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| News & Notes: Larry Wert; Kristyn Hartman; CSN; Santita Jackson; Pete McMurray; Ramblin' Ray; Dave Fogel; John Williams; Jonathon Brandmeier; Much More |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Wednesday, 25 January 2012 19:02 | |||
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Today's News & Notes features a dozen local media nuggets, including: a rumor debunked about Larry Wert; Kristyn Hartman prepares to say goodbye; Comcast SportsNet gets ready for SoxFest; Robin Mulvaney takes over as WGN CFO; Santita Jackson not saying any goodbyes just yet; Pete McMurray says goodbye one hour earlier; Ramblin' Ray and Dave Fogel (separately) say hello at a pair of remotes; Dan and Anthony Ponce become radio weekenders; John Williams does the afternoon drive in MSP; Jonathon Brandmeier visits Park Ridge; and Chicago's Myke Julius charges back to San Diego. All of the details are just below...
* * There have been very serious rumors swirling this week that Dennis Swanson, the President of Station Operations for FOX Television Stations, was in Chicago recently, talking with some former WMAQ-TV staffers and looking at stealing away WMAQ-TV's President and General Manager, who is also NBC-TV's Executive Vice President of Station Initiatives, Larry Wert. The rumors had Wert leaving NBC to take over as President and General Manager of WFLD-TV, replacing Mike Renda as VP/GM, who is in the final months of his current contract with FOX. However, according to insiders at WFLD-TV, the rumors are nothing more than that. While Dennis Swanson has indeed been in town talking with a great many people and overseeing some of the positive plans taking place at WFLD-TV, there are no plans at this time to replace Mike Renda with Larry Wert. Most insiders feel that if Renda was indeed to exit the station later this year, that his most likely replacement is already there at the station. Currently, Larry Wert is still with NBC-TV, where he has been since 1998, and has no immediate plans to work elsewhere.  * * WBBM-TV's Kristyn Hartman, who has been a general assignment reporter for the station since 2004, will be exiting the station in a few months. Though she was offered a contract extension, she decided to turn it down for personal reasons. She will instead be focusing on enjoying some down time, before exploring other options available to her down the road. The native of suburban Hickory Hills has also worked as an anchor and reporter in Joplin, MO, Peoria, IL, Phoenix, AZ, and Charlotte, NC. She is not gone yet, however. She will continue to honor her contract and work through April.  * * Comcast SportsNet Chicago will be airing exclusive, live Opening Ceremonies coverage from the annual Chicago White Sox convention, "SoxFest 2012," which is being held this weekend at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. Beginning on Friday at 4:00pm, the local sports network and its website, CSNChicago.com, will provide viewers with every moment of the event's opening ceremonies, featuring introductions of White Sox players, coaches, and front office executives. Additionally, there will be live player interviews following the opening ceremonies, video montages and much more. Chuck Garfien, host of CSN's White Sox pre- and post-game shows, will host this coverage. All weekend long, the network will provide additional reports and highlights from "SoxFest 2012" on its news programs and on its website.  * * Tribune Company has promoted Robin Krider Mulvaney to the role of Chief Financial Officer for Tribune Broadcasting's Chicago-based properties: WGN-AM, WGN-TV, WGN America, and CLTV. The promotion is effective immediately. Mulvaney has been with Tribune Company in various roles 2000, including seven years with Tribune Media Services, where she most recently held the role of Director of Accounting, Planning and Analysis.  * * Despite an erroneous report elsewhere yesterday, WVON-AM's Santita Jackson is NOT yet gone from the station. She is still very much part of the WVON family, at least at this time. She is off the air currently while former morning show host Perri Small fills in. However, she can still be found on the website and the station is still airing promos for her radio show. Jackson's show can still be heard on WVON-AM 1690 from 9:00am-Noon on Mondays through Thursdays. She is also happens to be the Executive Producer, writer and co-host of the nationally-syndicated radio show of her father's, "Keep Hope Alive with Rev. Jesse Jackson," which airs on Sunday mornings on WVON-AM, as well as hundreds of stations nationwide. Additionally, the multi-talented Santita Jackson is also a renowned singer, writer, and television commentator. The station has asked the blogger who wrote the erroneous report to correct the misinformation.  * * Beginning tomorrow morning, Pete McMurray's normal morning show has lost one hour. Instead of ending at 10:00am as it always has, the show will now end at 9:00am. This is being done so WLUP-FM can begin its new morning feature, entitled "97@9." What the new feature will be is a long set of non-stop classic rock music. Insiders at the station could not commit to acknowledging if the batch of non-stop music was indeed 97 minutes long (which would help the feature's title make sense and tie in with its frequency) -- only that it would be a long block of music in the morning.  * * Tomorrow, fans will get a chance to meet WUSN-FM/US99.5's morning show co-host Ramblin' Ray, as he will be at the annual Chicago Outdoor Sportsmen Show. He will be there from 5:00pm-7:00pm Thursday evening, along with the US99 Rewards Team. More information on the sports show, which is being held at the Donald E. Stephens Center (5555 N. River Rd, Rosemont), can be found HERE.  * * WLS-FM's morning show host Dave Fogel will be making an appearance on Saturday at the Strictly Sail Chicago Boat Show on Chicago's waterfront at Navy Pier. He will be at the show from 1:00pm-3:00pm. For more information on the annual Boat Show, which starts tomorrow, visit this link HERE.  * * WLS-AM has announced today that they have hired Chicago television reporters and brothers Dan and Anthony Ponce as hosts for a new weekend radio show, to be heard on Sundays from 1:00pm-3:00pm. WLS-AM first tried out the brothers in a fill-in role in late May 2011, taking over for Roe Conn & Richard Roeper. Since then, they have done other fill-in shows at the station, mostly on weekends. Both brothers will continue to do their "day jobs" as reporters for WGN-TV (in the case of Dan Ponce) and WMAQ-TV (for Anthony Ponce). Their father, WTTW-TV's Phil Ponce will make occasional guest appearances on the new Sunday radio program.  * * WGN-AM's midday host John Williams just received a big radio promotion... only not at WGN-AM. His second radio job, WCCO-AM in Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN, just promoted him from late mornings/middays to afternoon drive personality, starting on this coming Monday. He will be replacing Michelle Tafoya, who is exiting the station after four years to focus on her television work with the NBC Sports network. Williams will work his Noon-3:00pm WGN Radio shift, then move from the WGN Showcase Studio to the interior Studio A to do his WCCO-AM show from 3:00pm-6:00pm from Chicago. (Although there have been occasions in the past where he has done both city's shows from the WCCO-AM studios in Minneapolis.) Williams previously worked at WCCO-AM from 1993-1997 before moving to Chicago's WGN-AM. In July 2010, when it appeared certain that WGN-AM's former Program Director was going to release Williams to make room for a controversial Cincinnati talk show host, Williams was able to secure this secondary job with WCCO-AM, thinking it would soon become his only job. When the Cincinnati host backed out of the deal at the last minute, Williams was retained by WGN-AM, and he thus ended up with two successful radio jobs. Both stations have worked well together to accommodate each other with Williams' schedule.  * * WGN-AM, which has been doing monthly remotes around Chicagoland since 2005 as part of their "WGN Radio Hometown Voices Tour," has selected next month's location. Based entirely on listener suggestions, next months "Hometown Voices" stop will be at The Summit of Uptown retirement community, located near downtown Park Ridge. This will be the very first one of these live remotes for WGN-AM's new morning show host, Jonathon Brandmeier, who joined the station in December. The "WGN Radio Hometown Voices Tour: Park Ridge" will take place on Friday, February 17th, from 5:30am-9:00am.  * * Chicago native and former WVAZ-FM evening DJ, Myke Julius has found new work, way down south. He is returning to the Urban Adult Contemporary station XHRM-FM, which services the San Deigo, CA market, as well as in Tijuana, Mexico, where its city of license is located. 
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