroll down):

"Congratulations to The Church of Tisch on such a great move! Pastor Moonves and his flock must really feel good about themselves... using an unproven reality show instead of "The Big Bang Theory", "The Mentalist", or the new edition of "Survivor" to launch after the Super Bowl... to perform worst than "Three Rivers". Boy, oh boy, you guys made ol' Larry Tisch proud! I can hear him celebrating in hell... in which the broadcast networks will be headed thanks to moves like these. Oh, oh... here comes the collection plate to pay for Nina Tassler's lunch. Imbeciles."

T Dog's Four Pack: The "C" in CBS stands for crime

The winners and losers of the week:


The stamp of approval:

The Chicago Blackhawks (before Friday's night's loss): The Mighty Blackhawks are mighty once again thanks to record-breaking regular season ratings. The Hawks are in the playoffs against the Nashville Predators, which continue Sunday night. Go Hawks!

Conan moving to TBS. Fox getting out-foxed by Conan. While Murdoch and the boys were stalling around, Turner Broadcasting got down to business and signed the red-haired one to a five-year contract after just three days of negotiations.

Glee. But the news wasn't all bad for Fox: Glee returned to its Tuesday night lineup and drew a huge 5.6 rating in the 18-49 demo despite a three month hiatus, while FlashForward recently returned to ABC's lineup after a similar break and bombed (last Thursday's episode finished fifth with a 1.4 rating - it was even outrated by CW's Vampire Diaries!) What's the difference? Glee kept the promotional machine running throughout this time by visiting Oprah and even the White House, not to mention Twitter, Facebook, magazine covers and a lot more - the anticipation for its return was there.

Dale Hansen's takedown of WFAA management - on WFAA. The longtime sports anchor of Dallas/Fort Worth's ABC affiliate said something most of us already know about local news. Hansen's speech regarding the Belo-owned station airing a secretly-taped video featuring Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones blasting former head coach Bill parcells and draft prospect Tim Tebow was classic. And what's even more cool, he made the speech on their air. Hansen's comments more than applies to Chicago TV stations - just as much as it does to the Metroplex's.

The stamp of disapproval:

Chicago's killing spree. 12 dead this past week, many more shot. I was surprised when Chicago did not land on this list (but not surprised Detroit and New Orleans did.)

CBS now stands for the "Crime Broadcasting System". And speaking of violence, Saturday night's Strikeforce MMA event was marred by a brawl between camps of several fighters at the end of the show. Then cue WBBM-TV's newscast, which lead off featuring video a man robbing a cleaning store with a loaded gun. Then the news of course, is followed by reruns of CSI: Miami and Without A Trace. For violence - made up and real (kind of hard to figure out where Strikeforce would land in this case), you can't beat the imbeciles at The Church of Tisch.

Broadcast TV. While Conan went to Turner Broadcasting and WWE's Friday Night Smackdown went to SyFy, what were the broadcast network's biggest announcement? Another Law & Order series, this time based in Los Angeles. Yay, I can't wait.

Ryan Seacrest. The anointed one's behavior on American Idol this season has been - well, strange. But what about Tuesday's lame stab at former Idol co-host Brian Dunkleman? It's worst enough Seacrest the Sap is taking away local radio personalities' jobs for his lame-o syndication effort, so now he's acting like an asshole on top of it? If Idol is looking for a new co-host, pairing Seacrest the Sap with Mancow the Moron is a dream team made in hell.

CBS unveils 2011-12 schedule

CBS - America's Most Watched Network - except in the key 18-49 demo - unveiled its 2011-12 schedule Wednesday in an upfront presentation to advertisers in New York. The Tiffany network picked up five series for fall: three dramas and two comedies - and made sold bold scheduling moves, including... wait for it - an original series on Saturday!

The biggest change of course, is the addition of former That '70's Show star Ashton Kutcher to the cast of Two And A Half Men, replacing the departed Charlie Sheen. Creator Chuck Lorre is betting Kutcher would keep viewers tuned into the show - its ninth season - as the staff writes out the Charlie Harper character.

To make room for the new stuff, CBS canceled five series (none of which will be missed): Chaos, Defenders, Mad Love, $*!# My Dad Says (thank goodness I won't have to type that title again) and recent midseason entry Suspect Behavior, a spin-off of Criminal Minds.

And now, your 2011 CBS fall schedule. All times Central. All new shows are designated with (N); new time slots are designated (NT):

MONDAY

7:00 PM       HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

7:30 PM       2 BROKE GIRLS (N)

8:00 PM       TWO AND A HALF MEN

8:30 PM       MIKE & MOLLY

9:00 PM       HAWAII FIVE-0

TUESDAY

7:00 PM       NCIS

8:00 PM       NCIS: LOS ANGELES

9:00 PM       UNFORGETTABLE (N)

WEDNESDAY

7:00 PM       SURVIVOR: SOUTH PACIFIC

8:00 PM       CRIMINAL MINDS

9:00 PM       CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (NT)

THURSDAY

7:00 PM       THE BIG BANG THEORY

7:30 PM       HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN (N)

8:00 PM       PERSON OF INTEREST (N)

9:00 PM       THE MENTALIST

FRIDAY

7:00 PM        A GIFTED MAN (N)

8:00 PM        CSI: NY

9:00 PM        BLUE BLOODS

SATURDAY

7:00 PM        RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (NT)

7:30 PM        COMEDYTIME SATURDAY

8:00 PM        CRIMETIME SATURDAY

9:00 PM        48 HOURS MYSTERY

SUNDAY

6:00 PM        60 MINUTES

7:00 PM        THE AMAZING RACE

8:00 PM        THE GOOD WIFE (NT)

9:00 PM        CSI: MIAMI

For detailed new program descriptions and the official CBS press release, click here. 

The lowdown:

CBS is making some major moves this fall to solidify its already strong position - CSI is shifting out of its longtime Thursday night time slot to Wednesdays to make room for new for highly-touted J.J. Abrams crime drama Person Of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel. Meanwhile, The Good Wife is shifting to Sundays opposite Desperate Housewives and in its place on Tuesday is new drama Unforgettable, which is about a detective who has a pretty good memory. Another interesting shift is sitcom Rules of Engagement shifting to Saturdays - yes, Saturdays - marking the first time scripted originals have aired on CBS' Saturday schedule since The District in 2005, and the first time a sitcom led off Saturday on CBS in nearly 20 years.

Other new series include new sitcom Two Broke Girls on Monday nights, which according to CBS, the highest tested pilot in the history of the network. The Big Bang Theory gets a new sitcom companion on Thursday nights with How To Be A Gentleman. And Fridays leads off with new drama A Gifted Man.

Undercover Boss returns in midseason.

Thoughts:

Don't worry TV fans, The Church of Tisch will continue its reign as "America's Most Watched Network", at least in total viewers - but look for some hiccups in the road. The network may have a potential breakout hit in new comedy 2 Broke Girls - looks like a winner on Monday nights. Expect viewers to tune in out of curiosity to see how Ashton Kutcher fits in on Men - but it won't be the same without Charlie Sheen and the ratings could reflect that. Meanwhile, look for CBS to continue its success on Tuesdays, with Unforgettable fitting in well with the NCIS pair.


Survivor's new Redemption Island gimmick and bringing back two former players for another shot at a million was a creative flop - but the producers are sticking with it, not to mention more unbearable contestants like NaOnka and Phillip. It's sad to see Survivor resorting to pathetic stunts to draw ratings. On the other hand, CSI's move to Wednesday is a good move - let the aging procedural enjoy the rest of its life there.

New Thursday sitcom Gentlemen and Person of Interest might not match their predecessors' year-ago time period averages. With Big Bang and The Mentalist down, this could potentially be a bump in the road for CBS. Friday starts off with new drama A Gifted Man (which will bomb), but CSI: NY and Blue Bloods should do decently well. Good Wife - already struggling in the 18-49 demo - is going to get smacked down by ABC's Desperate Housewives head-to-head. Don't be surprised if Good Wife is relocated in midseason.

Finally, the move of Rules of Engagement to Saturdays pretty much speaks for itself.

Did You Know? The last time CBS opened Saturday night with an sitcom was in September 1992 with Frannie's Turn which was canceled after five weeks. So who was the mastermind behind this show? None other than Chuck Lorre.

CBS shakes 'em up in 2010-11

The most aggressive moves front the upfront didn't come from the three other major networks - it came from the front runner, CBS.

CBS unveiled its 2010-11 lineup Wednesday in front of advertisers in New York City, and it came with some surprises: the biggest one of them all is the move of hot comedy The Big Bang Theory to Thursday nights to lead off prime-time.

The laugh-a-second comedy leaves its cushy Monday night slot in between Two And A Half Men (which is coming back after all, thanks to Charlie Sheen's contract renewal) and CSI: Miami and leads off a night where CBS had shared dominance with ABC over the years. Big Bang's move bumps Survivor out of the time period, which has occupied the slot since February 2001. Following Big Bang on Thursday is a new sitcom tentatively titled **** My Dad Says starring William Shatner, a sitcom created from a twitter page (I'm not making this up!)

This marks the first time in 45 years that CBS has opened Thursdays with a sitcom. In the past, this time slot has been occupied by dramas such as The Waltons, Magnum P.I., and Top Cops.

Other new fare on CBS this fall include a new Chuck Lorre comedy titled Mike & Molly; The Defenders, a legal drama not to be confused with the 1960's version of the same name (which also ran on CBS); the anticipated revival of Hawaii Five-O; and Tom Selleck returning to the network fold with Blue Bloods.

In response to ratings declines this year, two CSI spinoffs are getting new nights: Miami goes from Monday to Sunday while New York moves from Wednesday to Friday.

To make room for the new shows, seven shows were canceled by CBS on Tuesday, including Numbe3rs, Cold Case, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Whisperer, Accidentally on Purpose, and just-introduced Miami Medical.

Thought: Wow, now that's what I call aggressive. Hats off to The Church of Tisch for shaking up their schedule - as CBS execs point out, if they didn't make changes, their ratings would decline. Survivor has done well on Wednesday before (when it aired due to the NCAA Basketball tournament pre-empting it on Thursdays) so its audience will find it. While Big Bang will likely take a hit on Thursdays, it should be fine - keep in mind this is what first happened to The Simpsons in its second season when it moved from Sundays and thrived on Thursdays for four years, knocking out long-time time period champ The Cosby Show in the process.

It remains to be seen if the two CSI spin-offs will thrive in their new nights, but the moves could extend their shelf lives a few years.

As for the new shows.... as much as yours truly hates remakes, I'm behind Hawaii Five-O - as long as they stay true to the original and not make it into another procedural. But maybe they should have remade The Defenders as well... this "comedic drama", or whatever the hell that means - with their talentless leads - hopefully gets nuked as fast as Viva Laughlin did. In the sitcom department, Mike & Molly from Chuck Lorre doesn't look to be a Dharma & Greg clone (one of his earlier series) - and that's a good thing - but will this Chicago-based sitcom about an overweight couple work? This is different, that's for sure...

William Shatner's new show - which is tentatively called - **** My Dad Says - you fill in the blank - is based on a Twitter page? My gosh, where will they come up with these sitcom ideas? Looking at the synopsis, this looks nothing more than Sanford & Son - only whiter and obviously more middle-class. Here's a sampling of the stuff Shat will say: "Elizabeth, I'm  coming to join you, honey!... you big dummy." Don't be surprised if there's a red truck in front of the house and Aunt Esther shows up once in a while to hit Shatner in the head with her purse. But hey... this could be a fun show to watch, even if the critics say otherwise.

CBS prides itself as being "America's Most Watched Network". There's no reason for the slogan to change this upcoming season.

To read CBS' press release for its' new fall schedule, click here. 

Jacked out: WJMK dumps Variety Hits format

Eddie & JoBo return to Chicago radio to new “K-Hits”, which replaces JACK-FM.

WJMK will not be "jacking" their body any longer.

In news that was circulating ferociously for the last 48 hours, it is now official: CBS Radio's WJMK-FM – known for the last six years as rock-leaning Variety Hits (a.k.a. Adult Hits) JACK FM – is flipping to a Oldies/Classic Hits hybrid known as K-Hits 104.3, with former WBBM-FM (B96) duo Eddie Volkman and Joe Bohannon (also known as Eddie & JoBo) at the helm in morning drive. The moves are in effect starting Monday.

News of this story was first reported late Wednesday night on Robert Feder’s blog at Time Out Chicago. Earlier in the day, industry website Radio Insight reported that two domain names were registered: KHitsChicago.com and 1043KHits.com. While it was reported that WJMK and WCFS (Fresh FM, 105.9) were targeted for the switch, it was obvious JACK FM would be the one to flip.

In Feder’s blog Wednesday, Eddie & JoBo alluded to a possible deal with an unknown radio station for a gig, but did not say whom with due to legal reasons. For the past year, the duo have been doing Saturday nights and fill-in work at WLS-AM.

WJMK also revealed today in Phil Rosenthal’s Tower Ticker blog the other personalities scheduled for airshifts at the station: former B96 radio personality Gary Spears (who was at B96 from 1982-84 and 1990-94 and was previously at CHR powerhouse KIIS-FM in Los Angeles) will take the midday shift, while another former B96 alum (Bo Renyolds, who was at the station from 1987-90) is expected to take the helm in afternoon drive. More live and local personalities are expected to be added over time.

The tagline for the new WJMK is K-Hits 104.3: Chicago's Greatest Hits of the ‘60’s, ‘70’s, and ‘80’s, and the K-Hits format is similar in style to sister station WCBS-FM who it and WJMK flipped to the JACK FM on the same day (June 3, 2005.) In New York, the JACK FM flip was a complete disaster, sending WCBS right to the ratings basement, and was even criticized by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. On July 12, 2007, WCBS returned to its Oldies roots as a Oldies/Classic Hits hybrid (for the record, the last song played on New York’s JACK FM was Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey – ending abruptly at the same point when it was played during the Sopranos finale. You can hear the aircheck here.)

In Chicago, WJMK’s JACK was a little more successful, but still languished in the ratings. For the month of January, Arbitron showed WJMK tied for 19th overall and finished 17th in the key 25-54 adult demo. With the notable exception of Steve Dahl’s thirteen-month stint as morning personality, WJMK was jockless, as is most JACK FM stations.

One must wonder – why did it take WJMK and The Church of Tisch's radio division so long – nearly six years to be exact – to ditch the format, especially in a town where radio listeners are very passionate? Part of the reason was running the station jockless was indeed more cost-efficient. But it reduced the station to nothing more than a soulless, bland, automated jukebox without live or local or even voice-tracked personalities (unless you count Howard Coogan’s one-liners) – not  to mention the competition from other Chicago radio stations who played the same type of music.

And while there was a huge outcry from WCBS-FM listeners in New York over the ill-fated format change, the Oldies void in Chicago was filled in only a few months by WLS-FM when it launched the True Oldies Channel on September 26, 2005, replacing WZZN-FM’s “The Zone” Active Rock format.

And the Variety/Adult Hits format had already been struggling in Chicago with Nine FM’s “We Play Anything” format never really gaining a foothold in the market (the plug was mercifully pulled in October 2008.)

So what will JACK FMs final song be on Monday before the 1:04 p.m. switch? Good suggestions would be Don’t Stop Believin’ or Boyz II Men’s End of the Road, but I’ll go with one most Chicago radio listeners would definitely want to hear: