Tone Kapone
In a talent raid reminiscent of an earlier era in radio, iHeartMedia Chicago lured two top personalities Wednesday from Crawford Broadcasting’s competing hip-hop station.
In one fell swoop, iHeartMedia urban contemporary WGCI FM 107.5 stole midday host Frankie Robinson and afternoon host Tone Kapone (whose real name is Anthony May), both mainstays of Crawford Broadcasting’s WPWX FM 92.3. Continue reading
Jeffrey T. Mason
Jeffrey T. Mason, who’s been filling in since the legendary Tommy Edwards retired as midday personality at WJMK FM 104.3 last fall, has landed the job permanently at the CBS Radio classic hits station.
Making the long-awaited promotion official Wednesday, program director Todd Cavanah said Mason signed a multiyear contract to host from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on K-Hits. Continue reading
ABC 7's Mark Giangreco, Cheryl Burton, Ron Magers, Kathy Brock and Jerry Taft
In a last-ditch effort to stave off defeat in the May sweeps, perennial market leader WLS-Channel 7 is pulling out all the stops — and some of the commercials — from its 10 p.m. Monday through Friday newscast.
On Monday and Tuesday night, the ABC-owned station dropped two commercial breaks from its late news, postponing its first interruption until 10:21 p.m. It’s a maneuver designed to retain audience ratings by discouraging viewers from channel surfing. Continue reading
Lori Rackl
By the time Lori Rackl accepted a buyout from the Sun-Times last February, she’d earned a solid reputation as an insightful TV critic and a seasoned travel editor.
Now making her mark as an independent journalist, Rackl has combined both interests — television and travel — in a smart new website.
TVtrippin.com officially debuted this week with a review of Sunday night’s “Mad Men” series finale and a feature on a “mystery man” who tracks TV series and movies filming around Chicago for a Twitter account.
Rackl calls her new blog “a work in progress” that she has been fine-tuning with Web designer Rex Chekal. In the meantime, she is continuing to write free-lance travel pieces for the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe, among other publications. Continue reading
Jorge Enrique De Santiago
Jorge Enrique De Santiago, a news anchor and reporter from the Telemundo station in San Antonio, Texas, has been hired as a general assignment reporter at WSNS-Channel 44, the Spanish-language network’s station here.
While working for KVDA-TV in San Antonio, De Santiago made headlines in 2014 when a murder suspect he was interviewing at an apartment complex opened fire on his news crew. Continue reading
Amy Guth
Amy Guth, one of the most prominent women in Chicago media, is quitting her day job to pursue on-air television ambitions and other projects.
Guth announced Monday she voluntarily was resigning as general manager/publisher of RedEye Chicago and Metromix, effective at the end of the week. No successor at the Tribune Publishing newspaper and website has been named. Continue reading
Rob Stafford and Allison Rosati
With three days to go in the May sweeps, all eyes are on Chicago’s late-news ratings race, where there could be an upset in the works.
NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 appears poised to overtake the market’s perennial front-runner, ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, among viewers between 25 and 54 at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. That’s a key demographic driving local stations' advertising revenue. Continue reading
Robin Robinson at WVON
How long can Robin Robinson work as a no-nonsense news anchor on one radio station and as an opinionated talk show host on another? We’ll soon find out.
The Chicago broadcast news veteran started this week as a part-time host on urban news/talk WVON AM 1690. Her “Robin’s Nest” talk show airs from 6 to 9 p.m. Mondays under an arrangement that allows her to sell advertising sponsorships, according to Melody Spann-Cooper, president and general manager of the Midway Broadcasting station. Continue reading
Kristina Zsenyuk
In a welcome return to a live and local morning show, WLIT FM 93.9 has hired a 34-year-old radio personality from Portland, Oregon, who calls herself Kristina with a K.
Kristina, whose full name is Kristina Zsenyuk, joins the iHeartMedia hot adult-contemporary station here June 1. She will replace Paul “Cubby” Bryant, whose New York-based morning show has been airing on 93.9 MyFM since July 2013. Continue reading
Phil Ponce and Rahm Emanuel
As he begins his second term in office with a reputation for being inaccessible to the media, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has agreed to make regular appearances on “Chicago Tonight,” the flagship news program of public television WTTW-Channel 11.
Starting tonight, Emanuel is expected to turn up every four to six weeks for what the Window to the World Communications station is calling “a series of in-depth conversations” with various staffers on the show. “Chicago Tonight” airs at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and streams on WTTW.com. Continue reading