Robservations on the media beat:
North Shore native Justin Breen, the former DNAinfo Chicago senior editor who launched his own public relations and communications business in 2017, just turned author. His first book — Epic Business: 30 Secrets to Build Your Business Exponentially and Give You the Freedom to Live the Life You Want! — will be published in May. This week he unveiled a companion website for prepublication orders at brepicbusiness.com. “I am so thankful every day for BrEpic’s success, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned from some of the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs," Breen said. "Creating a business from ground zero is a tremendous roller coaster of emotions, and I hope this book helps people navigate their own journeys.”
"The Drew Barrymore Show," a new syndicated talk show hosted by the actress and producer, has been picked up for airing this fall by CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 and Weigel Broadcasting WCIU-Channel 26. “I want this to be a show that celebrates every part of humanity,” Barrymore told Variety. “There’s been an interesting alignment of the tone and the intention and the moment for everyone involved.” She'll also serve as executive producer. CBS 2 will air the show at 2 p.m. weekdays, starting in September. Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, said the show will air on his station sometime between 5 and 10 p.m. weekdays.
Candi Carter, executive producer of ABC's "The View," will be renewing old ties in her hometown of west suburban Oak Park. She'll appear as the latest guest in the Wednesday Journal Conversations series at 7 p.m. February 1 at Dominican University in River Forest. (Here is the link for tickets.) Carter, a former producer of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," will be interviewed about her life and career by Susy Schultz, executive director of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
Matt Fishman, former sports director and producer at Entercom sports/talk WSCR 670-AM, has been named director of content at WKNR, the Good Karma Brands ESPN sports station in Cleveland. "It’s easy to pontificate about what you would do when programming a sports radio station, but it’s something else to put it into practice in the real world," he said. Fishman, who began as an intern at The Score, most recently was a columnist and blogger for Barrett Sports Media. Earlier he headed college sports programming for SiriusXM Radio and was program director of KCSP in Kansas City.
Wednesday’s comment of the day: Ronald Lucarelli: I hope this is a professional development opportunity for Mary [Sandberg Boyle] and Sean [Compton] over at WGN Radio, because I don't think the ratings slide is over yet. [Steve] Cochran had faults, but it is clear everybody in management underestimated how well the dynamics of his show worked. He had interesting segments, guests, and admit it, he was funny. It was something to look forward to because everybody got on so well together. Bob Sirott deserves all the respect for the incredible man he is, but I don't think this was his moment. The morning show is just so dry now. Let's not forget pulling Bill and Wendy when they were your only other show pulling ratings. Who cares that they do something different? People liked it. Bill [Leff] and Wendy [Synder] were great with your listeners and their show prevented the lineup being so repetitive between the Cochran Show and John Williams.
Anna Davlantes is doing a great job and she deserved a chance, so I'll give them credit on that. Pulling [Steve] Bertrand off the Business Lunch is another decision that makes me cringe, though. Ji [Suk Yi] was doing so well with Cochran, filling in that spot Mary left when she got promoted. Why not keep it when it was working? When I heard Ji needing explanations about basic economic principles (I'm a scientist for reference), I had to switch off. I've been on WBEZ for the most part now.