rickkaempfer-Dallas-Morning-News

He was elected along with Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. Craig Biggio missed it by one or two votes. NBC has the details.

Also, this an awesome article about the scouting of Greg Maddux

Great to see that this cheesy mustache wasn't enough to keep him out.

It's his birthday today too. Bowie is 67 today. This one is still my favorite Bowie song...

Here are some tweets that caught my eye today...




Karis Hustad ‏@karishustad 6m
@nytimes re-design looks real slick, though ironically more like a real newspaper than previous site designs http://www.nytimes.com/

Steve Cochran ‏@CochranShow 7m
Coach Q says he isn't worried about the 10 #Blackhawks going to the Olympics, but getting rest will be important. pic.twitter.com/IgwBCqev9l

Carrie Muskat ‏@CarrieMuskat 9m
Maddux is 1 of 4 who will get into HOF today, according to Baseball Think Factory poll http://wp.me/p1rXwp-8Xu7 via @wordpressdotcom #Cubs

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale 22m
Here's my Hall of Fame ballot, and why I vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. and others with ties to PEDs. http://usat.ly/1cz9jg8

Matt Spiegel ‏@MattSpiegel670 24m
ICYMI,the best read on the HOF ballot this year. His Bonds/Clemens reasoning alone is worth the click. From @RattoCSN http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/unapologetic-hall-fame-ballot-revealed-explained …

NBC News ‏@NBCNews 9m
What's it like to jump on a frozen trampoline? See that and other crazy weather videos http://nbcnews.to/K5F6LM

The Associated Press ‏@AP 11m
Private survey shows U.S. businesses added most jobs in a year in December, powered by a gain in construction jobs: http://apne.ws/1kqsIqA

Michael Ian Black ‏@michaelianblack 12m
Somehow, the Whitesnake song "Here I Go Again" is coming from upstairs in my house. My wife is up there. I DON'T KNOW HER AT ALL!!!

NPR News ‏@nprnews 16m
Hell Has Frozen Over, Headline Writers Rejoice http://n.pr/1dvMPu8

Jim Gaffigan ‏@JimGaffigan 20m
How I rationalize eating fried chicken and waffles. "I know it's lunch but I'd like breakfast and a heart attack."

A Hall of Famer, Elvis comes to town, Twitch, a tragic lightning strike, and more today at the JOBC Cubs Almanac.

You can read it here.

Every weekday in 2014, I'll be keeping an eye on what's happening in the media. My focus will be on some of my favorite subjects...the moguls, the pundits, the broadcast news biz, and show business. (Read "$everance" if you want a crystallization of my positions on those subjects.) And, of course, I'll also keep tabs on Chicago's media.



~Chicago Media...

Pete McMurray and their crew talk about their old radio internships.
Love these old Chicago radio stories.

Smooth Jazz back in Chicago radio
WTMX is broadcasting it now on it's HD2 channel, if you're a fan of that music.


~The Moguls...

Roger Ailes offered employee a raise if she had sex wih him
That's one of the revelations in the new book about him. I told you this book was going to be a good one. And by the way, this happened when he worked at NBC, not Fox.

The New York Times reviews the Roger Ailes book
It's not really a full-fledged review, it's more of a book summary. Here's my favorite part:

At Fox News, the book says, Mr. Ailes was disdainful of even his most bankable on-air talent, privately calling Bill O’Reilly “a book salesman with a TV show” and Brian Kilmeade, a peppy Fox host, “a soccer coach from Long Island.”

~Broadcast News...

Jimmy Kimmel rips LA TV news
Great clip of Los Angeles newscasters bitching about the "cold".

NBC Prepared for the Worst at Sochi
This year's Olympic Games have the added potential of security issues...

“Although obviously we have our fingers crossed that nothing happens, if anything the prospect of a terrorist event, the controversy of the anti-gay laws, those things in an odd way have increased awareness and interest in those games,” NBC’s chief Olympics anchor Bob Costas told reporters Tuesday.

Diane Sawyer in Ladies Home Journal
You wouldn't expect an article in Ladie's Home Journal to break news, but in this piece, Sawyer talks about her potential retirement.


~The Pundits...

Dennis Miller story about meeting Frank Sinatra
It's nice to hear Dennis when he's not talking about politics. He can still be funny.


~Show Biz...

Honey Boo-Boo's family injured in a car crash
I've never seen the show, but I know some of you are obsessed.

Today is Elvis' 79th birthday. We used to play this song on his birthday every year on Steve & Garry's show...

These are pretty cool shots of frozen Chicago on the Huffington Post.

I have to give credit to the photographers who braved the cold to take them.

Here are some more.

The polar bears at Lincoln Park Zoo had to be moved back inside. I kid you not.

Or this...

Kentucky inmate escapes, gets too cold, turns himself back in

That's how cold it has been. Looking forward to the balmy single digits forecast for today.

From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac, this little tidbit from 60 years ago today. I had no idea this was the origin of this famous Chicago blues song...

January 7, 1954…In Chicago, Muddy Waters recorded "Hoochie Coochie Man." The Hoochie Coochie was a sexually provocative dance that became wildly popular during and after the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Since the dance was performed by women, a "hoochie coochie man" either watched them or ran the show.

Here's Muddy singing the song...(it cuts off right at the end)

Part of the JOBC media empire (along with Eckhartz Press and Just One Bad Century) is the pothole store. Yes, we sell pot(hole). Don't laugh, it's getting tons of hits, and we're actually selling pothole related merchandise.

But I've been getting an even bigger kick out of the pothole store blog. I'm not writing it, my business partner (and potholestore creator) Dave is. And he's a very funny man. Among his latest blog posts...

Green Bay To Host Darwin Awards, Live Broadcast On Fox

Mrs. Superdawg Files For Divorce From Mr. Superdawg, Calls Him A Self Absorbed Poser

Chicago Bears Sign Jay Cutler To Seven Year Contract, Only Gives His Condescending Smirk Three

Santa Disregards Parking Payboxes, Owes Chicago $123,890.98

Check it out here, if you're interested. And have a pothole named after yourself while you're there.

I love grammar jokes. Thanks "MC" for sending this one to me...

Here are some tweets that caught my eye today...




Jim O'Donnell ‏@jodonnell17 2m
What it was really like at the Algonquin Round Table http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/la-et-jc-what-it-was-really-like-at-the-algonquin-round-table-20140106,0,5654937.story …

Los Angeles Times ‏@latimes 8m
Hong Kong movie mogul Run Run Shaw, who popularized kung fu films, dies at 106. http://lat.ms/1a2RoLJ

lindsey vonn ‏@lindseyvonn 1h
I am devastated to announce that I will not be competing in Sochi. My FB page has the whole story. http://facebook.com/lindseyvonnusa

Brian Hedger ‏@BrianHedger 18m
#Blackhawks Olympians so far: Kane (U.S), Hossa & Handzus (SVK), Rozsival (CZK), Hjalmarsson, Oduya, Kruger (SWE)

Breaking News ‏@BreakingNews 21m
JPMorgan Chase agrees to pay $1.7 billion to victims of Bernie Madoff fraud to settle federal claims - @BloombergTV, @AP

steve rosenbloom ‏@steverosenbloom 25m
Deng traded for nothing good now, so this is a great day for the 'We're Not Going To Tank' Bandwagon. The RosenBlog: http://bit.ly/KzEGyo

Art Quoter ‏@artquoter 33m
I see more and more that my work goes infinitely better when I am properly fed, and the paints are there, and the studio - Vincent van Gogh

Gawker ‏@Gawker 43m
Workers at tire factory slated for closure take bosses hostage and demand "enormous amounts of money" because #YOLO http://gaw.kr/DvqbhTA

Roseanne Tellez ‏@roseannetellez 10h
Sure sign of bad winter: Reacting to pics of beautiful ski resort @cbschicagorob says: "that looks hideous!" Love it. Nuff already!

Jim Gaffigan ‏@JimGaffigan 9m
Just googled pictures of cheese steaks because it’s almost 10 in the morning.

On today's JOBC Cubs Almanac--A crazy play from the 50s, a baseball card from last year, a man named Kitty, a cup of coffee from the 60s, and a sweet swing that could only hit fastballs.

You can read it here.

Every weekday in 2014, I'll be keeping an eye on what's happening in the national media. My focus will be on some of my favorite subjects...the moguls, the pundits, the broadcast news biz, and show business. (Read "$everance" if you want a crystallization of my positions on those subjects.)



The pundits...

~Apple & Amazon downgraded for moral reasons
Wow. I'm not kidding about this headline, this actually happened on CNBC. That's right, CNBC. You have to see it to believe it. Click on the link. This is an analyst who used to work at Merrill Lynch saying this.


Show biz...

~SNL gets a black female cast member
Responding to a controversy that they were excluding black females, SNL buckles and hires one.


Broadcast news...

~The story that never dies: Is Ann Curry leaving NBC News?
The latest, according to the Wrap, is that she is staying. I'm sure there will be a story later this week that says the opposite.

~This is pretty funny. In last night's BCS game's opening moments, Brent Musberger got his own name wrong. (Full disclosure: I've done this myself. It's embarrassing.)




The Radio biz...

~Tom Taylor's column today points out something that would worry me if I were still in local radio. Pandora's CEO Mike Herring says “it’s taken us seven years” to build partnerships with the carmakers, but Pandora is now in “nine of the top ten top-selling cars in the U.S.” You can make fun of the way they self-report their listening numbers, but inside the car is one place radio always had a monopoloy. Not so much anymore.

~The radio voice of the San Diego Padres, Jerry Coleman, has died. He played on the Yankees with Joe Dimaggio, and broadcast the Padres games for forty years. His radio station in San Diego did a nice tribute to him, if you'd like to listen to it

Thanks to "LB" for sending me this...

Water bottle freezes before your eyes...

Boiling hot water turns into snow immediately. This is a meteorologist in Wisconsin...

Mine is "Sleepy Fingers Smith", which actually sounds about right. Thanks "SA" for sending me this...

Check out this coverage of our nasty weather in 1979. This is the storm that cost Michael Bilandic his job. Fuzzymemories.tv posted it. (Great website, by the way)

The Chicago Tribune has some great pictures of Chicago residents using whatever they have in their homes (chairs, cones, etc) to get dibs on their cherished parking spots.

Check them out here.

Today on the JOBC-Cubs Almanac...

A featured Cub from the 20s and 30s, a baseball card from 1958, and the audio of a lazy summer day radio broadcast from 1957 of a Cubs-Brooklyn game. The announcer is Vin Scully. It sucked me in for over an hour. Scully is amazing.

Here are some tweets that caught my eye today...




Funny Or Die ‏@funnyordie 2m
Getting back to work today is tough, so here's a parrot racing a dog up a flight of stairs: http://ow.ly/sjnDp

The AV Club ‏@TheAVClub 3m
Remembering Phil Everly: 12 Essential Everly Brothers Tracks http://rol.st/1hqIXSe via @RollingStone

MancowMuller ‏@MancowMuller 4m
A lot of NFL players froze over the weekend. Except for the Kansas City Chiefs. They choked.

Ismael Estrada ‏@IshEstradaCNN 1h
How about a little "Jack Flash" to start your morning? Bringing you weed stories all week @randikayeCNN #CNN #ac360 pic.twitter.com/H4n186lOgy

College GameDay ‏@CollegeGameDay 46m
The state of Alabama is seeking a fifth straight national title. #BCS

Chet Coppock ‏@ChetCoppock 19m
Tonight's #BCS Championship Game Preview... http://fb.me/RysqdPyu

Talking Points Memo ‏@TPM 9m
GOP Senate candidate wants to move U.S. capitol to Nebraska: http://bit.ly/1lxG2HG

Art Institute ‏@artinstitutechi 14m
The Art Institute is open! Beat the #coldweather and cozy up to some great art. http://instagram.com/p/i1aj-yP_Sa/

Ben Jacobs ‏@Bencjacobs 16m
Great piece by Jake Siegel on the demolition of a tavern where George Washington drank in NYC http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/06/destroying-the-bull-s-head-the-new-york-tavern-washington-

WBEZ ‏@WBEZ 15m
We want your cold weather stories. Go to our @SoundCloud page and click upload and start new recording. https://soundcloud.com/wbez

Every weekday in 2014, I'll be keeping an eye on what's happening in the national media. My focus will be on some of my favorite subjects...the moguls, the pundits, the broadcast news biz, and Hollywood. (Read "$everance" if you want a crystallization of my positions on those subjects.


The moguls...

~Rupert sells his yacht.
Whew. I was getting worried he wouldn't find a buyer. He sold it for $29.7 million. I wonder if his ex-wife Wendy gets part of that money.

~New Roger Ailes book coming out on Random House
Anticipating that Fox News and the conservative echo chamber will trash it, Random House has created a website to counteract the misinformation. This will be a fun story to watch.

~Equador Navy Airlifts Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
He had a kidney stone. I'm sure they would have done the same for you or me.

The pundits...

~David Brooks smoked pot?
He admitted it in a column over the weekend, as did Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. Let's be honest here, Baby Boomers. Is there really a significant portion of our generation that NEVER sampled it? I think not, so let's stop pretending that we're shocked please. By the way, it's legal in Illinois now...for medicinal purposes.

TV News...

NBC posts a video for Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show
The hype machine is just beginning. His first show will be February 17th. Hopefully this goes better than the whole Conan thing did.

More changes coming to CNN primetime lineup
It feels like I'm writing that headline every other day now, but here's the Jeff Zucker quote: "It's safe to say 2014 will be the year we shake up prime time."

The boys are home from school today because of the extreme temperatures. They haven't quite had the type of winter break they were hoping for because of all this snow. I've been putting them to work. We've got it down to a science now. All four of us head out to shovel and can get even a heavy snowfall taken care of in less than an hour.

We've even gone over to my mom's to take care of her driveway, and while the grumbling is always present, they do the job (for the most part) without too much complaining.

This year's electees will be announced on Wednesday. MLB sent me a press release. Here's the pertinent info for those of you with the MLB channel...

The results of the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot will be announced exclusively on MLB Network and simulcast on MLB.com on Wednesday, January 8 live at 2:00 p.m. ET. The announcement will be part of a three-hour live show beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET anchored by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger, Brian Kenny and Heidi Watney, and including the first interviews with any electees immediately following the announcement, plus analysis from Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, John Smoltz, Hall of Fame award-winning baseball writer Peter Gammons and Hall of Fame voters Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, Joel Sherman and Tom Verducci, and segments analyzing the ballot from a sabermetric perspective.

Expect Greg Maddux to hear his name called. We'll see if his former teammate Tom Glavine gets the call too. I suspect Craig Biggio also has a shot.

Sad news on Friday. Phil Everly, half of the Everly Brothers, passed away at the age of 74. The Los Angeles Times has the obit. The Everly Brothers were among the first ten groups inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and there's a good reason for that. They were incredibly influential to an entire generation of musicians and fans. Just ask Simon & Garfunkel. Or Paul McCartney. Or Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

This one is their biggest hit...

This week it was reported that Merlin Media's Chicago radio stations (including the Loop) were going to be purchased by Cumulus (owner of WLS AM/FM in Chicago in addition to hundreds of other stations nationwide). According to Tom Taylor's column today, it's a little more complicated than that.

See if you can follow along...

First, this isn’t a sale, at least not yet. Cumulus says it’s “taken over operations of two Chicago stations through an LMA with option to buy WLUP (97.9 the Loop) and WIQI (101.1), as well as the alternative rock format currently on WKQX-LP (87.7).” So let’s unpack the various stories nested inside the bare facts – because there’s enough drama to keep a “Downton Abbey” fan occupied, including a disappointed suitor. The Chicago Tribune says this is a “four-year local marketing agreement, with a firm option to buy the stations.” Cumulus could exercise its option as soon as next year, and CEO Lew Dickey tells Crain’s Chicago Business that “We’re not in the business of renting things.” Though the LMA is a prudent strategy for now. Cumulus can conserve cash by paying just a monthly fee, which might be credited against the eventual purchase price. In return, it gets the revenue it generates from classic rock “Loop” WLUP and from restoring the alternative rock format to 101.1.

The first thing I thought about when I heard this news was that this put a bit of a crimp in WGN's plans to buy an FM, which GM Jim de Castro has said publicly that he wants to do. (They still have to sell the Chicago Tribune in order for that to happen, but that's another story). Tom Taylor addresses that part of the story too...

Jimmy de Castro’s now running WGN and he once managed The Loop (97.9). But the Cumulus LMA-with purchase option means the Merlin stations are out of circulation. Knowing de Castro – there’s a Plan B. And a Plan C.

I just hope that Cumulus doesn't gut the staffs of the Loop and 101 once they take over. I still have friends working there.

At the end of last year, I made a couple of big decisions regarding my writing future. My company Eckhartz Press is going very well. So well, in fact, that something had to give in my ridiculously busy schedule. So, after ten years of working as a free-lance writer and contributing editor for Shore Magazine and it's related titles, I stepped down at the end of the year. I may do an occasional piece for them in the future, but I will no longer be a regular columnist. They have given me permission to release the best of those columns, repackaged in some way, into a book. I'll be working on that project all year, and it will be coming out for the Christmas season 2014 as "Father Knows Nothing". (Naturally on the Eckhartz Press label). I'm super excited about that one. I'll keep you informed about my progress periodically here, and I'll also write an occasional "Father Knows Nothing" column here as well.

My only free-lance writing gig for now is my media column at the Illinois Entertainer. I intend on continuing that, at least through this year. In fact, my latest column about Cara Carriveau was posted over my holiday break. You can read it here. I'm interviewing next month's subject tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I'm also in the process of revamping and relaunching my other writing projects, including this blog. For the time being it will continue to be posted here, but by the end of the year it will migrate elsewhere, as the centerpiece of united Rick Kaempfer site, including all my media reporting, my original pieces, and more. I'll give you plenty of warning about that.

Just One Bad Century is getting an overhaul too. I've been working dilligently on revamping it, and it will be ready to go by spring training this year. I'm even heading down to Arizona for that relaunch. Details to come. In the meantime, check out the new JOBC Cubs Alamanac. It's an expanded daily blog featuring all the information I have written about a given day in Cubs history, plus a ton of new stuff. I've been researching it for months, and have more than 800 pages of new material to share this year.

So that's what's been going on with me.

Hope everyone had a great holiday break.

I'm back in the blogging saddle again. I like starting off the new year with a temperature of -14 degrees. Makes me heartier.