All Entries in the "Media" Category
Media: July 2009
Live Local Bands Get Their Own Free Weekly (Free) TV Show
“We’re encouraging local bands to support each other in a grassroots way,” says John Sink, executive producer of “Chicago/ Live,” a new live, weekly music performance series that airs Wednesday nights at midnight on WJYS TV-Channel 62 — just after “JBTV.”
Media: June 2009
FREE RADIO STILL RELEVANT – ESPECIALLY FOR MUSICIANS
A few years ago, Massachusetts-based musician Candace Clement was in a band called Better Friends Than Lovers when she started taking a hard look at how the music industry works. “A pattern quickly emerged — one where very few companies seemed to control all content,” says Clement, now [...]
Media: May 2009
Media
Old-Time Radio Guru Chuck Schaden Retires
Many people — including former Sun-Times media critic Robert Feder — credit Chuck Schaden with single-handedly keeping old-time radio alive for generations. But Schaden is stepping down in May, after 39 years of doing his Saturday afternoon radio show, “Those Were The Days” (1 to 5 p.m. on WDCB-FM 90.9 [...]
Is Journalism Dead?
In 1991, I met writers Michael Miner and John Conroy after they gave a presentation on independent journalism at an adult-education seminar.
In those pre-Internet days, The Reader was the thick, independent weekly everyone picked up on Thursday afternoon, so they could plan their weekend. Miner wrote its popular “Hot Type” media column, and Conroy was [...]
Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt. IV
Sound-alike syndicated shows have never gone over very well in The Windy City, where the preference for personal and authentic media dates back to the Chicago School Of Television. It emerged in the 1950s as a spontaneous, informal genre typified by shows such as “Garroway At Large,” “Kukla, Fran & Ollie,” and “Studs’ Place.” Look [...]
Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt. III: “JBTV”
“I love to help those that have talent, give them a place to be a rock star . . . on ‘JBTV,’” says Jerry Bryant, who has been bringing alternative-music videos, concert footage, and free-form interviews to the Chicago area since 1986. “JBTV” has featured everyone from The Afghan Whigs to Zwan, and won two [...]
CBS Heaves It To Stever
Last month’s firing of radio legend Steve Dahl and his staff was shocking – but not out of character – for CBS Radio.
A few weeks earlier, B96’s longtime morning team, Eddie Volkman and Joe “Jobo” Bohannon, were dumped by CBS Radio with eight months left in their contracts – and no chance to say goodbye. [...]
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 1
Last month’s firing of radio legend Steve Dahl and his staff was shocking – but not out of character – for CBS Radio.
A few weeks earlier, B96’s longtime morning team, Eddie Volkman and Joe “Jobo” Bohannon, were dumped by CBS Radio with eight months left in their contracts – and no chance to say goodbye. [...]
Public Acess Under Siege
AT&T hypes its new U-verse digital TV system as “advanced TV that brings consumers a revolutionary new ent-ertainment experience that’s cooler than cable.”
U-verse boasts something like 900 channels (including more than 41 in high definition) and a DVR that can record four shows at once.
But activists say it doesn’t give consumers easy access to government, [...]
He Gone
Chicago Tribune. Recent redesigns have reduced story length and page count plus relegated much of the national and world news into bite-sized briefs.
The Morning After
For WKQK-FM 101.1 listeners, the morning drive is now an awful lot like the afternoon drive.
On August 11th, the former afternoon team of Brian Sherman and Steve Tingle took over the morning slot after Alan Cox and Jim Lynam’s “The Morning Fix” was given the ax.
College Stations: Terrastrial Radio’s Last Frontier
Down at the left end of the dial, sprinkled among the non-commercial religious and public-radio stations, is where you’ll find the most subversive sounds on the radio.
That’s the domain of college radio – where students and community DJs often play (and say) anything, and with its focus on the local and offbeat, college radio is [...]
Hope For Local TV
The station that launched the legendary dance show “Soul Train” in 1970 recently hired two WTTW-Channel 11 alumni to help develop local programming.
Weigel Broadcasting, which owns WCIU-Channel 26 (where “Soul Train” got its start back in 1970), as well as WWME-Channel 23 and WMEU-Channel 48, recently hired Harvey Moshman and Randy King to create local [...]
This Is Hell! Turns 10
The most witty, politically incisive talk show on the radio doesn’t air on a commercial station.
It’s engineered by students, who are trained on the job.
And the host isn’t paid.
Andy Austin, Courtroom Artist
“There’s been a lot of agitation on the part of the electronic media and regular press to open up the courtrooms,” says courtroom artist Andy Austin, author of the new book Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, And Murders In An American Courtroom (Lake Claremont, $19.95). Rule 53 is a Federal Rule Of Criminal Procedure, [...]
