Marcus Riley

On the eve of the Chicago Emmy Awards, the president of the local television academy chapter suddenly lost his day job as a producer for NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.

Marcus Riley was forced out this week as a content producer at NBC 5, according to insiders, for making errors in news stories that were posted on the station’s website. Continue reading →

Chicago Tribune

It’s official: Tribune Publishing Co. announced Friday it has acquired all 38 suburban publications owned by the Sun-Times parent company and will continue printing and distributing the Sun-Times daily newspaper under a new long-term agreement with Wrapports LLC.

Terms of the agreement, first reported here October 21, were not disclosed. Sources said negotiations to finalize the deal ran late into the night Thursday in order to meet the goal of a November 1 deadline. Continue reading →

Steve Dahl

Monday marks Steve Dahl’s return as afternoon personality on WLS AM 890 — and a comeback to terrestrial radio that many of his fans probably thought would never happen.

“I’m excited for it,” Dahl said Thursday. “It’s been six years since I last had my own radio show. I’m pretty sure it’s like riding a bicycle, but I’m going to wear a helmet just in case.” Continue reading →

Jack Diamond

Move over, Brant Miller: Jack Diamond is on his way.

Diamond, 60, a longtime Washington, D.C., radio personality, is expected to be named morning host at WLS FM 94.7. Insiders said he’ll start Monday on the Cumulus Media classic hits station, succeeding Miller from 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays. Continue reading →

Newcity is about to come out with its annual Best of Chicago issue, and once again editor and publisher Brian Hieggelke is rocking the local media boat.

Who else but Hieggelke would proclaim the besieged Sun-Times “best local daily newspaper,” declare an architecture critic “best Chicago news columnist” or project a landslide election for governor next week? Continue reading →

Ellen Warren

The incomparable Ellen Warren, a Hall of Fame journalist whose insight and flair graced the pages of three Chicago newspapers, is retiring after more than two decades as senior correspondent and columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

Friday will be Warren’s last day at the Tribune, culminating a reporting career that stretched from Chicago City Hall to the White House and from the presidential campaign trail to the Middle East. Continue reading →

Chicago Sun-Times

Will a new national strategy help save Chicago's money-losing No. 2 local newspaper?

The struggling parent company of the Sun-Times is banking its future on the creation of a network of websites and mobile apps delivering content from multiple sources to 70 cities across the country. Continue reading →

Thirty-two years after Doug Banks began broadcasting in Chicago, he’s still riding high in the ratings.

Nielsen Audio figures released Monday for the period from September 11 to October 8 again give Banks the top spot for his syndicated afternoon show on iHeartMedia urban adult-contemporary WVAZ FM 102.7. That’s the same frequency where it all began for Banks in 1982 under the call letters WBMX. Continue reading →

Interest in the fortunes of the Bears helped propel Chicago’s leading sports/talk station into the top 10 among morning radio shows in the latest monthly ratings released Monday.

Nielsen Audio figures for September 11 to October 8 showed Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley, the morning team on CBS Radio WSCR AM 670, in seventh place among all listeners — up from 14th the previous month. It was the Score's first top-10 showing since May. Continue reading →

Cindy Gatziolis

If you ever attended the Chicago Blues Festival, Taste of Chicago or the Air & Water Show, you knew the work of Cindy Gatziolis. And if you ever listened to Larry Lujack, Wally Phillips, Fred Winston, Steve Dahl or Jonathon Brandmeier, you knew it too.

Gatziolis, who worked closely with Chicago’s biggest radio personalities for two decades before leading the promotion of the city’s most popular special events, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer. She was 56. Continue reading →