Much obliged to Tim Rogers and Uncle Barky for the reminder: Earlier this week WFAA-Channel 8 yanked A Charlie Brown Christmas to run Good Morning Texas After Dark, which, as Ed describes it, is “basically is a collection of mini-infomercials sharing space with actual non-paid program content.” Which isn’t the…
The Dallas Morning News’s circulation is way down — by 30 percent since 2007 — which is just what A.H. Belo higher-ups expected when they decided to start upping the price of the paper. In a “special report,” Editor & Publisher details just how the News came up with the…
If you’re one of those who doesn’t believe in the theory of “credit where credit is due”, and who thinks principles like “ownership” and “theft” are antiquated ideals better left behind in a kinder, gentler, softer era, please stop reading. Now. If you have a tendency to respond with “Dudn’t matter!” or “Who cares?”,…
Several Friends of Unfair Park have e-mailed this morning wondering what a Ticket-Dallas Morning News content-sharing deal, announced this morning, actually means. After all, Jean-Jacques Taylor, Rick Gosselin, Todd Archer, Evan Grant and other sportswriters already appear on the station regularly. What’s new about this particular arrangement? I’ve e-mailed Jeff…
KTVT-Channel 11 investigative reporter Bennett Cunningham has myriad awards to his name — including, most recently, a National Headliners Award for his ride aboard Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s “Gravy Train,” and three Lone Star Emmys, including one for Best Investigative Reporter (his second in as many years). He’s also part…
Late this evening, Dallas Morning News publisher and chief executive officer Jim Moroney called to discuss editor Bob Mong’s memo concerning the paper’s new “business/news integration,” which has some of the paper’s section editors reporting directly to newly assigned advertising-side higher-ups. Moroney said he’d been on the phone all afternoon…
Late this morning, Dallas Morning News editor Bob Mong called Unfair Park to discuss, at great length, Wednesday’s memo in which Mong formalized what he refers to in the missive as “business/news integration,” which involves some section editors reporting directly to advertising-side general managers. He says this arrangement has been…
After the jump, you will find a memo Dallas Morning News editor Bob Mong and senior vice president of sales Cyndy Carr sent to everyone at A.H. Belo Corp. Wednesday afternoon outlining what they call a “business/news integration.” Which means? As of yesterday, some section editors at all of the…
This morning, Lori Conrad at KTVT-Channel 11 sent word: “KTVT is Number One in Late News for the First Time Ever in a Major ‘Sweeps’ Period.” The press release then went on to say that based on Nielsen numbers for November, the CBS affiliate’s 10 p.m. weekday newscast won the…
From Baron James’s autobiography on the KDFW-Channel 4 site: “I look forward to years of public service here in the Lone Star State and at FOX 4 to bring you the news stories that matter most to you — especially good news!” But Uncle Barky comes bearing only bad and…
The latest news about The News should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who’s listened to the paper’s publisher and CEO, Jim Moroney, since at least February, when he told Unfair Park that, yes, sooner or later A.H. Belo would “experiment” with finding out how much online readers were…
No Roky Erickson freak-outs this Friday; no KNUS odds, sods or seeds and stems for you, dear Friends. Instead, George Gimarc offers something even more lost from the Dallas radio lost-and-found. As in? Well, let’s let the rock and roll alternative explain:Once upon a time there was a program called…
KXAS-Channel 5 was supposed to go off the air at 11 this morning — there’s still much repair work to be done after last night’s electrical fire that knocked the 10 p.m. newscast off the air. But staffers are still awaiting the outage, which is forthcoming … any … second…
We wrap our broadcast week with yet more from the KNUS vaults currently in the possession of one George Gimarc. What you’ll find below are few minutes of what aired on Gordon McLendon’s FM freak-out on August 22, 1970 — some of the sounds and some of the smells, dig?…
Only a few days ago, Tom Merriman was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame — the great Ron Chapman’s introduction of the local-radio icon can be heard here. Says Chapman of Gordon McLendon’s former music director, who came to Dallas in 1952, Merriman “shaped the sound of thousands…
[jump] If imitation is indeed the most sincere form of flattery, The Ticket should be feel complimented because ESPN is basically The Ticket West. The station had a run with Williams, with Dale Hansen and now employs assistant program director Mark Friedman, Scott and B&S. On Dallas Mavericks game nights – like…
A Friend of Unfair Park asked if I wouldn’t mind mentioning Bill Minutaglio’s appearance at Legacy Books in Plano this Saturday, when the ex-DMN’er heads up north to sign copies of Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, which he co-wrote with W. Michael Smith. Sure; happy to. Which reminds me: The…
OK, so KERA’s musical youth been on the air for, what, 60 minutes? First song played: Santana’s “She’s Not There” (probably a little too classic-rock for a new-station kick-off, you ask me), followed by Monsters of Folk, Ingrid Michaelson, Telegraph Canyon and … well, look, the playlist is here, so…
So, yes, this is a weekly feature now — your Friday acid flashback, courtesy the copious collection of one George Gimarc, with whom we’re awfully proud to partner. A brief recap so far: KNUS news tuned up with sitar, followed by A Very Roky Halloween. Now, it gets even better…
*Dale Hansen on The Ticket: Coulda swore I heard him Monday morning filling in for Craig Miller on 1310 AM. But don’t get used to it. Apparently it was a one-off, with Dale returning to his old chair just long enough to fill in for Miller, who spent last weekend…
On Tuesday morning, Belo Corp. released its third-quarter financials (“total revenue decreased 17.7 percent”), then followed up its press release with a conference call with analysts. During the chat, Michael Meltz of J.P. Morgan asked Dunia Shive, the president and CEO of WFAA-Channel 8’s parent company, if there was “any…
When A.H. Belo Corporation released its third-quarter financials on Friday, included high in the press release was this note: “As part of the Company’s ongoing efforts to realign its business and reduce expenses, The Dallas Morning News will close the packaging facility as it consolidates production operations into a single…
