One good thing about 2007: It's almost over

And that phrase is not just coming from Chicago sports fans. Expenditures were down across the board for traditional media for the first nine months of 2007 (with the exception of cable) according to TNS. Not a good year for ad spending on TV, particularly with Spot sales and syndication (thank you, Macy's.)

KYW anchor arrested

Alycia Lane, a reporter for CBS-owned KYW-TV in Philadelphia was arrested in New York City Saturday night for striking a police officer in the city's meatpacking district. If you recall, Lane appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil a few years back to discuss her failed marriages (Dr. Phil also airs on KYW and sister station WPSG in Philadelphia.)

Dr. Phil is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution (CTD). KYW, WPSG and CTD are all owned by CBS Corp.

KYW has placed Lane on "indefinite leave" and is on vacation until further notice.

UPDATE: Lane has also been pulled from all of the station's promos and has been cut out of the KYW's holiday special, fueling speculation that she might not return from "vacation".

So, how's that working for ya? Not too well, I see...

updated at 11:29 a.m. on 2007-12-18

"Survivor" still packs a punch

All right, Survivor may not be a popular show in the Windy City - but it's popular everywhere else it seems, as last night's Survivor: China finale got a big boost last night with the ratings up 15 percent from last May's Survivor: Fiji finale.

However, compared to December 2006's Survivor finale, the numbers were off.

In a stunning upset, Todd Herzog from Utah walked away with the million dollar prize, beating favorite Amanda Kimmel (who received just one vote) and Courtney Yates.

The ratings resurgence for Survivor comes as another once red-hot reality show, ABC's The Bachelor, has also experienced a ratings revival this year. This gives new hope to NBC's Apprentice, in which the slumping reality franchise comes back in January with a celebrity edition.

Survivor returns in February with a new twist - pitting eight All-Stars against eight Superfans (rest assured none of them come from the Chicago area.) This time, the setting is in Micronesia.

It is unclear how fans of the show will receive this format, as there was some backlash from Survivor: All-Stars, which pitted sixteen past contestants against one another.

Yes, Survivor contestants had to play a game to backstab and lie and hurt people they cared about.

They'd make great politicians.

Leno, Conan return to NBC late night

Taking a page from Johnny Carson's playbook in 1988 during the last writer's strike, NBC announced Monday that Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien will return to work with new episodes of their respective late-night shows on January 2, in lieu of writers.

Meanwhile, Letterman's production company (Worldwide Pants) is negotiating with its writers to return The Late Show with David Letterman back on the air as soon as possible.

"Duel" premieres tonight - at 1:35 a.m.

Thanks to something called a Bears-Vikings game on ESPN, and is being simulcast on ABC-owned WLS-TV in Chicago. Duel is also being delayed in Minneapolis because of the game, but it gets a better time slot: at 11:35 p.m. on ABC affiliate KSTP-TV (Being delayed in Chicago behind Oprah is one thing, but behind a Jimmy Kimmel Live repeat? Come on...)

Don't worry, the new game show is running in prime-time all week long, so you won't miss out. The host of the show is former Chicago resident Mike Greenberg of ESPN's Mike & Mike in the Morning and a former CLTV and SportsChannel sports anchor. Greenberg is also a WMAQ-AM and WSCR-AM (The Score) alum.

Worst Person In Media This Week - 12/14/07

Hi, my name is Bobby Petrino. I just abandoned my owner, players, and fans in Atlanta - just to be with you guys. Because you're special. And I am too. And one day, I may do to you what I did to the people in Atlanta. Now, lets call those hogs! Woooooooooooo Pig slop!

Kind of a slow week for evil in media (though that likely won't be the case next week if a certain government official holds the vote on cross-ownership rules - and he would be the first person to win the award twice. Try to guess who he is...)

So this week, we hand out the WPIMTW to someone not in the industry. And that award goes to former Atlanta Falcons coach and new Arkansas college football coach Bobby Petrino. With the emphasis on "former Atlanta Falcons coach".

After just thirteen games into his contract, Peterino abruptly resigned from his job as coach of an already struggling Atlanta team without Michael Vick that is currently 3-10. Owner Arthur Blank (who also runs The Home Depot hardware chain) said he felt betrayed and let down by Petrino. He was really pissed. Yep, Petrino s**tted on his... I mean, quitted on his team.

And the Falcons players? They have words for him, too: Disloyal. Coward. Liar. Loser.

Falcons fans? Words I can't print here.

The Media? You don't want me to go there now, do you? (and you thought Chicago sportswriters were rough...)

Yours truly? Given the Bears' struggles this year, I'm glad we don't have the mess that they have in Atlanta.

As for Arthur Blank - The way he's been running this team, he makes the late Bill Wirtz look good. And Blank doesn't have to worry about blacking out home games on TV. Falcons fans not showing up at the Georgia Dome is all its needed to ensure that.

So go on, Peterino. I hope you're happy. You screwed over the entire Falcons organization. You truly are a classless douchebag. Good luck in Arkansas next year. You'll need it. Loser. Wooooooooooooooooo Pig Sooi!!!!!!!!!

"Lost" to return January 31

On Thursday nights at 8 (Central) with eight episodes instead of the sixteen they promised because of the strike. To see ABC's mid-season schedule, click here (you'll need a road map to understand it.)

Roger King laid to rest

Now on to a class act. Syndication veteran Roger King's funeral service was held yesterday in Palm Beach at Donald Trump's Mar-a Lago resort.

King suffered a stroke on Friday at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. and died the next day. King will be buried on Saturday.

Among those who paid their last respects included Oprah Winfrey and Phil McGraw - both of which owed their successful careers to King - as well as Inside Edition's Deborah Norville, former American Journal host Nancy Glass, Rolonda Watts, CBS boss Les Moonves, Viacom boss Sumner Redstone, Rachael Ray, Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak and Vanna White, and Mr. Food himself, Art Ginsburg (whose one minute segments were syndicated by King World for many years.)

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek was not able to make it, as he suffered a minor hearttatck Monday night, which has left him hospitalized.

Propaganda alley

It's too bad I already decided on who gets the WPIMTW award this week, but there's always next week:

- The Prick Tofu Crud (a.k.a the Parents Television Council) is at it again, this time complaining about an episode of NBC's Las Vegas that aired at 9 p.m. (Central) on Nov. 30 regarding a scene involving a stripper. They are urging their members (or fascists as I call them) to flood the FCC with complaints.

- And it turns out we've got our own PTC-like group in the Chicago area: The Glen Ellyn-based Illinois Family Institute (funny name) headed by resident dork David Edward Smith (who "claims" that he drove Mancow Mueller from the airwaves), is starting a petition drive to force the networks that carry NFL games (mainly CBS and Fox) to town down the content during the commercials. Among the spots he cited included promos for Family Guy and 'Til Death and ads for theatrical movies on CBS (not stated in the article, but I assume the promos for CBS' lineup of its raunchy Monday night comedies were among the complaints as well.)

This comes after the FCC recently rejected a complaint from someone in Naperville regarding WGN-TV's often raunchy programming, which included Maury and CW's Friday Night Smackdown!

Rant: Enough. I've had enough. I am tired of these right-wing, facist groups who think they can control what people watch on TV and tries to hoist "their lifestyle" on other people. Face it, it's not 1965 anymore. What pisses me off even more as this Smith guy from the suburbs (who probably is the only guy in this "Illinois Family Institute") thinks he can do the same thing.

I dare you to cross Austin Blvd. (or heck, even the Tri-State Tollway) and spread your "gospel" and your definition of "family" and see what you get. Do like everyone else and get a DVR if you don't like the commercials.

Oh, the horror!

Robert Feder has a column in the Sun-Times today about a new book that goes behind-the-scenes of Chicago's horror TV shows, a staple of the tube from the 1950's through the 1980's.

Titled Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows: From Shock Theater To Svengoolie, the new book details the history of the shows, from their low-budget production values to their zany comedy antics as filler during the B-level monster movies that were shown.

TV horror movie shows were quite common in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, as local television stations filled downtime during late night and weekend time periods with such fare. The most famous perhaps, was Ghoulardi, a Friday night movie horror show that aired on CBS affiliate (now Fox-owned) WJW-TV in Cleveland in the 1960's. Ghoulardi was played by the late Ernie Anderson, who would later go on to become one of the most recognizable voice-over personalities in America.

In Chicago, those shows included Shock Theater, which aired on the former WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) from 1957 to 1959, featuring a hispter beatnik named "Marvin" (played by Terry Bennett), and of course Svengoolie, which originated as a character on WFLD-TV's Screaming Yellow Theater in the 1970's played by Jerry G. Bishop and now resides at WCIU-TV on Saturday nights with Rich Koz in the role (Koz took over as Son of Svengoolie at WFLD when the program returned to the station's lineup after being canceled several years back.)

These types of shows would serve as inspiration for later programs like Mystery Science Theater 3000, which began on Minneapolis' KTMA-TV (now CW affiliate WUCW-TV) in 1988 and later wound up on Comedy Central.

For more info on Chicago's horror hosts (courtesy of Chicagotelevision.com), click here.

A tribute to Dick Wilson

Before the Charmin Bears and before the "roll-in-a-half" commercials of the 1980's (shivers...), there was Mr. Whipple - always remind us not to squeeze the Charmin. Well, the actor who portayed him in those ads (Dick Wilson) passed away a few weeks ago, and Proctor & Gamble takes us back in time with this thoughtful tribute.

Dolphins-Patriots moved to late-afternoon slot

CBS and the NFL has moved the 14-0 New England Patriots against the 0-14 Miami Dolphins from an 1 p.m ET start to 4:15 ET on Dec. 23 (gee, who will win that one?), with the Washington Redskins-Minnesota Vikings game moving to NBC's prime slot that same night.

The Patriots are trying to become the first team in NFL history to have a 16-0 season while the Dolphins - who had a 14-0 season in 1972 - may set history of a different sort - they could become the first team to go 0-16 (which may be fine with Bears fans on both fronts.)

So if you want to see some history made - that is, to see how many points the Patriots can roll up on the pathetic Dolphins - be my guest. Yours truly has the Patriots as 116-point favorites.

The journey ends for "Journeyman"

NBC has apparently let its option to pick up the back-nine episodes of its Monday night drama Journeyman lapse, effectively canceling the show. Meanwhile, ABC has knocked Big Shots down to size by putting the low-rated drama on indefinite hiatus. The first initials of this drama pretty much describe this show. And it looks like CBS' Kid Nation might not be back either.

News and notes

- The game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins that aired on WPWR-TV last Thursday night from the NFL Network averaged a 16.6 rating - the highest number on that station since at least 1994, when WPWR aired the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

But it's not so good for the Bears: The 16.6 rating and the 5.0 contributed by the NFL Network marks the lowest rating this season a Bears game, as the team fades into oblivion after a bad season. The Thursday game faced tough competition from original episodes of ABC's powerhouse lineup (at least in Chicago) which included Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty, which meant plenty of casual fans tuned out the Bears game.

The next game for the Bears will be on Monday against the Vikings, airing on ESPN and sister station WLS-TV.

- Considering buying an Apple TV? You might want to rethink that idea. Apple has sold only 400,000 units of the hard disk you can hook up to your TV. Apple TV: The Selectavision of today's generation.

- Considering buying an Apple TV at CompUSA? Might want to rethink that, too. The retail computer store chain was sold again- this time to a liquidator, and the remaining 100 stores will close at year's end. CompUSA exited the Chicago market earlier this year.

- Best wishes to Jeopardy! host Alex Trebex, who suffered a minor heartattack late last night. He was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles, where he is resting comfortably. This comes on the heels of the death of Roger King, the CEO of CBS Television Distribution, who died Saturday. CBS currently syndicates Jeopardy! and was syndicated by King World, which was headed by King.

Da Trends

The second set of trends for the Arbitron fall book for Chicago radio stations are out, and there is some movement on the chart among several radio stations. Thoughts...

- It looks like WGN is going to be #1 for the foreseeable future.

- WGCI rebounded to third place this trend, perhaps silencing critics (such as yours truly)

-WLS-AM rebounded nicely as well.

- Regional Mexican outlet WLEY finished seventh, hitting an all time high.

- WKSC dropped to ninth, reaching a year-long low with 3.1. So much for Britney's comeback.

- WBBM-FM (B96) dropped to 12th place, perhaps an all-time low (post-1982) for the rhythmic outlet.

- Oldies station WZZN also took it on the chin.

-WCKG/WCFS saw a ratings drop with the switch to the new AC format.

John H. Idler to head WTVD

Current WLS-TV vice president and general sales manager John H. Idler has been promoted to president and general manager of WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Idler succeeds Bernie Prazenica, who was promoted to the same positions in Philadelphia at WPVI.

WLS, WPVI and WTVD are owned and operated by Disney/ABC.

WTVD is a solid number two in the Raleigh-Durham market, behind only Capitol Broadcasting's CBS affiliate (and longtime leader) WRAL-TV.

WTVD currently airs a daily lineup consisting of Live With Regis & Kelly, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy!.

TCA cancels tour

To no one's surprise, The Television Critics Association tour scheduled for January 2008 has been canceled due to the ongoing writers' strike. This is perhaps the only positive thing for the networks, who now get to save tons of dough - and they didn't even have to call Geico.

The battle of South Bend

Broadcasting & Cable's Market Eye reports this week on nearby South Bend, Ind., where the battle for number one comes down to two long standing rivals - Schurz's CBS affilate WSBT and the former Notre Dame-owned station, NBC affiliate WNDU-TV, which is now owned by Gray Television (WNDU is still located on the campus of Notre Dame.)

Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting also has properties here - with three low power stations, one of them ABC affiliate WBND-TV (or "The Bend"), a station that is launching an 11 minute newscast next month simply called 11 at 11. WBND became the ABC affiliate in 1995 after WSJV gave up the alphabet network to hook up with Fox.

Remembering Roger King

Tributes are pouring in from all over the industry, from television executives to television personalities, on Roger King and what he meant to the business.

Roger King dies

The television community is mourning the death of Roger King, a television legend who helped bring the once-dormant syndication business into profitability and stability.

King suffered a stroke Friday at his Boca Raton, Fla. home and died on Saturday at the age of 63.

King World was founded by his father, Charles King in the 1960's, which one of its first television properties was the Our Gang shorts, that featured The Little Rascals. After Charles King's death in 1972, Roger, his brother Michael and other siblings took control of the television syndication company. Along the way, they picked up two off-network series, Branded and The Guns of Will Sonnett, and other shows.

In 1982, the company's first first-run syndicated series, Soap World, failed.

But in 1983, Roger and Michael made a power play and acquired the nighttime syndication rights to Wheel of Fortune from Merv Griffin. The program was cleared in only 40 percent of the country on a cash basis, and did not clear New York and Chicago at first.

When Wheel became a hit in those markets that aired the show in November 1983, Wheel was finally sold to WCBS-TV in New York and WLS-TV in Chicago for prime access beginning in January 1984. The rest was history. In September 1984, Wheel became the number one syndicated show in the country, knocking out Viacom's Family Feud.

King World found a companion piece later that year with Jeopardy!, also from Merv Griffin, and it quickly became syndication's number two show.

Then in 1985, King World struck a deal with WLS-TV's Oprah Winfrey to launch her successful Chicago-based morning talk show in syndication in September 1986. She knocked Donahue off to become the number one talk show in February 1987 and the rest was history (Oprah would go on to become one of television's most popular - and richest personalities.)

1989 saw King World launch controversial news magazine Inside Edition, a show that helped make current Fox News talker Bill O'Reilly a star (he replaced the original host, David Frost.)

King World would also launch another newsmagazine called American Journal (1993-98), and also would hire Rolonda Watts to host a talk show. In 1998, it was able to land Whoopi Goldberg to be the center square in its revival of Hollywood Squares (in 2002 however, she was dropped from the show, and Squares came to an end in 2004.)

Other shows King World handled included Headline Chasers (1985-86), David Brenner's Nightlife (1986-87), George Schlatter's Comedy Club (1987-88), Instant Recall (1990), a revival of Candid Camera (1991-92), and The Roseanne Show (1998-2000).

King World became one powerful independent syndicator under the King Brothers. But with the business rapidly consolidating (and the departure of brother Michael from the company), the days of being independent came to an end in 1999 when the company was sold to CBS. For the first time, Roger King had a boss.

King World inherited fare from CBS' Eyemark Entertainment syndication arm, including Martha Stewart Living, Bob Vila's Home Again, and off-network rights to Everybody Loves Raymond, which would challenge Seinfeld for the top off-net sitcom in syndication shortly after its launch in 2001. It would syndicate other fare produced by CBS Productions, including CSI and Caroline in the City.

In 2002, King World launch a successful spin-off of Oprah with a talk show featuring Dr. Phil McGraw, which became an overnight success. Oprah's production company would strike gold again in 2006 with the launch of The Rachael Ray Show, featuring the well-known Food Network personality and author.

King World however, did lay a couple of eggs during its' CBS tenure, with talk show flops The Howard Stern Radio Show (1998-2001; developed originally by Eyemark), The Cindy Margolis Show (2000), The Ananda Lewis Show (2001), and Living It Up With Ali & Jack (2003).

In September 2006, CBS Corporation announced that it would merge its separate syndication companies, King World and CBS Paramount Television Distribution into one entity named CBS Television Distribution. Roger King was named the CEO of the new company, which handled over 50,000 hours of programming and over 100 television programs. The King World name was later retired.

Recently, King was out selling a new spin-off from Dr. Phil called The Doctors, which has already cleared 50 percent of the country for a September 2008 premiere, with Chicago's WCIU-TV on board.

The legacy Roger King laid out made him a very rich and successful man in television. Hard working until the end, there is no doubt his legacy will continue.

Here's a TV Week article from 2004 called The King World Story: Retold.

2007-08 TV season over

Just like the Bears, the 2007-08 season for television appears to be over early with a disappointing thud. And with talks broken off between the WGA and AMPTP, negotiations are unlikely to resume soon - and television can join its sister medium radio on the road to obsoleteness.

Call it the Dying Medium Duo.

Gumbel sucked as much as game did

The play-by-play of last night's Bears-Redskins game on the NFL Network (broadcast locally on My Network TV affiliate WPWR-TV) was about as bad as the play on the field.

Bryant "Kermit the Frog" Gumbel was quite awful, as usual. Analyst Cris Collinsworth was sharp, and delivered the best line of the night, summing up the Bears: "There's professional football and unprofessional football. Right now the Bears are playing unprofessional football. It's embarrassing."

Just about as embarrassing as Chapter Two of Heroes. And to think yours truly passed up Survivor for this (which itself is having a Rex Grossman-like season.)

The Bears-Redskins game, for starters wasn't like last week's much-hyped Packers-Cowboys tilt, in which people bailed out after Brett Farve got hurt. Last night's matchup had about much buzz as a Edmonton Oilers-Columbus Blue Jackets NHL game.

If Survivor can pull fourteen million viewers for an episode in a lousy season, if Heroes can pull in eleven million likewise, and the Bears-Redskins game can't even draw six million viewers on the barely-distributed NFL Network, then the NFL isn't as hot as they think they are. Especially with two bad teams. Yes, Survivor and Heroes have been crappy as of late, but their fans aren't bailing out on them en masse like Bears fans seem to be doing. Unless you're the Cubs, fan loyalty doesn't mean anything in sports.

On the bright side for the NFL Network, at least it wasn't a Dolphins-Bengals game.

***********************************************************************************

Meanwhile, a promo touting WPWR's lineup aired during the game and it pretty much showed why people don't watch the station. "We're the home of Law & Order spin-offs and Reno 911! reruns!" Who cares? Its' lineup is about as bad as WGBO-TV's (not so "Super 66") was back in the day, before it was purchased by Univision, and proved that the Spanish-language programming it put on was better than the English-language junk it was previously showing (all right, I know what you're saying. I'm nuts. But the Spanish shows have hot-looking Latin women, don't they? I rest my case.)

WGBO was your home for endless ultra low-rated reruns of Perry Mason, The Rifleman, and Highway to Heaven, plus plenty of infomericals. And even those choices were better than last night's Bears game.

With last night's loss, the Bears are pretty much done and WPWR can go back into obscurity.

Worst Person in Media This Week - 12/06/2007

This was a long time coming.

This week's award goes to FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin. Why, you may ask?

Pursing a personal agenda.... The 70/70 market-threshold position to regulate cable... The continuing war on indecency... Making a decision on Tribune even before the FCC hearings here in Chicago last September... A person who's nothing but a puppet for the Bush Administration, and could care less about communications... Scheduling a hearing in Seattle at the last minute... Fumbling on minority issues regarding ownership of TV and radio stations... Delaying a recent hearing in Washington for 12 hours... Congressmen from both parties hate him... Wanting a vote on Dec. 18 so he can speed his personal communications agenda through... An all around jerk...

I could go on and on and on... He is truly the worst FCC commissioner ever, coming from the worst Presidential Administration ever. No one is surprised here. The sooner he leaves, the better.

WPIMTW Scorecard:

PTC, Tyra Banks, Prince, AMPTP, Drudgies, William Beavers, and Kevin Martin: one each

TV Guide sold - again

TV Guide, the once-popular magazine that has fallen on hard times in recent years has been sold again - this time through a merger of its parent, Gemstar, and Macrovision, which the merger valued at $2.8 billion. The transaction is a cash-and-stock deal.

USA renews "Raw" until 2010

Three more years for WWE Raw on USA Network. So, that means three more years of Vince McMahon and brain-dead wrestling fans screaming "What?" at every opportunity. Ugh.

So if David Stern and Gary Bettman can stick around and continue to ruin the NBA and NHL, respectively...

Patriots-Ravens set cable record

Monday night's football game between the undefeated New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens set a cable ratings record - 17.5 million viewers for the ESPN, slightly more than the previous record - the 17.2 High School Musical 2 earned in August.

The last half-hour of the game notched a whopping 23.9 million viewers - higher than any program on the major broadcast networks that night.

Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" most loved

Edison Research has released a national survey they did of the most loved and hated Christmas songs. Topping the most loved list was Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song", with Bing Crosby's classic "White Christmas" second. The most hated was the instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" by the Singing Dogs (They just bark the tune. Literally.)

Also making the most hated list was "Grandma Got Run Over A Reindeer" and Eric Cartman's ("South Park") rendition of "O Holy Night".

Memo to Eric Cartman: Though it's fairly common, cartoon characters should not sing. Ask anyone who had to sit through "Do The Bartman."

PTC idiots at it again

The Parents Television Council, a.k.a. The Pricks Tofu Crud, is considering boycotting CBS' sponsors if they go ahead and air some Showtime programs such as Weeds and Dexter as replacement fare for shows affected by the Writer's Strike (the programs are being edited to adhere to broadcast standards.)

For your information, if boycotts truly worked, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and half the stuff on television and on the radio wouldn't be on the air. The PTC are a bunch of commie bastards.

What if Oprah ran radio?

Inside Radio founder Jerry del Colliano thinks Oprah Winfrey could be just the person to turn around the radio business if she had the chance (as long if it's her and not Tyra Banks.) It's a great post, and one every radio programmer should read (especially those at Clear Channel.)

Read the comments section below on the post. An absolute hoot!

Deconstructing Feder

Picking apart Feder from the Sun-Times today:

- While other CBS-owned stations saw ratings increases in the just concluded November sweeps (I'll have a post on November sweeps figures shortly), the free fall continues at WBBM-TV, whose ratings were flat in households and down 15 percent in adults 25-54. And this comes after one of the best investigative reports in years from political reporter Mike Flannery regarding the loony antics of Illinois political joke Rod Blagoveich. It was a refreshing throwback to the Kurtis-Jacobson era at WBBM.

- Remember the WGN-TV license challenge yours truly talked about the other day? Turned out it was someone from Naperville who filed the complaint to the FCC.

No surprise, given Naperville probably has the largest number of Parents Television Council members in the area and want to impose their bland tastes on the rest of Chicago. But hey, at least give WGN some credit. They're one of the few Tribune stations that doesn't air "Jerry Springer".

- Feder mentions Thursday night's Bears-Redskins game on WPWR (Channel 50) and goes on to say: "probably will be the first time Channel 50 has drawn a double-digit rating since it joined the Fox family. Then it'll be back to the embarrassing anonymity of MyNetworkTV."

The "embarrassing anonymity" moniker should also apply to The CW, who has been just as invisible. Check out the ratings for CW's Sunday night lineup and you'll see what I mean.

- And former WBBM-FM jock Brian Middleton has landed on his feet as a evening personality at rhythmic AC WILV-FM (Love FM).

Hawks score ratings increase for home games

The Chicago Blackhawks finally got on the board with the November 30 home game telecast against the Phoenix Coyotes. The game notched a 1.2 Nielsen rating (fourth item), for Comcast SportsNet, up from the 0.8 rating the last home game it aired on November 11, against the Detroit Red Wings.

In other sports ratings news, the game much of the country did not get - The Packers/Cowboys tilt that aired on the barely-distributed NFL network - managed to get 10 million viewers (third item). Fox-owned My Network TV affiliate KDFI scored big with the game in Dallas, which attracted 815, 739 homes.

And if you were wondering what the first item of the linked article was, it was about something we touched on Sunday - The Bears airing on WPWR-TV this Thursday. It is reported that WPWR paid a whopping $700,000 to air the game from the NFL Network.

If WPWR can attract 815,000 homes or better like its sister station did in Dallas for the Cowboys game, the price would be more than worth it. Rupert Murdoch certainly knows how to use his checkbook.

Layoff lane

Cuts at Clear Channel Chicago and 65 layoffs at Oxygen, which was taken over by NBC Universal over the weekend.

Among the cuts at CC Chicago: Armando Rivera, a mixer-turned-assistant program director and music director at WVAZ (V103); WGCI's nighttime jock Victor "The Diz" Blackful; and overnighter Alexx Dupri at Top 40 WKSC-FM. The cuts at Clear Channel mirror those that happened recently at their clusters across the country, including Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, and Detroit (where twenty positions were recently eliminated.)

- Check out this blog post from Cleveland media veteran John Gorman, and scroll down to the comments section and read some of the Chicago-related posts, especially from one poster named Break Dance King. Couldn't said it better myself.

"We are re-expressing our assets to achieve greater results", says a manager at the Chicago cluster. Gee, how can you achieve greater results by firing the assets? Looking at WGCI's and WLIT's recent numbers, I say you guys need to do a whole lot more than "rearrange the assets".

WDJT launches 9 p.m. newscast

Milwaukee CBS affiliate WDJT-TV, owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting (owner of WCIU and WWME), is launching a 9 p.m. newscast on its independent sister sation, WMLW-TV beginning Jan.1.

The newscast is to compete with Fox-owned WITI's newscast, which airs at the same time. Sinclair's CW affiliate WVTV had a 9 p.m. newscast from 1989-94 and again from 2003-06, but low ratings and high costs shuttered them both.

WMLW is aiming to do a show different from its Fox counterpart.

updated at 11:58 p.m. to add Tim Cuprisin link

CBS, NBC unveil midseason schedules

A lot more changes than usual because of the ongoing writer's strike. This includes a revival of American Gladiators on NBC.

You know, there was an episode of "The Simpsons" from 1992 where Homer Simpson complains about missing prime-time, where "the stars come out to shine." Well, let's just say he won't be making that complaint today, because he won't be missing anything.

Think Tank Light: WGN-TV's FCC license challenge dismissed

Ah, a think tank that isn't more than ten paragraphs long...

The FCC has dismissed a bogus license challenge against WGN-TV, coming after the Tribune Company got waivers to permanently keep WGN-TV, WGN-AM, and the Chicago Tribune.

The interesting thing yours truly has observed regarding this controversy, is that many Chicagoans don't seem to be concerned (or care) about the three media entities being held together. This was a bigger story in Washington (where the vote came across party lines) than it was in Chicago.

Are the Democratic FCC commissioners making too much of a big deal out of this? They don't reside here, you know. You think the Republican members of the FCC granted the permanent waivers in Chicago in the name of localism for us Chicagoans so WGN-AM won't get gobbled up by a out-of-town media conglomerate? Gee, how convenient.

Then again, you wonder if this waiver is a victory for Chicago Democrats, who love corruption and have benefited from the lightweight reporting on the matter from the Tribune as well as the Sun-Times. Not one Chicago Democrat spoke out on what went down Friday at the FCC. Typical.

And yes, these are the same people Chicagoans keep electing into office term after term after term. No wonder they are not concerned about the Tribune Company. They complain, but at the same time, don't care. Maybe they will care when the tax bills starting arriving in their mailbox.

Just a thought.

WLS-TV relaunches website

WLS, and other ABC owned-and-operated stations, including top-rated outlets WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and KTRK-TV Houston relaunched their websites over the weekend, with large Flash video players and added more video to make their websites "more like a TV newscast".

Check out WLS' new website here. (Thought: I like the new site. It's easier to navigate and isn't as cluttered as before. Plus, you no longer have that annoying guy popping up to sell you a Toyota.)

WorldNow, a new media company founded by former Genesis Entertainment founder Gary Gannaway, is handling the video on the ABC local station websites.

To this day, Genesis Entertainment is the only syndicated television company in history to successfully launch all of its syndicated shows (that is, at least getting them on the air.) Gannaway sold Genesis to New World Entertainment in 1994, which in turn was sold to News Corporation (Fox) two years later. Gannaway co-founded WorldNow in 1998, which specializes in providing media companies with web publishing, streaming video, and advertising solutions.

updated at 5:20 p.m.

Get reacqainted with WPWR

An article written in the Sun-Times today (how come Feder didn't get a chance to write this?), mentions four call letters you'd better get reacquainted with - WPWR.

Of course, Fox-owned WPWR-TV (Channel 50), a former UPN affiliate now-turned My Network TV affiliate has the Bears-Redskins game Thursday night, which is carried on NFL Network, which of course, you can't get in Chicago unless you shell out more dough if you're a Comcast subscriber. (Washington's My Network TV affiliate, Fox-owned WDCA-TV is also carrying the game.)

The article mentions the days when WPWR (then WBBS) was an outlet for the failed SportsVision pay-per-view service in the early '80's.

But what it doesn't mention is WPWR was a successful independent at one point - in 1994, it had a share as high as 8. It ran successful programming such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roseanne, Baywatch, Bablyon 5, and Ricki Lake.

But the beginning of the end came in 1995, when it became a UPN affiliate and former Univision affiliate WCIU-TV launched a general-entertainment format that became very aggressive in acquiring product (Univision would purchase former indie WGBO-TV in 1994.) Neal Sabin, the former station director at WPWR became general manager at WCIU at the time of its re-launch.

Ratings started to fall in the late 90's, even before Fox took control of the station. In 2002, Newsweb sold WPWR to News Corporation for $425 million, the most ever paid for a UHF station. It became a duopoly with Fox-owned WFLD-TV.

When UPN closed down to merge with the WB to form the CW in early 2006, WPWR, as well as eight other Fox-owned UPN stations, signed on with My Network TV, a new network put together by Fox in only a matter of weeks.

My Network TV (MNT) launched with English-language telenovelas in September 2006, but nobody watched. MNT scrapped the format in mid-2007, going with a lineup of reality and non-scripted programming.

Today, WPWR (as well as fellow MNT Fox stations WWOR in New York and WDCA, among others that are in duopolies with other Fox-owned stations) are barely scraping by with a 2 share. The stations are usually known as dumping grounds for third-rate syndicated fare and programming that didn't work on their Fox sister station. (KTXH, the Fox-owned My Network TV station in Houston, doesn't even have an updated website.)

But the stations are making a comeback by airing more sporting events, such as high school athletics and pro sports teams. The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly looking for an over-the-air partner to air a few games, and WPWR would be a good fit, particularly with the team's resurgence this season.

Also, WPWR is getting stronger programming in the next few years, with the station acquiring reruns of the NBC demo-friendly hit The Office.

Let's hope WPWR's comeback starts this Thursday night with the Bears game.

Retro: Here's a YouTube video with WPWR's (then at Channel 60) sign-on - at 2:30 a.m., when the station shared a frequency with Spanish-language WBBS (the quality of the video is poor), and here's another featuring a promo for Morton Downey Jr.'s show in 1988.

Worst Person in Media This Week - 11/30/2007

We're back this week with the Worst Person in Media This Week award, after a break last week (because of the Thanksgiving holiday).

Although Carson Daly (for crossing the picket line) is a worthy nominee, handing out this week's WPIMTW award is a no-brainer...

Usually we give these awards to media people and politicians who are involved in the business who screw up. But for the first time, we're handing it to someone who is not involved in the business, but whose comments this week were about as inflammatory as anything radio talk show hosts Glenn Beck and Michael Savage have said.

And thus, we hand this week's award to Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, who claimed the Cook County budget battle was about race (Beavers is black.) He said that if Cook County Board President Todd Stroger (who is also black) was white, then the budget- filled with tax increases- would be passed.

Um, excuse me genius, but wouldn't the higher taxes actually hurt the poor, who the majority of which are minority?

He also singled out another commissioner, calling him a racist (I'm surprised that person didn't file a slander lawsuit against Beavers.)

Beavers was not only slammed in the media for his comments, but also on black talk radio. And the Sun-Times put the matter on the front page of Wednesday's paper for all to see.

Remember, this was a man who helped engineer Eugene Sawyer to be installed as Chicago's mayor after Harold Washington's death back 20 years ago, and during his tenure as an alderman, his 7th ward saw a sharp increase in crime. This is a guy who stabbed the African-American community in the back. And he has the nerve to talk about racism. What an ass.

Basically, Chicagoans are numb to this crap anyway. You see this on TV reality shows all the time, and we all knew a long time ago that politicians are no different than people you see on these shows. Like reality show contestants, politicians are air-headed, stupid morons. No wonder our city, county, state, and our country is so screwed up. Who here can tell the difference between Beavers and Omorasa?

Beavers is no different from Beck, Savage, or O'Reilly - constant race-baiters who are seeking attention because the spotlight isn't on them. And so they spew rhetoric based on cheap heat to get into the press. It doesn't matter if it's from the left or the right, liberal or conservative, black or white - it's all the same crap. And sadly, this is what media outlets want- the nutjobs to boost their ratings, sell their papers, etc. - instead of focusing on the issues.

Nutjobs like Commissioner Beavers, who is truly a human piece of garbage.

And knowing the radio business, your next talk-show host. Ah, The Beck & Beavers Show. Coming soon to a radio station near you.

Remind me not to tune in.

WPIMTW Scorecard:

PTC, Tyra Banks, Prince, AMPTP, Drudgies, and William Beavers: one each

Coasting to the finish line. Not!

Observing the last two weeks of America's Next Top Model and last night's Survivor, all I can say is this: I hope Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were watching. See what getting all smug gets you? Isn't that right, Heather, Lisa, and James? Hopefully, Brady and the rest of the Patriots will join you guys on the couch located on Overrated Lane and Loser Court. Get your popcorn ready, because your show is over.

Tribune Watch: Company get waivers from FCC to keep its properties

Which paves the way for the sale of the Tribune Company to Sam Zell. Those waivers will allow it to keep the Chicago Tribune, WGN-TV and WGN-AM - permanently. As expected, both Democratic FCC commissioners voted against the waivers (never mind that most Chicago Democrats supported the deal - including Senator Dick Durbin.)

If you want to tell the Trib how you feel - or sing to them how you feel, head to the Chicago Media Action Holiday Sing-A-Long at the Tribune Tower on Dec. 7 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

And while they're at it, those carolers should also stop at City Hall, the Cook County Building, and the State of Illinois Building on the way so they can sing to the Mayor, County President, and the Governor as well.

Chicago voted best radio market

The Infinite Dial Radio Blog rated Chicago the best radio market in the country. Not exactly my opinion (that's for sure), but at least somebody's giving us props.

As we say in Chi-Town, vote early and often...

WNBC goes off the wagon

NBC owned WNBC-TV in New York has decided to accept hard-liquor ads after 11 p.m. (except during Saturday Night Live.)

A New York station can do it because they don't have the holy rollers (i.e. Rev. Pflager) that Chicago has (of course, Comcast SportsNet and the former FSN Chicago has been accepting hard-liquor ads for years. Who is the sponsor for Blackhawks Post-Game Live again?)

AMPTP offers WGA a digital proposal

The AMPTP has offered the WGA a "Digital Plan" regarding payments of residuals from new media (i.e. the Internet, DVDs, etc.). The WGA says it will take four days to think about it, and come back to the bargaining table Tuesday.

UPDATE: The Writer's Guild has indicated that it has rejected the offer. which basically means, were back at square one.
updated at 2:37 p.m on 2007-11-30

Eddie Webb gets the afternoon shift at the Loop

Eddie Webb is back at WLUP and back in the afternoon time slot at the classic rocker, where he brought ratings success among men 25-54 to the Loop from 1998 to 2000. He later left for a gig at XM Satellite Radio, but returned to radio with gigs in Las Vegas and Boston.

Webb begins in January, filling the slot vacated by Zakk Tyler, who was dumped from the station a few months ago.

WWOR gets hammered at license-renewal hearing

New Jersey residents complained about Fox's New York station, WWOR-TV - a station whose facilities and operations are based in Secaucus.

Many local groups are challenging the license renewal of WWOR, claiming the station doesn't serve the New Jersey communities it was intended to.

Around one hundred residents filled a lecture hall at Rutgers University Wednesday night at the station's license renewal hearing, and station officials faced criticism from residents, activist groups, and New Jersey's U.S. Senator, Frank Lautenberg. Also present at the meeting were the two Democratic FCC Commissioners, Michael Coops and Jonathan Adelstein.

Among the complaints: The station focuses more on New York stories than New Jersey ones, and those stories that are focused on New Jersey are usually on crime, and there's not enough information on the state's communities.

WWOR officials defended their operations, which at one point, showed a video of the station's New Jersey coverage.

Originally headquartered in Times Square, WWOR physically relocated to New Jersey in the mid-1980's. Fox bought the station from Chris-Craft industries in 2001. The station was a UPN affiliate until 2006, where the net folded and became a My Network TV affiliate.

Original owner RKO nearly lost the station's license in the early 1980's when parent company General Tire was embroiled in a corporate mistrust scandal (RKO however, did lose its license to operate WNAC-TV in Boston [now WHDH]. ) Thanks to New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, RKO was able to hold on to the license by relocating it from New York City to Secaucus. RKO sold WWOR to MCA/Universal in 1986.

The station later increased public affairs and local programming targeted toward the state (though programs produced at WWOR such as The Howard Stern Show, The Morton Downey Jr. Show and the trashy Richard Bey Show weren't exactly what you would call "public affairs".)

WWOR was also once a Superstation on the same wavelength as WGN and WTBS, but was shut down in 1997.

The station recently struck a deal to carry two Knicks and Rangers games each this season, and to carry a handful of New Jersey Nets games this spring.

Sight Seen: A cameraman recording the proceddings at Rutgers had masking tape over the NY portion of the "My 9 NY" logo on the camera (this has been since retracted by the New York Times, as WWOR's cameras have just "My 9" on them...) And shortly after the meeting, a picture of the New York skyline on WWOR's website was changed to the George Washington Bridge, one of the the main arteries that connects New York with New Jersey.

updated at 5:30 p.m. on 2007-12-07 (New York Times retraction)

WCIU grabs "Scrubs"

Good news for local fans of the TV series Scrubs: WCIU-TV has acquired the second cycle of the hit NBC comedy from Disney/ABC Domestic Television beginning in the fall of 2009. The move means the program will stay in broadcast syndication and not head for an exclusive deal on cable, which many off-network sitcoms have recently done (i.e. Home Improvement, Just Shoot Me, Full House, etc.)

Scrubs currently airs on Comedy Central and WGN (outside of the Chicago market) while locally, the program airs on Fox-owned WPWR-TV.

WCIU recently acquired Everybody Hates Chris for fall 2009 and acquired the second cycle of Carsey-Werner's That '70's Show for next fall, in addition to Debmar's Tyler Perry's House of Payne.

WPWR meanwhile, has acquired NBC Universal's The Office for 2009.

Internet radio at death's door again?

This comes after Yahoo! and AOL are considering shutting down their Internet radio operations after a 38 percent increase in royalties to air their music. Both are reportedly losing money, as well as other operations, and with still no firm agreement on a model that will work for Sound Exchange and web carriers, Internet radio once again may be on the road to extinction.

Hold on just a minute: Didn't the large webcasters and the major labels come to an agreement last August? What is going on here? It looks like the major webcasters made a very bad deal - one that could put them out of business. And thus, have no one to blame but themselves for letting the deviants at Sound Exchange take them for a ride.

The local station beat outside of Chicago

Interesting tidbits from the world of broadcast TV:

- New Jersey residents aren't happy with New York area WWOR-TV and accuse the Fox-owned station of backpeddling on its commitment of public service and giving the residents of the state the short shrift. WWOR is the only commercial VHF station in New Jersey. The FCC will hold a hearing tonight in Newark regarding the station's license and to question whether or not the station has been serving New Jersey accurately.

WWOR has been accused of being nothing more than a dumping ground for programs that flopped on sister station WNYW-TV. WWOR has traditionally trailed its New-York based competitors in the ratings and has struggled even more so in recent years, with overall ratings often coming in behind Spanish-language television stations. Not helping was the closure of UPN and the arrival of My Network TV, whose telenovelas last year were ratings bombs.

WWOR has been based in New Jersey since the 1980's, when it was sold by RKO (remember them?) to MCA/Universal.

-Marc Berman's Programming Insider newsletter reported today that Judge Judy beat Oprah in New York Monday, with Judy earning a 6.4/15 on WCBS-TV at 4 p.m. Maybe Oprah shouldn't have endorsed Barack Obama for President (main rival Hillary Clinton is, after all, a New York Senator.)

- No surprise here: Former WBBM-TV GM Bill Applegate, who now holds the same capacity at Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO-TV in Cleveland, is embroiled in a lawsuit regarding the wrongful termination of a former managing editor, who is suing the station and its execs for retaliation against him after he complained about an anti-Semitic mark directed toward him by a station employee. WOIO contends he was fired for poor work performance. The lawsuit has now gone to trial .

- Tribune-owned Fox affiliate WXIN-TV in Indianapolis will simulcast its morning newscast on sister station and CW affiliate WTTV effective January 2, replacing a mix of infomercials, paid religion, and syndicated programming.

- A major upset in Denver: CBS-owned KCNC-TV is on its way to beating NBC affiliate KUSA-TV for the first time in many years. The last time KCNC beat KUSA in the November ratings (excluding the Olympics) was in 1990, when KCNC was a NBC O&O and KUSA an ABC affiliate.

Hallmark, CBS hook up

Hallmark Channel has snapped up the cable rights to several off-network programs owned by CBS Television Distribution. Among them include Cheers, I Love Lucy, and 7th Heaven.

I Love Lucy and Cheers currently air on TV Land. Viacom owns TV Land and once owned the rights to Lucy and Cheers, but those went to CBS after the 2006 split that saw both companies go their separate ways.

Locally, both sitcoms air on classic television-formatted WWME-TV, or Me-TV, and is not affected by the cable sale.

Four more games! Four more games!

Comcast SportsNet and the Chicago Blackhawks have announced four additional home games to be televised in March and April, in addition to the eleven they have already announced (one of them has already aired.) One game includes a visit from the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks (nee "Mighty") on March 5. All games will be shown in high-definition, a huge selling point for hockey.

The home games are sponsored by Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Chevy Deals, which also sponsors the pre-game shows. The post-game shows' sponsorship are handled by Crown Royal (not the cola, but the - well, let's just say it's a drink that's a lot harder than RC.)

Score big with Bender

He's not Devin Hester (that's for sure), but his return is a touchdown for long-suffering Futurama fans.

Futurama is back with the equivalent of four all-new episodes in stores today on DVD titled Bender's Big Score. Taking the same tack Family Guy used to thank its fans for helping bring back the show to network television two years ago (in the home video release of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story), Twentieth Television is releasing new episodes of the series on home video and those same episodes will run on Comedy Central next year.

Comedy Central also acquired the rights to 72 existing episodes of the Sci-fi animated comedy that are currently running on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The program's successful ratings there, as well as healthy DVD sales, has helped keep the show in the geek spotlight.

It's also possible that a off-network syndicated run may be in the cards, since local stations are struggling with the lack of sitcoms coming into the marketplace (hey, one can hope...)

Futurama ran on Fox from 1999 to 2003, and was pushed around the schedule a lot, often landing opposite 60 Minutes on Sunday Nights. The program was created by Matt Groening - the same person who created another animated series yours truly can't think of right now... D'oh!

Network notes

News and notes from the world of network TV:

- NBC has picked up the back nine episodes of Chuck (good move!) and Life, ensuring them with a full season each, assuming the writers' strike ends soon.

- Twiggy is out and Paula Porikzova is in as one of the judges when America's Next Top Model returns to the air late this winter with cycle 10, which also sends the show back to New York. Twiggy really never fit in among the program's judges and had a hard time filling Janice Dickinson's shoes (or heels) as her replacement. Dickinson abruptly left Top Model after cycle 5.

Take that, Stewie!

Yes, it's true - Eric Cartman introduced the Colorado Buffaloes during a college football game airing on ABC this weekend (pretty funny stuff.)

Next thing you know, Bart Simpson will introduce the Chicago Bears on next week's Fox telecast against the New York Giants (I would have said Homer, but he would just mess up the names... D'Oh!)

Arbitron delays PPM rollout

Arbitron has delayed its controversial Portable People Meter until September 2008 for several markets including New York and Chicago. The delays are being instituted because of kinks that have to be worked out in the system, including better measurement of minority audiences.

Food Network cancels 'Emeril Live'

Bam! And the show goes to TV heaven. Or hell, depending on your point of view.

John Drury dies

A melancholy happy trails to John Drury. The former WBBM-TV, WLS-TV and WGN-TV news anchor who retired in 2002, lost his battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease. He died last night at the age of 80.

Drury got his started in television at Milwaukee's WTMJ, where he was a staff announcer. He began anchoring the news at the station shortly thereafter.

He came to Chicago in 1962, as a reporter for WBBM. He later joined WGN's newscasts in 1967, shifted to WLS in 1970, back to WGN in 1980, and finally returning to WLS for another stint in 1984, where he co-anchored the market's top-rated 10 p.m. newscast until his retirement in 2002.

John Drury's return to WLS in 1984 was part of a turnaround strategy at the station instituted by then-general manager Dennis Swanson - bringing familiar faces to the station's newscasts in order to boost ratings. WLS was mired in last place in news at the time.

The move finally paid off in 1986, when the anchor team of John Drury and Mary Ann Childers knocked WBBM's Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson out of the number one slot at 10 p.m. With a few exceptions, WLS has been at the top ever since.

The final work he performed for WLS was on September 10, 2002, when he hosted a prime-time special on how Chicago changed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

- Here is the obituary for John Drury on WLS' website.

- John Drury's death comes twenty years to the day another Chicago icon passed away - Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago's first African-American mayor - died in office. Mr. Drury was at WLS-TV co-anchoring the station's 10 p.m. newscast at the time.

WMAQ hit with kids' programming fine

Still on holiday, but this news is important since this involves FCC action against a local TV station:

WMAQ-TV, owned by NBC Universal, was hit with a $10,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission for failing to publicize the "existence and location" of its children's TV programming reports.

Click here for more details.

Also on the FCC beat, former CBS O&O KUTV in Salt Lake City has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle an outstanding complaint against the station for airing a controversial episode in 2004 of Without A Trace. The complaint was filed by the Parents Television Council.

CBS recently sold the station and six others to Four Points Media Group, which was formed by Cerberus Capital Management. The deal is expected to close in the next two weeks.

The 2007 T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards

With the Pumpkin Pie Awards for Excellence

Welcome to the second annual T Dog Media Blog Turkey Awards. Once again, we're here to serve up the disasters in media in 2007.

I have twenty turkeys to hand out... so let's get gobbling!

And this year's awards go to...

- The Chicago Bears. A Super Bowl hangover this year. And especially Rex Grossman. Please, somebody end this torture. I do not want to see this "quarterback" anymore! (UPDATE: The Bears did win on Sunday, beating Denver 37-34 in OT, thanks to Devin Hester's two touchdown returns. He is definitely NOT a turkey. The Bears' playoff hopes are still alive.)

- FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Let's see... wants to regulate cable, ram ownership rules into law, lift the cross-ownership ban, and for all intents and purposes - mailed in his performance at the Chicago FCC hearing in September. The number one turkey of the year as far as I'm concerned.

- The Cubs. For a wonderful three-and-out performance in the playoffs this year (wait...they were in the playoffs?) At lest you outlasted Viva Laughlin, another fall turkey.

- The White Sox. At least the Cubs made the playoffs... What's your excuse? Great job on failing to get Torii Hunter. Are NBC executives running this team?

- The Bulls and the NBA. Wonderful start. Hey, are you guys still planning that Grant Park celebration in June? And how the NBA moving out of Seattle to Oklahoma City? Great move, David Stern. Your TV ratings are already in the toilet. Speaking of which, what about those Knicks? Have fun with your Orlando Magic-San Antonio Spurs NBA finals next June.

- The Miami Dolphins. 0-10. If Miami sports fans (if any) wanted bad football, they would have asked for an XFL team instead.

- ESPN. The only thing worth watching is Pardon the Interruption (when Dan LeBatard isn't on.) A Hot Seat segment today on the once-hip SportsCenter featuring Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith was classic must-flee TV.

- The Parents Television Council. This communist group wants to dictate what's good for everybody. It's called an off switch, you bastards. Use it.

- The CW. In a ratings free fall its second season, with junk like Online Nation, CW Now, and the tired Beauty and the Geek. Dawn Ostroff, it's time for you to go.

- Jay Mariotti. Just Because.

- Amy Jacobson. Appearing at the Stebic house in a bikini? Classy journalistic move. How about a career suicidal one?

- WBBM-TV. A perennial ratings laggard. And how does it reward it's GM? A contract extension. You sure the CW isn't running this station?

- Adam Buckman. A one-time respectable journalist for Electronic Media turned into Jay Mariotti Jr. for the New York Post. At least he's there and not here.

- TV Critics. 24 the second worst show on television? Can you say vendetta?

- Grey's Anatomy's three-part ferry arc. What the heck was that?

- The WWE and Vince McMahon. A "War of the Worlds" storyline which had Vince McMahon step into a limo - and it explodes! Only problem was, a real-life death occured two weeks later when Chris Benoit killed himself and his family. And so Vince magically re-appears, as if nothing happened. And the rest of the world goes back ignoring WWE Wrestling as usual.

- Clear Channel. Let's see. For firing Melissa Foreman at WLIT and replacing her with Whoopi (who recently got canned), and for firing Crazy Howard McGee and replacing him with the unlistenable Steve Harvey at WGCI. Yep, another banner year of Turkeys for Clear Channel and Darren Davis in particular (at least he got rid of Delilah...)

- Heroes. - A hangover from last year's successful season - much like the Bears. This year has been mostly a letdown, with inconsistent storylines and bad special effects. You sure Rex Grossman and Kristen Bell aren't dating? (at least the series is now back on track. Same can't be said for the Bears.)

- Cavemen and Viva Laughlin. Yeah, who saw this one coming? (Sorry, you two will have to split the award as we're trying to keep this list to twenty.)

- And of course, to the greedy corporations and the studios in particular for short-changing the writers who are out on strike. You guys are the biggest turkeys of all. God bless the Writer's Guild.

But hey, why just dwell on turkeys? Yours truly has decided to also hand out some Pumpkin Pie awards. And yours truly loves Pumpkin Pie...

- To Rocky Wirtz. Thank you for bringing the Chicago Blackhawks back from the brink of extinction by improving the team's marketing efforts and foremost, putting home games on TV. The game of hockey (and the NHL) thanks you.

- To South Park. This past season (except for an episode or two) was the best since the early years, with the focus on the stories and not on one individual (namely Butters... the Meg Griffin of the show)

- To The Simpsons and the rest of Fox's Sunday night lineup. Last Sunday's episode aside, the yellow-skinned clan continues to make America laugh. Here's to nineteen more seasons.

- Samantha Who? According to some, this show is reminiscent of Malcolm in the Middle's early years. A surprise ratings smash, and Christina Applegate is relieved that she finally got to shed the Kelly Bundy image (all right, this show isn't really a favorite of yours truly, but let's give credit where credit is due.)

- To Radio-Info. Last year, it was on the Turkey Awards list, this year it deserves a Pumpkin Pie award for an improved site, thanks to the arrival of Tom Taylor (an Inside Radio alum), who revamped it with a better look, an improved front page, more radio news, and better moderation of the message boards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

updated 1:11 am on 2007-11-26

Knicks, Rangers games return to WWOR

New York's WWOR is borrowing a page from its old WOR days - by signing a deal to bring the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers back to the station - though for two games each.

The Rangers games that are scheduled to be televised are at the home against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 25, and Dec. 16 against at home against the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Knicks games are the Dec. 30 matchup against the Chicago Bulls (Chicago viewers can watch the game on Comcast SportsNet), and March 30 against the Atlanta Hawks.

The games are being produced for WWOR by MSG Network, which holds the rights to both teams.

WWOR in the past (in its superstation days) carried Rangers and Knicks games (from 1966-89), as well as Mets, Devils, and Islanders games. The stations currently carries a handful of New Jersey Nets and New York Yankees games, produced by the YES Network.

WCIU snags 'Chris'

Weigel Broadcasting's Chicago independent WCIU-TV scored another urban sitcom coup by acquiring CBS Television Distribution's Everybody Hates Chris. The program will air in off-network syndication as a strip beginning in the fall of 2009, assuming the CW renews the show for next season.

WCIU is likely to pair Chris with Debmar's Tyler Perry's House of Payne, another urban sitcom that's currently airing on TBS. Both programs are scheduled to air in either early fringe and/or prime access.

In addition, Fox-owned My Network TV affiliates also purchased Chris to pair with Payne in New York (WWOR), Los Angeles (KCOP), Dallas (KDFI), Washington D.C. (WDCA), and Houston (KTXH.)

CBS' CW affiliates have purchased to show to air in Philadelphia (WPSG), Atlanta (WUPA), Detroit (WKBD), and Miami (WBFS, which is a My Network TV affiliate.)

Kurtis and Jacobson to teach course at Columbia College

Former WBBM-TV anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson are reuniting to teach a graduate level class at Columbia College on a lecture course regarding local journalism. Starting in January, both men will serve as professors.

Click on this link to see Kurtis and Jacobson speaking together at the Chicago History Museum last March, as part of the "Chicago Treasures" series on famous local individuals. Both talk about the stories they covered in the past and television news in Chicago today.

Kurtis and Jacobson were paired together at WBBM in the 1970's and 1980's, where they ruled the local news ratings roost (until 1986.) Also in Feder's column today:

- Goodbye WCKG, Hello WCFS: The new call letters for WCKG-FM is WCFS, Which stands for "Chicago's Fresh". The call letter change should take effect in the next couple of days. WCKG flip to Adult Contemporary from FM Talk on Nov. 5.

- The death of Chicago's first African-American mayor will be examined in a special hosted by Beyond the Beltway's Bruce Dumont. Remembering Harold airs this Sunday (Nov. 25) at 10:30 pm on City Colleges-owned PBS affiliate WYCC-TV (Channel 20), on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Washington died in office in his second term on November 25, 1987.

Twentieth TV renews all of its court shows

Despite their mostly sub-par performance, all three of its daily courtroom strips - Judge Alex, Divorce Court, and Cristina's Court have been renewed for the 2008-09 season. (i.e. the move keeps other syndicators at bay with their upcoming courtroom shows - Sony introduced Judge Karen last week.)

SportsCenter reviewed

Larry Dobrow of Ad Age reviews ESPN's SportsCenter, and he tells what we already know about: It's an hour (or more) of excessive hype, constant product plugs, and some anchor yelling "Say hello to your little friend!", plus "The Ultimate Highlight" presented by some shoe or sports drink company.

Oh, and don't forget "Who's Now", which sent this once-cool show barreling over the shark.

Yes, Larry even went there and said he ain't going backbackbackbackback anytime soon to watch SportsCenter. Boo-yah!

Networks to use original episodes creatively because of strike

They are running out of fresh episodes, and the countdown is now underway to indefinite reruns and new episodes of reality shows non-stop. The writers and producers have agreed to return to the bargaining table next Monday, so keep your fingers crossed.

If you want a laugh, scroll down to the comments section at the end of the linked article. The Drudgies are at it again. Their idiotic rants makes Jay Mariotti's Sun-Times columns look like Pulitzer Prize winners by comparison.

They are clearly aiming for their second straight WPIMTW award...

Fox rocks on Sunday

Its' hot Sunday night lineup trumped the American Music Awards on ABC and the New England Patriots-whatever team lost to them on NBC (however, the AMAs scored its highest ratings in three years, no doubt owing its success to female viewers, who are the biggest mainstream music fans.)

Fox's Sunday night lineup in up 23 percent in adults 18-49 from a year ago.

Some thoughts:

- What's this? No more Comic Book Guy? The Simpsons dropped the ball on this episode last night when they abandoned the funny comic book store plot mid-episode for another inane Homer and Marge marriage-in-crisis plot. You sure it wasn't this episode that was affected by the writer's strike and not Family Guy? This episode was a huge disappointment.

- Speaking of Family Guy, this was the first episode without Seth MacFarlane's involvement (at least behind the scenes), and it sure showed (though funny in several spots.) Fox's comedies were huge winners last night, but in name only.

- And please NBC, no more Patriots games. They are dominant, but watching this team dominate opponents week after week is boring (and the audience agrees with yours truly.) Unfortunately, next week NBC is televising the Eagles-Patriots game and which the Patriots will win by 120 points.

- And I don't want to see any more of Rex Grossman, either.

- And nobody wants to see CW's Sunday night lineup. Some advice: Move Life Is Wild to Monday, cancel the abomination that is CW Now and hand the night back to affiliates. The CW was the Buffalo Bills last night, getting blown out. Pathetic.

(What about Everybody Hates Chris and Aliens in America, you ask? What about them. South Park draws more viewers than these two shows. What do you think should happen to them? Bye. But knowing the CW, they'll be renewed for six more years.)

Partying like it's 1998

It's been a great year for animated prime-time shows - The Simpsons were a success at the box office and continues to be so on TV in its 19th season; Family Guy continues to roll on thanks to its new found success in syndication; Adult Swim continues to be a strong draw among young males; and even shows like Drawn Together and American Dad are finding new audiences.

But what about South Park, you ask? What about it, indeed: It recently earned its highest ratings since 1998, and is the top original scripted cable series in three key male demographics - not to mention the program scored its highest adults 18-49 rating in seven years, thanks to outstanding episodes like the three-part "Imaginationland" and "Guitar Queer-O" (which drew 4 million viewers).

South Park is scheduled to return with new episodes to Comedy Central in March.

Fox to proceed without McFarlane for new "Family Guy" episodes

Get your jet skis ready, because there's gonna be a show.

Fox is apparently proceeding with the production of new Family Guy episodes, without the input of creator Seth MacFarlane, who is on strike with the rest of the Writer's Guild, and has refused to work on the series. The first of those "strike affected" episodes will air, starting this Sunday.

MacFarlane provides many voices on the show, including Peter, Brian, and Stewie.

There is no word if Fox will replace MacFarlane's voice on the show for the time being.

This is not the first time this has happened:

- In 1962, Daws Bulter (best known for voicing Yogi Bear) stepped in for Mel Blanc to do the voice of Barney Rubble on a few episodes of The Flintstones after Blanc was involved in a major auto accident, which left him hospitalized for weeks and unable to work.

- Phil Morris stepped in for Eddie Murphy to voice Thurgood Stubs on The PJs for a few episodes after Murphy reportedly refused to work on the show because of a dispute with Fox over the program's time period scheduling.

- John Kricfalusi was the voice of Ren on Ren & Stimpy, a series he created for Nickelodeon. He was fired from the show in 1993 after repeatedly clashing with the network over the program's content. Billy West, who already voiced Stimpy on he show, also took over the voicing chores for Ren. (Kricfausi however, did return to work on Ren & Stimpy when it returned to TV via Spike a few years ago.)

- West and Scott Innes both did the voice of Shaggy in the first few Scooby-Doo direct-to-home video movies when Casey Kasem (who regularly does the voice) wasn't available.

Worst People In Media This Week - 11/16/07

I know I'm supposed to award this on Friday, but it's a blowout in the race for the award this week (a blowout so large, even FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti couldn't compete - plus it's a slow news day), so I might as well award it now...

To the pricks who came onto James Hibberd's fine blog on TV Week (and to a dick named Jimmy in particular) and blasted me and all the other bloggers who write about TV and radio (how ironic) -Congratulations! All of you right-wing political hacks win the Worst People in Media This Week award for your short-minded attempt to rip us media fanboys and fangirls. The post was about fans of many TV shows who are showing support for the writer's strike. The link to this story was reportedly posted on The Drudge Report, a somewhat right-leaning website.

Yep, the direct descendants of the Parents Television Council came IN OUR HOUSE and trashed us. It's like the Packers coming to Solider Field and blowing out the Bears (something I hope doesn't happen when the two meet Dec. 23.) The Drudgies (or dummies) are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook!

In the words of the great philosopher, Frank Barone (played by the late, great Peter Boyle on Everybody Loves Raymond): "I'm giving you the finger... in my mind!"

Here's a message to all of you TV and entertainment business-hating assclowns - do all of us a favor and go back to the Sludge Report website and stay there.

WPIMTW Scorecard: PTC, Tyra Banks, Prince, AMPTP, Drudgies: one each

A reminder about commenting on posts

WARNING! WARNING!












Don't ask for much, but yours truly wants to make a simple request to the readers of this very blog:

Several recent incidents here and a few other media-related sites in the blogosphere has led yours truly to crack down on commenters who are out there just to cause trouble and have no interest in the subject whatsoever.

If you want to comment on a story, please keep it free of personal attacks and spam and make sure it pertains to the subject matter only (except if you want to say how great the blog is... well, that's okay. If you want to promote a TV or radio show, that's cool, too - as long if it is related to the post.) Criticize me if you want, but at least keep it clean and on topic.

Don't mean to be harsh, but we're trying to maintain a professional image here, and yours truly doesn't want this site to turn into a free-for-all where it gets out of hand and the comments on the blog end up with people insulting each other's wiener size.

Swearing, trolling, spamming, racial slurs, drive-by potshotting (i.e. picking a post at random and commenting on something that's not related to it), and other misconduct will not be tolerated.

Failure to comply with this simple request will result in your comment being deleted in addition to future banishment from this site.

And the robot from Lost in Space will come after you and smack you upside the head with those long arms of his, like he did with Dr. Smith every week.

Thanks.


Sincerely,

Terence Henderson

Chairman of The T Dog Blog, Inc.

Another courtroom show. Yay.

(And no, it's not Anna Nicole judge Larry Seldin. Hey, it could be worse... )

WCIU-TV acquired yet another courtroom show, this time it's Judge Karen from Sony Pictures Television, which now has cleared 45 percent of the country. Judge Karen is Karen Mills-Francis, an administrative judge from the Miami area, where she have served on the bench since 2000.

Maybe she can issue an order outlawing any South Florida sports team from subjecting their fans through such torture each time any one of them plays...