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Published on Friday, 05 October 2012 18:13
Some websites give you one local media news item. Some may give three or four local media news items. Today's News & Notes gives you a whopping 16 local media news items, including: Chicago Bears win the game and the ratings; the Chicago Journalists Association honor Bill Kurtis & others; WBEZ-FM changes around its Saturdays; Dick Biondi leads another Sock Hop; Scott Shannon talks about exiting WLS-FM; Roy Leonard talks to Cameron Mackintosh & Steve Allen; Radio-Info's boards moves to a new home; RedEye turns 10; Trine Tsouderos exits the Chicago Tribune; Mark Konkol exits the Chicago Sun-Times; Lora LeSage rises at NBC; Emmis Interactive is sold to a competitor; WXRT-FM goes to the races; Nick Swiantek gets hitched; Steve Dahl gets a granddaughter; and the sad & sudden passing of Mike "Duke" Dukewich. All of the details can be read here...
* * The Chicago Bears are not only the "Monsters of the Midway," but also continue to deliver "Monster" television ratings. This past Monday night's game, seen locally on WGN-TV and locally/nationally on ESPN, was easily the most watched television show this week. In fact, it was the most watched "Monday Night Football" game so far this NFL season, and the third-largest audience for any show on cable television so far in 2012. According to Nielsen, the game's national broadcast saw a 12.3 rating, which equates to approximately 12,035,000 households. Locally, the Chicago rating was even more impressive, earning an incredible 32.5 rating in the market, when combining the numbers for ESPN & WGN-TV's simulcast of ESPN. Individually in the Chicago market, ESPN saw a 17.3 rating and WGN-TV brought in a 15.2 rating.
* * Tonight, WGN-AM's Bill Moller is serving as the host of the Chicago Journalists Association's 73rd Annual Awards Dinner. Being honored at the dinner this evening is WBBM-TV's Bill Kurtis, who will be receiving the CJA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Also being honored are the Chicago Reader's John Conroy, who is being named the Chicago Journalist of the Year, and reporter/editor Adela Navarro Bello, who is being given the Daniel Pearl Award.
* * WBEZ-FM is making some changes to its Saturday morning lineup, in the wake of the retirement of the long-running NPR show "Car Talk." With the changes beginning tomorrow, "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!" shifts ahead one hour to 9:00am, followed by "This American Life" moving to 10:00am. "Sound Opinions" remains at 11:00am. At Noon, PRX/NPR personal story-telling show, "Snap Judgment" comes to the Chicago Public station. Fans of "Car Talk" can tune in Sundays at 5:00pm on WBEZ-FM to hear "best of" shows from "Car Talk."
* * WLS-FM's Dick Biondi will be hosting another of his 50s-themed Sock Hops tomorrow night, Saturday, October 6th. It will be for the annual fundraiser for Barrington Rotary Charities, Inc. This is the second year in a row for Biondi to host this event, after last year's sock hop was such an incredible success. Tickets for the event are $40 and can be purchased online
HERE. Proceeds will benefit Barrington Rotary Charities, Barrington Youth and Family Services, and others charities. The "Rotary Clubs of Barrington Charity Sock Hop" will be held at the Barrington Park District's Langendorf Park Fitness Center (235 Lions Dr., Barrington) from 6:30pm-11:00pm. Dick Biondi himself takes the stage at 8:00pm.
* * The Chicago-based blogsite
Forgotten Hits, had an exclusive interview with Scott Shannon, the Hall of Fame DJ. In it, Shannon talks about his forced exit last week from WLS-FM, after years of being the station's top rated midday host and its longtime programmer. While Scott Shannon is still an employee of Cumulus Media, who nationally distributes his syndicated True Oldies Channel, he said as much as he could about the situation currently taking place at WLS-FM. The very interesting interview, done by Kent Kotal, can be read at this direct link
HERE.
* * With the live version of "Les Miserables" coming to Chicago in a few weeks, and the "Les Miserables" film scheduled for release in just over two months, Chicago radio legend Roy Leonard has added his 1989 interview with producer Cameron Mackintosh to his
Radio Interviews page on his personal website,
RoyLeonard.com. Mackintosh talks about his plays "Phantom of the Opera" and "Miss Saigon," as well. Also added this week to the same page is Roy Leonard's 1995 interview with famed comedian/author/songwriter/host Steve Allen.
* * The former Radio-Info message boards now have a new home. When the Radio-Info website was ended and taken over by Talkers.com
in August, the message boards were not part of the transaction. With the boards no longer part of Radio-Info, they could not continue to use the R-I name. Owners Rick & Diana Fleming have since renamed and moved the message boards to
RadioDiscussions.com. Other than the name and domain name change, there are no changes to the boards. Even though it is not part of the new
RadioInfo.com website, the home page of the new site still has a tiny link to Radio Discussions on it for now.
* * The Chicago Tribune-owned RedEye, which launched on October 30th, 2002, is celebrating its 10th anniversary all month long with a few weeks of events, contests, special features, and more to commemorate the occasion. There is a 10th Birthday page on the RedEye website, looking back at its first decade, which can be seen
HERE. The paper is planning a big birthday party for itself, which will take place on November 2nd at Chicago's Riverfront Theater.
* * The Chicago Tribune has lost another reporter. Trine Tsouderos has left her job as a reporter to join public relations firm GolinHarris as Media Director. Tsouderos had been a reporter with the Chicago Tribune since 2003, with the last three years focusing on science and medical reports. Her husband, "What's Your Problem?" columnist Jon Yates remains with the Chicago Tribune.
* * Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mark Konkol has resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times. A reporter for over 17 years, he is leaving the traditional newspaper to become a writer/reporter for the upcoming online neighborhood news source
DNAinfo Chicago. In addition to his years with the Sun-Times, Konkol also previously did a popular podcast with former Q101 personality Fook, called "Keeping Score In Chicago."
* * NBC has promoted Lora LeSage to Senior Vice President of Digital Media for NBC Owned Television Stations. Since April 2010, she had been the Vice President of Digital Media & Operations for the NBC owned & operated stations, which includes Chicago's WMAQ-TV. Many in Chicago will know LeSage from her years working here at WMAQ-TV/NBC 5. She began there in 1997, working various positions for the newsroom, including Investigative Producer, Senior Producer, Executive Producer, and in 2007, Executive Producer/Special Projects & Digital News. In September 2008, she was promoted to Director of Integrated Media for NBC-TV and relocated to New York. Lora LeSage is a 1992 graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
* * Emmis Communications, the former full owner of WLUP-FM and WKQX-FM, who still retains a 20% ownership stake in the stations, continues to sell off properties as it tries to make itself a more streamlined and financially stable company. Emmis Communictions has sold off its Chicago-based online company, Emmis Interactive to competitor Marketron Interactive. As part of the sale, Marketron gains all of Emmis Interactive's software and services, which includes the brands of BaseStation, GeoStation and Guidable. Emmis Interactive Co-Presidents Deborah Esayian and Rey Mena, will now become employees of Marketron. There is no word yet if any of the Chicago employees, some of which are former radio employees of WLUP-FM/WKQX-FM, will lose their jobs with the change of ownership.
* * At the end of this coming Sunday morning's Bank of America Chicago Marathon, look for WXRT-FM to be there congratulating the runners and fans. 93XRT will have a booth set up in Grant Park at the "27th Mile Post-Race Party," taking place in Grant Park from 10:00am-3:30pm.
* * Congratulations to Nick Swiantek, CBS Radio Chicago's Sports Sales Coordinator, working with sponsors for WBBM-AM's Bears broadcasts and WSCR-AM's Sox broadcasts. Swiantek and his girlfriend Kayla DiMenna became husband and wife this past weekend.
* * Chicago radio legend Steve Dahl is a grandfather for a second time, this time with his first granddaughter. Steve & Janet Dahl's son Michael Dahl, along with his wife Kathryn, welcomed daughter Mary into the world on Sunday. Congratulations to the growing Dahl family.
* * 35 year veteran of WLS-TV/ABC 7 News, Mike "Duke" Dukewich passed away suddenly last weekend at the age of only 58. He had been an award-winning cameraman for the station since he was in his early 20's, following in the footsteps of his father, John Dukewich, who also was a veteran Chicago cameraman/photographer. Condolences to the Dukewich family and his even larger ABC-TV family.
