Who will own the Tribune next?

It's beginning to look like the owner will be JP Morgan Chase, no matter what happens in the bankruptcy case.

I suspect that WGN may be for sale soon. Think Randy Michael's new company will want to buy it?

Indecency goes back to the Supreme Court

This is going to be very interesting. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case about the constitutionality of the FCC's policing indecency on the airwaves.

The Supreme Court, of course, is run by conservatives now, and conservatives are always in favor of policing indecency, right? Well, not so fast. Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito also call themselves "constitutionalists." In effect, they don't believe in legal precedents if those precedents were not specifically enumerated in the constitution. In their eyes, it's still 1789.

Obviously the constitution doesn't give anyone the authority to police indecency. Yes, the Supreme Court has previously ruled that the FCC does have the authority, but that ruling was made post-1789.

So what will they do?

Will they give the conservatives what they want or will they live up to the letter of their strict ideology?

Cubby Broccoli

One of my all-time favorite Chicago media moments occurred on this day, exactly 15 years ago. It started with this sad event that Bob Dearborn notes in his almanac today...

"June 27, 1996…Creator and longtime producer of James Bond movies, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli died of heart failure at the age of 87."

But the memorable part for me was Channel 5's report about his death. Joan Esposito read the obit from the teleprompter, but the photo graphic they put on the screen wasn't a photo of Cubby Broccoli. It was a photo of a stalk of broccoli.

I almost choked when I saw it because I was laughing so hard.

Randy's new COO

It's really beginning to sound like Randy Michaels intends on making Q-101 into a talk station. From All Access...

"RANDY MICHAELS' MERLIN MEDIA has named longtime talk radio consultant WALTER SABO as COO. SABO, a former executive at ABC RADIO NETWORKS, RKO RADIO, and NBC's FM station group, founded his SABO MEDIA consultancy in 1984 and, among other accomplishments, created the unusual and successful FM Talk format at WKXW (NEW JERSEY 101.5)/TRENTON."

The Vatican Portal

From the New York Times....

"The Vatican is leaping into the world of new media with the introduction this week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a click. Vatican officials said on Saturday that Pope Benedict had been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop shop for news about the Holy See."

The best thing about this new portal? It will not contain any mistakes. The Pope is infallible.

Danny Mac signs a new contract

Looks like the Score did the right thing, and re-signed Danny Mac. It's probably been reported elsewhere, but I saw it this morning in Radio Daily...

"Dan McNeil inks a multi-year deal to remain with CBS Radio's Sports WSCR-AM (670 the Score)/Chicago. He had been of-air since Wednesday while negotiations heated up and took place."

That station would have had a gaping hole in their lineup without him.

Erica Cobb

Do you remember Erica Cobb? She was a sidekick on Eddie & Jobo's show for awhile on B-96, and now works in Denver. She was also in the news this week. From the RAMP Newsletter...

"KALC (Alice 105.9)/Denver morning co-host Erica Cobb has definitely defied that stereotypical image of air personalities as overweight, out-of-shape, junk food-eating studio spuds. Ms. Cobb, one-third of Alice's BJ, Howie & Erica Show, just finished in the top 10 at the recent National Physique Committee Show in her hometown of Chicago, where she started her morning radio career at B96. A year ago, she took home first place in her class at the Colorado State NPC Show, which qualifies her to compete for her International Federation of BodyBuilders Pro Card, giving her the ability to compete for cash, qualify for elite-level international shows and possibly land a corporate sponsor."

I can't believe I missed the National Physique Committee Show again this year. Looks like it'll be another year of building this temple (my body) in anonymity. I've got myself down to about 97% body fat...

Tom Hanks at WGN

This has producer Jeff Hoover's signature all over it. Tom Hanks strolls through WGN television. Great stuff.

Hoover is the one dressed as Woody in the beginning of this bit.

He's Baaaaack

Inside Radio's alert a few moments ago...

"Alert: Emmis Partners With Randy Michaels. After announcing it was seeking to sell rock WRXP, New York (101.9) and its two Chicago FMs, Emmis Communications has instead found a partner in former Jacor and Clear Channel executive Randy Michaels and the private equity firm GTCR. Their newly-formed Merlin Media has struck a deal to buy a majority stake in WRXP and Emmis’ Chicago FMs: modern rock “Q-101” WKQX and classic rock “The Loop” WLUP-FM (97.9). Emmis will still own a significant minority stake."

I'm hearing that John Gehron is a part of this new company too. He has worked with Randy Michaels before (at Clear Channel).

Memo to the young female staffers at the Loop/Q-101: If Mr. Michaels puts his arms out like Jesus on the cross and offers you a chance to "put a little extra money in your paycheck," run like the wind.

The Most Uncivil?

1000 Americans were recently polled about civility in America, and were asked to identify what was the most uncivil thing in this country.

#1 was pop culture (75%), followed closely by the media (74%) and the government (73%). That pretty much covers it, doesn't it?

When they broke it down further, the big losers were Republicans in Congress (60%), Tea Party Supporters (60%), Democrats in Congress (56%) and blogs (55%).

The Cable News networks also didn't fare so well. Fox News (51%), MSNBC (37%), and CNN (32%) all got quite a few votes.

And what was ranked the lowest on the uncivil meter? Conversation at the dinner table (7%).

Charlie Meyerson

It's no secret that I've always had a soft spot for recently ousted (last Friday) WGN news director Charlie Meyerson. He was one of my first Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews four years ago. We share a common history...the University of Illinois and WPGU-Radio. I've met Charlie a few times over the years, and saw him as recently as a month or two ago, and he was always upbeat and positive--even under obviously stressful circumstances.

It's nice to see him getting such nice press on the way out. (Some of it is here, here, and here.)

I wish Charlie the very best. I'm sure he will land on his feet.

Tribune trying to buy another newspaper

Having learned absolutely nothing from the devastating purchases the Tribune company made in the lead up to their bankruptcy, the company is once again trying to purchase another newspaper.

I'm not joking about this. They're really that oblivious. The details are here.

Randy Michaels

Robert Feder printed an excerpt of Jim O'Shea's book (The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers) about the Sam Zell era of Tribune company ownership. This was a story about Randy Michaels (the CEO) that I will never be able to scrub from my brain...

"A terrace on the twenty-second floor of Tribune Tower became Michaels’ coveted real estate. . . . Michaels had been warned not to leave the French doors leading outside ajar, because an open door would trigger an alarm at the security office downstairs. One warm day in 2008, a Tribune Tower security guard noticed something had triggered the alarm and sent a colleague up to the twenty-second floor to investigate. Seeing the door open, the guard stepped out onto the terrace and later reported to his superiors that he had stumbled onto Michaels, standing with his arms extended as if on a cross, receiving fellatio from a young female Tribune employee. The guard abruptly returned to the security office. But Randy Michaels was now the man at the top of the Tower and he could do as he damn well pleased."

Norah O'Donnell to CBS

This is a bit of a surprise.

My favorite NBC reporter has moved over to CBS. Full details are here.

Pandora, Day 2

Don't worry, I won't follow it every day. I was just curious to see how many people just bought it to sell it fast. Looks like there were lots. From Radio Ink this morning...

"It's hard to find too much good news for the big P. Granted it was only day two, however, there was very little perspective on day one either when the stock shot up to $26.00. What's the thinking now that the stock is already down to $13.26, well below the IPO price of $16.00. And that was on an up day for the market. Is this a temporary blip on the road to riches for Pandora? Or are it investors realizing, after being burned during the first bubble, that a profit-generating business model out of the gate really does matter."

The Trib hires new media reporter

When Phil Rosenthal announced he was moving to the business beat this week, everyone just figured no one would replace him on the media beat.

Looks like we were wrong.

Meet the new Tribune media reporter (via Robert Feder).

Hef reacts

His wife-to-be was already scheduled to be on the cover of the latest issue of Playboy, so what's a jilted husband-to-be to do?

He's putting stickers over her picture calling her "The Runaway Bride."

I know it's childish, but I love it.

Pandora

The IPO was yesterday, and this is Radio Ink's report about how it went...

"The euphoria over Pandora sent the stock to as high as $26.00 on day one of trading yesterday. Investors then took most of their profits and got out with the stock settling in at $17.42. Not too shabby for a company being lambasted for having no clear plan to make a profit. Pandora finished with a market value of $2.78 billion Wednesday. The IPO raised nearly $235 million. 51 year old Joe Kennedy now has a stake worth $74 million from his 4.2 million shares."

Sounds like it went OK. Needless to say, I wasn't among the investors jumping in to buy it.

The Deal from Hell

This book sounds like a must read for anyone who has been following the nightmare Chicago Tribune bankruptcy story.

Author Jim O'Shea was a top editor of the Chicago Tribune and witnessed it all first hand, so he naturally calls the book: "The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers"

Read more about the book here.

Product Placement in Radio

I jokingly suggested this as the future in my novel "$everance" because it seemed so preposterous, but sadly, it's actually happening. And it's even more odious than my attempt at satire in the book.

Talk show hosts like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin are offering paid endorsements as part of the regular content of their show. Not as separate commercials, not identified as commercials, just part of the usual "the liberals are destroying this country" garbage they repeat over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And they're being paid millions to do it.

Full details are here.

I don't suppose this bothers any of their listeners. It certainly doesn't bother their lapdog defender Talkers Magazine's Founder and Editor Michael Harrison, who twists himself into a pretzel defending it in the article.

It's beyond slimy as far as I'm concerned.