CHICAGO ADVERTISER REMOVES ANCHORS FROM SPOTS

WBBM, the CBS-owned station in Chicago, said today that a Chicago-area furniture company did not have permission to use footage of news anchors Walter Jacobson and Bill Kurtis in a commercial that doubled as a tribute to outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley. The commercial shows clips of numerous personalities — including former President George W. […]

ABRAMS FIRED AT TRIBUNE; MORE SHAKEUPS IN STORE?

Tribune Corp. CEO Randy Michaels has “accepted” Lee Abrams’s resignation as the media company’s chief innovation officer. The departure of Abrams, a former radio consultant, came after a New York Times article disclosed that executives of the company, including Michaels, a former disc jockey, encouraged a fratboy culture at the Tribune and after Abrams sent […]

CBS ACCUSED OF USING LOCAL NEWSCASTS TO HYPE NEW SERIES

CBS-owned stations in major markets last Monday devoted part of their early-evening newscasts to promoting the premiere of the new Hawaii Five-0 that night in what veteran TV critic Robert Feder called “a well-coordinated plan to prostitute the newscasts of CBS-owned stations nationwide.” On his blog at Vocalo.org, Feder, who for 28 years was the […]