{"id":17555,"date":"2018-04-04T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=17555"},"modified":"2018-04-04T14:06:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T19:06:37","slug":"robservations-cumulus-buys-wkqx-merlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/04\/04\/robservations-cumulus-buys-wkqx-merlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Robservations: Cumulus buys WKQX from Merlin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> 101 WKQX<\/p><\/div>\n

Robservations on the media beat:<\/p>\n

Cumulus Media has agreed to buy WKQX FM 101.1<\/a> from Merlin Media, securing the station\u2019s future as an alternative rocker. The deal, announced late Tuesday, also includes the call letters of WLUP and that station\u2019s intellectual property. Reported price was $18 million. Last month Merlin sold <\/a>WLUP FM 97.9 to Educational Media Foundation, ending The Loop\u2019s run operated by Cumulus under a local marketing agreement. \u201cI am truly pleased that we have reached an agreement to bring WKQX into the Cumulus family and fully focus on driving growth in the Chicago market,\u201d Marv Nyren,<\/strong> vice president and market manager of Cumulus Chicago, said in a statement. \u201cWe have lots of great programming planned for WKQX and our other stations in the Chicago market, and we look forward to growing these legendary stations and providing great content to our listeners and effective marketing strategies for our advertisers in and around Chicago.\u201d Cumulus also owns news\/talk WLS AM 890 and classic hits WLS FM 94.7. Insiders speculate that WLS FM morphs into \"94.7 The Loop\" (but management denies that). With the end of Merlin in Chicago, it\u2019s so long to CEO Randy Michaels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Adriana Cardona-Maguigad<\/p><\/div>\n

Chicago Public Media continues to expand the news staff of WBEZ FM 91.5<\/a> with the addition of two more full-time education reporters. Adriana Cardona-Maguigad,<\/strong> a former Pritzker Journalism Fellow at WBEZ, returns to cover elementary and secondary education in Chicago. She most recently was an investigative reporter for Univision Chicago and a reporting fellow at Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism. Kate McGee<\/strong> signs on from WAMU in Washington, D.C., to cover higher education. \u201cWe are expanding our newsroom by attracting top journalists who want to serve the public with quality, local journalism that is essential to our community\u2019s civic life,\u201d Goli Sheikholeslami,<\/strong> CEO of WBEZ Chicago, said in a statement. \u201cAdriana and Kate are terrific additions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tom Skilling<\/p><\/div>\n

For the first time in 38 years, Tom Skilling<\/strong> won\u2019t be the star attraction at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. The chief meteorologist at Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9 <\/a>has been hosting his annual Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar<\/a> before sell-out crowds at Fermilab since he created the event in 1981. Speakers each year include a roster of severe weather scientists and forecasters. But not this year. \u201cTom's current heavy workload and schedule prevent him from being able to host the seminar, so the event will not take place this year,\u201d reads the notice on the Fermilab website. <\/a>Earlier this week Skilling was in Champaign delivering a talk on \u201cmedia weather coverage\u201d to students at the University of Illinois.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Karen Rariden<\/p><\/div>\n

Karen Rariden,<\/strong> who\u2019s been assistant news director at WBBM-Channel 2<\/a> since 2011, will be running the show \u2014 at least until a permanent replacement is named for Jeff Kiernan,<\/strong> outgoing<\/a> vice president and news director at the CBS-owned station. Rariden, a graduate of Indiana University, earlier had been executive producer of the \u201cWGN Morning News\u201d at WGN-Channel 9. Filling the top news job will be a priority for Derek Dalton,<\/strong> who starts later this month as president and general manager. Dalton was named<\/a> Tuesday to succeed Marty Wilke<\/strong> at CBS 2.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Charlie Meyerson<\/p><\/div>\n

A tip of the hat to Charlie Meyerson,<\/strong> the veteran Chicago journalist and digital news pioneer who keeps finding new ways to do great work. Meyerson just launched a Chicago Public Square Newscast <\/a>series. Still in the pilot phase, it\u2019s an extension of his Public Square brand, which includes an excellent daily newsletter<\/a> and onstage interview podcast series. Listeners can access Chicago Public Square Newscast on Alexa, iTunes, podcast players and online.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s been fun \u2014 surprisingly easy, even free \u2014 to get back to the medium in which I launched my career and to grant the wishes of people who\u2019ve said they miss the kind of award-winning newscasts I used to deliver at WXRT and WNUA,\u201d Meyerson says. \u201cPart of the inspiration for this new project has been the incredibly gratifying and continuing turnout of support for Square from what I\u2019ve dubbed The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bruce DuMont<\/p><\/div>\n

Bruce DuMont,<\/strong> the longtime Chicago broadcaster, political analyst and founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, will receive the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Publicity Club of Chicago.<\/a> He\u2019ll be honored at the group\u2019s 59th annual Golden Trumpet Awards<\/a> banquet May 22 at the Palmer House Hilton. Calling DuMont \u201ca true innovator in the broadcast community,\u201d Dominic Calabrese,<\/strong> board president of the Publicity Club, said in a statement: \u201cHis influence and journalistic leadership have provided PR professionals with outlets that celebrate freedom of speech and storytelling, bringing awareness to Chicago and beyond.\u201d DuMont, who retired<\/a> late last year as president of the museum, continues to host \u201cBeyond the Beltway,\u201d his weekly syndicated radio show now in its 38th year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rob Elgas, Cheryl Burton and Judy Hsu<\/p><\/div>\n

Three weekday news anchors from ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 <\/a>grace the cover of the University of Illinois alumni magazine<\/a> spring issue. Illini grads\u00a0Rob Elgas<\/strong> (\u201994), Cheryl Burton<\/strong> (\u201984) and Judy Hsu<\/strong> (\u201993) are profiled inside along with ABC 7 reporter Eric Horng<\/strong> (\u201904) and weekend news anchor Mark Rivera<\/strong> (\u201911). With so many alums working at 190 North State Street, notes writer Jonathan Black,<\/strong> \u201cyou\u2019d think there was a direct pipeline between Urbana-Champaign and the Loop.\u201d Burton reminisces about her time as an Illinette in the Marching Illini, which led to a spot as a Honey Bear cheerleader for the Chicago Bears. During her senior year, Burton commuted from Urbana to Soldier Field, she recalls.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s comment of the day:<\/a> Ron Magers:<\/strong> We\u2019re skipping a step here. Before the anchors were ordered to read it, dozens of General Managers signed off on it. Did not one say, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t work in my market for my station!\u201d Forget their political agenda and remember that Sinclair is making a mockery of serving a local community. For me, that\u2019s evidence enough for the FCC to say no to this deal.<\/em>
\nBut we all know it won\u2019t happen that way.<\/em>
\nAnd can we guess that the orders to muzzle WGN employees came from up top where any number of executives stand to reap a financial windfall when the Sinclair deal closes?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robservations on the media beat: Cumulus Media has agreed to buy WKQX FM 101.1 from Merlin Media, securing the station\u2019s future as an alternative rocker. The deal, announced late Tuesday, also includes the call letters of WLUP and that station\u2019s intellectual property. Reported price was $18 million. Last month Merlin sold WLUP FM 97.9 to... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17555"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17588,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17555\/revisions\/17588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}