Will Channel 7 be ‘Lost’ without election coverage?
The collision of Illinois primary election coverage Feb. 2 with the three-hour premiere of the sixth and final season of ABC’s “Lost” could pose a Groundhog Day dilemma for WLS-Channel 7, Chicago’s top-rated ABC-owned station.
The cast of ABC's Lost
Unlike the White House, which shrewdly decided not to schedule President Obama’s State of the Union address on the same night as the much-anticipated return of “Lost,” Channel 7 has no choice as to when voters’ returns will come in for the U.S. Senate, Illinois governor, Cook County Board president and other races.
It’s more than just an academic question, considering that Channel 7 leads the market every election night and has held the franchise on coverage of live events and breaking news coverage for years. Will it cede the news ratings this time to its rivals? Or will it risk angering the “Lost” faithful with interruptions or preemptions?
“ ‘Lost’ fans need not worry!” That was the official word Monday from Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of Channel 7, who added:
“We will have local election updates throughout the night, without interrupting the premiere of ‘Lost.’ We will also have continuous election returns on our website (abc7chicago.com) and wireless service (abc7togo.com) and live, streaming video on the web as events warrant. And, of course, we’ll have an expanded edition of ABC 7 news at 10 p.m. with complete election coverage.”
The bet here is that Channel 7 will win the ratings in a landslide that night, too.
Elsewhere on the media beat:
- All eyes at Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9 are on morning news anchor Larry Potash, who wrapped up work last week without a contract renewal. Although he was back on the air Monday, there was no official word if he’d agreed on a new deal. “As per our standing policy, we really can’t comment on the status of any contracts,” a station spokeswoman said. “We can, however, confirm that Larry is the anchor of ‘WGN Morning News.’ ” Potash, 43, a 15-year veteran of Channel 9, has been integral to the success of the morning show since 1996.
- Jill Urchak, who replaced Amy Jacobson as afternoon traffic reporter on Citadel Broadcasting news/talk WLS-AM (890) Monday, must not have received the memo on the show’s name change. Now that Cisco Cotto has joined Roe Conn, it’s officially called “The Roe & Cisco Show.” (Doesn’t Urchak read ChicagolandRadioandMedia.com?)
- The man who’s been the public face of Arbitron’s controversial Portable People Meter ratings system is out. In a surprise move Monday, Michael Skarzynski resigned as CEO after Arbitron said he’d violated an unspecified company policy. One congressman alleged that Skarzynski “may have provided false testimony” during a Dec. 2 House committee hearing on the PPM service.
- Happy birthday, radio! At least by one measure, today is the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast — a live transmission from New York’s Metropolitan Opera by radio pioneer Lee De Forest’s Radio Telephone Company. “This will only be an experiment and perfect results are not expected immediately,” the New York Times predicted.
- First Oprah, now Simon? Word that Simon Cowell had announced plans Monday to quit “American Idol” after this season prompted Time Out Chicago editor in chief Frank Sennett to tweet: “Will Daley blame us for this, too? If so, shld get reward.”
12
01 2010
blogs.vocalo.org
what about me?
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/blogshakalaka
“big mac attack of conscience”
as for this post, i’m sure there’s a groundhog day (the movie) election analogy in here somewhere (meet the new boss, same as the old boss?), and certainly since “lost” is also about time warping maybe channel 7 can insert mini-updates on how mayor bilandic’s failure to be in chicago for the big snow has discombobulated chicago politics. as i recall the mayor was vacationing with the president in hawaii while all hell was breaking loose.
So the new Roe show name is NOT “Cisco and the Kid?”
Sure seemed like the same old Roe Conn Show to me. Perhaps Jill Urchak is the only who does ‘get it’.
Off topic: I’m a little bummed this morning regarding the lack of coverage of the passing of Jan Gabriel this past weekend. Dick Biondi mentioned him last night and was clearly choked up. Had a tough time keeping his composure. I understand Gabriel wasn’t exactly a household name. We all remember him screaming, “Sunday! Sunday!! Sunday!!! At wailin’ US 30 dragstrip!!!!!” But not many knew him by name. Gearheads might recall his Super Chargers show on cable. Gabriel essentially created Monster Trucks in the early 1980s…and then lost control of his creation to smoother operators. Remember the old Harlem Furniture spots on TV? He produced them for decades. A genuinely nice man with a wild sense of humor. I thought local news outlets might have done a little more for him, that’s all.
What’s this Chicagolandradioandmedia.com site you speak of? I’ve heard it’s run by a creature called Larz, And that there are 6or7 guys that live in their Mommy’s basement’s that post on it. Interesting concept thou!
Click the link to learn more about Jan Gabriel. Interview with Bob Sirott.
What about Bruce Wolf??
Can’t he stay on the Feder topic of the day? Whats the deal with that?
man i wish i had a tv show that i would want to see so badly over anything else….that must be cool.
Last night (01/11) Chicago Tonight did a great piece on Jan’s passing. You can probably find it on their website. I met him when he was at WJOB and didn’t know his history beyond that until last night.
Jennifer Graves had better be correct that they won’t interrupt one second of ‘Lost’!
We flat out won’t put up with that crap, PERIOD!
And before anyone attacks me for saying that, remember this:
1. The election will be over by then.
2. There will be five other TV stations, CNN, several daily newspapers, numerous radio stations, wire services & numerous bloggers all reporting the results.
3. What’s the difference if you don’t get three straight hours of boring analysis by retired and/or convicted politicians?
The results are still the same!
4. You don’t know the thrill I get watching the victory or the consolation parties at candidate HQs! NOT! They are as thrilling to me as seeing hundreds of drunk sports fans celebrating their team’s victory at a local sports bar. I DON”T CARE!
5. I will get the results the good old fashioned way: I will read about them at the table while eating breakfast & reading the paper. 8 – 12 hours won’t make a difference in my life or anyone else’s as it’s not like the winners take office immediately, there’s still an election in November, nine long months away & then those winners won’t take the offices for another two months!
My eyes are on Larry Potash. But my hands are on Paul.
Who cares about election results anyway? As long as I get my celebrity gossip fix from E!, Eric and Kathy and Inside Edition, I know everything I need to know to get me through my busy day of shopping, soaps and sitcoms.
Oh, Christ! I think I just grew a pair of boobs, a minivan and three soccer playing brats. Come on Pat, wake up, it’s just a bad dream the wife must have Eric and Kathy on the bathroom radio again. Wake up. It’s okay. Must… must… have… Stephanie… Miller… must… must… have… Stephanie… Miller… and… and… coffee…
Just TIVO the show LOST on watch it on Feb 3rd.
I am so excited. Just found Rob Feder web site.
Have respected and adored Mr. Feder for years.
It’s like a cool high school reunion.
Zwecker.. Roeper.. Roe..Amy.. Janet Davies Larry Potash.
Busy media people who have helped raise a lot of money for a lot of local charities for a long time.
You are all superstars!!
Love and good karma to you all. Tobi
#13-Kathy: Exactly what good will TIVOing ‘Lost’ due if the fools at WLS-TV interrupts any of it to tell us that someone has 2% of the vote to their opponent’s 1%?
None of us care if one station calls a race at 7:03PM vs. another station calling the same race at 7:05PM. It has absolutely no effect on my life & also, no effect on the outcome.
WE DON’T CARE!
I for one will have ABC 7 on all night, from the 5:00 news on (what if there is another gem like “self potato” on the Wheel?) to watch Lost, and then enjoy the election results on the 10:00 news. Thanks, Jennifer Graves!
How many co-hosts will wls go through before they realize that the problem with their afternoon show is the only constant. It wasn’t Garry, not Bill Leff, or Christina.
skip tv and try radio for election coverage…..how about say….wbez?
The guy from Arbirton probably REALLY got popped because it has been proven that the ratings for the semi lovely and talented Melissa Forman show were grossly underrepresented by the PPM. I call upon Congress to ask that dude about why his gizmo cut Ms. Forman down in her prime while they ring him up for fibbing under oath. Then take him out to a Danley garage and make him listen to hour after painful hour of WGN with some Chet Chitchat during the commercial breaks.
Jim Mueller:
The sad news of Jan Gabriel’s passing was first reported Monday morning at this website here:
http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/features/blogs/121-jan-gabriel-man-who-coined-the-phrase-qsunday-sunday-sundayq-passes-away
Later Monday, it was talked about on WTTW-TV (Chicago Tonight), WLS-FM (Dick Biondi) and WGN-AM (Steve King & Johnnie Putman). Word also spread via “new media” outlets like Facebook & Twitter to many people. Yes, it is shame that more outlets, including the bigger TV stations & papers, did not cover such a big local loss, but at least it was not completely ignored.
I’m with goatzee – yes, what a perfect opportunity for WBEZ to capitalize on the lack of in depth news reporting on the upcoming elect…..uh nevermind. I forgot journalism is no longer a priority of this organization’s mission. With resources pulled out of WBEZ’s newsroom and put into Vocalo, we’ll likely never hear election coverage done as well as it used to be when quality actually mattered at this station.
DOn’t know if anyone’s reading this…but if so, it proves my thought: the Internet will be far more useful in watching the results, while i enjoy Lost with my wife.
We have a laptop with WiFi, so i can click on if just HAVE to see who’s winning (and i actually will for certain races)…commercial time will be a perfect respite to click refresh.
Larz & Shakes:
Good to see you both wander over here and make comments! Shakes-your comment put a smile on my face! Chat with you both soon over on CRM.
DJS
P.S. Feder: Keep up the awesome work…oh yeah, I have to use disclaimers as well in some of my tweets as I am the webmaster for a lady running for Cook County Circuit Court Judge (@joannfehn4judge)