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| News & Notes: US99.5; Bob Collins; WLS-AM; Moody Radio; Matt DuBiel; Gary Spears; Brandmeier/Hoover; Marion Brooks; More |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Wednesday, 08 February 2012 10:06 | |||
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Ten new local media news items in today's News & Notes, including: a special anniversary for US99.5; a sad anniversary for fans of Bob Collins; WLS-AM gets fined; Moody Radio starts a new Urban Chicago station; Matt DuBiel's family grows; Darren Marlar grows closer to Chicago radio; Gary Spears wants to watch the Grammys with you; Jonathon Brandmeier and Jeff Hoover bring back "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show"; Marion Brooks receives an honor; and Jim Avila receives a promotion. All of the details are just below...
* * With no fanfare whatsoever, WUSN-FM/US99.5 celebrated a milestone on Monday. February 6th was Chicago's Country station's 30th anniversary. It was on February 6, 1982 that soft rock WEFM-FM flipped to Country WUSN-FM. Since that day, the station has beaten all other Country-formatted competitors in town, including WMAQ-AM (now WSCR-AM), WJJD-AM (now WYLL-AM), WJEZ-FM (now WJMK-FM), and WKXK-FM (now WLS-FM), not to mention temporary competitors like WLFM-LP (The L, but now Smooth 87.7) and most recently, translator W248BB (The Bull, but now ESPN Deportes). Although the station may be getting older, it is sounding younger than ever.  * * Another anniversary, happening today, is not as happy of a celebration. It was 12 years ago this day that WGN-AM morning show host Bob Collins passed away in a tragic private airplane accident in the skies over the north suburbs. Collins was only 57 years old -- just two weeks shy of his 58th birthday. Bart Shore, who was in the traffic helicopter that day for WMAQ-AM when Bob Collins died, has an audio aircheck up this week of his then-live reports of this tragedy (along with news anchor John Dempsey) on his Time Warp Radio website at this link HERE.  * * This week, the FCC proposed a $44,000 fine against WLS-AM and its parent company Cumulus Media for running a 90-second promotional for a company called Workers Independent News (WIN), 11 times in the Spring of 2009. WIN had purchased airtime from WLS-AM in early 2009, airing one one-hour brokered program, two two-hour brokered programs, 45 90-second ads, and 27 15-second ads. Where the problem kicked in for the FCC was that 11 of the 90-second promotional spots sounded like a legitimate news pieces, with what seemed to be a news anchor interviewing a local politician, and did not properly label themselves as paid promotional ads. The proposed fine is $4,000 for each one of the 11 spots that aired this way between March and May 2009. WLS-AM's stance is that the "news" announcer in those ads identified himself as being with WIN and that these spots ran inside commercial breaks, making it obvious to the listener that these were paid advertisements. The FCC disagrees with that stance and says the correct rules regarding these type of ads were not followed. The actual FCC ruling can be read HERE. Some industry insiders are quietly questioning if the FCC is trying to make an "example" of heritage radio station WLS-AM by proposing such a high fine for what is essentially one error, in order to scare other stations across the country to re-examine how they handle such promotional spots. However, the base penalty for these incidents is indeed $4,000, so the FCC claims it is proposing the minimum fine.  * * Moody Radio has recently launched a new 24/7 Soul/Gospel Christian music station called Urban Praise. The new station can be heard on WMBI-FM's 90.1 HD3 channel (for those who have HD radios) and online at UrbanPraiseRadio.org.  * * Congratulations to WJJG-AM and Q101.com Station Manager Matt DuBiel! Matt and his wife Michelle welcomed into the world their baby daughter, Stella Kathleen yesterday. It's baby #4 for the growing family.  * * The multi-talented Darren Marlar gave notice to his bosses at Beloit, WI's True Oldies Channel station WGEZ-AM, that he will be leaving as host of the morning show there after February 17th. So what does a DJ's exit from a Beloit radio station have to do with Chicago radio? Could this have anything to do with a new morning show being created for an AM radio station here? God only knows... The answers will be revealed here in a couple of weeks, though.  * * This Sunday night, WJMK-FM's Gary Spears will be host a 2012 Grammy Awards Viewing Party at the Hard Rock Cafe (63 West Ontario St, Chicago), starting at 6:00pm. In addition to watching the red carpet coverage before the show and the big CBS-TV broadcast itself on Hard Rock Cafe's many TV screens, Gary Spears will be doing music trivia for prizes. Those in attendance can also register to win additional prizes from K-Hits 104.3, such as a vacation getaway to a resort in the Florida Keys, Madonna tickets, Roger Waters tickets, Huey Lewis Tickets, and more.  * * On Friday, February 17th, when Jonathon Brandmeier does his very first WGN-AM live remote in Park Ridge as part of the station's "Hometown Voices" series, he will be joined by a very "special" guest. Entertaining the residents of the Park Ridge retirement community where the broadcast will be coming from will be "Neil Diamond's illegitimate step-son, Stan Diamond," singing the classics of Neil Diamond as only he can. "Stan Diamond" is in actuality, WGN Morning News Producer and funnyman Jeff Hoover. Hoover was a longtime producer/writer/contributor with Brandmeier's radio show from 1993-2001. He has been an Emmy Award-winning producer with WGN-TV since 2003. "...Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies..." Park Ridge may never be the same...  * * WMAQ-TV's Marion Brooks will be the emcee of the 10th annual fundraising gala for the Proviso Leyden Council for Community Action (PLCCA), the "Frost Yourself Ball." Brooks will also be among the honorees that evening, winning a 2012 Spirit of Excellence Award. WVON-AM's President & General Manager, Melody Spann-Cooper is among the event Chairpersons and Chicago broadcasting legend Merri Dee is among the event's honorary chairpersons. For tickets and more information about the event, visit this link HERE.  * * Former Chicago new reporter/anchor Jim Avila is being promoted and relocated by ABC News. His new title with ABC News will be Senior National Correspondent, based out of Washington, DC, and he will be overseeing a new investigative unit which focuses on safety issues of food, drug, airlines, and the environment. He most recently had been ABC News' Senior Law and Justice Correspondent, based out of New York. Even with the new position in Washington, DC, he will still be a regular contributor to ABC-TV's "20/20," specializing in law and justice stories for the news magazine. From 1980-1984, Jim Avila was a reporter with WLS-TV and from 1984-1994, he was a reporter and part-time anchor with WBBM-TV. During his time in Chicago, Avila won numerous awards for his work, including multiple Emmy and Peter Lisagor Awards. 
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