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Published on Saturday, 26 May 2012 09:05
In this holiday weekend News & Notes, we have plenty of news items from the Chicago media beat, including: WFLD-TV loses EP Phil Landeros; WSNS-TV loses GM Celia Chavez; Univision Chicago loses OM Cesar Canales; K-Hits changes morning hours; PJ turns PD; Q87.7 gives you Bush; Indy 500 on the radio; Me-TV & Antenna TV salute Memorial Day; Gabe Tartaglia introduces Pandora's local sales office; Tomasulo/Belaval/Sculfield/Rogers team up for some "Media Madness"; and Brooke & Jill team up for more podcast fun. All this and more is just below...
* * WFLD-TV has parted ways with yet another Executive Producer, as Phil Landeros voluntarily exited the low-rated Chicago FOX station late Thursday. He joined WFLD-TV in
March 2011 as the Executive Producer for the weekend newscasts, coming up from a position as Nightside Newsroom Manager/Producer at WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL. A native of suburban Midlothian, he was happy to be finally working in his hometown market. In February of this year, he was promoted to Interim Executive Producer of the 9:00pm weeknight newscasts, after the
abrupt exit of Chicago TV veteran Mike Leiderman. For reasons not publicly known, Landeros chose to say goodbye. It appears that WFLD-TV is now searching for its third Executive Producer for the 9:00pm newscasts this year... and it's only May.
* * Celia Chavez, who was President and General Manager of WSNS-TV/Telemundo Chicago since 2009, has taken over as the President and General Manager at KVEA-TV 52 in Los Angeles. She made the move out west earlier this month. Prior to coming to Chicago, she had worked in leadership roles at Telemundo stations in Las Vegas, Denver, and San Antonio.
* * Cesar Canales has been named as the new Vice President/General Manager for Univision Radio's Dallas cluster of stations. This means that he is leaving his role as Operations Manager for the Univision Radio Chicago cluster, effective immediately. He has worked in Chicago since 2001. In addition to overseeing Chicago's radio stations for Univision, he has also served as the Operations Director for Univision Radio's Central Region.
* * At the start of this week, WJMK-FM/104.3 K-Hits slightly rearranged their morning hosts' hours. Eddie & Jobo now start 30 minutes earlier at 5:00am, but end their show one hour earlier at 9:00am. While it is a net loss of 30 minutes for E&J, it is actually feels like a 30 minute gain, since the last hour of their morning show was primarily music anyway and Eddie & Jobo rarely had the opportunity to speak. The new start time lets Eddie & Jobo start having fun and speaking their minds a half hour earlier, with less music interruption. Tommy Edwards' music-intensive shift now starts 60 minutes earlier, running from 9:00am-2:00pm. The new five hour shift of Edwards' now matches that of afternoon & evening DJs Gary Spears & George McFly, whose shift times remain unchanged.
* * Merlin Media has finally gotten around to announcing that PJ Kling was given the title of Program Director of the new WKQX-LP/Q87.7. He had been the Operations Manager of WLUP-FM since
July of last year, despite having never been an OM before, or ever working in Chicago radio before, or even in Rock-formatted radio. However, he had worked as an assistant to Merlin CEO Randy Michaels' best friend Marc Chase, which was all his resume needed to say. After being displaced in his OM role by another crony hire of Michaels', Jim Richards, at the
start of this month, PJ Kling was given the PD title.
* * Speaking of Q87.7, the radio station is sponsoring its first ever contest and concert. The 90s Alternative band Bush will be playing a private concert for 50 people at the "Q87.7 Underground Lounge" at the Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville (1059 W. Addison, Chicago) on this coming Wednesday, May 30th at 11:30am. Tickets for this intimate, mostly acoustic show will not be sold anywhere. They can only be won by signing up on the WKQX-LP
website, with a few tickets being also given out via the Cubby Bear Wrigleyville
Facebook page on Tuesday, May 29th. Winners from the Q87.7 contest will also win tickets to see Bush again later that same night at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, along with Nickelback, Seether, and My Darkest Days.
* * This is Memorial Day weekend, which means it is also Indianapolis 500 weekend. Unfortunately for fans of the famed Indy race, no Chicago radio stations are carrying the IMS Radio Network's live coverage of the annual event. A handful of radio station in the outlying areas of the Chicago market will be carrying the radio coverage, though. Those are: WLPR-FM/89.1 The Lakeshore, WLJE-FM/Indiana 105.5, WKAN-AM/Talk AM 1320, and WCSJ-FM/103.1 - The Voice of Grundy County. Mike King, the chief announcer for the IMS Radio Network since 1999, is behind the mic once again.
* * Chicago-based classic television network, Me-TV is saluting the men and women of the United States Armed Forces with a Memorial Day Marathon on Monday. Starting at 6:00pm, Me-TV will air four hours of military TV shows, including episodes from "M*A*S*H," "Combat!," and "12 O'Clock High." For a complete list of episodes to be shown and times, visit this link
HERE. Me-TV can be seen over-the-air on WCIU-TV's digital subchannel 26.3, as well as on most cable & satellite systems.
* * The other Chicago-based classic television network, Antenna TV, has even bigger plans for Memorial Day. On Monday morning, starting at 4:00am, the network will be airing its "Memorial Day Movie Hero Marathon," with non-stop classic war movies, running until 1:30am Tuesday morning. Ten consecutive films will be shown, including "Sahara," "All The Young Men," "Hellcats of the Navy," and "Mission Over Korea." For times and movies, visit Antenna TV's schedule page
HERE. Locally, Antenna TV airs on WGN-TV's digital sub-channel 9.2.
* * Earlier this week, Pandora Internet radio held a party to celebrate the opening of its new Chicago sales office, located within Tribune Tower. The staff of 25 is headed up by Gabriel Tartaglia, who left his job as the General Sales Manager of WUSN-FM & WCFS-FM in August of last year to become a Regional Vice President with Pandora. RAIN's Michael Schmitt was at the party for potential ad buyers held at the Wit Hotel's ROOF area. His report can be read
HERE.
* * The Laugh Factory (3175 Broadway St., Chicago) is having a special "Media Madness" night on this coming Wednesday, May 30th. Taking the stage that will be four comedians, who all happen to be Chicago radio and television stars. From WGCI-FM's "Morning Riot" will be Tony Sculfield & Leon Rogers and from WGN-TV's "WGN Morning News" will be Pat Tomasulo & Ana Belaval. Could another local media star be added to the line-up before Wednesday? Maybe... Tickets are available online at this link
HERE.
* * Don't forget to check out the "Brooke & Jill Show" podcasts, currently heard only
HERE on Chicagoland Radio & Media's website. Episode #15 with Brooke Hunter and Jill Egan was just released yesterday. For those who want to catch up, the past 14 shows can also be streamed or downloaded on the same
CRM Brooke & Jill webpage.
* * Have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!!!
