Brian Moline Leaving WDWS for WILL

Brian Moline, WDWS radio host, is leaving the station after 14 years.

Moline, who is the host of the popular postgame call-in show after the Illini football and basketball broadcasts as well as the afternoon show host, will leave the radio center for WILL.

Since 2000, Moline has been with WDWS and WHMS. At 1400, he has hosted the "News Hour" at 4:00 each afternoon, as well as the Thursday and Friday editions of "Sports Talk".

Although his daily duties are a plus, most central Illinois residents know Moline as the host of the popular "Fasteners Etc. Postgame Show" after each Illini football and men's basketball game, where his calm and steady demeanor kept hold while many of the callers rambled on and on about the struggles of the Illini.

He has also done fill-in play-by-play for both sports, as well as baseball, softball, and volleyball for Dave Loane. Moline has broadcasted Little League games on the radio, which can be heard on WDWS each week.

At his new location inside Campbell Hall, Moline will be anchoring the daily newscasts for WILL's "Morning Edition", the popular NPR nationwide newscast that can be heard each morning. He will be going in-depth with the news, as well as writing on the station's website. It will be a more regular schedule.

As for WDWS, it faces its first major programming decision since 2009, when Gary O'Brien departed and the "News Hour" began. A new host will need to be found for both the 4:00 and 5:00 hour shows that Moline hosted, as well as the postgame show. Football postgame co-host Martin O'Donnell will no longer be hosting the show, as he will be replacing Kurt Kittner as color commentator during the games.

Keep it here for any updates on this.

Radio Bloomington Website Relaunch

Radio Bloomington (WJBC, WBNQ, and WBWN), along with sister station WJEZ in Pontiac, all relaunched their station websites this morning.

The new website design is part of the total relaunch of station websites under the Cumulus Media brand name and company, which includes WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, and KABC in Los Angeles.

The new site is similar to the old Regent Communications/Townsquare site format of which Radio Bloomington stations were a part of until four years ago, when they were sold to Cumulus.

The top of the website features a banner with the station logo on the left. Links can be found to the right, showing the different shows, weather, sports, and other information. One change from the old site is that there is no definitive show schedule listed.

Directly below that is news headlines with banner photos that flip across as needed. News is listed in sections.

Full showings of station Facebook and Twitter pages can be found near the bottom of the page. This is similar to what many other pages do as well.

Here are the links to Radio Bloomington websites:

WJBC-AM 1230 www.wjbc.com
WBNQ-FM 101.5 www.wbnq.com
WBWN-FM 104.1 www.wbwn.com

UPDATE: Dave Benton Stepping Away from Anchor Chair

The last time viewers got an update on Dave Benton's health, it was beck in September, when he announced that his cancer had returned and that he had only a few months to live.

Earlier this year, Dave began cancer treatments to hopefully shrink the tumor which has made its way into his brain.

Unfortunately, the treatments have not proven effective, and the tumor has expanded. Dave has been seen looking in poor health. He has been seen only a few days each week.

Because of the problems he is facing, Dave will be stepping away from the anchor chair following the 6:00 newscast tonight. An announcement will be made in the second half hour, with a statement as well from co-anchor Jennifer Roscoe.

Here is Dave's Facebook post from tonight:

I want to update all of you on what's happening with my health. The last time we talked was about five months ago. I found out two weeks ago that the tumor has grown. The treatments aren't working and it's affecting my ability to anchor the news.

So today I'm stepping down from the desk. I hope to still be a part of the newscast a little longer with my Crime Watch stories at 5:00.

Jennifer and I will be making the announcement on the 6:00 news tonight.

Thank you for all your support, prayers, and well wishes. It's been an "interesting" year and a half. My goal was to be in the anchor seat and do a good job. I hope I've done that. Now it's time for the next step.

Dave

Bob Schieffer Retiring from CBS

Longtime CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer, a fixture on the network dating back decades, is winding down his career.

The 78 year old Schieffer, who has been with CBS for over 45 years, will retire from the network this summer. He announced his impending decision while hosting his annual news symposium at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

A native Texan, Schieffer served as a public information officer in the US Air Force before joining the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He first became known to many during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While at the paper, he received a phone call from the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald. Because of this, he was able to stay in touch with Mrs. Oswald throughout the waning hours, creating several new stories in the paper, as well as other networks, including CBS.

Joining CBS News in 1969, Schieffer became the Sunday anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1973, later adding Saturday duties as well. But perhaps his most well-known position came in 1982, when he became Chief Washington Correspondent for the network. There, he has seen numerous airtime on many CBS News broadcasts.

One of the most significant roles he has played has been as the moderator and host of the Sunday politics show "Face the Nation", since 1991. On the show, he has interviewed many of the country's top newsmakers and politicians, never backing down on a question.

Faced with a massive fallout from the Killian documents scandal that threatened to take down the network, Schieffer replaced Dan Rather as host of the weeknight edition of the CBS Evening News in 2005. Though it was only an interim, he led great success. Within a year, ratings had improved in all categories at a time when both ABC (Peter Jennings' death) and NBC (Tom Brokaw's retirement) were experiencing drops in viewership.

Bob Schieffer leaves behind a legacy of superior journalism that will likely never be truly replaced.

WCIA Expands News Coverage; Inside Edition to WCIX

Beginning tonight, WCIA 3 News will be expanding its news presence by a half hour.

Tonight's 6:00 news will be expanding to one hour, from 6 until 7 p.m. The new, expanded newscast will cover stories in a larger length than previously put. This will mean longer news stories, plus an expanded sports and weather report.

Inside Edition, the daily tabloid news headlines show, will instead be moving to WCIX Channel 49.

The Death of Channel 15

As many central Illinois TV viewers have already heard by now, or maybe haven't heard, Channel 15 will be no more after Friday evening.

Actually, it's not exactly a true "death", as the station will still be on the air, just not airing any local-oriented programming. (Local as in Champaign-Urbana, Danville, and the rest of east central Illinois.)

Starting on Tuesday, election day, WICD-TV will no longer be producing any newscasts of its own. Instead, news will be provided via a simulcast of sister station WICS in Springfield. This means that the long history of NewsChannel 15 will be no more. Channel 20 programming will be a complete simulcast of Channel 15, as the two will have exactly the same programming 24/7.

Now, C-U news from the Sinclair station will not go away completely. In the words of the station, it is just "moving". WICD has a sister FOX station (WCCU 27) that is a basic simulcast of WRSP 55 in Springfield. Also beginning Tuesday, Channel 27 will break away from its 9:00 newscast to air a separate "NewsChannel at 9", which will encompass Champaign anchors and reporters. The news will be an hour long, running until 10:00.

The move next week brings an end to a tradition of newscasts and history at WICD. The operation has been around in the city since the early 1960's, first beginning at the Inman Hotel (now Inman Place). In 1978, growth took the station west to Country Fair Drive, where it sits now in a former green stamp building. Multiple names have gone through the building, including legendary weatherman Keith Page, who was well-known throughout central Illinois.

It is hard to describe the history of WICD without its drawbacks. Competing with WCIA was the hardest that Channel 15 had for itself. Obviously, Channel 3 has made a name for itself even today with the public image it provides and the news anchors and reporters who are very active in the community. I'm not implying that WICD personnel have not, but it is less than WCIA. Even back in the day, Channel 3 was the go-to source for Fighting Illini football & basketball, plus local news at 6:00 and 10:00 with Jerry Slabe, Marta Carreira, and Judy Fraser, who were all household names in the area. The strong UHF signal of WCIA also brought it over a wide margin of homes, and it is a few years older than Channel 15, a stonghold at that.

Probably the biggest downfall that has been suffered for WICD folks is the shared ownership with WICS and the neglect that Channel 15 had to endure. Beginning in the late-1980's, the two stations were sharing news departments. WICD had a declining news department, without any live news capabilities, and it was operating on minimal staff. Channel 20 in Springfield has always maintained a strong news department and a station image and reputation that is stellar for the capital city citizens. The two stations shared resources, and unfortunately WICD 15 was the second of the two stations. Having no satellite coverage for much of the last decade hurt the Champaign operations even more, and it is still not available on DirecTV (and may soon be dropped from Dish).

The combined news department has been evolving over the past five years, and shared resources have happened a lot recently. WICS began sharing its weekend newscasts with WICD in the spring of 2011, and WICD did not broadcast in HD until last fall. Now, the new news set will only be used one hour per day.

The final WICD-TV newscast will be tomorrow. The "Sunrise" morning program, midday, and 5:00 newscasts will occur. To close up shop, "Nightside" will be presented at 10:00, with regular anchor Doug Quick with anchors and reporters. It will be the end of an era in central Illinois television news. One that has seen its ups and downs. One that has seen many staffers go on to bigger careers. One that had a life with the popular NBC lineup in the 1990's and continuing with ABC in the last decade.
One that has been a fixture in the community. One that will forever be remembered.

At 10:35 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) night, WICD-TV news will officially come to a close.

Condolences to Tim Lewis

Condolences to WJBC afternoon host Tim Lewis and his family. Tim's father, Marlin Loosle, passed away on Saturday in Utah, after a long illness. Marlin was an engineer for Morton Thiokol for many years, receiving several awards. He was an Army veteran, serving during the Korean War.

Surviving Loosle are his wife Theresa, six children, 18 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Friday in Utah.

WJBC Kicks Off 90th Birthday Tomorrow

WJBC-AM 1230 in Bloomington will kick off its 90th birthday celebration tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1st) with throwbacks featuring many of the on-air personalities that have shared the airwaves with listeners over the years.

In early May 1925, Lee Stremlau launched WJBC from the Hummer Furniture Store in LaSalle, about an hour north of Bloomington. Early broadcasts were shared with three other radio stations on the same frequency.

Due to financial difficulties operating the station, Stremlau moved WJBC to Bloomington, first operating from studios at Illinois Wesleyan University, with other studios across the city.

With the arrival of television in the 1950's, and with Bloomington-Normal not having a television station of its own, WJBC expanded its presence in the community by building a lineup of live and local personalities and shows. Gibson City native Don Munson joined WJBC in 1965, and during a period when morning radio was in its infancy, he made WJBC a part of many people's morning routine. During his time as operations manager, the station adopted its slogan "Spirit of McLean County", while also starting such elements as the Pet Hotline, Forum, and Problems and Solutions.

Among the many personalities to grace the 1230 frequency over the years include former Bloomington mayor Judy Markowitz, IWU sports information director Stew Salowitz, farm director Art Sechrest, news media Alan Sender and Howard Packowitz, and Twin Cities sports media icons Dick Luedke and Art Kimball.

Beginning tomorrow morning, WJBC will begin its countdown towards the 90th birthday of the station's founding. Regular programming will be interrupted for special segments featuring some of the WJBC personalities over the years. Here is what tomorrow's schedule will look like:

5-9 a.m. Scott Laughlin and Colleen Reynolds
9-12 p.m. Ken Behrens
12-1 p.m. Paul Harvey
1-2 p.m. Beth Whisman
2-4 p.m. Elizabeth Estes "Ebus"
4-6 p.m. Dan Irvin
6-7 p.m. Sports Talk
7-9 p.m. Dan Swaney

Other celebrations will continue throughout this month.

2015 Chicago Cubs Broadcasts

For decades, Chicago Cubs regular season broadcasts have been seen on-air in Chicago and throughout the rest of the state and surrounding areas. Originally on WGN-TV (Channel 9), the broadcast rights have expanded over the years to include Comcast SportsNet and others.

This year, things will be dramatically different.

In case you may not have been aware of what's been happening with the Cubs media contracts off-season, some new broadcast partners have been announced, while others have released limited schedules of when they will air the games.

Probably the biggest change this season is that WGN America is no longer airing Cubs broadcasts. Actually, that's all Chicago sports broadcasts, including those of the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks. Due to its reorganization last summer into separate newspaper and broadcasting companies, Tribune Media has been conjuring ideas of which to transform its national superstation (WGN America) into a basic cable channel. Last fall, local news broadcasts were taken off nationally, first with the station's flagship 9:00 news. Beginning this season, all Chicago-centric programming has been removed from WGN America.

This does not mean that WGN-TV is done airing Cubs broadcasts. In fact, they still are. Channel 9 and WGN America are separate entities and have been since the early 1990's. WGN-TV still broadcasts sporting events, and has multiple hours of news shows a week. The popular WGN Morning News, for example, has never aired outside of the Chicago market.

Because of the change, WGN broadcasts will be seen on other channels. WAND-TV (17) has picked up the rights to air three games, with 19 others to be seen on its digital subchannel, CoziTV (17.2). The first WAND Cubs broadcast will be the second game of the season on April 7th. CoziTV will air its first matchup on April 15th.

Comcast SportsNet will continue to air Cubs broadcasts this season, as it will air the largest amount of Cubs games (80). The first CSN broadcast will be on Tuesday. April 14th. Due to conflicts, some games will be pushed to "extra" channel CSN+.

The north siders have also announced an agreement with WLS-TV in Chicago to air 45 Cubs games this year. Many of these will be weekend matchups. Locally, WCIX Channel 49 will air the WLS-designated broadcasts. Due to problems with the station's transmitter, none of the games will be shown in HD.

Where does this leave the remaining 14 games? Currently, no official announcement has been made. It has been reported that WBUI (23) will air some games, though that has not been confirmed. Time will tell where the mess of the Cubs TV broadcasts will end up.
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The radio broadcasts are another story to tell. Last June, WGN 720 announced that they would not air any more Cubs broadcasts after the 2014 season. Reasons for the decision have been speculated, with most centering around the dismal performance and sales problems for WGN.

The Cubs have instead signed a new contract with WBBM-AM 780 to air all of the Cubs games beginning this season. WBBM is a 50,000 watt blowtorch (though not nearly as powerful as WGN) that also carries Chicago Bears broadcasts. This will take awhile to adjust to, as many Cubs fans will have to change their routine for listening to the broadcasts. WGN carried the Cubs for almost 90 seasons, so it is a major one indeed. Locally, no changes have been made with the Cubs Radio Network. Games can be seen in Champaign on WJEK-FM 95.3. New network host Mark Grote joins Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer in the booth.