KREX-TV burns down

Courtesy: David Jones

CBS affiliate KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colo. (and LMA sister stations, Fox affiliate KFQX, and low-power My Net affiliate KGJT) were destroyed Sunday in a massive fire that destroyed the building and studios and knocked the analog over-the-air signal off the air.

The fire broke out at 8:30a.m. and consumed the station entirely. Station equipment, the video library, and business records were lost, with damages totaling $6 million (reports indicate that some master archive tapes did survive the fire.) The fire continued continued to smolder Sunday evening, with firefighters putting out hot spots in the rubble.

Five employees at the station escaped the fire unharmed. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire has not been determined, but the feds are now being called in to investigate.

Over-the-air viewers weren't able to view the AFC and NFC Championship Games, but cable and satellite viewers did get raw CBS and Fox network feeds.

There is no word when KREX and its sister stations will resume broadcasting.

This is not the first time this has happened. In 1990, NBC affiliate WLBM-TV in Meridian, Miss. was destroyed by fire and its signal was knocked out, leaving non-cable viewers in most of Eastern Mississippi without a NBC affiliate (cable operators did provide Meridian viewers with the NBC feed of WDAM-TV from nearby Hattiesburg.) The station (and NBC) returned to the air in Meridian in 1991 as WGBC-TV.

Suzanne Pleshette dies

Suzanne Pleshette, the woman who co-starred with Bob Newhart on The Bob Newhart Show, died yesterday at the age of 70 from complications of lung cancer.

Pleshette played Newhart's wife Emily Hartley on the set-in-Chicago show, which ran on CBS from 1972 to 1978. She also made a memorable guest appearance on the series finale of Newhart (Bob Newhart's second series) on May 21, 1990, where in the final scene, Newhart woke up aside his former sitcom wife, suggesting Newhart was a dream that lasted eight seasons (and it worked much better than the Bobby-Pam dream fiasco on Dallas in '86.)

Pleshette also voiced characters on several animated films, including The Lion King 2 and Spirited Away.

Allan Melvin, R.I.P.

The man who provided many voices for numerous Hanna-Barbera cartoons and acted on TV series such as The Brady Bunch, The Phil Silvers Show, and Archie Bunker's Place has passed.

Kansas City, Mo. native Allan Melvin died of cancer Thursday in his Los Angeles home. He was 84.

Melvin was best known for the role of Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, but also had a prominent role as Barney on Archie Bunker's Place - the sequel to All in the Family, where he also played the same character. He also made appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Andy Griffith Show.

In addition to the above shows, Melvin also voiced on over 20 animated programs, including The Smurfs, The Flintstones, DuckTales, Magilla Gorilla, The Banana Splits (a live-action show where he voiced Drooper), and The New Adventures of Flash Gordon.

FSN to launch Kansas City channel

Fox Sports is launching a new sports cable network featuring the Kansas City Royals as its centerpiece.

The new FSN Kansas City will feature 140 Royals games a year, and also feature Big 12 collegiate sports, featuring the likes of Missouri, Kansas, and Kansas State. The channel replaces FSN Midwest in the Kansas City area.

For the Royals, the network replaces the defunct Royals Sports Television Network, which shut down last October at the conclusion of the 2007 baseball season.

Sight Seen: During a recent Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball telecast carried locally on Comcast SportsNet, the network covered "FSN" on the Fox Box and instead of showing FSN Midwest, it said "CSN Midwest".

Hottest Couple of the Year - Not

The T Dog Media Blog usually doesn't devolve into tabloid murkiness, but this is worth reporting: Eddie Murphy's recent marriage to producer Tracey Edmonds is over after only two weeks, according to People Magazine (call it the Viva Laughlin of marriages.)

Why I am mentioning this? Because Ebony magazine (the publication yours truly grew up reading religiously) recently named the duo as one of its "10 Hottest Couples" in its February issue that already hit newsstands last Friday. Oops!

This is the problem with magazines and these types of issues that produces these "lists" - it's the same people every year (honestly, how many times Jay-Z and Beyonce can be named a hottest couple in a decade?), and the ones we do see a lot of people don't give two hoops about. Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston are named as one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People In The World for how many years in a row now? The shtick gets old. Celebrity lists are useless.

Ironically, Ebony didn't exactly "list" the couples in a Billboard chart-type fashion - they were thrown all over the article, which made it quite difficult to read.

Celebrity couples can be celebrated - but keep in mind that we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. Today's hottest couple may be tomorrow's broken relationship. Respectable publications can't afford to be put in embarrassing positions, which could hurt their credibility. It is a huge risk to take.

Advice for Ebony: Let's be careful out there.

WLUK says no soup for Eli

Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay is pulling a program for a rather unusual reason.

The LIN Broadcasting-owned station is pre-empting Seinfeld from its regular Saturday 5:30 p.m. time slot to air a program that is being picked by viewers.

It turns out New York Giants QB Eli Manning, in town to play the NFC Championship Game against Green Bay, loves Seinfeld reruns. In response, WLUK pulled the show for that Saturday only, not wanting to provide entertainment for the enemy.

The stunt has generated lots of press, including a mention on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption (where they didn't exactly get the joke.)

Among the choices: A special about legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, a repeat of a local show featuring Packer Donald Driver, a M*A*S*H* rerun , and an infomercial (they are really creative with this poll, aren't they?)

As of Wednesday, the Lombardi special was leading, but the infomercial was actually ahead of the M*A*S*H* repeat.

I guess people in Green Bay have seen enough of Jamie Farr in drag.

Public TV station being foreclosed?

Let me get this straight... The nation's mortgage crisis is affecting public TV stations as well?

PBS station WTVP in Peoria is battling with two banks over the station's $6.9 million debt, and a $4 million offer to settle the debt was recently rejected. The station may ask the banks for another period of forbearance.

The station took out loans so it would move from Bradley University to a new building on Peoria's riverfront, and the upcoming conversion to digital. WTVP has taken to its viewers through pledge drives to help save the station - but it will only be paid if the station can come to a deal with the banks.

With the forbearance deadline (January 15) passed, it doesn't mean that the station will have to close immediately. However, up to 40 full and part-time jobs at the station are in limbo.

Meanwhile, Bank of America - one of the banks WTVP is battling - is set to file papers tomorrow to take over the assets of the station. That includes the physical building and equipment, but not the station's broadcast license.

Director's Guild, AMPTP reach new deal

And in only six days. All right -Writer's Guild, AMPTP - your turn. Let's end this strike.

WLS goes NextGen

ABC-owned WLS-TV here in Chicago has a new feature on its website you can use to keep track of the Presidential Candidates.

WLS (Channel 7) is using the NextGenPolitics feature so users can interact with candidates , not only in the Presidential race, but soon local races as well, including the hotly contested State Attorney's race.

Only problem is the candidates don't usually answer the user's questions - and the one who did - Democrat New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson - has already dropped out of the race.

It's a great feature - unfortunately, it works best if the interactivity is a two-way street.

T Dog's Think Tank: The mess at Channel 2

Sure is a great time to live in Chicago. Our transit service is about to scaled back or cut all together, our taxes have been raised, and to top it all off, our sports teams continue to suck, with the dysfunctional Bulls leading the way. This squad makes the ultra-stupid reality show Crowned more watchable than most of their games (something's wrong when WGN dumps a Bulls game on WCIU to air a repeat of Reaper.)

And speaking of dysfunctional, that brings us to another mess: CBS-owned WBBM-TV's (Channel 2) news operation.

As you know by now, Antonio Mora has departed the station, after nearly six years to accept an anchor position at sister CBS-owned station WFOR-TV in Miami.

In a Sun-Times interview with Robert Feder, Mora pretty much showed his frustration with his Channel 2 bosses, even while praising the staff.

He explained that he didn't have enough to do at WBBM, especially after he lost his 5 and 10 p.m. anchor position to Rob Johnson.

He says his demotion is a setback for Latinos and other minorities, stating no Latino is at a prominent anchor position at the three big broadcast networks (he does realize there are five news operations in town, right?, Well I guess you can't consider CW a network...)

And he points out the obvious signal problems at Channel 2, a problem for the station since it moved from Channel 4 in 1953 to avoid interference with neighboring WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee - which in turn had to move from Channel 3 to Channel 4 to avoid interference from WKZO-TV (now WWMT) in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

He praises the station's news staff, and he said he was proud of Eye on Chicago - the weekly local newsmagazine he hosted - but it was clear he was disappointed with the station management - namely Joe Ahern, the vice-president and general manager of Channel 2.

Which brings us to this point. WBBM's poor ratings performance. The station has not had a successful General Manger since Jonathan Rodgers left in 1990. Ever since, a slew of GMs - Bill Applegate, John Lansing, Hank Price, etc. - have paraded through the door at the station.

From 1990 onward, WBBM viewers have been treated to tabloid-like newscasts, numerous gimmicks, and Carol Marin doing a widely-praised alternative 10 p.m. newscast, all to no ratings avail.

The station's only news success achieved in the last twenty or so years was tying WLS-TV for number one at 4 p.m. in the spring of 1993, and its' lone 10 p.m. win was in February 1994, with the Winter Olympics as a lead-in. But it's been downhill ever since. Even the 1998 Nagano games didn't help the station's 10 p.m. newscast, which still finished behind WLS.

And so, CBS thought bringing in Joe Ahern would turn around the ratings fortunes of the station, as he was vice president and general manager of top-rated WLS in the late 1980's.

Keep in mind who brought WLS to number one. It was Dennis Swanson, who now runs Fox's station division. When Swanson was general manager at WLS, he hired Oprah Winfrey, purchased "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!", and rehired familiar faces to front the station's newscasts. Swanson turned a laughingstock into a major contender. When Swanson was promoted by ABC, Ahern took his place. Swanson mainly laid the pieces into place.

Ahern later left Chicago to take jobs in London and in San Francisco (at ABC-owned KGO-TV), and returned here in 2002 to take the GM job at WBBM. When he came back, he found the local television business had changed dramatically since he left. It is much harder to turn around a ratings-deprived local station now than it did 25 years ago, with a lot of options available to viewers today that didn't exist back then.

For the past two years, the station has been swamped in controversy. First, came a lawsuit from co-anchor Diann Burns against a developer of a Lincoln Park condo that she claims was racist. Then, came last July when WBBM secretly taped WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson at Craig Stebic's house (whose wife is missing), which led to her dismissal.

Then last October, Crain's Chicago Business did a story about the station's ratings struggles. A week later, Feder ripped into Ahern and WBBM for failing to take advantage of CBS' stronger prime-time slate and sticking with unpopular co-anchor Diann Burns.

Looking at the station's ratings, the station is going nowhere - despite popular syndicated programming like Rachael Ray, Judge Judy and Dr. Phil in early fringe, even though the block is decently rated (however, WCIU's courtroom lineup regularly beats Channel 2's afternoon shows from 2 to 4 p.m.) WBBM's news lineup from 5 to 6:30 is not taking advantage of its second-place Dr. Phil lead-in.

And the station's signal issues are an outright embarrassment. That's should be an issue for CBS affiliate WIAT-TV (Channel 42) in Birmingham, Ala. - not for a CBS-owned station in Chicago. And even WIAT has posted better numbers in Birmingham than WBBM has posted here (WIAT has even beaten NBC affiliate WVTM - Channel 13 - in some time periods.) Another CBS affiliate with a high channel position - WLKY-TV in Louisville (Channel 32) - also does well.

And where you can find WBBM on Comcast cable systems? Channel 22. Yes, that's right. Channel 22. You can find WBBM on a channel number even higher than those of tiny stations WYIN and WJYS and a public-access channel.

The station's betting on a new studio at State and Washington in Downtown Chicago to bail them out of their ratings mess. But viewers don't watch news because of a cool studio set. They watch news for substance, and delivered in a way that won't insult their intelligence.

Somebody on a message board I frequently visit suggested that it's time for Ahern to step down. I respectfully second that notion, but given who runs CBS - Les Moonves - the same guy who is a key villain among the Writer's Guild in their current strike - I wouldn't place that as a given. If Ahern does leave, Moonves is going to have to find somebody who can undo this mess that was created over the last 18 years. And if they find that person, wish him or her all the luck in the world - they'll need it.

In the words of former Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints coach Jim Mora (no relation to Antonio) - Playoffs? Playoffs? Playoffs? Like the rest of Chicago's sports teams, Channel 2 is nowhere close to winning.

P.S. Yes, I know - I wrote a story on WBBM-TV's ratings before back in October. It's like I'm repeating myself (basically, I am.) But things haven't improved since then. And the ratings reflect that.

"Idol" hit lowest ratings in four years

The seventh season premiere of American Idol averaged a 18.6 metered household rating and a 13.8 rating among adults 18-49, down 13 percent from last year. Among total viewers, Idol notched 33.2 million viewers, down 11 percent from a year ago.

Still, Idol dominated prime on Fox, and should do so tonight, as the auditions head for Dallas (where I believe T.O. is still crying. Wouldn't you like to see Simon rip his and Romo's performance last Sunday?)

Meanwhile, Sean Ross of Edison Media Research writes that Top 40 radio stations (like WBBM-FM and WKSC-FM - a.k.a B96 and KISS FM respectively), are better off with Idol artists than without them and points out every Idol who had a hit record has crossed over to every major genre of music - except Hip-Hop.

I hope the music directors at both stations are reading this.

Updated 3:01 p.m. on 2008-01-16 (changed link from James Hibberd's TV Week article to Marc Berman's article from PI feedback)

Parents Television Council erupts again

Over two indecency incidents: Diane Keaton's F-bomb on ABC's Good Morning America and people giving an obscene gesture (aired live on the Eastern Time Zone only) on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday Night.

Meanwhile, in a welcome bit of news (of sort), FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says it might be difficult to take action against ABC affiliates over the accidental airing of the F-word.

Thought: Yours truly would like to give the Prick Tofu Crud an obscene gesture. Lord help us if this becomes an issue in the Presidential campaign, at a time when people are losing their homes and their jobs. It's nice to see where the PTC's priorities lie.

Apple TV now more useful

Hey, it looks like Apple TV is being touted more than a box sitting on top of a TV gathering dust.

At MacWorld in San Francisco today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled plans to make Apple TV into a media on-demand service. New features include (in which current Apple TV owners can download software for):

- Renting movies. So much for making this a Blockbuster night. Jobs unveiled a new online movie rental service, in which users can rent movies directly from the iTunes store on their sets. The service has support from all the major studios, and will offer 30-day rentals for $3.99 (new releases - to be available 30 days after DVD release) and $2.99 (library product.) Viewers have only 24 hours to watch a movie after it's started.

-HD product is available as well, for a dollar more.

- Music and TV programs now can be purchased through Apple TV as well, and can be synced back to your computer via the iTunes software.

- And if you don't have an Apple TV, don't worry: The online rental service is available to anyone who has a Mac, PC, iPod Video and iPhone (HD content however, is only available to those who have Apple TV.)

- The price of Apple TV's 40 GB model has gone down from $299 to $229.

Also today, Apple unveiled a new laptop called MacBook Air, the world's thinnest computer (but not thin on price.)

Oprah launches cable network with Discovery

Oprah's production company (Harpo) and Discovery Networks have announced a joint venture to launch OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Oprah Winfrey Network replaces Discovery Health, which now joins Nick GAS, Court TV, and The Tube as digital and/or cable networks in the trash bin in the past year.

The network will be chaired by Oprah Winfrey in the joint venture. It is scheduled to launch in the third or fourth quarter of 2009.

Thought: Wonder if Comcast customers will get OWN before The Big Ten Network. Don't be surprised if that's the case.

WBBM-AM tops WGN-AM in revenue dept.

2007 was a good year for WBBM-AM, even if the Bears didn't win the Super Bowl.

In a stunner, the news/talk station ranked first in revenues for 2007 with $47.5 million - up from $45.9 million a year ago, surging ahead of arch rival WGN, which had $43.5 million. WGN ranked first for the last three years.

WTMX's demo-friendly upscale audience landed the Hot Adult Contemporary station in third place as the market's top billing FM station, ahead of Urban Contemporary WGCI-FM, who came in fourth. WGCI is the market's highest-rated FM station in 12+ and key demos.

Overall, radio revenues were down in Chicago from last year - reflecting a trend nationwide.

Mora departs Channel 2 for WFOR in Miami

Antonio Mora is going back home to South Florida - the co-anchor of WBBM-TV's 6 p.m. newscast is leaving for an anchor job in Miami at WFOR-TV, where he will front the news at 5 , 6, and11 p.m. He begins on January 28. His final day at the station is Friday.

WBBM and WFOR are both owned by CBS.

Mora was hired from ABC's Good Morning America with fanfare in 2002 and was paired with Diann Burns in 2003. However, the chemistry was never really there, as the station continued to languish behind its rivals in the ratings. Mora was replaced last year at 5 and 10 p.m. with Rob Johnson.

Johnson will assume the duties at 6 p.m. as well as the station's public-affairs program, Eye on Chicago.

This is not the first time Mora has worked in Miami - he was an anchor and reporter for NBC-owned WTVJ there in 1992-93.

Analysis: In yours truly's opinion, the wrong person departed. It's obvious who should have left. Mora was screwed around by WBBM-TV management way too much. What a shame. If there's any consolation, Burns' contract expires in October. This is surely in jest, but if there's any Burns I want to see on the newscast is C. Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. Wouldn't that be cool? Despite the fact he's blocked out the sun, he's actually less evil than Diann Burns. Excellent.

TV Week declares Blu-Ray the winner

After Warner Bros. announced on January 4 that they were releasing its content exclusively on Blu-Ray, with the possibly of Paramount joining them, leaving NBC Universal as the only studio exclusively in the HD-DVD camp.

And according to the article, viewers might not want to fork over $300 for a Blu-Ray player but get downloadable HD content from Apple's iTunes and Amazon's Unabox instead, not to mention satellite and cable adding more HD choices (just two days ago, Comcast announced it will offer Sci-Fi, TLC, and WCIU in HD to its Chicago-area customers starting later this month.)

Plus, more people are renting DVDs than buying them.

HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? It may be just expensive coasters to some people.

Syndicated "Idol" jumps to Fox stations

A month after acquiring the syndication rights to air American Idol Rewind from now-defunct Tribune Entertainment, Trifecta has sold the series' third season to thirteen Fox O&O markets.

That means Idol Rewind in Chicago will switch this October from Tribune-owned WGN-TV to Fox-owned WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV. The program will also shift from Tribune to Fox stations in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, and Washington D.C.

Idol Rewind currently airs on WGN Saturday at 4 p.m. and Monday at 2:30 a.m.

This is the second time in many years that Tribune has lost a top property to the Fox stations. Earlier, Tribune lost the syndication rights to Everybody Loves Raymond in those same markets (with the exception of Washington, where Raymond already airs on WTTG/WDCA-TV.)

Idol Rewind already airs on some Fox O&Os, including WJBK-TV in Detroit, KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis, WOFL-TV in Orlando, and WHBQ-TV in Memphis.

For Trifecta, the move to Fox makes sense, as new episodes of Idol airs on Fox, and it gives the program a year-around presence on those outlets.

Idol's new season begins Tuesday on Fox, where it is expected to dominate the ratings this year, thanks to the writer's strike that has sidelined scripted series.

Ratings are down for Idol Rewind this season, as it is focusing on Season 2, which featured Clay Aiken and winner Ruben Studdard. The program still ranks in the top ten however, among syndicated weeklies.

The Fall Arbitron books, Part II

Wondering how the recently-released Fall Arbs fared demographically? Well, here you go, courtesy of All Access (As a bonus, you get San Diego numbers in the article, too!):

- Urban contemporary WGCI-FM swept the adults 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 categories by finishing first.

-Thanks to Christmas music, WLIT soared back into the top ten in key 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

-Clear Channel dominates the 25-54 portion of the book with WGCI (1st), WLIT (2nd), and Smooth Jazz WNUA-FM, finishied fourth among 25-54's, ahead of sister WVAZ-FM (V103), which finished fifth.

- Say what you will about WKQX-FM (Q101) - but it returned into the top ten among adults 18-34.

- Adult Hits WJMK-FM (Jack-FM) continues to ascend upward among its target 25-54 demo, up 25 percent in the last three books. Those numbers should only get better for the CBS-owned radio station, thanks to the addition of Steve Dahl in the mornings.

Mo' Radio Ratings

Because there's more to life than Chicago and Milwaukee...

Peoria: It's a trifecta for Triad as the radio station owner holds the top three spots with Country outlet WXCL-FM leading the way. Regent's Rhymtic outlet (WZPW-FM) finished fourth. The biggest loser here was Regent's Active Rock station (WIXO-FM) which fell from first place in the Spring book to eighth. Ouch!

Bloomington: Regent holds the top three spots in nearby Bloomington, with Hot AC outlet WBNQ-FM and Country station WBWN-FM tied for first. Just as impressive is five Chicago stations showed up in the book with WLS-AM seventh, WGN-AM twelfth, and WSCR-AM thirteenth.

Rockford: Cumulus held the top two spots here with Country outlet WXXQ-FM first and Top 40 outlet WZOK-FM second. Cumulus also had good news from its Oldies station (WKGL-FM), which saw a 100 percent ratings increase and finished fourth. Chicago's WGN-AM finished seventh.

South Bend: Schurz Communications, which already has the market's top-rated TV station in WSBT-TV, also has the market's top-rated radio station: AC-formatted WNSN-AM topped the Fall book. The company's WSBT-AM came in third, while Artistic's Top 40 outlet (WNDV-FM) topped Dille& Erlacher's Rhymtic outlet (WYPW-FM). But Dille & Erlacher can claim the market's top-rated rock station (WRBR-FM).

Artistic has the market's lowest-rated station (WWLV-AM), which sits at the bottom of the chart, finishing even behind Chicago's WLS-AM and WMVP-AM. Maybe the station's Soft AC format - on an AM station - is one of the reasons...

San Francisco's KRON up for sale

The Bay Area's former dominant NBC affiliate-turned-My Network TV also-ran is up for sale by Young Broadcasting.

Calling Rupert Murdoch....

Harvey, Dahl big winners in book

The Fall Arbitron book released yesterday didn't really provide much surprises (even with WLIT's annual surge due to Christmas music), but a couple of new arrivals shook up Chicago's already competitive morning-drive race:

- Steve Harvey's syndicated show on Clear Channel's WGCI-FM finished third overall and topped all FM morning drive shows in 12+. The controversy regarding "Crazy" Howard McGee's ouster seems to have faded as Harvey matched McGee's numbers from last year.

- Another Steve - Steve Dahl - scored good numbers in his first book in the A.M. at WJMK-FM, finishing in sixth place in the target men 25-54 demo. This comes as the often-criticized "Jack FM" posted one of its best books yet.

- Melissa Forman's live, local show on Clear Channel's WLIT improved the time period share over the disastrous Wake Up With Whoopi syndicated morning show, by finishing in ninth place.

- Meanwhile, WMVP widened its lead over WSCR in the men 25-54 demo.

- On the other hand, WVAZ-FM's (V103) Tom Joyner Morning Show dropped a full share point, and into eighth place, as competition from Harvey's show ate into Joyner's numbers.

- And Drex In The Morning on WKSC-FM (KISS 103.5) topped WBBM-FM's (B96) Eddie & JoBo, as the latter show has stepped up its on-air attacks on its rival host (you think I'm kidding? You should've listened to the "suburban crime report" on B96 this morning...)

In other daypart news:

- In middays, Clear Channel's WNUA-FM took top honors with Rick O'Dell, followed by WGN and the Jerry Agar/Rush Limbaugh combo on WLS-AM.

- In afternoons, WGCI's Tony Sculfield eked out a win over WLIT's voice-tracked Melissa Forman show, while WGN's Steve Cochran dropped nearly a full share point to land in fourth place.

Doug Banks returns to Chicago

A Chicago radio icon in coming home - well, at least on the air.

Chicago radio veteran Doug Banks is back on the airwaves thanks to a deal with Urban Adult Contemporary WVAZ-FM (V103), which will see it become the first station to carry his new syndicated radio show, which is being distributed by ABC Radio Networks (which is actually owned by Citadel.) WVAZ is owned by Clear Channel Communications.

Beginning Monday, Banks and co-host DeDe McGuire will appear weekdays on WVAZ from 2 to 6 p.m. The move puts him in direct competition with Michael Baisden's syndicated show (also syndicated by ABC Radio Networks), airing on WSRB-FM (Soul 106.3).

Doug Banks had a syndicated morning show syndicated by ABC for eleven years, but that ended on Dec. 31. WPWX-FM (Power 92) was one of Banks' affiliates, but dropped the program a few years ago to launch their own morning show. The program hasn't been heard in Chicago since.

Despite the loss, Banks has still been viable on the local media scene here, as a contributor to ABC-owned WLS-TV's 190 North magazine show and co-host of the station's recent New Year Eve countdown special.

Banks got his Chicago radio start at the old WBMX-FM in 1982, and later jumped to WGCI-FM where he later became morning host. He reunites with another WGCI alum - Tom Joyner - who worked afternoons at WGCI from 1985 to 1993 (as well as morning jock at KKDA in Dallas.) Joyner's morning syndicated show is heard on WVAZ.

Banks' and Joyner's programs will continue to based from Dallas.

Lineup Adjustment

To make room for Banks' new show, WVAZ made some adjustments to its weekday lineup - with Joyner continuing from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., but now adds a extra hour exclusively for Chicago listeners at 9 a.m. The rest is as follows:

- Troi Tyler, 10 am-2pm
- Doug Banks, 2pm-6pm
- Ramonski Luv and Joe Soto 6pm-9pm (previously heard from 2pm-7pm)
- Irene Mojica 9pm-1am (also Saturdays from Noon-5pm)
- Ericka Campbell, 1am-5am

The moves come as WVAZ turned in a not-so-great performance in the recent Fall Arbitron book, where the station slipped from fifth place to eighth.

The Fall Arbitron books

Here are your radio Fall Arbs (+12) for:

Chicago

Quick analysis: Tribune's WGN is first, but stumbled. Clear Channel's Urban Contemporary WGCI is back in second place, while sister Urban AC WVAZ fell from fifth place to eighth (they announced a huge schedule change today - more on that later, so watch the blog.) CC's WLIT surged to fifth place*, thanks to Christmas music (asterisk noted.) Citadel's WLS-AM surged to seventh, thanks to the upcoming election season. And CBS' new WCFS-FM (Fresh) improved on WCKG's old numbers, but has a way to go to catch WLIT (well, not that much.) Finally, ESPN-owned WMVP-AM beat CBS-owned WSCR-AM in the battle of all sports stations, but the men 25-54 target demos will tell more of that story.

Milwaukee

Quick analysis: WTMJ-AM is still first, and by an overwhelming margin over second-place WMYX-FM. Clear Channel's Country outlet (WMIL-FM) took a huge tumble - down three full points - but hung on to fourth place. Saga's Urban AC outlet (WJMR-FM) finished fifth, ahead of urban contemporary WKKV-FM, which finished in a tie for seventh with Saga's Rock station The Hog (WHQG-FM).

It's the People's Choice Awards! And the winners are...

If the "people" can't elect the right politicians (particularly in Illinois), what makes you think they would pick the right TV shows and movies? (The Simpsons excepted - the only one the "people" got right.)

UPDATE: The award show bombed in the ratings, so justice is served.

Paramount to kick HD DVD to the curve, too?

According to this report, Paramount (with the DVD rights to most of the CBS library), may follow Warner Bros. lead and dump HD-DVD for Blu-Ray, possibly leaving NBC Universal as the only studio left using the format. Initally, Paramount supported both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Guess the HD in HD-DVD stands for Hung Dry.

Broadcast of Golden Globes canned

Finally, some good came from the writer's strike... NBC will air a paired-down version instead. In other news, the guild has signed a side deal with United Artists, allowing the writers who work there to return to the job. This latest incarnation of the studio is partly joint-owned by Tom Cruise and long time production partner Paula Wagner.

"Gladiators" smashes competition

The return of American Gladiators was a huge ratings success story, drawing a 5.9 rating among adults 18-49 for NBC, according to Nielsen.

The two-hour premiere even drew numbers that it never achieved in its syndication run (1989-95). It also drew the highest-rated program for any new show this season.

Gladiators will move to regular day and time tonight (8 ET/ 7 CT).

Meanwhile, Fox's red-hot Sunday night lineup of animated comedies took a big hit from Gladiators and Deal or No Deal, with season-low numbers for new episodes of King of the Hill, American Dad, The Simpsons (which was surprisingly lame). It's not encouraging when the overexposed Deal or No Deal draws higher ratings than your show.

The Most Bankable Stars in Syndication in 2008

Oprah No. 1; Family Guy and Two and a Half Men tie for No. 10; CBS dominates list

TV Week's annual 10 Most Bankable Syndication Stars issue is out this week, and it boasts a few surprises:

- Oprah Winfrey's star power continues to shine as she repeats at No. 1. (well, that's not a surprise), thanks to her public endorsement of Illinois Senator Barack Obama for President and other ventures.

- Ellen DeGeneres is sixth this year, as she was last year (despite the fact that her daytime show is quite hokey.)

- A nice welcome back to Pat Sajak and Vanna White of Wheel of Fortune, who did not rank last year, appeared at number seven in this year's survey.

- Meredith Vierra, who took over as co-host of Today, ranked ninth with the underrated Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which continues to be a quiet success story.

- Family Guy and Two and a Half Men ranked tenth. The surprise here is these two new off-network comedies ranked on the survey, replacing other off-network series that have appeared in the list in the past, including Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, and The Simpsons, perhaps reflecting the decline in the ratings for each in the last year.

- Tyra Banks is also off this year's survey, as she has been surrounded in controversy this past year, with a looming Top Model scandal and goofy antics on her ratings-challenged talk show, which all of a sudden may not be a lock for a future after 2009.

- CBS Television Distribution's personalities dominate the list with six entries (including one that is shared with Warner Bros.) - the most of any syndicator.

- Last year, yours truly scolded the panel for not including evergreen sitcoms such as I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show as most bankable stars in syndication, and they do so again this year. Many of these classic shows continue to perform well for broadcast stations across the country. What's wrong with giving props to the old school? At least create an honorable mention section.

To read the entire list, click here.

Warner says "screw you" to HD-DVD

Racketing up the HD home video format wars up a serious notch - and just in time for the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show - Warner Brothers announced today that it was ending its support for HD-DVD and going solely with arch rival Blu-Ray.

Warner was previously releasing its material on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle is reminiscent of the Betamax/VHS videotape machine wars in the early 1980's, it which JVC's VHS won over the Sony-backed Betamax system.

Many studios have gone with the Blu-Ray format exclusively (including Disney, Fox, and Sony). Does this mean the end of HD DVD because of the lack of studio support? Stay tuned.

CW reshuffles the deck

The CW is finally out with its midseason schedule, which you can access here. Among the changes:

- Gossip Girl moves to Monday at 7 (CT) with the Pussycat Dolls' reality show at 8.

- The CW comedies move to Sunday (good luck, they'll need it)

- Supernatural is being replaced by Reaper on Thursdays at 8, beginning February 28

Strike gets nastier

With the Screen Actors Guild boycotting the Golden Globes and the WGA about to enforce its strike rules against Jay Leno (which NBC said is a violation of Federal labor laws), one could think that this mess in Hollywood between the WGA and AMPTP would get any worse...

But don't laugh Chicagoans - if our version of the WGA and AMPTP - i.e. The Governor and the House Leader can't come to terms on a deal to fund public transit, we'll end up like the striking writers - walking a lot.

If you thought 2007 was the year of the selfish ego... you haven't seen nothing yet.

Trump's got bump

Last night's debut of The Apprentice: Celebrity Edition on NBC notched a 4.5 adults 18-49 rating, up 9 percent from last January's edition.

The good opening numbers for the reality program marks a continued trend of such shows with increased ratings for The Bachelor and Survivor, two once-struggling reality shows that are hot again.

With the absence of scripted programs because of the strike, reality shows might as well have a big feast ratings-wise this winter. American Idol returns January 15, While Survivor begins next month, and The Bachelor is expected to begin its new season in March.

This celebrities included in this edition include Gold Medal softball winner (and Chicago's own) Jennie Fitch (go Jennie!), KISS star Gene Simmons, and first-season villain Omorasa (of course, she's an angel compared to real villains - like our politicians. Isn't that right, Governor Blagoveich, Mayor Daley, Commissioner Beavers, and Kevin Martin?)

Adult Swim news

The Aqua Teens are back: A movie and a Boston bomb scare later, the trio is back with more wild irrelevant adventures. Aqua Teen Hunger Force returns to Adult Swim to begin its sixth season on January 20. The last new episode aired on December 20, 2006 (not on March 25, 2007 as the linked article states).

While Aqua Teen is one of Adult Swim's constantly highest-rated programs, the movie that was released last spring did mediocre business at the box office (mainly because it was limited release), while The Simpsons Movie grossed more than $100 million last summer.

Yours truly saw The Aqua Teen Movie in a Chicago Heights theater (it wasn't playing anywhere else in the Southland) and yes, I was the only one there. Love the show, but please Aqua Teen guys - do what South Park did - don't do any more movies.

- Meanwhile, a Futurama goodbye marathon airing on Adult Swim last week - all 72 episodes of the Matt Groening-created series - gave the network its highest ratings all year among key young demos.

Futurama's rights were acquired by Comedy Central, outbidding Adult Swim in the process. Futurama aired on Adult Swim for the final time Monday night.

Observation: For those of you wondering why Adult Swim ran a Futurama marathon when it was clearly a lame duck show, the answer is simple: Futurama was one of Adult Swim's best-performing shows, and the network thought it would squeeze every ratings point it had left in the show. On the other hand, it may have served inadvertently as a promotion for upcoming airings on Comedy Central - a competitor.

WGN (locally in Chicago) and a few other stations recently lost the rights to Everybody Loves Raymond, and has buried the show at 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. (Don't look for a goodbye marathon there.) In a few weeks, Raymond moves to Fox-owned WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV to begin its second cycle in syndication. Ratings for Raymond on WGN had been decent, but the lame-duck show had to move to make room for new off-network acquisitions.

If Futurama hadn't been performing well for Adult Swim, then all of this would be moot - the show would've ended up buried at 3 a.m. instead.

We're Back

Happy New Year! This is The T Dog Media Blog. Welcome Back.

Took a New Year's breather, so let's catch up on what's been going on:

- Giants-Patriots draws large audience: The NFL triplecast of the New England Patriots - New York Giants game Saturday Night, in which the Patriots beat the Giants to become the first team in NFL History to go 16-0 in the regular season - drew a cumulative 34.5 million viewers over CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network - plus WCVB-TV in Boston, WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., and WWOR-TV in New York. It was the highest-rated regular-season game since November 26, 1995 when NBC aired a Thanksgiving Day game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys.

- The holidays also brought good tidings to the NHL: The Winter Classic, which featured a game featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres - in the first-ever outdoor game in the United States - drew a 2.6 overnight household rating and 5 share - the highest rated regular-season NHL game on network TV since February 3, 1996, when Fox nabbed a 3.0/9 for its regional coverage.

Not surprisingly, the game drew in highest ratings in Pittsburgh (WPXI) and Buffalo (WGRZ). As for Midwestern cities, only Minneapolis (KARE) and St. Louis (KSDK) made the top 10. Chicago didn't make the top 10 (neither did New York and Los Angeles), and the game was pre-empted in Indianapolis.

- The late-night talk show hosts returned last night with David Letterman and Craig Ferguson and their writers, and Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel without theirs. It seemed that Letterman and Ferguson had the advantage of having their writers, while Leno and O' Brien did not. Sad part about this is, a joke WMAQ-TV sports anchor Bruce Wolf during the station's 10 p.m. newscast (about how long it would take for the Illini to return to the Rose Bowl and the Bears to return to the Super Bowl) was funnier than anything Leno had to say. Heck, make Wolf the host of The Tonight Show.

The Excellent 10 of 2007 and more

From #10 to #1, the best TV shows of 2007...

10) Chuck (NBC) Computer geek who works at a big-box is also a spy. Great concept.

9) Mad Men (AMC). Realistic look at ad agency business in the 1960's, far more accurate than what you saw on Bewitched. On Mad Men, nobody becomes impotent from spells cast by Endora.

8) Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) - Alright, for those of you who don't think Keith Olbermann is funny and witty - you don't have a sense of humor. Or you are on the right. Same thing...

7) King of the Hill (Fox).

6) Ugly Betty (ABC) Down from #3 last year.

5) Pardon the Interruption (ESPN).

4) The Daily Show (Comedy Central) Come back Jon and hurry!

3) Family Guy (Fox). Last year's #1.

2) South Park (Comedy Central) "Guitar Queer-O"and "ImaginationLand: The Trilogy" - the best episodes on TV this year. Congrats to Matt and Trey on another wonderful season.

1) Simpsons (Fox) Great rebound this year, thanks to The Simpsons Movie and a fall season (its 19th) that's the best its been in years.


HONORABLE MENTION: The Steve Wilkos Show (syndicated - no, I'm not delirious), The Amazing Race (CBS), Power of 10 (CBS), Colbert Report (Comedy Central).

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

- America's Next Top Model. Last year's #4, this last cycle of this show was not exactly one of the best, with obviously staged catfights, Tyra Banks belittling a contestant for quitting, and picking a winner of the competition who's worked with her before (Tyra must've studied Chicago politics before making that decision.) This program is a step away from becoming another reality show also-ran.

- Heroes. Man. And you thought the Bears were disappointing. What happened? Last year's Cristal is this year's Keystone Light, with inconsistent storylines, poor special effects, two lackluster season finales, and over-dramatic acting. I know what the fans of the show are telling me - if you don't like it, go back to watching Girlfriends (hey, yours truly isn't that desperate.) but anyone who thinks Heroes' season two is better than season one also think the Bears' Rex Grossman was a better quarterback this season than last (there I go again...)

- Ugly Betty. Last year's #3. While the show's quality has remained consistent (unlike Heroes), the ratings for the show have dropped. ABC should have moved Ugly Betty to Wednesdays at 8 (CT) for its second season. The program would play much better there than on Thursdays in the earlier time slot, where it is getting swatted by Survivor and now by that 5th Grader show.

BEST COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: The Chicago Blackhawks. After Bill Wirtz died, the team was taken over by his son Rocky. What did he do? For starters, he put home games on TV, hired John McDonough (formerly of the Cubs) as president of the club, and improved the team's marketing efforts with the focus on two rookies - Patrick Kane and Jonathan Loews. This exciting young team has made hockey in Chicago watchable again. Restore the roar, indeed.

BEST COMMERCIAL: A classy tribute to the late Dick Wilson (a.k.a "Mr. Whipple") from Procter & Gamble, who always reminded us not to squeeze the Charmin. Best tribute since the ads honoring Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and Fred ("Time to make the donuts") from Dunkin' Donuts when they died. A great nod to the past.

BEST PROMOTION: 7-Eleven converting ten of its stores nationwide (including one here on the city's Southwest Side) to Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie.

BEST TEAM: No doubt about this - The New England Patriots with their undefeated season.

BEST MOVE BY A CHICAGO RADIO STATION: WLIT canning Delilah's loser of a syndicated show. Yeehaw! (and getting rid of Whoopi Goldberg's show in the process.)

BEST MEDIA OUTLETS: WGN on the radio side and WLS on the TV side. This has been for how long now?

And that's a wrap for The T Dog Media Blog in 2007. Thanks for stopping by and see you next year!

Say goodbye to Nick GAS, Court TV

The new year brings changes to cable lineups as Court TV becomes TruTV on Tuesday and Nick GAS (which ran out of gas long ago - couldn't no longer afford to fill up the tank, perhaps?) becomes teen-oriented channel The N, split off from pre-school/tot channel Noggin. Effective today, both become 24/7 services.

Both Nick GAS and Court TV join The Tube as digital and/or cable channels going into the graveyard this year.

UPDATE: Because of a technical snafu in switching over to The N, Dish Network customers will continue to get Nick GAS until January 31. The N continues to share the space with Noggin.

updated at 19:13 on 2008-01-03

The Toilet Bowl of 2007

There were a lot of forgettable moments in media in 2007, and we have them right here... First, let's start off with the year's worst TV, from #10 to #1:

10) The O'Reilly Factor (Fox News): This show still sucks.

9) Around the Horn (ESPN) Ditto.

8) Chicago Sports (various channels) What a great year for Chicago Sports! The Cubs imploded in the playoffs, the White Sox didn't even make them, the Bears - fresh off playing in the Super Bowl - stunk up the joint with the play of alleged "quarterback" Rex Grossman, the Bulls' poor play this fall (with the coach getting the ax), and The Beaver - Jay Mariotti. Who needs Cavemen when when you have bad TV like this in Chicago on a regular basis?

7) Bionic Woman (NBC) Bad remake of a bad TV show that was canceled by two TV networks in the 1970's.

6) Online Nation (CW) How many viewers watched this show, you ask? 50? 100? 200? 4? Whatever the number, it was enough to shelve this piece of junk after four weeks.

5) Pirate Master (CBS) A Survivor rip-off that lasted walked the plank after five weeks. Aarrgh, matey!

4) Kid Nation (CBS) See above, except that this show hasn't been canceled yet.

3) Anchorwoman (Fox) One episode was more than enough for this "experiment", which wasn't entertaining given the hell we were put through this past summer with the Amy Jacobson/Craig Stebic fiasco.

2) Cavemen (ABC) In 1964, CBS gave us Linus the Lionhearted, a Saturday Morning cartoon based on a line of Post cereals (including Sugar Bear.) In 2007, ABC gives us a TV show based on an insurance ad. Man, how times haven't changed. The only difference between Linus and Cavemen was Linus actually had talent behind the characters - something Cavemen apparently lacks (and to you smart-asses who said I haven't watched a single episode of Cavemen - I did. So there.)

1) Viva Laughlin (CBS) Two episodes, done in four days. The only surprise here is this show was even worse than Cavemen.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: The Bachelor (ABC), 1st and 10 (ESPN), I Love New York (VH1), John from Cincinnati (HBO), Journeyman (NBC), National Bingo Night (ABC), The Singing Bee (NBC), Temptation (syndicated), WWE Raw (USA).

WORST PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR: Sanjaya from American Idol, who thankfully faded from the spotlight. Now, if only Randy, Paula, and Simon (and this stupid show) can do the same...

WORST COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: Britney Spears. Her performance at the MTV Video Awards was as about as bad as the show itself, and her new album flopped - with two singles from her CD failing to break the top 10 on Mediabase's Pop Chart. Don't worry Britney fans (if any), she still lives on every night in ET/Extra/Access:Hollywood/Insider/TMZ/E! land.

WORST TEAM: The Miami Dolphins. Well, duh?

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: The Aqua Teen Movie promotion in Boston that went awry. Didn't exactly drive people to theaters to see the flick. Hey Aqua Teen guys - stick to the small screen.

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR (Chicago Edition): Hiring 83 year-old Bob Barker to promote Q101's The Morning Fix, with billboards across the area featuring him telling listeners to "get fixed". After six months, it was The Morning Fix that got neutered.

WORST MOVE BY A CABLE NETWORK: From a Toon fanboy perspective: Cartoon Network airing 5 hours of Scooby-Doo a day. And you thought Deal or No Deal was overexposed... Well, at least none of those episodes had Scrappy-Doo in them.

WORST MOVE BY A RADIO STATION: WGCI-FM firing Crazy Howard McGee for the comic stylings of Steve Harvey.

WORST COMMERCIALS: Those unfunny "Epic Movie"/"The Comebacks"/"Meet the Spartans" spots. And you thought the current crop of sitcoms on TV were bad. These movies makes Cavemen look like The Dick Van Dyke Show. Almost. Followed closely by those inane "What would Chicagoans do without their Comcast "spots with the Bears' Brian Urlacher (be a lot happier.)

WORST PLOTS OF THE YEAR: Take your pick: Vince McMahon's "death" on WWE Raw or Mederith Grey's "death" on Grey's Anatomy? Whatever the case, those stunts made those programs even more popular. Somebody, please explain this to me...

WORST REALITY FIASCO: The Pussycat Dolls' reality show, a program featuring the sextuplet (and I use that term loosely) music group that was looking for the next "doll" - a program ignored not only by men, but also by the targeted female audience. Well, the Maxim Magazine babes found her - and she promptly quit.

THE DEVA VU AWARD: To WLS-AM overnighter Nate Clay, who jokingly promised listeners one thousand dollars for anyone who could identify the person who wrote the classic song "Stand By Me" (which was turned into a techno-pop hit this year under the guise of "Beautiful Girls" for Sean Kingston.) Clay was suspended for the incident. In 1988, WLS-AM overnighter Mike McDonald jokingly promised "the keys to a brand-new shiny Porsche" to a listener who could correctly answer a question. He was fired.

THE "JUMP THE SHARK" AWARD: ESPN's widely panned Who's Now segments on SportsCenter. And even worse, PTI's Michael Wilbon actually defended them. Man, oh man Wilbon, you've been hanging around Jim Belushi too much.

THE LAST WORD: This list isn't complete with the writer's strike. With those guys on the picket line and more "reality" programming expected, rest assured there will be plenty of worst programs on this list for 2008 starting with Celebrity Apprentice.

(Editor's Note: I accidentally omitted one show in the dishonorable mention category - ABC's "National Bingo Night" and corrected the spelling of "Journeyman" - T.H. Updated 2008-01-02 at 2:23 p.m.)

Letterman returns on Wedensday - with writers

The first deal the Writer's Guild made since the strike began is for Late Show with David Letterman. The new interim deal covers not only Letterman's show, but Craig Ferguson's as well, since Letterman owns his show and Ferguson's (a main stipulation in the CBS deal when he came to the Tiffany Network in 1993.)

New shows began January 2, as will a lot of other late-night talk show hosts, but without writers.

A thought...

Recently, several individuals who have made contributions to their respective fields - from Donda West to Jimmy Stagg from Roger King to Mark Sullivan to Terry Armour - have passed on. They made them in their own, unique ways.

One person was a very gifted and talented DJ in the 1960's. Another wrote a column for a major newspaper and had the heart and personality to warm the room. Another was a person who turned the syndication business on its head and made it and his company a multi-million dollar venture. One was the mother of a major hip-hop star - and a person who excelled in her own right as a successful educator (at my alma mater, no less) and an author. Another was a singer and songwriter who loved radio and was an all-around good guy.

Yes, we are mourning their deaths. But let's celebrate their lives as well.

This is a reminder to everyone - life is what you make it. You never know when it is going to be taken away from you. Make every minute of your life count. Make contributions. Make a difference. These wonderful people did.

Former WCKG host Terry Armour dies

More sad news: Chicago Tribune columnist and former WCKG co-host Terry Armour has died unexpectedly at the too-young age of 46.

Armour was rushed to the hospital this afternoon after falling ill. He died a short time later.

Armour worked at the Tribune, covering the Bulls' championship run in the 1990's and previously co-hosted a midday talk show with Stan Lawrence on WCKG-FM until two months ago, when the station dropped its FM talk format.

This is the second time in the last 36 hours that a Chicago media personality has died. On Thursday, WILV-FM DJ Mark Sullivan passed away at the age of 40.

Sun-Times: Tribune columnist Terry Armour dies

Feder's Media Awards for 2007

Always a fun read, Rob Feder of the Sun-Times reviews the highlights (Delilah getting canned) - and lowlights (Amy Jacobson at Craig Stebic's house) - and everything else in between - in the year that was in Chicago Media.

WILV's Mark Sullivan dies

Sad news to report: WILV-FM (Love FM) nighttime DJ Mark Sullivan has passed away at the too-young age of 40 from a heart condition. An obituary has been posted on Love FM's website.

WVON program director quits - on the air

It's not every day that somebody quits on-air - it happened once in 1960 when Jack Paar shocked everyone when he quit The Tonight Show - in the middle of the broadcast - after NBC cut out a joke he made regarding the initials W.C. being confused for a water closet instead of a wayside chapel the previous night (hey, it was 1960 after all...)

Yesterday on urban news/talk WVON-AM, program director Coz Carson - filling in for the vacationing Santita Jackson - quit his position as he was signing off. He announced that he was taking a position with a New York City radio station effective January 2.

Carson left the station because of "creative differences" with Melody Spann-Cooper, who is President and CEO of WVON's owner, Midway Broadcasting. Carson was at WVON only six months.

By the way, Jack Paar returned to Tonight a month later, but left again in 1962 - and was replaced by an upcoming star named Johnny Carson.

(Editor's note: To read Coz Carson's side to this story, click on the comments section. - T.H.)

updated 12:52 a.m. on 2007-12-28

Patriots-Giants game to air on three networks

NFL Fans now will get a chance to see history in the making.

The Saturday Night game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants - which was only going to air on the barely-distributed NFL Network - will also air now on NBC and CBS - both of which will simulcast the NFL network feed.

The last time NBC and CBS simulcast a football game together was the first Super Bowl (and was also known for a fight between the NBC and CBS crews - they had to erect a fence to separate them both.)

The game will also air on WWOR in New York and WCVB-TV in Boston (with a simulcast on WCVB's sister station, WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H). Those three stations had the rights to air the game beforehand (yeah, I bet WWOR and WCVB are real happy about this...)

The 15-0 Patriots have a chance to become the first 16-0 team in NFL history and rank as one of the most dominant sports teams in history. The last time any team in professional sports went undefeated was the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 14-0 and won Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins.

One thought: Did this move by the NFL was related to Senator John Kerry's threat to haul the league onto Capitol Hill for hearings if they didn't make the game available to the broadcast networks?

UPDATE: The game is also being carried in Canada on broadcast network CTV, and cable channels TSN and TSN HD.

"I wanted to be on the news"

That's what the driver of the van said after he crashed it into WLS-TV's studios on Sunday night during the station's newscast. He has been charged with criminal damage to property over $100,000.

Man, that phrase is so 1976. Son, have you ever heard of YouTube?

"Judge Hatchett" to end production

Sony Pictures Television's Judge Hatchett daytime strip will end original production after eight seasons, but instead will pitch "best of" theme weeks to TV stations for next fall.

Hatchett airs locally on Fox-owned WFLD-TV.

Since there are so many episodes produced of Hatchett over the years, Sony says the move makes economical sense - there are well over 1000 episodes in the can.

Sony is actually taking a page from what many syndicators did in the 1990's did with court shows. Warner Bros. ended production on the original version of People's Court (with Judge Joesph Wapner) in 1993 after amassing over 1,000 episodes over twelve seasons, and aired repeats in syndication for several years thereafter (People's Court did resume production in 1997.)

Warner also handled Love Connection (a game show) in the same manner, as did Genesis Entertainment with The Judge and Blair Entertainment with the Judge William Keene version of Divorce Court.

Sony will have a new courtroom this fall with Judge Karen, which has been cleared locally over WCIU-TV.

Minivan crashes into WLS-TV's studios - during a newscast!

A van crashes into WLS-TV's studios - three minutes into the station's 10 p.m. newscast. Notice what the ticker says on the photo to the left. Ironic, isn't it?

Tonight's top story... Is right here at the station! A minivan crashed right into our studio... right when we are on the air!

A minivan crashed into the studios of ABC-owned WLS-TV last night just three minutes into the station's 10 p.m. newscast. Anchor Ravi Baichwal was in the process of handing it off to a reporter for a live shot when the minivan crashed right into WLS' storefront studios on 190 North State Street in Downtown Chicago.

According to the station, it appears that the driver drove into the station's studios on purpose. Chicago Police arrested a 25-year old individual from north suburban Evanston in the incident, and charged him with reckless driving and driving without insurance. No one was injured. Witness standing outside the building said the driver was making a series of U-Turns on State Street before he crashed into the building.

Here is video of WLS' coverage and anchor Ravi Baichwal's reaction to the crash, courtesy of YouTube:




This bring back memories of another weird incident that took place at WLS on a Saturday night in 1990. Chased by Chicago Police, a robber fled into WLS' building and held himself captive there, causing an evacuation and knocking the station off the air for several hours. The robber arrived minutes before the station's newscast was set to begin.

(Note: This post is a combination of two posts on this subject that appeared earlier.)

Bulls fire head coach

Like the Blackhawks did in 1976 to their coach, and what happened to former Bulls coach Tim Floyd in 2001 (he resigned), Bulls coach Scott Skiles gets canned on Christmas Eve in 2007, fast becoming a Christmas tradition in Chicago.

The Bulls, which are quickly becoming the NBC of the NBA, are 9-16, and were blown out in back-to-back games over the weekend.

Interesting to note that both NBC and the NBA were partners in the '90's and since have gone their separate ways, both share the same characteristics - nobody wants to watch them, particularly in the nation's two biggest markets - New York and Chicago, where the teams suck - and they have total boobheads running the joints into the ground.

The 2007 NBA Finals were the lowest rated of all-time and NBC posted record low numbers in the recent November sweeps.

Maybe Scott Skiles should become NBC's next programming chief - after all, he has the credentials - he already knows how to screw up a losing team.

As for the person who is there now - Ben Silverman - I got a new job for him - The Bulls' ballboy.

Fox sells eight TV stations to Oak Hill

News Corp. had made good on its promise to sell eight of its Fox TV stations, and it did to the newly-formed Local TV group headed by private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for $1.1 billion. The proceeds from the sale gives News Corp. the cash it needs to purchase the Wall Street Journal.

In a separate development, Tribune and Oak Hill have agreed to create a third-party management company that will share administrative duties. Randy Michaels, who was CEO of Local TV, was named Thursday as CEO of Tribune Broadcasting and Tribune Interactive.

The eight stations being sold are: WJW-TV in Cleveland, KDVR-TV in Denver, KTVI in St. Louis, WDAF-TV in Kansas City, WITI-TV in Milwaukee, KSTU in Salt Lake City, WBRC-TV in Birmingham, and WGHP-TV in Greensboro-High Point, N.C.

Six of these stations - WJW, KTVI, WDAF, WITI, WBRC, and WGHP - were former affiliates of the Big Three networks that were involved in the New World-Fox affiliation switch in 1994 and 1995. New World Communications sold all but two of its stations to Fox in 1997.

Local TV launched earlier this year when it made a deal to acquire eight former New York Times Co. stations, including WREG-TV (CBS) in Memphis, KFOR-TV (NBC) in Oklahoma City, WNEP-TV (ABC) in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa., and WQAD-TV (ABC) in Moline, IL.

The transaction leaves Fox with 26 stations (for now - the fate of WHBQ in Memphis is still undetermined), including WFLD-TV and WPWR-TV in Chicago.

updated 10:44 p.m. on 2007-12-22

USA dumps "Dead Zone", "4400"

The Dead Zone lives up to its name: it really is dead. USA dropped it and 4400, after four and three-year runs, respectively.

Debmar-Mercury currently distributes The Dead Zone in broadcast syndication.

You Be 'Iiiin'

Urban Contemporary WGCI-FM is launching a new show featuring local hip-hop and R&B artists called Go Ill.

The program premieres this Saturday night at 9 p.m. and run in that time slot every week. It will also feature interviews with the artists behind the music. WGCI has often been criticized for not featuring enough local artists on its station (other than R. Kelly and Jennifer Hudson.)

The program derives its title from the last two letters of Chicago and the first three letters of Illinois. While some people may have a problem with its name, Go Ill is a far better name than say, oh, Cavemen and Anchorwoman.

Stewart, Colbert to return on the air January 7

Good news for fans of the Comedy Central duo. The bad news is, like everybody else, they're returning without their writers. 

It's official: Zell takes over the Tribune

The Sam Zell era officially began this afternoon with the closure of the $8.2 billion deal to take the Tribune Co. private. 

Meet the new board members

Randy Michaels returns to Chicago

Robert Feder in the Sun-Times today has a rather detailed look at the career of Randy Michaels, the guy who saved WFLZ-FM in Tampa by creating "The Power Pig" - and his most infamous radio stunt right here in Chicago - Using "hell" as a marketing slogan in 1991 that practically destroyed former contemporary-hit radio station WYTZ-FM (Z95).

Michaels is being tapped by Sam Zell to run Tribune's broadcast operations of the Tribune Co., in which Zell is taking over today. Zell hired Michaels when he owned Jacor to run its radio division. Michaels became a top executive at Clear Channel Communications when Jacor sold its stations to the media conglomerate.

Brian Holmes (formerly of WFLZ) had a great website (which is now defunct) detailing how Michaels, as a radio consultant from Cincinnati, turned around WFLZ from a middling oldies outlet in 1989 to a CHR powerhouse - one that continues to this day. Among the stunts Michaels would conceive:

- To launch the format, WFLZ "held" one of WRBQ-FM's (Q105) deejays "hostage" - Cleveland Wheeler. Though still an oldies outlet, they were threating to flip to the Top 40 format Q105 had a monopoly on, unless the station paid WFLZ $1 million. It finally flipped to the format on September 25, 1989, re-branding the station as Power 93: The Power Pig and taking WRBQ-FM (Q105) on head-to-head.

- WFLZ began selling "Screw the Q" T-shirts around town from the Pig Van.

- The stunts created buzz in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area and also attracted national attention .

In 1993, WRBQ-FM left the contemporary-hit format forever and flipped to Country (the station is still known as Q105 and is now an oldies outlet.)

WFLZ also was home to two discjockeys with Chicago ties - The Tim and Tom Show, which featured future WLUP-FM executive Tim Dukes, and their replacement on the evening shift -former WBBM-FM personality Bubba The Love Sponge (Todd Clem, who now has a show on Howard Stern's 101 channel on Sirius Satellite Radio.)

The sad part about Michael's Chicago experience was that the "hell" stunt he created for WYTZ to compete with arch rival WBBM was clearly ill-conceived. Here's a marketing lesson for you kids out there - never use anything related to Satan as a marketing tool.

Trifecta lands "Idol Rewind"

That was quick: Just days after Tribune announced it was shuttering its syndication operations, Trifecta Entertainment announced it was picking up syndicated rights to one of the series Tribune used to distribute: American Idol Rewind, the hour-long weekly series that is currently in its second season in syndication.

Two-year old Trifecta is best known in syndication circles for distributing weekly series UFC Wired and a Jack Hanna animal show.

Rewind airs locally on WGN-TV Saturdays at 4 p.m. and Mondays at 2:30 a.m. The program is re-packaged past episodes of American Idol, with new footage added.

FremantleMedia (once in the syndication business itself) produces the program for Fox and had a multi-year deal with Tribune to handle syndication sales of the show. The deal basically gave Idol a year-around presence, given the program's season starts in January and wraps up in May.

Barter ad sales for the show have not been determined, though there is a possibility that Trifecta may stick with Tribune for such duties. It is also not clear whether or not Rewind will be back on the Tribune stations for a third season.

No word when or if other Tribune fare, such as Soul Train and U.S. Farm Report, will be picked up by other syndicators.

Lowry reaches out to Drudge readers

Brian Lowry reaches out to Matt Drudge readers in his Vairety article today. Not sure if it is a good idea to reach out to a bunch of racist, right-wing nutjobs who worship this fraud and Jay Mariotti (yeah, I threw that in there...)

Notice the article I linked to was the printer (and moronic commenter free)-friendly version...

FitzSimons steps down

Dennis FitzSimons is out as President, Chairman, and Chief Executive of the Tribune Co. in wake of the $8.2 billion sale of the company to Sam Zell, who will become a board chairman.

Tribune Entertainment, R.I.P. (1982-2007)

Company to live on as ad-sales operation only

The company that launched its first syndicated show in 1982 with At the Movies featuring Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, has closed its doors.

Tribune Entertainment's syndication division shuttered a few days ago, ending its station sales (distribution) operations, with three executives from its Chicago office laid off. However, its advertising sales unit will continue to operate. Tribune Entertainment was initially based in Chicago, but moved the bulk of its operations to Los Angeles in 1996.

This comes as Sam Zell is closing in on his $8.2 billion purchase of Tribune Co. The move marks a major reversal from what was reported last spring, when Zell met with Tribune Entertainment executives and seemed to indicate that the syndication division would ramp up again with first-run programming.

Tribune launched with mostly weekly shows in the 1980's with At the Movies, British import Dempsey & Makepeace, and U.S. Farm Report, and took over the syndication duties of Soul Train.

It took a big step in 1987 by launching its first-ever strip, a talk show hosted by Geraldo Rivera, with help (from the sales side) from Paramount. The strip helped launch the sleaze era of daytime TV, highlighted by a brawl that took place on his show in November 1988 between civil-rights activists and white supremacists, in which a chair broke Geraldo's nose and landed him on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

In 1989, with help from Paramount, it launched The Joan Rivers Show in syndication. In 1991, it took station sales of Geraldo and Joan Rivers in-house, with a launch of another syndicated Geraldo Rivera-hosted strip, Now It Can Be Told.

But trouble began in 1992 when Told folded and a high-profile late-night talk show strip from Dennis Miller failed. Joan Rivers' syndicated daytime show was relaunched in January 1994 as a talk/shopping hybrid and was shown the door after six months.

While the company continued to pump out successful weekly shows like Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda, the company's efforts to launch a first-run strip continued to falter with the failures of The Charles Perez Show and Buzz!. The company lost its only first-run strip on at the time when Geraldo Rivera decided to end his talk show in 1998.

When the weekly hours ran their course, demand for action hours in syndication dried up, leaving Tribune with little presence in high-viable weekend time periods. Tribune continued to struggle in the first-run strip arena with the quick demises of Talk or Walk and Beyond with James Von Praagh.

Tribune did secure rights to syndicate three of Fremantle's game shows when that company left the syndication business in 2001, but two of those programs were quickly canceled and left Tribune with only Family Feud, which changed syndicators this season when Debmar-Mercury won the rights to the show.

Another blow for Tribune came when Don Cornelius Productions shut down production of Soul Train in 2006, leaving the program entirely in reruns. Soul Train, which began in Chicago on WCIU-TV, ran in syndication for 35 years. An annual Christmas special, The Soul Train Christmas Starfest, isn't airing this year, and the future of other Soul Train specials - including The Soul Train Music Awards - is unknown.

The future of current Tribune product, including American Idol Rewind and U.S. Farm Report is up in the air, though Fremantle can always find another syndicator for Rewind while Farm Report and Soul Train reruns could likely be on their way out.

Tribune though, is expected to continue to sell ad time for Debmar-Mercury's South Park repeats in syndication.

updated at 11:20 a.m. on 2007-12-19 (add Feder link)

ABC's Jimmy Kimmel to return on Jan. 2 as well

He will join Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien in doing shows without writers on Jan. 2.

Big Media gets Christmas gift from FCC today

The ownership vote fell among party lines 3-2. Which means a lump of coal for the rest of us.

As you all know, this is far from over. Look for this to be challenged in court, and ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is truly a sad day for independent media in this country.