Melody Mendez

Forget about a libel attorney. What WFLD-Channel 32 staffers may need is a good personal injury lawyer.

Melody Mendez, news anchor at the Fox-owned station, bailed out of the final hour of “Good Day Chicago” Friday after she tripped and fell over loose cables on the newsroom floor. Co-workers said she seriously injured her wrist. Continue reading →

Don Dupree

A locally produced sports memorabilia show that began as a series of specials on Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9 has just landed a national distribution deal.

Chicago TV veteran Don Dupree, creator and executive producer of “A Piece of the Game,” announced this week that he’s signed a deal for his show to be available in 65 million households. Starting later this spring, it will air on Comcast SportsNet outlets in Chicago, Philadelphia, New England and the San Francisco Bay area and on Fox Sports regional networks throughout the rest of the country. Continue reading →

Drive-time gets all the attention, but the most loyal radio listening happens during the middle of the day when people are at work or otherwise occupied.

Here’s a look at Chicago’s top 10 midday shows (as measured in February by Nielsen Audio among all listeners age 6 and older from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday), followed by average share of audience. Continue reading →

Jill Manuel

Jill Manuel, former news director of Tribune Broadcasting’s CLTV, is returning to Chicago to become assistant news director at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32.

Announcement of her hiring Thursday came just 10 days after Manuel was released from WEWS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, where she had been news director since 2008.

Effective April 15, she succeeds Chris Myers, who resigned last January after two years as assistant news director at Fox 32 to join Al Jazeera America in Los Angeles. She reports to Tom Doerr, vice president and news director. Continue reading →

Amara Walker

Imagine going from the worst local news operation in Chicago to the international anchor desk of CNN in one move.

That’s the story of Amara Walker, who bailed out last December from Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, where she had been a weekend news anchor on the rise. She quit to move with her husband, plastic surgeon Thomas Walker, who'd landed a new position in Atlanta. Continue reading →

Sue Ontiveros

Sue Ontiveros, a versatile editor, talented writer and respected mentor to fellow journalists, is resigning after 30 years at the Sun-Times.

Ontiveros told colleagues Monday that she will step down April 1 as deputy features editor, the post she has held since 2006. She will continue her association with the newspaper by writing a weekly editorial page column about social issues and blogging about nutrition, fitness, wellness and food for suntimes.com on a free-lance basis. Continue reading →

While much of what passes for news on local television has hit the skids, fortunately there’s still something to be said for solid, old-fashioned investigative reporting in Chicago.

Exhibit A is the I-Team at WLS-Channel 7, where chief investigative reporter Chuck Goudie, a 34-year veteran of the ABC-owned station, heads a franchise that has expanded its brand, doubled its personnel and elevated local TV to a new competitive level in recent months. Continue reading →

Ira Glass

Contrary to my report here Saturday, Ira Glass says he doesn’t have a deal with Public Radio Exchange to distribute “This American Life,” his popular weekly radio program.

“We haven't begun negotiations with PRX or anyone else to distribute the program,” Glass told me in a statement Monday, adding that he has “no idea what terms PRX would offer and [that] there are lots of other options.”

Glass, the host and executive producer of “This American Life,” is seeking a new distribution plan for the show, which is severing ties after 17 years with Public Radio International, as of July 1. Continue reading →

Paul Agase

After 24 years in sales and management positions at CBS Radio Chicago, Paul Agase is changing station identification and jumping to rival Cumulus Media Chicago.

As vice president of sales under Cumulus market manager Donna Baker, Agase will oversee advertising for news/talk WLS AM 890 and classic rock WLUP FM 97.9. He began his career as an account executive and sales manager at WLS in 1981. Continue reading →

Ira Glass

Just as Ira Glass promised, it didn’t take long for “This American Life” to land a new distributor. Sources tell me it’s going from PRI to PRX.

After 17 years with Public Radio International, the award-winning weekly radio program announced Thursday that it was severing ties with the Minneapolis-based outfit that oversees sales, marketing and transmission of the show to 587 stations nationwide.

Although all parties involved are keeping mum (host and executive producer Glass will say only that he’ll have an announcement “sometime soon”), insiders said Friday an agreement is expected with Public Radio Exchange, another distributor of public radio programming, based in Cambridge, Mass. The current deal with PRI expires on July 1. Continue reading →