In the latest expansion at WGN AM 720, the Tribune Media news/talk station is partnering with the hyperlocal news operation DNAinfo.com Chicago to add neighborhood news reports to its daily programming.
Starting Monday and airing during WGN’s 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. newscasts each weekday, the reports will be delivered by Jon Hansen, radio news director of DNAinfo Chicago. Continue reading
Ramonski Luv
Ramonski Luv, who co-hosted Chicago radio’s top-rated nighttime show until his abrupt dismissal last summer, is about to make a comeback.
Starting December 1, he’ll join WSRB FM 106.3, the Crawford Broadcasting urban adult-contemporary station. His show will air from 6 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Continue reading
Jane Byrne and Walter Jacobson (1989)
In all the remembrances you’ll watch or read about Jane Byrne this weekend, I doubt that any of them will mention her brief tenure as a Chicago television news commentator.
In 1989 — six years after she left City Hall — Byrne signed on as a paid political analyst for WBBM-Channel 2. No past or present mayor had ever done anything like that. Continue reading
You could say Friday wasn’t a very good day for the Chicago Sun-Times. Major production errors plagued the paper in both its online and print editions.
Here’s what the Sun-Times sent to its online subscribers:
Edison the Reindeer
Christmas may be six weeks away, but Chicago radio can’t wait to get into the holiday spirit.
Starting just after midnight Friday, WLIT FM 93.9 will switch to around-the-clock Christmas music programming for the 14th consecutive year. Edison the Reindeer returns as the official holiday mascot of “Chicago’s Christmas Station.” Continue reading
Let the Christmas radio battle begin.
In what’s billed as a first for local radio, WILV FM 100.3 is offering listeners a 50/50 split of Christmas music and mainstream hits for the next six weeks.
Starting at 6 a.m. Thursday and airing continuously through Christmas Day, the Hubbard Radio station will alternate holiday classics with songs from its regular adult-contemporary playlist. They’re calling it “The Perfect Christmas Blend.”
”For more than a year now Hubbard Radio Chicago has been committed to re-inventing the standard AC [adult contemporary] format,” Marty Bender, program director of Chicago's 100.3, said in a statement. “In that spirit, we are presenting a new way to hear the holiday. This is yet another unique ‘touch’ for our growing and lucratively targeted adult audience. This isn’t a radio strategy as much as it’s simply giving our listeners a balance of the two types of music they want to hear.” Continue reading
Jane Hirt
Replacing the most powerful woman in Chicago journalism may not be easy. It definitely won't be quick.
No deadline has been set to name a successor to Jane Hirt, who announced her resignation Wednesday as managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, effective November 21. Continue reading
John Farneda
John Farneda, who joined WXRT FM 93.1 as an intern in 1983 and rose to operations manager and music director, is retiring from the CBS Radio album adult alternative station.
“After 31 years at Chicago's Finest Rock, I realized that I have achieved all my goals at the radio station and it is now time to set new ones,” Farneda, 53, told colleagues Tuesday. His last day on the job will be November 26. Continue reading
Marianne Murciano
Fourteen years after she lost her morning news anchor job to Tamron Hall at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, Marianne Murciano is speaking out about it.
“Tamron Hall moved in and took my job while I was on maternity leave,” Murciano said Monday on the WGN AM 720 midday show she co-hosts with her husband, Bob Sirott. Murciano’s comments were prompted by a New York Post report about a behind-scenes power struggle on NBC’s “Today” show between Hall and Natalie Morales. Continue reading
Edna Schmidt
Edna Schmidt, who was a top news anchor at two Spanish-language stations in Chicago, is suing one of them for firing her when she appeared drunk on the air.
A lawsuit filed in federal court last week claims Telemundo Station Group’s WSNS-Channel 44 and parent company NBC Universal violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide Schmidt “reasonable accommodation” for her alcoholism. Continue reading
