Emily Barr
When Oprah Winfrey finally calls it quits and rides off into the sunset next year, WLS-Channel 7 plans to replace her syndicated talk show with a brand-new live, local morning show to originate from its studios at 190 N. State St.
That's the word from Emily Barr, president and general manager of the top-rated ABC-owned station, which has served as Oprah's flagship outlet at 9 a.m. Monday through Friday for a quarter-century.
Jonathon Brandmeier
Of all the media agents I've ever known, none has been as paranoid or distrustful of the media as Lisa Miller. She not only goes out of her way to keep her name out of the public eye, but she insists that her clients never, ever have any contact with the press.
I can't tell you how many of Miller's clients over the years told me they were forbidden by her to communicate with me (or other columnists, I presume) no matter how innocuous the inquiry. The irony, of course, is that the bulk of those clients are members of the media themselves -- including her husband, Brant Miller, who's been a Chicago TV weatherman and radio deejay for decades.
So I have no doubt that it must be killing Miller to see her name and her company, Miller Broadcast Management, being splashed all over the media in connection with a lawsuit she recently filed against a former client, longtime Chicago radio personality Jonathon Brandmeier.
Before Bruce Wolf turned himself into a junior Rush Limbaugh on conservative talk radio, he hosted a freewheeling and quirky little half-hour news program at 4:30 a.m. weekdays on NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. I believe I watched every installment of the show -- either live or on tape.
Val Warner
As Yogi Berra might say, for veteran Chicago broadcaster Ed Curran, it has to seem like déjà vu all over again.
Big John Howell, Ed Curran and Amy Jacobson
Curran, the meteorologist and technology reporter who left CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 last March to sit out the remaining 14 months of his contract, has been popping up lately on a couple of radio stations that figured prominently in his early career.
On Monday, Curran will fill in for morning host Big John Howell alongside Amy Jacobson from 5 to 9 a.m. on Salem Communications news/talk WIND-AM (560).
Robservations on the media beat:
Jeff Goldblatt
Mike Barz
One year to the day after he was fired as morning news anchor at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 for inappropriate conduct with a co-worker, Mike Barz is back in business: He's the new weekday morning anchor at WAWS-TV and WTEV-TV in Jacksonville, Fla.
It's a familiar market for Barz and his wife, Channel 32 reporter Tera Williams, who grew up in Central Florida and graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Mancow Muller
Now that the federal courts have struck down the government's zero-tolerance policy on broadcast indecency as "unconstitutionally vague and chilling," you'd think that Mancow Muller would be feeling a sense of vindication at last.
But for the controversial Chicago radio personality and longtime target of the Federal Communications Commission, Tuesday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals comes as too little, too late.
In another move that's certain to confuse and alienate listeners, Tribune Co.-owned news/talk WGN-AM (720) just shook up its daytime programming lineup again.
John Williams
Under the new arrangement, Greg Jarrett will lose 30 minutes from his morning show, and John Williams (who, by one count, has occupied five different time slots in the last 19 months) will move yet again -- this time from middays to early afternoons.‚ It's hardly a vote of confidence in Jarrett, whose audience shares decline steadily from the moment he signs on at 5 a.m.
