ABC 7’s margin of victory narrows in November
Robservations on the media beat:
- November brought another across-the-board ratings win for ABC 7 in all local news time periods. But diminished leads-ins for the station — and increases in every time period and in all key demos for NBC 5 — cut ABC 7’s margin of victory compared to last year. At 10pm weekdays, ABC 7 had an 8.4 rating (down 6.7 percent), NBC 5 had a 5.8 rating (up 18.4 percent) and CBS 2 had a 5.5 rating (flat). At 9pm weekdays, WGN 9 had a 4.0 rating (up 8.1 percent) and Fox 32 had a 2.1 rating (up 16.7 percent). One Nielsen rating point represents 34,935 households. You do the math.
B96 reboots morning show after Julian jumps
For a guy who makes his living talking on the air, Julian Nieh was remarkably inarticulate Wednesday. It wasn’t easy to explain why he was walking away from one of the best gigs in radio — morning co-host on a heritage Top 40 station in Chicago — with no job in sight.
Fighting back tears, he told B96 listeners: “I’m going to be moving on. [Pause] From the show. [Pause] Pursuing other interests. [Pause] And, um. [Pause] It kills me. I don’t really know what to say. It kills me. God, I’ve been here close to seven years.”
Grand prize for Bozo fans: 'Lost episodes' airing again
Robservations on the media beat:
- Excerpts from two episodes of Bozo’s Circus will be seen for the first time in 41 years on a one-hour prime-time special on WGN-Channel 9. Dean Richards will host Bozo’s Circus: The Lost Tape at 7pm December 9 on the Tribune Broadcasting station and online at WGNtv.com. Both episodes from 1971 featured Bob Bell as Bozo, Roy Brown as Cooky, Ned Locke as Ringmaster Ned, and Bob Trendler and his 13-piece Big Top Band. Although the beloved children’s show aired from 1960 to 2001, few tapes were kept — and none was known to exist from 1969 to 1974. The 1971 compilation was recently spotted in the online archives listings of the Peabody Awards at the University of Georgia by Rick Klein, who runs the Museum of Classic Chicago Television website. The tape had been submitted as an entry in the Peabody competition. (How could it not have won?)
Sun-Times metro editor jumps to DNAInfo Chicago
One day after an impressive launch as a hyperlocal digital news service, DNAInfo.com Chicago has hired the highly respected metro editor of the Sun-Times to head its news operation.
Shamus Toomey, who rose from reporter to assistant managing editor/metro in nine years at the Sun-Times, was named managing editor of DNAInfo.com Tuesday. “DNAInfo.com has a great newsroom culture — totally focused on breaking stories by getting out there and pounding the pavement,” Toomey said. “It's a great fit for me, and I'm excited to be making this move."
Shakeup in the suburbs: Krug out at Pioneer Press
Chris Krug, who oversaw a redesign of the Pioneer Press newspapers and triggered an exodus of dozens of reporters, editors and top managers, is on his way out after 10 months as vice president and publisher of the suburban weekly chain.
Rumors of Krug’s departure were confirmed at a staff meeting Tuesday when his resignation was announced, effective at the end of the year.
Home for the holidays, Koz finds support ‘pretty overwhelming’
Rich Koz, Chicago television’s beloved movie host Svengoolie, is on the mend from double bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.
“I got home just in time for Thanksgiving,” Koz, 60, told me by phone Monday. “I’m hoping the recovery goes as quickly as possible.”
Van de Graaff moves up to program director at WFMT
Peter van de Graaff, a 25-year veteran of WFMT-FM (98.7), has been promoted to program director of the Window to the World Communications classical music station.
Effective December 3, he succeeds Peter Whorf, who resigned last July to become station manager of public radio WKAR-AM/FM at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Sun-Times boss orders front-page eulogy for friend
Robservations on the media beat:
- With all due respect to David B. Speer, most Chicagoans never heard of the late president and CEO of Illinois Tool Works Inc., who died November 17. So when the Sun-Times devoted the entire front page of last Monday’s edition to Speer’s passing (and all of Pages 2 and 3 to his obituary and career highlights), it must have struck many readers as odd. But there in the ninth paragraph of Neil Steinberg’s laudatory obit was the answer: Speer was “a mentor and a friend” of Michael Ferro, chairman of the Sun-Times’ parent company, Wrapports LLC. (In 2006 Speer bought a software company Ferro owned, Click Commerce, for $292 million.) Sources said Ferro personally ordered the Page 1 splash, overriding the judgment of his editors. It was a flagrant abuse of his power as publisher and yet another example of Ferro’s ego undermining the credibility of the paper. Hiring wannabe columnist Jenny McCarthy was merely foolish. But dictating news coverage is shameful and disgusting.
- But wait, there’s more: Ferro’s heavy hand in the newsroom isn’t the only thing angering journalists at the Sun-Times. In contract talks with the Chicago Newspaper Guild, the company is refusing to restore any of the salary lost by reporters and other editorial staffers who took a 15 percent pay cut in 2009. (That’s when the paper was rescued from bankruptcy by its former owner, the late James Tyree.) The union is calling on its members to demonstrate their unhappiness with the current owners by boycotting the Sun-Times’ holiday party on December 3.
Saul Foos: The larger-than-life agent who lost everything
Just before Saul Foos was sentenced to prison in 1995 for stealing millions from some of Chicago’s biggest broadcasters, he told the judge: “When a man loses his honor, he’s a dead man. That’s me, I’m a dead man. I chose the coward’s way out.”
So when a friend called the other day to say that Foos, 73, had passed away earlier this year, it was in some ways as if he’d lived the last 17 years as a ghost. His death went unnoticed in the media.
Who’s to blame for Stern’s Hall of Fame shame?
It took 20 years for the National Radio Hall of Fame to make room for Howard Stern — and it may take another 20 years for everyone to stop bickering about it.
On his SiriusXM Radio show Monday, the King of All Media lambasted the Chicago-based shrine for snubbing him up to now and for honoring less worthy inductees before him. His selection by acclamation of the steering committee this year followed four rejections in past balloting.
