{"id":19940,"date":"2018-11-20T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=19940"},"modified":"2018-11-20T10:04:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T16:04:41","slug":"relish-lets-give-thanks-chicago-media-turkeys-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/11\/20\/relish-lets-give-thanks-chicago-media-turkeys-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Once more with relish: Let\u2019s give thanks for Chicago media Turkeys of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Tribune Tower<\/p><\/div>\n

With a deep bow to the late, great Roy Leonard, whose Turkey of the Year Awards were a Thanksgiving Day tradition on WGN 720-AM for decades, here\u2019s a hearty flip of the bird to this year\u2019s Chicago media recipients:<\/p>\n

The new owners of Tribune Tower<\/strong> evicted the Chicago Tribune from its namesake landmark after 93 years. Then they sued to keep the iconic Chicago Tribune sign on the exterior of Tribune Tower as developers convert the building to condominiums.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Garry Meier<\/p><\/div>\n

Alone among his radio colleagues, Garry Meier<\/strong> not only failed to show up for the four-hour star-studded send-off on the last day of broadcasting for Cumulus Media\u2019s classic rock WLUP 97.9-FM. He also backed out of a well-publicized commitment to appear on a tribute to The Loop on Tribune Broadcasting\u2019s news\/talk WGN 720-AM.<\/p>\n

It was bad enough that Entercom Top 40 WBBM 96.3-FM<\/strong> fired Michelle \u201cShowbiz Shelly\u201d Menaker after 13 years as morning co-host. Then they added insult to injury by threatening to sue her next employer, iHeartMedia Top 40 WKSC 103.5-FM, for calling her daily pop-culture quiz the \u201cShowbiz Shelly Smackdown.\u201d A cease-and-desist order by B96 forced Kiss FM to rename the segment \u201cShowbiz Showdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michael Ferro<\/p><\/div>\n

Hours before he was accused of sexual misconduct by two women in a Fortune magazine takedown, Michael Ferro<\/strong> abruptly resigned as chairman of tronc (now Tribune Publishing). But he managed to walk out the door with an extra $15 million \u201cconsulting fee.\u201d Ferro spent the rest of the year trying to unload his shares in the company he once vowed to transform.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune eliminated at least a dozen newsroom positions in March \u2014 just one day before the company disclosed raises and bonuses for chief executive officer Justin Dearborn<\/strong> and chief financial officer Terry Jimenez.<\/strong> Announcing another round of job cuts in November, the company said: \u201cReducing our costs through employee reductions is always our last resort.\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Howard Stern<\/p><\/div>\n

King of All Media Howard Stern<\/strong>\u00a0reported on his Sirius XM show that \"Svengoolie,\" the Chicago television treasure and horror movie host played by Rich Koz, had died. Koz begged to differ: \u201cHoward got so many \u2018facts\u2019 wrong, it could create a whole raft of fables!\u201d Koz, alive and well at 66, tweeted. \u201cNo idea who the host was that he was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also still very much alive was Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and subject of a premature obituary posted on the Sun-Times<\/strong> website. \u201cContrary to an unfortunate slip of a mouse, I am not dead!\u201d Lewis declared. The Sun-Times apologized, attributing the snafu to \u201can error involving our online publishing system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

94.7 WLS<\/p><\/div>\n

Without telling anyone at the time \u2014 or for months thereafter \u2014 Cumulus Media classic hits WLS 94.7-FM<\/strong> cut ties with legendary radio personality Dick Biondi, who'd been on medical leave from his weekend show. Biondi's connection to WLS goes back to 1960.<\/p>\n

CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2<\/strong> could be slapped with a fine or other penalty from the Federal Communications Commission for illegally broadcasting the Emergency Alert System Attention Signal in an opening promo for its 5 p.m. newscast. Station bosses called it \"a mistake.\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

ABC 7<\/p><\/div>\n

ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7<\/strong> mistakenly ran a graphic over a news anchor's shoulder that referred to the Olympics in PyeongChang as \u201cP.F Chang 2018.\u201d The graphic had been designed for a satirical piece by sports anchor Mark Giangreco that aired the night before. Later in the year, ABC 7 also got in trouble for a social media post that appeared to make light of the Sears bankruptcy filing. \u201cSo long, Sears!\u201d appeared on the station\u2019s Facebook page under the words: \u201cWOMP WOMP! Sears files for bankruptcy . . .\u201d The gleeful tone struck many as insensitive to the plight of those losing their jobs.<\/p>\n

Tears flowed as freely as the champagne at going-away parties for Jennifer Lyons,<\/strong> who resigned as news director of WGN-Channel 9 and CLTV after 25 years at the Tribune Broadcasting stations. Three weeks later \u2014 invoking the spirit of Emily \"Never Mind\" Litella \u2014 the beloved Lyons returned to take her old job back.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chicago Sun-Times<\/p><\/div>\n

Claiming to have \"surveyed our readers to see what they value,\" the Sun-Times<\/strong> dropped its daily crossword puzzle, TV listings grid and most of its comics to save newsprint and production costs. The next day \u2014 also invoking\u00a0the spirit of Emily \"Never Mind\" Litella \u2014 the Sun-Times brought back the crossword, citing \"feedback from readers.\" Three days after that, it restored the evening TV grid to its pages, too.<\/p>\n

Edwin Eisendrath,<\/strong> CEO of Sun-Times Media, approved the hiring of his wife, former Chicago TV news director Jennifer Schulze, as executive producer \u2013 new media in February. One of her first major projects, an ambitious series of weekly podcasts hosted by Sun-Times columnists and reporters, was dropped after just a few months. By October, Eisendrath had lost the confidence of his board and resigned from the company. At last report Schulze was still on the payroll.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sinclair Broadcast Group<\/p><\/div>\n

The long-running courtship between \"Chicago's Very Own\" Tribune Media <\/strong>and Sinclair Broadcast Group<\/strong> \u2014 a $3.9 billion deal that would have created the largest TV station group in the country \u2014 ended with a once-compliant FCC questioning Sinclair's honesty and conduct. In the end, the two companies filed suits and countersuits, and went their separate ways.<\/p>\n

Michigan Avenue<\/strong> magazine, the slick lifestyle publication catering to Chicago's wealthiest consumers, failed to pay its freelance writers for as long as eight months. Officials of Modern Luxury, which owns Michigan Avenue, acknowledged \u201congoing invoicing issues,\u201d which they attributed to their merger with GreenGale Publishing 16 months earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a deep bow to the late, great Roy Leonard, whose Turkey of the Year Awards were a Thanksgiving Day tradition on WGN 720-AM for decades, here\u2019s a hearty flip of the bird to this year\u2019s Chicago media recipients:<\/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\/19940"}],"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=19940"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19951,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions\/19951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}