Bob Ramsey, who helped Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting expand its brand across multiple channels and headed all broadcast operations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, is stepping down as executive vice president of local media.

Ramsey, 57, said Friday he expects to shift into a consultancy role with the company after assisting in the hiring of his replacement. Starting later this year he plans to spend more time in Palm Springs, California, where he has owned a home for eight years. Continue reading →

Mike Caplan

WLS-Channel 7 parted company Thursday with Mike Caplan after 21 years as meteorologist in a move that came just five weeks after the ABC-owned station added Cheryl Scott to its full-time weather staff.

Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC 7, is expected to announce new assignments Friday for the weather staff that includes Scott, chief meteorologist Jerry Taft, Tracy Butler and Phil Schwarz. Taft recently extended his contract through July 2016. Continue reading →

Think you had a tough year? Chicago radio had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

Total radio revenue in Chicago plunged more than 10 percent in 2014. Income from all sources totaled $376.231 million — down from the previous year’s $419.715 million, according to figures supplied by the station groups and compiled by the accounting firm of Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. Continue reading →

Chicago-based Towers Productions is getting down to business with “Strange Inheritance,” an original primetime series to debut next week on Fox Business Network.

Hosted by Fox News anchor Jamie Colby, the show will focus on how real families deal with the priceless legacies and bizarre treasures they inherit. Stories range from efforts to keep a 900-acre bug museum in business to discovery of a rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel. Continue reading →

Ray Long and Pat Quinn

After more than three decades as Springfield bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune and other news organizations, the great Ray Long is moving upstate.

With the change of administrations from Pat Quinn to Bruce Rauner, Long, 56, is shifting assignments from the statehouse pressroom to a full-time position on the Tribune’s investigative watchdog team, based in Chicago. Continue reading →

Rahm Emanuel

Some of the latest advertising for Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral reelection campaign is cleverly audacious, deliberately misleading — and all apparently perfectly legal.

A TV commercial that looks like Emanuel is backed by the city’s most prominent news anchor and a mailing that closely resembles the cover of Chicago magazine (right down to its logo) are among paid media pieces that have turned up in recent weeks. Continue reading →

Mara Shalhoup

Mara Shalhoup, who led the Chicago Reader through an ownership change while revitalizing its digital and print editions, has resigned after four years as editor of the alternative weekly.

Shalhoup told her staff Monday that she is leaving, effective February 13, to become editor of LA Weekly, a Los Angeles alternative publication owned by Voice Media Group. The announcement came three days after the Reader’s editorial employees voted to unionize through the Chicago Newspaper Guild, but Shalhoup said the two events were unrelated. Continue reading →

Nesita Kwan

Telling colleagues it was “undoubtedly time to take this fork in the road,” Nesita Kwan has signed off after more than 20 years as a reporter at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.

“I want to thank Nesita for her many years of service to our news team,” Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, told staffers in a memo. Kwan’s last day on the air was Wednesday. Continue reading →

Big John Howell

When Big John Howell starts Monday at WLS AM 890, he’ll have more on his agenda than hosting a morning show on the news/talk station.

As part of his agreement with Cumulus Media, the veteran Chicago radio personality is expected to double as host and producer of a nationally distributed country music show, which could be launched as early as this spring. Continue reading →

Alison Scholly

Alison Scholly is stepping down as chief operating officer at Chicago Public Media — nine months after she was passed over for the top job at the parent company of WBEZ FM 91.5.

Scholly, 46, who has held the COO position since June 2010, told colleagues Friday she plans to leave at the end of the month. Continue reading →