Gene & Roger in review: Encores slated for ‘Sneak Previews’

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel

Robservations on the media beat:

• Vintage episodes of Sneak Previews, the original PBS movie-review series hosted by Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel, will be rebroadcast throughout August and September on WTTW-Channel 11 and public television stations nationwide. Focusing on such themes as “Guilty Pleasures,” “Great Performances” and “Overlooked Classics,” they’ll be seen for the first time since their original airing in the 1970s and early ’80s.  To introduce each show, Ebert will be joined by Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, hosts of Ebert Presents at the Movies, which has been airing since January at 8:30pm Fridays. “We have received so many requests from fans who loved the show — and my interactions with Gene — and wanted to see them again,” Ebert said in a statement Monday. “We are happy to have this opportunity to accommodate them.” Siskel died in 1999 at age 53.

• Just as they did after the first trial of Rod Blagojevich, Chicago television stations went wall-to-wall Monday afternoon with coverage of the second Blago verdict. Though the familiar setting and cast of characters made it feel something like a summer rerun, the outcome was entirely different this time, with the government winning decisively on 17 of 20 counts against the former governor. Before the actual news broke, all five stations leaned heavily on expert analysts to fill time with dubious speculation. Worst question posed by too many anchors: “What’s going through your mind right now?”

• On the radio side, Citadel Broadcasting news/talk WLS-AM (890), which all but owned the Blago story thanks to constant chronicling by the afternoon duo of Roe Conn and Richard Roeper, caught two big breaks: Monday’s verdict was announced just at the start of their show, and Tribune-owned news/talk rival WGN-AM (720) was stuck with a Cubs baseball broadcast. It almost made up for the disgrace of WLS having had Blago on its payroll as a weekly host after his indictment and before his first trial.

• Leave it to Chicago Tribune treasure Rick Kogan to set the rest of the media straight on misplaced excitement over news that the Pump Room would retain its name. Kogan, who literally wrote the book on the Ambassador East Hotel and its world famous restaurant, argued in his Sunday Sidewalks column that it was wrong for the new owners of the hotel to change everything about the place and still call it the Pump Room. In any case, history will note that celebrity journalism was practically invented there. Before the jet age, stars traveling to either coast by train stopped off at Union Station and were whisked over to the swanky watering hole where gossip columnists like the legendary Irv Kupcinet got them to spill their secrets.

• The rest of the world found out Monday what readers of this blog knew a week earlier: Veteran media consultant Walter Sabo has been named chief operating officer of Merlin Media, the new company formed by former Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels. Sabo will oversee operations at Merlin’s soon-to-be-acquired Q101 and the Loop here and WRXP-FM in New York. “Walter has the vision, intelligence, leadership skills, and experience to move Merlin beyond current convention and to take advantage of emerging media opportunities,” Michaels said in a statement. “It also means attracting special, talented people, and Walter knows how to do that.”

• At least one familiar voice will be heard on the all-news format that’s expected to replace modern rock at Q101. Look for veteran Chicago newsman Charlie Meyerson to be among the station’s first hires by de facto news director Andy Friedman, who signed on with the phantom title of vice president of Internet initiatives for Merlin Media. Meyerson, who was forced out June 17 after two years as news director of WGN, previously anchored FM news at WXRT-FM (93.1) and WNUA-FM (95.5). Merlin Media takes over programming for Q101 and the Loop in mid-August.