Erich Mancow Muller and Roger Stone (July 10, 2020)

Robservations on the media beat:

When Chicago radio personality Erich Mancow Muller flew down to Florida last week he thought he'd be attending a pity party for his friend Roger Stone, who was set to begin serving a 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress and witness intimidation. But thanks to a last-minute commutation Friday, it turned into a high-spirited celebration for the Republican political operative and former adviser to President Donald Trump. In a series of fundraisers last year, the morning host on Cumulus Media news/talk WLS 890-AM raised more than $100,000 for Stone’s defense. "They got Roger Stone on nothing," said Muller, just back in town. "It's kind of like they got Al Capone on tax evasion. There was nothing there. The Russian collusion story is totally fake. . . . All of us commit felonies walking outside every day. It's a kabuki dance with the deep state." Continue reading →

Trey Wingo and Mike Golic

Robservations on the media beat:

All we know for sure is that Mike Golic and Trey Wingo are going away. Beyond that it's anyone's guess as to who'll be hosting mornings on Good Karma Brands sports/talk WMVP 1000-AM after this month. ESPN Network announced a new lineup this week that includes Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Zubin Mehenti from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays. Although Williams is a former Chicago Bulls player, there's no assurance the new show will be picked up here by ESPN 1000. No matter what market manager Mike Thomas decides, he can't do much worse: In the latest Nielsen Audio survey, ESPN 1000 tied for 20th in mornings with a 1.4 percent audience share. Entercom arch rival WSCR 670-AM tied for 17th in mornings with a 1.7 share for Mike Mulligan and David Haugh. Continue reading →

Bob Stroud

Robservations on the media beat:

Bob Stroud, one of Chicago radio’s most knowledgable and respected authorities on rock music for 40 years, has been nominated for induction in the Radio Hall of Fame. The top-rated midday star and host of the long-running “Rock ’n Roll Roots” on Hubbard Radio classic WDRV 97.1-FM is one of 24 nominees in six categories announced today. Chicago's only other nominee is “Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!,” the NPR comedy-quiz show produced by Chicago Public Media WBEZ 91.5-FM. (Here is the link.) Winners will be announced August 17. In lieu of an awards dinner this year, the 2020 induction ceremony will be a live radio broadcast from multiple locations in October. The Radio Hall of Fame is based at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications. Continue reading →

Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) on "Happy Days"

Richie Cunningham, the All-American 1950s teenager played by Ron Howard on the long-running sitcom “Happy Days,” has a poster on his bedroom wall that bears the image of a Confederate flag.

But you won’t see it again as long as the show is running on MeTV. From now on, the flag on Richie’s poster will be digitally blurred whenever it appears on the hometown network for “Memorable Entertainment Television.” Continue reading →

WBBM Newswradio

It was a rare clean sweep for Chicago's all-news radio station in the latest Nielsen Audio survey.

Audience estimates released Tuesday showed the Entercom combo of WBBM 780-AM/WCFS 105.9-FM finishing first overall for the fifth consecutive month and winning all four weekday time periods — mornings, middays, afternoons and evenings. Continue reading →

Maze Jackson

Robservations on the media beat:

Todd Stroger

Citing pressure from his bosses to ease off criticism of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, WVON 1690-AM morning host Maze Jackson resigned last week, taking co-host Todd Stroger and producer Sonia Escobar with him. "The long and short of it is I was censored by station management and told that I could no longer discuss the mayor, anything that could be connected with her, and to cut off any callers that were critical of her," Jackson told me. "I could not accept the censorship, so I chose to resign." Jackson and Stroger promptly turned up on time-brokered gospel station WBGX 1570-AM, where their show airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday (and streams on Facebook and YouTube). Jackson, a political consultant, strategist and former lobbyist, had hosted mornings on WVON since 2017. Stroger, the former Cook County Board president, joined him as co-host in 2019. Melody Spann Cooper, chairman of Midway Broadcasting and general manager of WVON, confirmed that Jackson and Stroger “resigned over editorial and content issues with management,” and said she expects to announce a new morning show soon. In the interim, Ernest B. Fenton, an attorney and longtime contributor to the news/talk station, has been filling in from 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays. Continue reading →

Aurora Police Department

WMAQ-Channel 5 is taking the rap for a story posted briefly online that misidentified the police chief of west suburban Aurora, Illinois, as her counterpart in Aurora, Colorado.

The story concerned the firing of three police officers from Aurora, Colorado, who appeared in photos showing them reenact a chokehold used on Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died last year after police stopped him on the street in the Denver suburb. Continue reading →

Hugh Downs

Robservations on the media beat:

The great Hugh Downs, whose more than five decades in television earned him a Guinness-certified record for most hours on network TV, started it all in Chicago. As a radio announcer at NBC Chicago in the 1940s, Downs moved to TV on "Kukla, Fran and Ollie,” the seminal children’s show created by puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. “On rare occasions I would be seen also, but usually it was voiceover stuff, announcing the program,” Downs recalled in a 1997 interview. “The show had no real rehearsal. They would discuss a situation and they would then just ad lib the whole thing and do it somehow tailored to time. That was an art that may be lost now in our business.” During the years he worked at NBC’s Merchandise Mart studios, Downs lived in north suburban Wilmette, according to broadcast historian Rich Samuels. It was at NBC Chicago that Downs met Dave Garroway, whom he eventually would follow as host of NBC’s “Today.” His amazing list of credits also included Sid Caesar's "Caesar's Hour,” “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar, the game show “Concentration,” and more than 20 years on ABC's “20/20.” Downs died Wednesday at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 99. Continue reading →

Carl Amari and Lisa Wolf (Photo: Bob Chwedyk/Daily Herald)

With the impending cancellation of the weekly “WGN Radio Theatre” on WGN 720-AM, host Carl Amari is about to bring classic drama and comedy from the golden age of radio back to WIND 560-AM.

Starting July 11, Amari’s nationally syndicated “Hollywood 360,” co-hosted by Lisa Wolf, will air live on WIND from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturdays. The station previously aired the program from 2009 to 2015. Continue reading →

Dick Johnson

The passing of one prominent Chicago news anchor and the promotion of another to a new network position led the top 10 most-read stories here in June.

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