OLD Media Moves

Radio station severs ties with Crain’s Chicago

WGN 720-AM abruptly severed its partnership with Crain’s Chicago Business Monday over a story that speculated on a possible sale of the Nexstar Media Group news talk station, reports Robert Feder.

Feder reports, “As a result of the move, Crain’s editors, reporters and other contributors no longer will appear on any WGN Radio programs, and the station no longer will host the Monday-through-Thursday business news podcast ‘Crain’s Daily Gist’ on its website. A WGN microphone was removed from Crain’s newsroom Monday, sources said.

“Despite denials from Nexstar executives of any plans to sell the company’s stand-alone radio property, the Crain’s story by Dalton Barker quoted industry analysts suggesting that recent changes in personnel and programming were ‘potentially positioning the 95-year-old Chicago station for another sale.’

“Nexstar acquired WGN Radio in September as part of its $6.4 billion takeover of parent company Tribune Media. It inherited a nearly decade-old cross-promotional arrangement with Crain’s that included regular appearances on the noontime ‘Wintrust Business Lunch’ by real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin and director of digital strategy and custom media Frank Sennett, among other prominent staffers.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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