Robservations: ABC 7’s Judy Hsu, Terrell Brown to anchor at 11 a.m.

Terrell Brown and Judy Hsu

Terrell Brown and Judy Hsu

Robservations on the media beat:

Judy Hsu and Terrell Brown, who co-anchor from 4:30 to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday on ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, have been tapped to anchor ABC 7’s new 11 a.m. weekday newscast, starting June 27. They’ll be joined by meteorologist Tracy Butler on the new addition, which bumps “Windy City Live” to 1 p.m. "There's no doubt our 11 a.m. newscast will be in very good hands with Judy, Terrell and Tracy at the helm along with our experienced production team,” Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC 7, said in a statement Wednesday. It’s a return to the time period for “Eyewitness News,” which dropped its 11 a.m. newscast, anchored by Linda Yu and Sylvia Perez, in 2013.

Kieran Mayo

Kieran Mayo

Less than a week after she was praised by Chicago magazine for the “bold, confrontational covers and issues” she produced as editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine, Kierna Mayo has left to join Interactive One as senior vice president of content and brands. Billed as “The Digital Connection For Black America,” Interactive One is a digital publishing company founded by Cathy Hughes with a portfolio of websites focused on African American and Hispanic audiences. Mayo’s move coincides with sale of Ebony and Jet by Chicago-based Johnson Publishing to Clear View Group, an investment firm in Austin, Texas. Adding editor duties for Ebony is Kyra Kyles, who has headed digital content for Ebony and Jet since last June.

Dan Sorkin

Dan Sorkin

Dan Sorkin, a popular Chicago radio personality and humorist in the 1950s and early ’60s who was credited with discovering comedian Bob Newhart, died of pancreatic cancer June 6 in California at 89. Sorkin hosted overnights and then mornings at the former WCFL, where he helped launch the career of Newhart, then an accountant hoping to break into standup comedy. Sorkin moved to San Francisco in 1964 and spent decades on the air there. He also worked for Synanon Foundation, a controversial drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization. Sorkin, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, later launched what he described as a “whimsical global amputee support network” called Stumps ’R Us.