WBBM Newsradio

Robservations on the media beat:

CBS Radio

News this week that CBS Radio would spin off into a separate entity means the company’s seven-station Chicago cluster is assured of remaining intact. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, parent company CBS disclosed plans to take its radio division public by the end of the month. The decision to proceed with an IPO effectively ends speculation of a sale or merger with another company. CBS Radio owns 117 radio stations in 26 markets nationwide. In Chicago it includes all-news WBBM AM 780/WCFS FM 105.9; sports/talk WSCR AM 670; Top 40 WBBM FM 96.3; country WUSN FM 99.5; adult album alternative WXRT 93.1, and classic hits WJMK FM 104.3. The Chicago station group led the market in 2015 with total revenue of $123.54 million. Continue reading →

Mason, Alabama and Remy

Eighteen months after iHeartMedia Chicago launched WEBG FM 95.5 as a country music competitor to CBS Radio’s WUSN FM 99.5, it’s finally living up to its billing as Big 95.5.

In the Nielsen Audio survey released Tuesday, Big 95.5 narrowed the margin with US 99.5 to a scant 0.3 percent share among all listeners. The latest ratings report covered the period from May 19 to June 15. Continue reading →

Maudlyne Ihejirika

Readers who know Maudlyne Ihejirika only as an award-winning reporter and editor at the Sun-Times don’t know the half of it.

Ihejirika has just written her first book, Escape from Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War, published by Africa World Press and available on Amazon. Continue reading →

DJ Lil' John

Robservations on the media beat:

John Coleman III, the prominent Chicago music mixer and producer better known as “DJ Lil’ John,” has been named evening personality at Crawford Broadcasting urban adult-contemporary WSRB FM 106.3. Effective Tuesday, he succeeds Tony Sculfield, who left to host mornings at KBLX in San Francisco. Coleman, who most recently hosted “Club 1063” Friday nights on the station, spent eight years as a top mixer at iHeartMedia urban contemporary WGCI FM 107.5. He began in the 1980s at Kennedy-King College’s WKKC FM 89.3. The new Monday-through-Friday lineup on 106.3 FM features the syndicated Tom Joyner from 5 to 9 a.m., Ericka “Sundance” Campbell from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mike Love from 2 to 6 p.m., and “DJ Lil’ John” from 6 to 10 p.m. Continue reading →

Terri Hemmert

Chicago radio treasure Terri Hemmert is expected to be out of commission at least until August while she recuperates from back surgery.

Friday will be Hemmert’s last day on the air at WXRT FM 93.1 before she undergoes arthroscopic surgery July 5 to treat a back problem she has had since childhood. Continue reading →

Andy Avalos, Alex Maragos, Zoraida Sambolin and Kye Martin

Robservations on the media beat:

Alex Maragos, who’s been filling in alongside Zoraida Sambolin as morning news anchor at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 since March, just landed the gig for keeps. “He’s done a terrific job in the role, and I am delighted that we are able to make the assignment permanent,” Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, told staffers Wednesday. The Chicago native and graduate of Loyola Academy in Wilmette and Washington and Lee University in Virginia replaces Stefan Holt, who left for WNBC in New York. Maragos made news last August with his 184-market jump from West Lafayette, Indiana, to NBC 5 in Chicago. “NBC 5 News Today” airs from 4 to 7 a.m. weekdays with Sambolin, Maragos, meteorologist Andy Avalos and traffic reporter Kye Martin. Continue reading →

Chicago Inc.

Fifteen years after the Chicago Tribune pulled the plug on the INC. column, it’s back in the daily celebrity gossip-column business.

Without fanfare, the Tribune just launched Chicago Inc., a new version of an old franchise. Its resurrection follows the recent arrival of Michael Ferro, the celebrity-obsessed chairman of tronc (nee Tribune Publishing), parent company of the newspaper. Continue reading →

Better Government Association

Two top officials of the Better Government Association resigned this week in a shakeup at the Chicago-based nonprofit investigative news organization and civic watchdog group.

Robert Reed stepped down as director of programming, and Robert Herguth stepped down as director of investigations. Both veteran Chicago journalists joined the BGA in 2010 and oversaw numerous award-winning investigations into corruption, fraud and waste. Continue reading →

Steve Cochran

No one could have imagined all the twists and turns in Steve Cochran’s remarkable radio odyssey at WGN AM 720. Least of all Cochran himself.

As the morning star of the Tribune Media news/talk station marks his latest milestone — a contract extension through December 2020 — he can only look back with wonder and gratitude. Continue reading →

Jeff Herndon and Dawn Hasbrouck

It's official: After years on the drawing board and weeks of rehearsals, Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 finally is set to launch a one-hour newscast at 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Start date is Tuesday, July 5.

Fronting the show will be four principals of Fox 32’s 9 p.m. newscast — news anchors Dawn Hasbrouck and Jeff Herndon, meteorologist Bill Bellis and sports anchor Lou Canellis. Continue reading →