WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Another round of Robservations on the media beat:

• You can't blame them for being a bit rusty after all these years, but Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson got off to a less than elegant start Wednesday as the new 6 p.m. anchor team on WBBM-Channel 2. Awkward pauses, missed cues and a few other moments of clumsy choreography marked an otherwise warm-hearted and low-key return to their old, familiar anchor roles. Whatever the motives of all involved, it's good to see Bill & Walter back together -- if only as an antidote to the rash of New Yorkers being inflicted on the CBS-owned station. Kurtis closed out the newscast on an oddly philosophical note:

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Move over, Joel Weisman: After 32 years as a Friday night fixture on public television WTTW-Channel 11, "Chicago Week in Review" is about to get a little competition.

^{Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review}
 

Plans are in the works for Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 to launch a 30-minute weekly roundup of top stories in the news, featuring a panel of reporters, columnists and fellow journalists assembled from various media outlets around town. Sound familiar?

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Robservations on the media beat:

• 

  ^{Susan Carlson}

  Watching the debut of WBBM-Channel 2's latest morning newscast Monday, I wondered why news anchor Steve Bartelstein kept making references to his mother. After the third time he mentioned her, I realized it had to be because she was the only other person watching the show. I can't imagine why anyone else would choose to sit through "CBS 2 Morning News," an utterly generic 2 ‚½-hour time-filler without one iota of creativity or a single new idea.

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^{Orion Samuleson}

They roasted the legendary Orion Samuelson over the weekend in McHenry County. While the event was a scholarship fundraiser for Harvard Milk Days ("A Tribute to Our Farming Heritage"), you might also think of it as the unofficial kickoff of The Big O's 50th‚ anniversary celebration on Chicago radio.

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^{Bill Gamble}

Let's face it: There's never been anything fair about broadcasting. Some guys -- no matter how talented or hard working they are -- can't catch a break. Others -- no matter how badly or how often they bomb -- just keep getting hired again and again. (Insert the personality of your choice here.)

Today's sterling example of the latter is Bill Gamble, a veteran radio programmer and consultant who's called the shots at six Chicago radio stations in the 30 years I've known him. He's nothing if not a survivor. Gamble's most recent gig, as program director of CBS Radio country WUSN-FM (99.5) and adult contemporary WCFS-FM (105.9), lasted eight months until he was fired earlier this year. And now he's back.

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Poor Don Schwenneker. Ever since he arrived from Pittsburgh in 2008, WBBM-Channel 2 hasn't figured out what in the world to do with the guy.

For the first nine months Schwenneker was here, the CBS-owned station had him doing the weather. Then he suddenly became a news anchor, co-hosting "CBS 2 Morning News" alongside Roseanne Tellez. Since February, he's been back on weather duty.

But starting Monday, Schwenneker will be recast as Channel 2's early morning traffic reporter. Yes, traffic.

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