Posted by DC on December 02, 2009 at 18:35:54:
BY LEWIS LAZARE Media & Marketing Columnist
In what could be one of its boldest moves yet to regain dominance in the local television market, CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 is said to be in talks with brash radio and television talk show hosts Mike North and Dan Jiggetts about joining the station's early morning news show, according to a source familiar with developments.
A WBBM spokeswoman did not immediately offer a comment.
North and Jiggetts, who write a weekly column for the Sun-Times, are set to sign off from the their problem-plagued "Monsters in the Mornin" show on Comcast SportsNet Chicago at the end of the year. "Monsters" ran into major difficulties earlier this year when the show's chief sponsor David Hernandez was arrested and charged with masterminding an elaborate ponzi scheme that bilked millions from a number of unsuspecting victims. He's expected to plead guilty in January, his attorney told the Sun-Times this week.
CSNC executives say the "Monsters" show is being taken off the air because it did not generate enough advertising revenue to turn a profit, or cover costs.
Putting North and Jiggetts on WBBM could provide the station with an early morning program that offers a clear and different option from the more generic local early morning programming offered on other stations. North and Jiggetts would clearly play well to large numbers of male viewers, which could prove another advantage as WBBM General Manager Bruno Cohen and News Director Jeff Kiernan have for the past year tried to differentiate WBBM from its competitors. In the just-ended November Nielsen ratings book, WBBM just moved into a solid No. 2 spot in the hotly contested 10 p.m. news competition among the three network stations after long having trailed both NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 and ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.