Meagan Fitzgerald

Meagan Fitzgerald, weekend morning news anchor at the NBC-owned station in Washington, D.C., has been named Chicago-based correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.

“A heartfelt and sincere honor,” Fitzgerald tweeted today shortly after her hiring was announced by David Verdi,  NBC News senior vice president of worldwide news gathering. “I’m very excited and grateful to join this team!” Continue reading →

Chicago Sun-Times

Robservations on the media beat:

Nykia Wright

They're bracing for layoffs at the Sun-Times following an all-staff virtual meeting Friday with CEO Nykia Wright. An analysis of the company's workforce will determine "a limited number of strategic staff reductions," Wright said, although none will involve reporters, editors, visual journalists or other content curators and producers in the newsroom. "Economic stresses on the pre-COVID business model require us to more deliberately think about our future and the type of media company we will need to be to continue to educate and inform our readers — but also to grow," she said. "We do not have a target number of employees in mind; instead we are looking to match the right people with the responsibilities needed to sustain ourselves in a post-COVID world." Wright also told employees they will not be required to report to the office until January 2 at the earliest. Continue reading →

Ray Cortopassi

“Chicago’s Very Own” WGN-Channel 9 has reached out to its company’s station in Indianapolis to hire a new co-anchor for its nightly newscasts.

Ray Cortopassi, 53, who grew up in south suburban Dolton and graduated from Columbia College Chicago, is coming home to join the Nexstar Media Group station here. Starting September 28, he’ll co-anchor WGN’s 5, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. Monday-through-Friday newscasts with Micah Materre. Continue reading →

Stefan Holt

After four years at WNBC in New York, Stefan Holt is moving back home to Chicago and returning to WMAQ-Channel 5 as a Monday-through-Friday main news anchor, the NBC-owned station announced today.

Holt, 33, the son of “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, previously spent five years as morning news anchor at NBC 5. Starting October 12, he will co-anchor the station's 4 and 10 p.m. newscasts. Continue reading →

Guaranteed Rate Field

Robservations on the media beat:

Look for Chicago White Sox baseball to move to a new radio home next season. No one will comment and nothing is official yet, but all signs are pointing to a deal with WMVP 1000-AM, the ESPN Radio sports/talk station managed by Good Karma Brands. Such a move would be in keeping with ESPN 1000's plan to compete on the local front with Entercom sports/talk WSCR 670-AM, which airs Chicago Cubs baseball. The White Sox are nearing the end of their three-year deal with Nexstar Media Group news/talk WGN 720-AM, which has shown little interest in renewing. In 2018 the team lost its radio home on news/talk WLS AM 890, which dropped broadcast rights contracts with both the White Sox and the Chicago Bulls as part of Cumulus Media’s reorganization from bankruptcy. Continue reading →

Dean Reynolds

With two weeks to go before the launch of its three-hour nightly newscast from Chicago, WGN America has tapped network news veteran Dean Reynolds as national political correspondent for “News Nation.”

Reynolds, who most recently was Chicago bureau correspondent for CBS News, is the first nationally known broadcast journalist to sign on with the Nexstar Media Group cable news startup. Continue reading →

Cokie Roberts

Robservations on the media beat:

Glenn Beck

Cokie Roberts, the trailblazing political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio and ABC News, will be inducted posthumously in the Radio Hall of Fame. Roberts, who died of breast cancer last year, was among the winners announced today by the Chicago-based shrine to radio's legends. For the second straight year no one from Chicago made the cut. (This year's hometown nominees were Bob “Rock ’n Roll Roots” Stroud and “Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!,” the NPR comedy-quiz show produced by Chicago Public Media.) Joining Roberts in the class of 2020 are: Glenn Beck of Premiere Networks; Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps of KLOS in Los Angeles; Angie Martinez of WWPR in New York; Sway Calloway of Sirius XM; Donnie Simpson of WMMJ in Washington, D.C.; and "The Breakfast Club" (Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee, DJ Envy) of WWPR and Premiere Networks. Inductees will be honored October 29 in a virtual ceremony to air as a live radio broadcast. Continue reading →

ABC 7 Chicago

In the latest sign of the times, Chicago’s top-rated broadcast news operation soon will hire a reporter to cover race and culture as a full-time beat.

WLS-Channel 7 is one of eight ABC-owned stations to post job openings for the new position.

"Each journalist must be a passionate storyteller, brilliant multi-platform content creator, effective communicator and proven collaborator," according to the listing. "The journalists will be part of the editorial decision-making process as it relates to story assignments, sourcing subjects featured in stories and developing community relationships to expand the diversity of voices included in our storytelling." Continue reading →

ABC 7 Chicago

Robservations on the media beat:

Four full-time employees and at least one part-timer were terminated Wednesday in cutbacks at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, according to insiders at Chicago's top-rated station. The layoffs followed similar actions in recent weeks by four other local TV stations in response to revenue declines attributed to COVID-19. John Idler, president and general manager of ABC 7, did not respond to requests for comment. But sources said none of the positions affected were in news. Most were believed to be among staffers from "Windy City Live" who've been on furlough since April. The daily talk show has scaled back production significantly since the pandemic shutdown. Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC Owned Television Stations. Continue reading →

Fruity Pebbles

Robservations on the media beat:

It's another masterstroke of marketing for Me-TV, the Chicago-based network for classic television. As a tie-in to its daily broadcasts of "The Flintstones," Me-TV has landed a promotional deal with Post Cereals to appear on the back panel of boxes of Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. Starting in September, more than 21 million boxes of Pebbles will carry the network's logo along with a picture game and a call to watch "The Flintstones." In exchange, Me-TV has begun airing commercials for the cereals. (Introduced in 1971, they're the oldest cereal brand based on any TV character or series, according to Breakfast: A History.) Credit Will Givens, vice president of network marketing at Weigel Broadcasting, with the coup. As Fred Flintstone would say: "Yabba Dabba Doo!" Continue reading →