In a move announced with little fanfare, on May 1 Belo Corp.-owned WFAA-Channel 8 became one of five ABC affiliates to offer a link to the mothership that makes available free videos of some of the network’s bigger hits. It’s part of ABC’s attempt to drive traffic to its own…
Remember how the Susquehanna-to-Cumulus (spell that three times fast) switch was going to go oh-so-smooth? Um, notsomuch. The Cumulus folks officially take over Susquehanna’s metroplex radio empire today, and things, they are a changin’. Just in the last week, for example, former Susquehanna senior vice president and general manager of…
Belo Corporation, the owner of The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-Channel 8, doled out some $7.4 million to end a 12-year-old defamation lawsuit…in Kentucky. Belo bought WHAS-TV, an ABC affiliate, in 1997–three years after a roller-coaster accident at the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park spawned a series of pieces that painted…
I know, I know. I’m Unfair Park’s sportsy guy–like Anchorman’s Champ, only without the hat and the mutton-chop sideburns. And the humor. But I also know horrible TV, and when I see it, I’m glued to it. That’s why I spent (by which I mean wasted) 35 minutes of my…
I believe in the enterainment biz this is called “repurposing.” Yesterday we mentioned former Observer music editor Sarah Hepola’s piece on Slate about how she intends to give up her blog to do other things, like watch TV. Turns out some folks at National Public Radio dug the piece too…
May 1 is scheduled to be “A Day Without a Mexican,” so named for the great-idea-lousy-execution 2004 movie in which Californians wake up one morning to find all the Mexicans simply vanished overnight. Some folks are also calling May 1 El Gran Paro Americano 2006 (“The Great American Boycott 2006”)…
Just when you thought local radio couldn’t get any worse, it does. Two words: Opie. And Anthony. Come back, Diamond Dave, all is forgiven. Except for “Just a Gigolo.” –Robert Wilonsky…
Former Observer music editor Sarah Hepola has decided that the blog is the great blob that writing blots ambition even as it spawns prose bloat. So she turned hers off. Or will. Eventually. “Blogging had been the ideal run-up to a novel, but it had also become a major distraction…
Belo Corp. just posted its first-quarter earnings, if you can call ’em that. The news for the News’ owner? Not so hot. That said, Belo’s stock was up considerably in morning trading–by some 27 cents at post time. –Robert Wilonsky…
Last night’s thunderstorms had even my cat thinking the Rapture had come. Anxious to see what kind of damage the weather had done throughout the city, I checked my trusty Dallas Morning News this morning, where I learned that traffic is snarled, power is out and–horror of horrors–“Overnight storms knocked…
Tomorrow morning, Belo Corp. will announce its first-quarter results, and at least one person on the street (OK, TheStreet.com) doesn’t think the news for News’ owner is gonna be good. How could it, asks Sandy Brown, when: “The owner of the Dallas Morning News and regional TV and newspaper assets…
This week, former Observer freelancer Leah Shafer began her “ROFLMAO” (“rolling on the floor laughing my ass off”) humor column in Quick. She got drunk. Riveting. –Andrea Grimes…
With all the huzzahs being handed out over The Dallas Morning News’ breaking-new photography Pulitzer Prize–an award that’s utterly meaningless, says Slate–seems one local media outlet’s been given short shrift concerning its own recent kudos. A few weeks ago, the Radio-Television News Directors Association handed out the regional Edward R…
A local company is investing $50 million in a new plant in southern Dallas. Let’s see, how can we make that seem like a bad thing? Hmm… See, the trouble is that the company is Belo Corp., which announced the groundbreaking for the plant on Langdon Road in a press…
Hey, I never thought former Dallas Observer music editor Zac Crain’s mayoral bid was a joke (my wife, on the other hand…kidding). But now that I can read about it here, in the hallowed pages of Dallas’ Only Daily, well, now I will take it very, very, very seriously. Good…
Before moving to Dallas, I rarely flew on a major carrier. Southwest was much cheaper to fly home from Utah, as was JetBlue when I lived in New York. Now that I cannot fly on either (due to the Wright Amendment, I guess) I am forced to choose between United,…
The Fort Worth Startle Gram offers tips today on how to get to “Texas Moor Speedway.” Location for fast-moving North African Muslims or destination for thrill-crazy high-altitude British fields? You decide. –Andrea Grimes…
Former Inside Edition anchor Bill O’Reilly, who apparently has gained some renown as the right-wing’s Jon Stewart, has a new favorite newspaper: your own Dallas Morning News. Actually, it’s hardly his fave; turns out, in Papa Bear’s estimation, Dallas’ Only Daily has turned so sharply to the left it’s not…
A few people fell for our Dirk Nowitzki April Fool’s prank, including Mike Rhyner and Greg Williams, hosts of “The Hardline” on KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket), but most people didn’t. The song did make its way around the Internet, though, which was good enough for us. One blogger called it…
Last night, I was watching my fave late-night newscast, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, during which the former ESPN’er twice aired the clip of WFAA-Channel 8 reporter Bert Lozano’s close encounter with a streaker on Sunday night. The first time Olbermann aired the clip–unedited, yech and hee-hee–was during his nightly…
Is weepy the new douchebag? Friday night, Observer Night & Day co-editor Merritt Martin and I hauled out to the Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie for the Franz Ferdinand-Death Cab For Cutie show and were surprised to find ourselves in the company of a remarkably large population of frat guys…
A few weeks ago we wrote about the phenomenon known as the indigo children. The New Yorker has a follow-up about the latest step in kiddie evolution: the Dandelion Child. Best. Story. Ever. –Robert Wilonsky…
