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Published on Wednesday, 20 October 2010 15:59
In today's News & Notes, we look at a sad story involving the Sun-Times' Jim Tyree; a sad story involving Sun-Times Media Group layoffs, a happier story about hirings and promotions at Time Out Chicago Magazine, a new & familiar job for Don DuPree, a new promotion for WGCI's Bryon Henderson, a new record for WFMT, and a new voice for AccuRadio's Country channels.
* * The Sun-Times Media Group owner Jim Tyree has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. The News was first
revealed last night on the Sun-Times' website by columnist Michael Sneed. Tyree has had a long history of medical issues, including diabetes, kidney and pancreas transplants, a defibrillator implant, and four eye surgeries. Tyree said, "I have not lost a health battle yet and I don't plan to start now!" Best wishes to Mr. Tyree on his newest battle.
* * In other less happy Sun-Times news, the company announced yesterday numerous company-wide staff cuts that have been occurring recently and more that may still be to come. At least 14 editorial jobs have been lost from the Sun-Times, the Lake County News-Sun, the Post-Tribune, the SouthtownStar, and the Pioneer Press. The total number cuts have not been revealed. Sun Times Media group owns 8 daily and 50 weekly newspapers.
* * Time Out Chicago Magazine has hired a new publisher to replace the one they lost last month. TOC's new Group Publisher & Vice-President is Ivy Lester, replacing David Garland. She previously had been Vice-President of Business Development for the Greenspun Media Group. Lester will now oversee the magazines Time Out Chicago, TOC Kids, Time Out Chicago Student Guide, and TOC Eating and Drinking Guides. Also at Time Out Chicago, Trevor Mikus has been promoted to Associate Publisher and David Wilson has been promoted to Account Director.
* * WBBM-TV Assistant News Director Don DuPree turned in his resignation yesterday, after just 15 months in that position. He leaves to join
Roger Ebert's new television show as it's director. He previously worked for 15 years with Roger Ebert on a pair of his television movie review programs. The DuPree-directed "Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies" is set to make its national debut in mid-January.
* * Congratulations to Bryon Henderson! Last Friday, he was promoted to WGCI's Promotions Director. For well over three years, Henderson has been a Promotions Coordinator for Clear Channel Chicago's three Urban stations: WGCI, WVAZ & WGRB. Bryon Henderson, 27, is a Chicago native with a degree in Marketing from the University of Miami.
* * Congratulations to WFMT-FM! Chicago's Classical music station held its annual Operathon this past Saturday. The 16-hour fundraiser for the Lyric Opera of Chicago brought in an incredible $476,513 in pledges -- a new record. The Lyric Opera was hoping to hit $400,000, but had low expectations, due to the tough economic times. Obviously, that goal was more than met. Although Operathon 2010 is over, fans can still make donations at this link
HERE and order Operathon merchandise at this link
HERE, to continue to help out the institution.
* * Chicago-based AccuRadio's Country channel programmer, Bill Gamble announced this week that the company has hired Pat Garrett to be the voice of its 18 AccuCountry channels. (That is all of AccuRadio's Country channels,
except for the new Chicago-centric channel with
Bill Garcia & Nancy Turner providing the voices.) Pat Garrett is a professional voice-over talent out of Maryland, who has worked at & for radio stations all across the US, in numerous formats. The only previous Chicago connection to Garrett is that he has done some imaging work for a few stations, such as WBBM-FM, WNND-FM & WGCI-FM.
