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 →

A version of this post first appeared on October 11, 2012.

They all happened in Chicago and, in one way or another, they all changed the way people looked at television. In chronological order, here’s my list of 10 pivotal events in the annals of American television that took place here. Continue reading →

Megan Reed

Megan Reed, a 28-year veteran of Chicago radio, is stepping aside as midday personality at WILV FM 100.3 while she battles cancer and prepares to undergo brain surgery.

Reed, 50, said Thursday she recently was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer that caused tumors in the brain. Surgery and radiation are scheduled for next week. Continue reading →

Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite will be back on TV. And I for one couldn’t be happier.

That’s the headline as far as I’m concerned out of news this week that CBS is launching a new digital network called Decades in partnership with Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting. Continue reading →

Ben Calhoun

Ben Calhoun, former political reporter and deputy news director at WBEZ FM 91.5, is returning to the Chicago Public Media station as director of content and programming.

Since 2010 Calhoun has been a producer for “This American Life,” the public radio documentary series launched at WBEZ and now based in New York. Continue reading →

Dave McKinney

Dave McKinney’s resignation Wednesday after 19 years as a reporter for the Sun-Times is a huge loss for the newspaper and its readers at a time when neither can afford to be without his diligent, uncompromising and vital work.

McKinney’s impassioned public letter of resignation to Michael Ferro Jr., chairman of Sun-Times parent company Wrapports LLC, is a must-read for anyone who cares about ethics and integrity in journalism. Continue reading →

While officials of the Sun-Times parent company won’t comment on plans to sell their suburban newspapers to Tribune Publishing, the chief executive officer of Wrapports LLC says he’s “evaluating a variety of investments” to strengthen the company.

A report here Tuesday said Wrapports has agreed sell all of its suburban daily and weekly newspapers to Tribune Publishing, while retaining the Sun-Times daily tabloid and the Reader free weekly, according to sources. Continue reading →

Chicago Sun-Times

In a blockbuster deal that could change the Chicago journalism landscape, the parent company of the Sun-Times plans to sell all of its suburban daily and weekly newspapers to Tribune Publishing, sources said.

Once the sale is completed, Wrapports LLC would continue to publish only the Sun-Times daily tabloid and the Reader free weekly, according to insiders. Tribune Publishing, parent company of the Chicago Tribune and nine other newspapers nationwide, would acquire the Aurora Beacon-News, the Elgin Courier-News, the Lake County News-Sun, the Naperville Sun, the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune, the SouthtownStar, and the 32 weekly newspapers published by the Pioneer Press. Continue reading →