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Published on Monday, 25 June 2012 17:37
Today's News & Notes features a dozen local media stories, including: Comcast SportsNet Chicago gets a new "Insider"; WGRB-AM gets a new show; WLBK-AM gets a new FM; WKYT-FM & WXNU-FM get new streams; WSSR-FM goes to 7th Heaven; WFMT-FM and Radio DePaul get honored; Christopher Michael's company starts a new radio feature; Rick O'Dell enhances baseball games; Ray Clay enhances a wedding; Barry Bernson prepares to release a book; and John Madormo releases a book and prepares to release more. It can all be read here...
* * Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired veteran baseball beat reporter Dan Hayes to be the local sports network's new Chicago White Sox "Insider." He started his new position at the end of this past week. Hayes was most recently a reporter covering the San Diego Padres for the North County Times in San Diego, CA. Hayes will now contribute reports for CSN Chicago's website and digital platforms, as well as being an on-air contributor to White Sox pre-game shows and other CSN Chicago programming covering the White Sox.
* * WGRB-AM has added a new nighttime syndicated show to its line-up. As of today, Inspiration 1390 is airing the "Coco Brother Live" program. It will be heard each weeknight from 7:00pm-11:00pm. The show is hosted by Cory "Coco Butter" Condrey and features urban gospel music and news, along with celebrity guest interviews and themed segments. Condrey is a native of Tennessee, but is now based out of Atlanta, GA. His wife is Chicago native and Gospel singer Joann Rosario.
* * WBBM-AM is not the only Chicagoland radio news station that simulcasts on the FM. Now, DeKalb's WLBK-AM 1360 can also be heard nice & clear on WLBK-FM 98.9. The FM broadcast is the same news, sports and information programming that has been programmed on the AM station for nearly 65 years. The 98.9 frequency in DeKalb is actually translator W255BN. The owners purchased the signal last year, placed a new transmitter and antenna on top of their Sycamore Road building, and then waited for the approval from the FCC. Though only 225 watts, the FM signal easily covers all of DeKalb.
* * After years of being without, far-south suburban WYKT-FM/The Kat 105.5 has finally started streaming its radio station online. The stream can be easily accessed right on the homepage of The Kat's
website. It can also be heard via the TuneIn free smartphone app. For fans who have been wanting to Chicagoland's only real hard rockin' radio station, but have been unable to hear its small signal, this is their chance to sample the STARadio-owned station.
* * As for STARadio's other two radio stations in the Kankakee area, one of them has also started streaming, while the other has not. WXNU-FM/X Country 106.5 is also streaming from its
website's homepage. WKAN-AM/Talk AM 1320 is not yet streaming online. Neither stations are on TuneIn or any other app yet.
* * Tomorrow, the band 7th Heaven will be performing a free concert outside the WSSR-FM/Star 96.7 studios, starting at 2:00pm. The station is calling the event "A Taste of The Taste," as 7th Heaven and REO Speedwagon will be opening up the Taste of Joliet on Friday. For those who want to see the Chicago-based rock band play live, the Star 96.7 studios are located at 2410 Caton Farm Road in Crest Hill, near the corner of US 30 & Caton Farm Road.
* * The New York Festivals International Radio Program & Promotions Awards, which honor what it calls as some of the "World's Best Radio Programs," held its annual awards ceremony last week. Among the many award winners were two Chicago radio stations for work they performed in the last year. WFMT-FM was a Bronze Radio Winner for Best Information/Documentary in the category of Culture & The Arts, for their 2011 special "Songs My Father Taught Me." For Best Radio Station, Chicago's online Radio DePaul won a Finalist Certificate, meaning it didn't take 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize, but was worth noting publicly.
* * Beginning next week, local radio syndication company, Sound Targeting will be syndicating a weekday feature entitled "A Minute For Kids," hosted by Dr. Don Shifrin. The feature, which started on Chicago's WBBM-AM, is a 90 second program (with a 30 second barter commercial), researched and written by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation's largest and most respected organization for children's health, and covers children's health issues from birth through the teen years. In addition to WBBM-AM, many other stations in other markets have already signed on to carry the syndicated feature starting next Monday.
Sound Targeting is one of the companies that WGN-AM newsman Christopher Michael operates. "A Minute for Kids" will now join the company's other feature shows, "The 60 Second Checkup" and "Rural Health Today," both of which Christopher Michael hosts.
* * Former WLFM-LP/Smooth 87.7 midday host and Program Director, Rick O'Dell is still using his voice to make fans happy. Not necessarily Smooth Jazz fans... but suburban baseball fans, at least. For this summer, O'Dell can be heard as the new Public Address announcer for the Midwest Collegiate League's Will County Crackerjacks ballclub, who play their home games at Brennan Field on the Lewis University campus at 1 University Parkway in Romeoville. Rick O'Dell's next game will be this Friday, the 29th. For information on how to attend a game and the team itself, visit this link
HERE. Rick O'Dell is backing a winner, as the Crackerjacks won the Midwest Collegiate League championship last year.
* * Speaking of Public Address announcers... Former Chicago Bulls P.A. announcer Ray Clay, who called all six of the Bulls championship games in his 12 years with the team, was called back into action this month... only it wasn't for the Bulls. Clay was hired by the family of a Chicago suburban young woman to make an appearance at her wedding. Barrington native Amanda Perkins wed Kartal Jaquette earlier in June at a ceremony in Estes Park, Colorado. Clay flew out to the ceremony, and as he did for the Chicago Bulls players at the start of each home game, he introduced the wedding party over the music of the Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius" to the wedding reception. The video of the event has gone viral and can be seen
HERE.
* * On July 6th, former WMAQ-TV feature reporter Barry Bernson will be releasing his autobiography, "Bernson's Corner: A Reporter's Notebook." The book will be about Bernson's 47 years in media, with the majority of it in the Louisville area, but also with eight important years here in Chicago. Along with the book comes a DVD featuring multiple Barry Berson news segments, where he was placed in funny situations or featured unique individuals. Many of those come from his "Barry's People" segments from his time at WMAQ-TV from the late 70s to to the early 80s. Bernson made a humorous video announcing the book, which can be seen
HERE. The book will be available very soon from Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and the publisher's website, Butlerbooks.com.
* * Speaking of books... John Madormo, General Manager of the college radio station, WONC-FM and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Communication at North Central College in Naperville, is now a published author. Madormo has signed a three-book deal with Penguin Books for Young Readers. He is now releasing a series of middle-grade mysteries entitled "Charlie Collier, Snoop for Hire," which is about a 12-year-old self-appointed private detective who sets up shop in his parents garage and solves cases for his fellow sixth grade students. This first of the three books, "The Homemade Stuffing Caper," was released last month and has already received
rave reviews. It can be found at numerous Chicagoland book stores, and online via Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. Book 2 in the series, "The Camp Phoenix Caper," is scheduled to be released next February, while Book 3 is scheduled for next Fall.
