Sixteen months into Larry Wert’s tenure as president of Tribune Broadcast Media, what’s the most important thing on his to-do list? Marketing and sales for his 41 stations across the country.

“Our current agenda is to put together a marketing and sales organization for all of our stations and all of our digital properties,” Wert told TVNewser at its show and job fair in New York last week. “We’re working on that right now as a priority.” Continue reading →

Chicago-based startup Rivet News Radio, the mobile app designed to deliver personalized local, national and world news along with traffic and weather to smartphone users, just added content from the Sun-Times to its playlist.

The agreement between the Sun-Times and Rivet News Radio’s parent company, HearHere Radio Inc., marks the latest content partnership for the fledgling news service. Other contributors include Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5 (featuring Jerome McDonnell’s “Worldview”), Crain’s Chicago Business and the Associated Press. Continue reading →

Erin Kennedy

One year after WBBM-Channel 2 abruptly cut Susan Carlson, the CBS-owned station finally has hired her replacement as weekday morning news anchor.

Erin Kennedy, who’s been a reporter and morning news anchor at WKYC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Cleveland, is joining CBS 2 alongside co-anchor Kris Gutierrez from 4:30 to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, starting May 19. Continue reading →

Newsweb Radio plans to drop its progressive talk simulcast from two of its FM signals while continuing the format on WCPT AM 820 and WCPY FM 92.5.

Starting June 2, WCPT FM 92.7 and WCPQ FM 99.9 will switch to Polski.FM, a time-brokered format of Polish-language news, talk and music, airing from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Continue reading →

Readers of the Sun-Times who thought they were experiencing deja vu Monday were just getting a second dose of the same comics.

Monday’s edition of the paper carried the same comics as Saturday’s. Both sets were dated May 5. Continue reading →

Greg Caputo (Photo: Slawek Chrzaszcz)

Greg Caputo, a widely admired and respected television news executive who headed three Chicago news operations over more than three decades, is retiring as news director of Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9.

Caputo announced Monday that he plans to step down in June — one month before he turns 65. “I think the time is right for me to pay more attention to my personal, family life after 30-plus years as a news director at this level,” he told me. Continue reading →

Joan Esposito

Fifteen years after she left Chicago television, former news anchor Joan Esposito is getting back on the air.

Esposito, 60, has been hired part-time at Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5, where she will serve as a backup and vacation-relief news anchor during mornings, middays and afternoons.

Now that her two children (son Ben, 20, and daughter Thomasina, 16) are older, Esposito expressed interest in returning to broadcasting on a limited basis, according to Sally Eisele, managing editor at WBEZ. “What we’re doing is developing a relationship with someone who can help us out and get to know the public radio side of the business,” Eisele said. Continue reading →

Toni Ginnetti

Veteran Chicago sportswriter Toni Ginnetti, who was among the first women to cover a wide range of professional and college sports beats — including both the White Sox and the Cubs — retired Friday after 33 years at the Sun-Times.

Although she’ll continue to write occasionally for the paper on a freelance basis, her retirement caps a Chicago journalism career of outstanding work and groundbreaking achievement. Continue reading →

Jane Hirt

Three years ago this week I published a list of 21 women I considered to be the most powerful in Chicago journalism. It was purely subjective — and highly debatable.

As expected, it touched off a spirited conversation among readers about women in media, and prompted three other male bloggers — Chicago magazine’s Whet Moser, the Reader’s Michael Miner and Our Man in Chicago’s Scott Smith — to propose alternate candidates. Continue reading →

Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman

Looking forward to “crackling on the airwaves once more,” Chicago theater reviewers Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel are returning to public radio.

Starting this weekend, their “Dueling Critics” segment will air every other week on “The Arts Section,” a new Sunday morning newsmagazine show on the College of DuPage’s WDCB FM 90.9. Gary Zidek will host the 30-minute show, airing at 8 a.m. Sundays. Continue reading →