WFAA-Channel 8 chief weather predictor man Troy Dungan said farewell-for-now last night, 31 years after signing on at the station. For his final forecast — during which Dungan was surrounded by “a cast of thousands,” meaning dozens — he had the right attitude: “If it’s wrong, what are they gonna…
Don’t know how the rumors got started — Seattle-based Fisher Communications-owned Pegasus News does, however — but Fair to Midland’s publicist just e-mailed Unfair Park and everyone else to let us and you know that the band ain’t playing no stinkin’ free show on Jul7 25 at the House of…
I am sure that if Jim Schutze were not on vacation, he would want to comment on at least one particular section of Bruce Tomaso’s piece today about how much dough The Trinity Commons Foundation has raised to Sink the Petition! Save the Trinity! I point you specifically to the…
Congratulations to Mike Orren and Pegasus News, which has been acquired by Seattle-based Fisher Communications, a media company that owns some 27 media outlets in the Northwest. Financial terms haven’t been disclosed yet, but they will be: Fischer’s a high-priced NASDAQ-traded stock ($50.80, as of this morning) with extensive Securities…
The big-money men at Dallas’ Beta Capital Group are trying to scrape together enough spare change to stop Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal takeover. Word was only 10 days ago that Rupert Murdoch had succeeded in his efforts to buy The Wall Street Journal from Dow Jones & Co. –…
As Clear Channel owns five major stations in the Dallas market — among them, KHKS-FM (KISS 106, home to Kidd Kraddick), KDGE-FM (102.1, Your Alleged New Rock Alternative) and KZPS-FM (92.5, the recently rechristened Lone Star) — this certainly qualifies as local news. And if you’re an unsigned local artist…
Craig Flournoy and Tracy Everbach’s highly critical Dallas Morning News review in the Columbia Journalism Review, first mentioned here Thursday, has prompted a response from the paper’s Big Bosses, editor Bob Mong and publisher and chief executive officer Jim Moroney. Unfair Park was forwarded a memo M&M sent to staffers…
Photo by John Hibey Mark Birnbaum and Manny Mendoza interviewed Walter Cronkite for their doc-in-progress. Yesterday we mentioned Craig Flournoy and Tracy Everbach’s bad-News piece in the latest Columbia Journalism Review, for which they claim to have interviewed about 100 former newsroomies. But one former Dallas Morning News’er with whom…
A couple of weeks back, Rolling Stone published a lengthy, thoughtful music-biz obit that resonated with industry insiders, with its bad news (album sales down 200 million units since 2000) and inside-baseball history lessons (the collapsed talks between Napster and label heads seven years ago) and the larger and still-unanswered…
Yesterday morning, I found in my in-box this Columbia Journalism Review story about The Dallas Morning News — specifically, about the state o’ Dallas’ Only Daily in the wake of the 2004 and ’06 layoffs that reduced the newsroom staff by 30 percent. The piece — penned by former News-ers…
In case you needed proof that the whole Jim Schutze-Wick Allison feud is entirely staged, WWE-style, and intended solely to drum up biz for the blogs, here’s a pic from last weekend’s shindig celebrating the hitchin’ of D mag’s Paul Kix and Daily Candy’s Sonya Castex. That’s Wick in the…
This morning we were notified that, thank God, David “Kidd” Kraddick’s not only gonna be on KHKS-FM (106.1) for, like, ever, but that he also took full ownership of his syndicated-in-60-markets radio show. Clear Channel, which owns KISS FM, was also a part-time player in Kraddick’s recently launched syndication network…
Virginia Postrel, PC World loves you — well, your blog, at the very least. PC World has just its list of “100 Blogs We Love,” and included therein is Blog Maverick, the daily musings of Mavs Man Mark Cuban, whose last two posts reveal his wide-ranging interests: Hedge Fund IPOs…
Only a few weeks into her Anchorwoman gig in Tyler, and already everyone’s giving Lauren Jones a hard time. A few media tid-bytes this a.m.: ESPN is launching ESPN Deportes Radio, an all-Spanish-language radio network making its bow in three hot spots: Dallas, Knoxville and New Jersey. Says here that…
We’re all agreed that Glenn Beck, heard daily on KLIF-AM, is the opposite of “progressive,” right? Thanks to The Dallas Morning News’ Over the Top blog, I sucked down a Tio’s Tortas sandwich with my head buried in a just-issued 40-page study that says, among other things, Dallas radio audiences…
How old are they over at KDFW-Channel 4’s Good Day show, anyway? Because when the word “butts” cracks you up, you’re clearly not old enough. Come to think of it, though, that is so our kind of apology. –Robert Wilonsky…
Belo Corp. today presented its half-a-year-in-review in New York City, and bossman Robert Decherd wisely played up the company’s television properties — you know, the ones investors and financial analysts seem to love a whole bunch. Said the chairman and chief executive officer, even with the recent upswing in Belo…
We’re not huge fans of patting our own backs at Unfair Park; I know, that’s so hard to believe, right? So we’ll just accept the congratulations of our friends at FrontBurner, who make mention this afternoon of our weekend win at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference, where Unfair Park…
From The New York Times today: “Ex-Businessman Wins Runoff for Dallas Mayor.” From the San Francisco Chronicle today: “Gay candidate loses runoff in Dallas mayoral contest.” The stories, written by Gretel C. Kovach, are otherwise exactly the same. –Robert Wilonsky…
I’ve heard from several Friends of Unfair Park this morning complaining about our “new format,” which is a grey screen with black type. Yeah, that sounds pretty unreadable. Trust me, it’s not a new format. It’s some kind of a glitch, and our people are on it, trying to find…
Last week we told you about how Steve McGonigle, reporter over at The Dallas Morning News, was trying to fight a federal subpoena. Because, see, the U.S. government wants him to testify next month when the government finally goes to trial with its case against the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation…
A couple of weeks back, as we noted, a Citigroup analyst suggested Belo’s stock was undervalued and underperforming because its newspapers were dragging down its TV stations’ value. Day after that, Belo’s stock hit a 52-week high. And a few days after that, Barron’s suggested, hey, Belo might wanna just…
