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Published on Tuesday, 03 January 2012 21:04
With winter break over, it is time to catch up with a large batch of News & Notes, including: The Score gets historical, Walter Sabo is history, The Loop attempts to "augment" its ratings, Karen Conti looks to return, Wendy Snyder doubles up on her podcasting, Steve Tingle finds a job, Zakk Tyler is job hunting; JBTV goes nationwide, Walter Augustin gets promoted, Jeff Bailey gets a new title, Mark DeCarlo gets engaged, Maggie Peterson & Ryan Snow get hitched, Rick Klein gains a daughter, Rick Party/Zurek gains a grandson named after him, and heartbreaking news for Cisco Cotto. All the details are below...
* * As mentioned
HERE yesterday, WSCR-AM/The Score turned 20 years old this week. To celebrate its 20th Anniversary, WSCR-AM launched
TheScore20.com. Within that new website (contained inside The Score's regular website) is a new section that debuted this morning called "The History of 670 The Score." Broken up into seven chapters, it tells the inside story of how the station came to be, how it rose to be a Chicago radio powerhouse, and the inside stories of the stations highs & lows. Brilliantly penned by local freelance writer Daniel Dorfman, "History" is a gripping story, filled with incredible quotes and stories never publicly told before. This is highly recommend reading for any fan of Chicago radio!
* * Chicago-based media corporation Merlin Media LLC has officially parted ways with Walter Sabo, its Chief Operating Officer, after only six months. Sabo has given his first, and so far, only interview to Radio Ink's Ed Ryan, which can be read
HERE. For the Radio Ink piece, Sabo tries to place a positive spin on his exit. However, according to some inside reports, the relationship between CEO Randy Michaels and COO Sabo soured when it quickly became apparent that Sabo's ideas for a female-targeted spoken word format was not working. A short while after the format launched in Chicago (WWWN-FM/WIQI-FM) and New York, Michaels took over the direction for the station, effectively pushing Sabo out. His position with the company was basically over a few weeks ago, but became official at the end of last week. Sabo is now focusing on his own consulting company, Sabo Media. The now-vacant COO position within Merlin Media is not expected to be filled anytime soon.
* * Speaking of Merlin Media, their other radio station in town, which is not targeted to women, classic rocker WLUP-FM, has unveiled a new contest that most are finding tasteless and offensive. Calling it
"The Breast Year Ever," The Loop is going to be giving away breast augmentation surgery to a lucky winner. The station is asking contestants to send in pictures of their natural breasts ("Clothes optional. Above-the-neck optional.") to be judged, along with a written reason why the contestant wants the augmentation done. One winner will be selected at the end of January. The contest, which has been done many times before by CHR stations across the U.S., is of course, purposely designed to be controversial to gain publicity.
* * With WGN-AM removing a great deal of live programming on the weekends to make room for pre-recorded and "Best Of" programming (which was first exclusively tipped here on CRM many weeks ago), one of the shows that has disappeared is "Legally Speaking with Karen Conti." Conti has been hosting the show, along with her late husband, Greg Adamski, since April 2006. She previously co-hosted "Chicago Law" on WJJD-AM from 1994-1998. The WGN-AM show may be gone, but Karen Conti has no plans on disappearing from the public eye. Conti will be WGN-AM's resident legal expert, guesting on many of the station's radio shows from time to time. Additionally, Karen Conti writes on her
Facebook page that this year to look for her "on other TV and radio stations such as WIND Radio, FOX, CNN, Comcast SportsNet, etc." She is also considering her own Internet radio and/or TV show.
* * Chicago radio's Wendy Snyder is now doing a second funny podcast. In addition to her own
SyndeRemarksRadio, Snyder is co-hosting the show "ADHDivas," alongside Hollywood comedy writer Lisa K. Nelson. The debut podcast is now up and available on the
ADHDivas website and on
iTunes. Of course, Wendy Snyder can still be heard each morning on WLS-AM as part of the Done Wade and Roma show.
* * Former WKQX-FM morning show co-host Steve Tingle has found new work. He is heading to Philadelphia this month, where a great many Chicago radio personalities go, to become part of an established morning show on WRDW-FM. In addition to his new full-time job, Tingle will still be doing his "Clairissa Jenkins' Phone Checks" syndicated bits for stations nationwide, including Chicago's WKSC-FM.
* * Former WLUP-FM afternoon host Zakk Tyler is out of a job once again. Zakk, now going by his real name of Dominic Zaccagnini, has been the co-host of the syndicated "Zakk & Jack" morning show for FOX Sports Radio, along with Jack Trudeau. FOX Sports has decided to replace the show with a new show hosted by Andy Furman and Artell Hawkins.
* * Chicago's incredible indie music video program, JBTV, will soon be able to be enjoyed nationwide. As part of
NBCUniversal's plan to take their regional "Nonstop" digital subchannels and turn them into the new NBC Nonstop Network, Chicago's JBTV has been selected to be shown nationally on the new network. Jerry Bryant's multiple Emmy Award-winning show has been an underground smash in Chicago for nearly 27 years. Finally, major markets all across the country will be able to experience the program. The national broadcast should start in late January, being shown at 10:00pm on Saturday nights.
* * As of today, Walter Augustin has been promoted to Vice President/Regional Sales Manager for FOX Stations Sales in Chicago. In this new role, Augustin will oversee all national sales for WFLD-TV & WPWR-TV. Previously, Augustin worked as WFLD-TV's National Sales Manager. He came to WFLD-TV a few years ago, after working as an Account Executive at FOX & Tribune owned stations in New York.
* * Jeff Bailey, who from 2003-2005 was Crain's Chicago Business' Editor, has been named as Editor for the investor information website YCharts.com. Among his other previous jobs, Baily was a monthly contributing Editor for Chicago magazine.
* * Congratulations to "Windy City Live's" Mark DeCarlo, who became engaged to his girlfriend, Los Angeles actress/voiceover artist Yeni Alvarez, over the holidays. In addition to planning a wedding and working often on Chicago's "WCL," DeCarlo has also started working on a new television show called
"This vs That," co-hosting alongside another pair of funnymen, comedians Brad Sherwood and Chris Tallman. The program can be best described as a humorous, twisted "Mythbusters," where the hosts compare, contrast, debate and investigate two subjects. It is currently web-based, but being shopped around for probable syndication.
* * Congratulations to Maggie Peterson, the former WSSR-FM/Star 96.7 personality and APD, and Ryan Snow, the former Operations Manager of NextMedia's Joliet/Aurora cluster and Program Director WRXQ-FM/WSSR-FM. The two former NextMedia employees were married late last month after a long relationship together. Best wishes to the Snows!
* * Congratulations to Rick Klein, the President/Founder/Chief Curator for The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (
FuzzyMemories.TV). He and his wife welcomed into the world a new daughter, Julia Margaret Klein, on Christmas day. I think I know of a good website that has many hundreds of hours classic Chicago Children's TV programming to entertain young Julia... :)
* * Congratulations to former Chicago radio personality Rick Party, aka Zurek Speaks, as he has a new addition to his family as well. Even though he is only in his early 40's, Zurek has become a proud grandfather. His new grandson, Zurek III, was born on December 30th.
* * Even with all of the good news above, there is some sad news to pass on. Sincere condolences to former WLS-AM/WIND-AM personality Cisco Cotto. His mother passed away on New Years Eve unexpectedly at the age of only 56. Thoughts and prayers go out to Cisco Cotto and his family.
