If radio has even a prayer of winning over anyone born in the 21st‚ century, it'll be thanks in large part to Radio Disney, the round-the-clock network geared to preteens (and their good-natured parents who let them control the car radio).
After all, where else can you hear Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Mitchel Musso over and over and over again with the energy, personality and listener interaction of an old-fashioned Top 40 station?
Jay Mariotti
Robservations on the media beat:
"It's possible to watch old Siskel and Ebert clips on YouTube and find they remain as entertaining as ever. Vintage editions of the [John] Roach-produced 'The Sportswriters on TV' probably would hold up for much the same reason today if rerun on Comcast SportsNet."
When Phil Rosenthal wrote those words in the Chicago Tribune on Aug. 11, he may or may not have been psychic. But seven days later, Comcast Sports Chicago announced that it would indeed be rerunning tapes of "The Sportswriters on TV" at 11 p.m. Fridays and Sundays, starting Sept. 10.
For more than a dozen years -- before they ran out of hot air and cigar smoke in 1998 -- Chicago treasures Bill Gleason, Bill Jauss, Rick Telander and Ben Bentley defined sports talk on television with their spirited weekly roundtable. Although it owed its origins to radio and eventually achieved national distribution on cable, "The Sportswriters on TV" was, in its purest form, a genuine classic of local television.‚ (Where are they now? Gleason died earlier this year, Jauss is retired from the Tribune, Telander is the top sports columnist‚ at the Sun-Times, and Bentley died in 2001.)
In hailing the return of what he called "The Fab Four of Sports Talk," Comcast SportsNet president Jim Corno said: "Gleason, Jauss, Telander and Bentley were rock stars in their own right back in the day, and their timeless wisdom on so many sports topics that still hold major relevance to this day will once again be shared with our viewers."
If there's a market for a sports talk show from 25 years ago, why stop there? I think this could start a trend in bringing back "classic episodes" of old shows to local television:
Maureen Ryan
After 13 years of outstanding work at the Chicago Tribune, Maureen Ryan says she decided to call it quits as TV critic when "it just seemed that the Tribune's priorities and mine were heading in different directions." So different, in fact, that she doubts they'll fill the position now that she's left.
Mike North
It amazes his admirers and infuriates his detractors, but somehow Mike North always manages to land on his feet. Just five days after his low-rated morning show on WBBM-Channel 2 was canceled, the veteran sports talker has resurfaced with Fox Sports Radio.
Details of North's duties are still being worked out, but the network announced this week that he'd been added to the roster of hosts. "We couldn't be happier to have Mike join the Fox Sports Radio family," said Don Martin, vice president and general manager of the outfit based in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "His credentials in sports talk radio speak for themselves."
If you're wondering how North was able to make the deal so fast, look no farther than to Jeff Schwartz, his longtime friend and business partner, who became a consultant for Fox Sports Radio at the end of June. "I guess I'm still persuasive," Schwartz told me Tuesday night. "Always have been and always will be."
While the jury of Rod Blagojevich's peers may have left a lot of people disappointed, Chicago's big five television news organizations performed their duties admirably, blanketing the airwaves with live, compelling and, for the most part, commercial-free coverage for close to three hours Tuesday afternoon.
lagojevich talks to reporters after verdict
I always enjoyed following Anupy Singla's career over the eight years she worked for Tribune Co.-owned CLTV and WGN-Channel 9, and the four years before that she worked for Bloomberg News. You don't forget a name like Anupy Singla.
Anupy Singla
So I was delighted to hear that Chicago's first Indian-American news anchor is getting back in business after taking a few years off to raise her two daughters and transform herself into a food expert and author.
Bruno Cohen
When Bruno Cohen took over as president and general manager of WBBM-Channel 2 nearly two years ago, he knew one thing for certain: The revolving door of news anchors had to stop spinning once and for all.
At our first get-acquainted lunch, Cohen offered a shrewd outsider's assessment of the market and the CBS-owned station's place in it. Viewers had become so sick and tired of constant changes in front-line talent that they'd simply given up on Channel 2. The key to turning things around, he deduced, was to stick with an anchor team -- any anchor team, really -- and give the audience time to find them and become comfortable with them.
It seemed like a reasonable strategy then, and it seems like a reasonable strategy now. Unfortunately, Cohen hasn't followed it.
