Mike Lowe

Robservations on the media beat:

Eighteen years ago Mike Lowe was working as an intern in the sports department of Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9. Today he’s a full-time general assignment reporter. Jennifer Lyons, news director of “Chicago’s Very Own,” confirmed Lowe’s new deal with the station (negotiated by agent Joel Weisman) after 15 months as a per diem reporter. Winner of 14 Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards, Lowe previously was a reporter for WITI, the Fox affiliate in Milwaukee. A Chicago native and graduate of Loyola Academy and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Lowe began as an intern at Window to the World Communications WTTW-Channel 11. Continue reading →

Dan McNeil

Dan McNeil, the veteran Chicago sports radio host whose talent and temperament never quite meshed with a music station’s morning show, is out after 16 months at Hubbard Radio classic rock WDRV FM 97.1.

John Gallagher, vice president and market manager of Hubbard Radio Chicago, announced Thursday that McNeil had decided to step away from The Drive and had been released from his reported $250,000-a-year contract, which ran through March 2017. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Gallagher said McNeil was free to accept employment elsewhere, effective immediately.

Continue reading →

Charlie De Mar

Charlie De Mar, a Chicago native who’s been a reporter for two stations in Indianapolis, is coming home to work for CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2.

De Mar starts June 15 as a full-time general assignment reporter for CBS 2, the station announced Thursday. Continue reading →

Robin Robinson

Robservations on the media beat:

Veteran Chicago news anchor Robin Robinson has been hired by the Chicago Police Department as special adviser to the superintendent for community affairs. Before accepting the position, Robinson stepped down from CBS Radio all-news WBBM AM 780/WCFS FM 105.9. “We wish her nothing but great success,” said Ron Gleason, director of news and programming at WBBM Newsradio. “We both agreed this would be a conflict with covering the news, and she has not been on the air for several weeks.” In announcing Robinson’s appointment, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said: “Utilizing the trust she has built throughout the city during her career, she will serve as a departmental spokesperson and be responsible for fostering stronger community faith and partnerships in Chicago’s neighborhoods.” Robinson spent 27 years at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32. Continue reading →

Cubs Radio

Cubs baseball broadcasts catapulted CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670 to the top tier of Chicago radio stations in Nielsen Audio ratings released Tuesday.

The Score moved up from 18th place in March with a 2.5 percent audience share to a tie for ninth in April with a 3.2 share all the way up to fourth in May with a 4.2 share. The latest survey covers the four-week period from April 21 to May 18. Continue reading →

Ji Suk Yi, Ryan Chiaverini and Val Warner of “Windy City Live”

WLS-Channel 7 is moving the weekday morning talk show “Windy City Live” to afternoons and bringing back the 11 a.m. newscast it canceled three years ago, according to sources at the ABC-owned station.

Starting June 27, “Windy City Live” is expected to air at 1 p.m. weekdays, replacing the canceled “FAB Life” on the ABC 7 daytime lineup. Continue reading →

Greg Easterly

Greg Easterly, who’s been president and general manager of WGN-Channel 9 since 2014, is taking on a new role for Tribune Media in New York.

The company announced Tuesday that Easterly will serve as senior vice president/group operations for Tribune Broadcasting stations and interim general manager of WPIX in New York. Rich Graziano, current general manager of WPIX, has resigned effective immediately.

Until a replacement for Easterly is named at WGN, “Chicago’s Very Own” will be overseen by Larry Wert, Tribune Broadcasting’s president of broadcast media and a lifelong Chicago media veteran. Continue reading →

Shia Kapos

Robservations on the media beat:

Taking Names

Good news: Shia Kapos, one of Chicago’s premier journalists on the celebrity beat, is bringing her newsy “Taking Names” column to the Sun-Times, where it will run twice a week, starting June 20. The move will coincide with the launch of her independent blog, also called “Taking Names.” Content for Kapos’s print column will be aggregated from her blog posts, according to Jim Kirk, publisher and editor of the Sun-Times. “It will be personality-driven,” Kapos said of her new blog and column. “I’ll be looking at what people do away from the office. You’re going to see more stories about the intersection of business and politics . . . and more scoops.” Until last March, Kapos was a fixture at Crain’s Chicago Business, where she spent 10 years as senior reporter and columnist. Before that she was Midwest correspondent for People magazine, staff reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a contributor to the New York Times. Continue reading →

Dan McNeil

Following a 10-day time-out for bad behavior, veteran Chicago radio personality Dan McNeil returned to Hubbard Radio classic hits WDRV FM 97.1 on May 23. But since then, you’d hardly know he’s back.

To listeners of the morning show he had co-hosted with Pete McMurray since March 2015, McNeil has become a nonentity. These days he turns up once an hour to deliver a straight three-minute sportscast — and that’s it. He is never mentioned during the rest of the show, and he no longer interacts with McMurray or producer Scott Miller, who has assumed a larger role on the air since McNeil was cut back. Continue reading →

Kalee Dionne

Kalee Dionne, morning meteorologist at the NBC affiliate in Kansas City, is coming home to Chicago to join the weather team at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.

Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, confirmed Friday that Dionne would start in September. No word yet on her specific assignment. Continue reading →