Just as Phil Rosenthal tipped last month, Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9 is getting back into the weekend morning news business.
Channel 9 announced Tuesday that it will air an hourlong newscast at 6 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, starting the weekend of Oct. 2. Public-affairs and paid-religion programming and infomercials now airing at that hour will move to earlier time slots.
I can't say I recall Bill Bungeroth as a particularly hilarious guy during the five years he ran WPNT here in the '90s (although he did have the good fortune to employ humorists‚ Steve Cochran and Fred Winston as the station's morning personalities).
Smart businessman? Yes. Funny? No.
Nevertheless, on Monday the same Bill Bungeroth, now known as the founder and president of the Donkey Comedy Network, unveiled plans for "24/7 Comedy Radio," billed as "the first short-attention-span, fast-paced, hits-oriented, mass-appeal comedy radio format."
After 15 months as executive director of the Better Government Association, Andy Shaw hit the jackpot this week with the hiring of three celebrated Chicago journalists to lead the nonprofit watchdog group's expanded investigative unit. Rounding out what he called the BGA's "dream team," Shaw signed Bob Reed, former editor of Crain's Chicago Business who most recently was chief spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn; Bob Herguth, a former reporter and editor at the Sun-Times, the Daily Herald and the Milwaukee Business Journal; and John Conroy, former investigative reporter for the Reader who most recently covered the trial of former police commander Jon Burge for blogs.vocalo.org.
Teri Goudie
Kevin Roy
Poor Kevin Roy. If his story weren't so pathetic, it would be funny. Nearly five months after he blew the career of a lifetime at the top-rated station in Chicago, he's now trying to rewrite history and blame me‚ for his failure to land another job in television news. Yes, me.
Don & Roma
Roe & Roeper
After 27 years in Chicago television as a top investigative journalist, Larry Yellen is about to add news anchor to his resume.
Nothing is official yet, but WFLD-Channel 32 is close to finalizing a deal to name Yellen solo anchor of its Saturday and Sunday 9 p.m. newscasts. He's been filling in as anchor of the two newscasts since the recent departures of Byron Harlan and Nancy Pender, whose contracts were not renewed.
Last fall Roe Conn was being given up for dead.‚ Ratings for his weekday afternoon show on Citadel Broadcasting news/talk WLS-AM (890) were so low that some critics were confidently predicting his imminent demise.
The Sun-Times' Lewis Lazare cited unnamed "observers in the local radio market" who asserted that "the high-priced WLS talent might not be able to hold on at the station much longer," while ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com went even further, flatly declaring it "the end of the line for Roe Conn at WLS," and identifying three potential replacements for him.
Now, just 10 months after those dire words were written, Conn is presiding over the top-rated talk show of any kind -- at any hour -- among adults between the ages of 25 and 54, according to Arbitron Portable People Meter figures released last Friday.
