Reporters join Bill Kurtis on ‘Through the Decades’

Bill Kurtis

Bill Kurtis

Correspondents Ellee Pai Hong and Kerry Sayers will join host Bill Kurtis when “Through the Decades” debuts May 25 on a new digital network being launched by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting and CBS Television Stations.

Hong, former morning news anchor at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5, and Sayers, former update anchor at CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670, will serve as reporters on the one-hour daily series being promoted as the centerpiece of the Decades network. Continue reading

NBC 5 fortifies news management team

NBC Tower Chicago

NBC Tower Chicago

The creation of two new positions in the WMAQ-Channel 5 newsroom marks an ambitious expansion of the management team at the NBC-owned station.

At a time when others are cutting back on news resources, the latest postings for managing editor and news production manager reflect the commitment of parent company Comcast/NBCUniversal to strengthen their local operations, according to NBC 5 bosses. Continue reading

Fahey Flynn and Bob Sirott to share spotlight again

Fahey Flynn and Bob Sirott (1969)

Fahey Flynn and Bob Sirott (1969)

Forty-six years after their first auspicious meeting, Chicago television luminaries Fahey Flynn and Bob Sirott are about to be inducted into the same class of the industry’s prestigious Silver Circle.

The two are among 10 broadcast veterans who’ll be honored May 8 by the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Carol Marin, a 2002 Silver Circle inductee, will emcee the event at Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago. Continue reading

Now hear this: Siri can read Tribune on Apple Watch

Apple Watch

Apple Watch

Want to hear Siri read stories from the Chicago Tribune to you? Now with the new Apple Watch, there’s an app for that.

Tribune Publishing rolled out a series of apps Friday for the Apple Watch allowing users to access content from the Tribune and seven other newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Sun Sentinel of South Florida, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, and The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Continue reading

Loyola turns station back to students

WLUW studio

WLUW studio

An overhaul of programming designed to increase the role of students at Loyola University’s WLUW FM 88.7 will reduce or eliminate some of the station’s longest running community-based talk shows.

Among the casualties is Jerry Mead-Lucero’s “Labor Express Radio,” billed as “Chicago’s only labor news and current affairs radio program,” which has aired weekly on the nonprofit station since 1993. Others cancellations include Jacob Briskman’s “Logic Consortium,” Doug Williams’ “Azan” and Mitchell Szczepanczyk’s “From The Trenches.” Continue reading

Wrapports takes its brand off Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

Pick up a copy of the Sun-Times these days and you’ll no longer find any reference to Wrapports LLC, the media holding company that’s owned the paper since 2011.

Gone from the front page, the masthead and everywhere else is the corporate name once meant to signify the "rapport" of new technology and the "wrapping" of a traditional print newspaper. A “Wrapports” sign recently was removed from the entrance to the Sun-Times. New security badges issued to employees now say “Sun-Times” instead of “Wrapports.” Continue reading