Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel

Five months after Dan McNeil was cut as afternoon co-host on Entercom sports/talk WSCR 670-AM, Matt Spiegel is back together with Danny Parkins and The Score is back up to full staffing on weekdays.

The long-awaited reunion of Parkins and Spiegel from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday coincides with a multiyear contract extension for Parkins. Both moves were announced today. Continue reading →

Bill Shine

After two decades as a senior executive at Fox News and a protégé of chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, Bill Shine was fired in 2017 for his role in enabling the sexual harassment scandals that toppled Ailes and top-rated host Bill O'Reilly.

Shine went on to become White House deputy chief of staff for communications under President Donald Trump. After nine months in that job, he left to join Trump’s reelection campaign as a senior adviser.

These days Shine, 57, is being paid by Nexstar Media Group to serve as a consultant on “NewsNation,” the Chicago-based cable news operation that launched September 1 with a promise to be "100 percent absent of bias," in the words of Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry Sook. Continue reading →

Richard Roeper and Roe Conn

Chicago media mainstays Roe Conn and Richard Roeper, who’ve been radio partners — on and off — since they first teamed up at WLS 890-AM in 2010, are back together again.

Starting today, they’ll co-host “Roe and Roeper,” a twice-weekly podcast focusing on pop culture and current events.

"I couldn't be more thrilled to get behind the microphone again to re-team with Roe," said Roeper, longtime film critic for the Sun-Times and contributor to "Windy City Live" on ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7. Continue reading →

Sandy Pudar

Robservations on the media beat:

NewsNation

Just weeks before the planned expansion of "NewsNation," the Chicago-based cable news operation on WGN America suddenly finds itself without a news director. Sandy Pudar, who oversaw the launch of the three-hour primetime newscast in September, resigned Tuesday, multiple sources confirmed. It's not yet known why she quit. Pudar and officials of parent company Nexstar Media Group declined to comment. Despite chronically low ratings for its first five months on the air, NewsNation plans to add two more hours of news and a nightly talk show hosted by Ashleigh Banfield on March 1. That's also when WGN America will be renamed NewsNation, pointing to further expansion of the news operation that's promoted as free of bias and opinion. Pudar worked closely with Jennifer Lyons, the former WGN news director of WGN-Channel 9 who moved up to vice president of news for WGN America. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Pudar joined WGN in 1999 and worked as a news writer and producer before becoming executive producer of “WGN Morning News” in 2009 and assistant news director in 2014.  She began as an intern for "Larry King Live" at CNN. Continue reading →

Amy Jacobson (Photo: Fox News)

Twice in the past three days Amy Jacobson appeared on the Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” to comment on the dispute over reopening Chicago Public Schools for in-person learning.

On the air Jacobson was identified only as “a Chicago parent and volleyball coach” before she launched into a broadside against the Chicago Teachers Union for keeping kids out of school.

"I think a lot of people enjoy working from their homes in Florida and their homes in California — their second homes," Jacobson told “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt Monday. Continue reading →

Charmaine Bey

The promotion of VH-1 reality star Charmaine Bey to midday personality at WGCI 107.5-FM, the iHeartMedia hip-hop station, led the top 10 most-read stories here in January.

To read the full posts, click on the headlines: Continue reading →

Dorian Orr, Aria Vivian and Irika Sargent

Robservations on the media beat:

Irika Sargent

It’s back to work today for new mom Irika Sargent, who returns to CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 as Monday-through-Friday news anchor alongside Brad Edwards. Along with a photo of her sans makeup, Sargent tweeted: “I'm deeply grateful for a life-changing three months on maternity leave with my family. No makeup for all that time was a bonus! Excited to be back anchoring the @cbschicago news tomorrow at 5, 6 & 10pm and sharing more pics of my girl then!” Aria Vivian was born November 12 to Sargent and her husband, Dorian Orr. Sargent, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, and a graduate of the University of Missouri and Cornell Law School, joined CBS 2 in 2015 from CBS-owned WFOR in Miami. P.S. Kudos to newcomer Marie Saavedra, who did an impressive job filling in for Sargent. Expect to hear more from her, too. Continue reading →

Steve Dolinsky (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

Steve Dolinsky, the award-winning food critic who's been covering the eat beat with gusto for more than 25 years in Chicago, is stepping down as the "Hungry Hound" at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.

His final reviews will air February 19 and 20, according to Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC 7.

"Steve is leaving ABC 7 to focus on his own food-related projects," Graves wrote in an internal memo Thursday. "Please join me in wishing Steve every success as he pursues his passions and builds on this work. His plans include expanding his food and restaurant coverage to other cities and developing a service to curate culinary talent for food halls and music festivals around the country." Continue reading →

Greg Kot

One year after stepping down as the nationally renowned music critic at the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot is about to help launch an ambitious new multimedia startup billed as "a new way to experience music."

Kot will serve as editorial director of The Coda Collection, which will debut February 18 with a channel on Amazon Prime featuring rare concerts, music documentaries and film premieres. (Here is the link.) Continue reading →

WLS 890 AM

Robservations on the media beat:

Kim Gordon

Hearing Judy Pielach in mornings and Kim Gordon in afternoons, you might think you're listening to WGN 720-AM, where both spent decades anchoring and reporting the news. But in fact they’re the two newest on-air voices at WLS 890-AM, the Cumulus Media news/talk station. Credit for their hiring goes to Stephanie Tichenor, program director of WLS, who previously worked with them when she was director of news and operations at WGN, the Nexstar Media Group news/talk competitor. On Tuesday Tichenor officially confirmed Gordon’s start as afternoon news anchor, succeeding John Dempsey on “The John Howell Show.” Until her resignation last week Gordon had been a news anchor and reporter at WGN for 15 years. “You need experience and grit to craft a meaningful, accurate newscast and Kim Gordon has both of those qualities in spades,” Tichenor said in a statement. Last month WLS added Pielach as a contributor to “The Bruce St. James Morning Show.” In 2019 Pielach took a buyout from WGN after 32 years as an anchor/reporter. Continue reading →