register
| News & Notes: WLS-FM; Bill Bailey; Matt Spiegel; Steve Tingle; ICB; WGN-AM; Chicago Tribune; Playboy; Antenna TV |
 |
 |
| Written by Larz | |||
| Monday, 16 January 2012 17:53 | |||
|
Today's News & Notes features nine local media stories, including: WLS-FM brings back the magic "touch"; Bill Bailey passes away; Matt Spiegel becomes a Dad; Steve Tingle says farewell; the Illinois Center for Broadcasting is throwing a party; WGN-AM beefs up its engineering crew; Chicago Tribune looks to un-beef up its newsroom; Playboy Enterprises prepares to hop out of town; and Antenna TV wants to you cry along with Sally Field instead of watching football. All the details are right here...
* * WLS-FM has brought back more than just John Landecker to its airwaves to remind people of the station's 1970's heyday. Also back is the iconic WLS touchtones. The station is once again using that famous soundbite for its call-in contests. The WLS touchtones sounds were first created by Tommy Edwards in 1973, using the electronic telephone beeps of hitting the numbers 8-5-2-0-5.  * * In less happy WLS news... former WLS-AM morning show host Bill Bailey passed away Saturday at the age of 81. Bill Bailey was with WLS-AM for just under one year, from mid-1969 to mid-1970. WLS-AM's Program Director John Rook, a fan of Bailey's radio work, brought Bailey up to Chicago to replace the popular Clark Weber, who had announced he no longer wished to do the morning show for the station. Unfortunately for WLS-AM, the following year, Bailey returned back to the south where he was welcomed by fans for many years to come. Bailey, whose real name was William Boahn, also worked in numerous other markets, but acheived his biggest popularity in Kentucky, where he was given the nickname of the "Duke of Louisville." He was one of two gentlemen using the name Bill Bailey at WLS-AM, as a second DJ using the same on-air name joined WLS in 1972.  * * Congratulations to WSCR-AM's Matt Spiegel! He has his wife Tonya welcomed into the world their first child on Saturday morning: a son named Rubin Ford Spiegel, weighing in at 7 lbs 6 oz. Mother and son are doing great and returned back home today. Hopefully, all those years as the leader of the local band Tributosaurus will have taught Matt how to operate during the daytime on minimal sleep.  * * Former WKQX-FM morning show host Steve Tingle officially left Chicago today for his new job at Philadelphia's WRDW-FM. Last night, he said farewell to his fans & friends on his Facebook page, writing: "I can't thank everyone in Chicago enough. Ever since I moved to Chicago in 2006 I've been lucky enough to meet the GREATEST people....people who will be life long friends. When times were great we shared them together. When I had my problems you always were there to lean on. I am really sad I have to leave such a great support system here. I know I will meet great people in Philadelphia but I just wanted you all to know how much you will always mean to me. I will be driving out tomorrow at noon.....thinking of all of you! Until next time.....Love you."  * * The Illinois Center for Broadcasting (ICB) will be holding another of its Career Day events this coming Saturday. Dubbed "The ICB Experience," this weekend's event will have some rather big name special guest speakers at a roundtable Q&A session, including WCIU-TV's Melissa Forman, WMVP-AM's Dave Juday, WBBM-FM's Jason Cage, and CLTV/CSN's Jerry Riles. "The ICB Experience" will take place on January 21st from 11:00am-1:00pm at ICB's suburban location, 455 Eisenhower Lane South, Suite 200, in Lombard. For more details or to register, visit this link HERE.  * * WGN-AM has hired Bill Murdoch to boost up its engineering team, as the station prepares to build new studios and offices on the seventh floor of Tribune Tower. Murdoch is a Chicago native, happy to be returning home after many years of working in Florida. Since 2004, Murdoch has been the Vice President of Engineering for Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), working largely in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, overseeing 20 radio stations, three TV stations, and a staff of engineers in six markets. Before leaving for Florida, Murdoch was Chief Engineer at WLEY (1997-2004), and an engineer at WCKG-FM (1993-1997) & WVAZ-FM (1989-1993). Bill Murdoch starts with WGN Radio on Monday, January 23rd.  * * The Chicago Tribune, who just a few months ago bragged that it would be hiring more staff to its newsroom to help fill up the added pages of content it would be bulking up its newspaper with, announced that it has to soon let some of its newsroom go due to financial cutbacks. Instead of laying off staffers, Gerry Kern, Senior Vice President/Editor of the Chicago Tribune, sent out a memo today asking for volunteers to be laid off -- or as it put it, take part in the company's "voluntary separation program." The newspaper is offering those who take the deal severance pay of two weeks of base pay for the first year they worked for the company and an additional one week of pay for every additional full year there. Those employees would then be gone from the paper within about one month. If not enough staffers take the voluntary exit, non-voluntary layoffs are expected. Chicago Tribune writer Robert Channick offered up more details about the Tribune memo HERE.  * * Chicago-based media giant Playboy Enterprises will soon be Chicago-based no more. The company issued a statement on Friday announcing that as of April 30th, the corporate headquarters and entire Chicago operation will be moved to Los Angeles. Some local employees have been offered transfers, while many will be laid off in the Spring. Playboy was first created in 1953 by Chicago native Hugh Hefner. The company had been based in Chicago all this time, even though Hefner long ago moved to California. The consolidation move had been expected ever since last March, when Hefner partnered with Rizvi Traverse and bought back full control of Playboy Enterprises for $207 million.  * * Chicago-based classic television provider, Antenna TV, has come up with some counter-programming for the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 5th. On that day, from Noon until 11:30pm, Antenna TV will be airing their "Emotional Bowl." The "Emo Bowl" will target women with no interest in football and consist of five heart-breaking, tear-jearker movies: "Desert Bloom," "Rocket Gibraltar," "The Prince of Tides," "Places in the Heart," and "Brother John." Make sure a full box of Kleenex is near the remote. Locally, Antenna TV airs on WGN-TV's digital sub-channel 9.2. 
|
