Karen Lewis

With Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis sidelined by illness, the race for mayor of Chicago just got a whole lot less interesting.

What had been shaping up to be to an epic battle against a seemingly vulnerable Mayor Rahm Emanuel suddenly may have turned into a snoozer. Continue reading →

Ron Magers and Roe Conn

The sudden demise of Roe Conn and Richard Roeper’s afternoon show on WLS AM 890 last week also brought an end to Ron Magers’ daily in-studio appearances on the Cumulus Media news/talk station.

For more than 16 years, the Chicago television news legend was a star attraction with Conn and his various co-hosts, often providing the best half-hour of conversation in all of radio. But with the latest turn of events, Magers says he’s through with radio and plans to focus on his duties as 5 and 10 p.m. news anchor at top-rated ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7. Continue reading →

Carol Marin

Newsrooms generally cheer when their exclusives get picked up and credited by others. But in the case of a recent WMAQ-Channel 5 investigative report, the NBC-owned station isn’t happy about how it’s being used at all.

At issue is a 30-second commercial that began airing throughout Illinois Friday for Democratic Governor Pat Quinn in his campaign for reelection against Republican challenger Bruce Rauner. The commercial excerpts an NBC 5 report about Rauner and includes the voice of political editor Carol Marin. Continue reading →

Corey McPherrin and Darlene Hill

A year ago it looked like Corey McPherrin’s days were numbered at WFLD-Channel 32. Now the Fox-owned station is turning to him to help save its tanking morning show.

After stumbling around with a bunch of relatively inexperienced newcomers, Fox 32 just put two familiar faces front and center on “Good Day Chicago.” McPherrin and Darlene Hill, both 20-year veterans of the station, this week were promoted to anchor the show’s 7 to 10 a.m. hours as well as Fox 32's noon newscast Monday through Friday. Continue reading →

Erich Mancow Muller

Mancow has left the building. But will he be back?

The cancellation of Erich Mancow Muller’s morning show this week after two years on Fox-owned WPWR-Channel 50 marks the first time in nearly three decades that the former Chicago shock jock is off the air completely. No TV. No radio. Nothing. Continue reading →

Steve Dahl

Despite his oft-stated misgivings about the current state of radio, Steve Dahl insists he’s eager to get back on the air to become “part of the daily conversation in Chicago.”

Confirming a report here Tuesday, Dahl said he has signed to host afternoons on Cumulus Media news/talk WLS AM 890, starting November 3. Airing between syndicated talkers Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, he’ll be on from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Continue reading →

Steve Dahl

Six years after he signed off from over-the-air radio, Chicago broadcast legend Steve Dahl is about to make a comeback on WLS AM 890, sources said.

An announcement could come this week that Dahl, 59, will join the Cumulus Media news/talk station as afternoon personality, replacing Roe Conn and Richard Roeper from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday though Friday. If all goes as planned, Dahl would start in early November. Continue reading →

Randy Michaels and Kevin Metheny (2009)

Kevin Metheny, who suffered a heart attack and died Friday in San Francisco, may have been the most famous program director in America.

By the time he came to Chicago for his ill-fated run at WGN AM 720 in 2008, he’d already been immortalized by Howard Stern, who clashed with Metheny in the 1980s at WNBC AM in New York. Stern famously dubbed his meddling, memo-crazy boss “Pig Virus” (renamed “Pig Vomit” and played by Paul Giamatti as a sputtering rube in the film version of Stern’s autobiography Private Parts). Continue reading →

Tony Lossano

Robservations on the media beat:

Happy to see the great Tony Lossano is back: The creative force behind “The Big Fat Nude Hippo Show,” which ran for 16 years on various outlets in Chicago, is returning with “Lossano and Friends!” Starting this weekend and originating at 1 p.m. Saturdays from the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the one-hour weekly audio podcast will be posted online Saturday nights at lossano.com via Ed Silha’s Radio Misfits Podcast Network. Each show will feature national and local celebrity guests along with Lossano’s cast of regulars. “My show will put all of the guests in the studio at the same time for the entire hour, and just have compelling and entertaining conversations,” he said. “It is based on the green room of my old show, where all my guests would get together and just chat. I am the host of this party, but it will be a party.” Continue reading →

Dionne Miller

Dionne Miller, who signed off earlier this week as weekend sports anchor at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, could be headed for top-rated ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.

Although no deal has been reached, sources said, Miller has met with ABC 7 bosses and is among top candidates to replace weekend sports anchor and reporter Rafer Weigel, who’s leaving to become a news anchor at KTVI-TV, the Fox affiliate in St. Louis. His last day on the air here will be Sunday.

A spokeswoman for ABC 7 was unavailable for comment. Continue reading →