Bair traps midday anchor promotion at WGN

Dina Bair

Robservations on the media beat:

• Dina Bair, longtime medical reporter and fill-in news anchor at WGN-Channel 9, is moving up at the Tribune Co.-owned station. She’s expected to be named permanent co-anchor of WGN Midday News alongside Steve Sanders. Insiders said she’ll succeed Allison Payne, who recently exited the station after 21 years. (Bair had been filling in for the ailing Payne most of the past year.) Under her new deal, she’s also expected to continue as medical reporter. Bair, who grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Northwestern University, began her career as an intern for Joan Esposito at ABC 7 and later worked with Esposito as a producer at NBC 5. After stints as a news anchor and reporter at WHOI-TV in Peoria and Tribune-owned CLTV, Bair joined WGN in 1994.

• It’s a pleasure to see the legendary Jonathon Brandmeier back in business. On Friday, the former Chicago radio star made his unheralded debut as host of Brandmeier, a lively (and decidedly low-budget) local talk show on NBC 5 — following Last Call With Carson Daly. Also airing on the station’s Chicago NonStop digital subchannel, the fast-paced weekly half-hour serves as a showcase for Brandmeier to play off the news and draw out assorted eccentrics as only he can. Guests on the premiere included a Wisconsin man who was ticketed for flipping the bird at Governor Scott Walker, a champion air guitarist, a California taxidermist who advertises on YouTube, and the Constitutionalist Party candidate for president. Somehow Johnny B. also managed to mine laughs from the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray. "It’s a work in progress for all involved, but I’m thrilled to have the opportunity," he said on his website. Brandmeier is set for a 10-week run.

• In a significant expansion at Chicago’s top-rated news operation, ABC 7 is doubling the length of its 10pm newscasts on weekends. Starting November 6 on Sundays and starting December 10 on Saturdays, the late news anchored by Ravi Baichwal and Karen Jordan will increase to one hour. “As the most watched news station in Chicago, we are very pleased to reaffirm our commitment to local news by providing viewers with expanded coverage on the weekends,” Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC 7, said in a statement. The rest of the station’s late-night weekend lineup — including the long-running magazine show 190 North — will shift by 30 minutes.

• The Tribune’s failure to have a local TV critic on its staff (since Maureen Ryan left more than a year ago) was never more conspicuous than Saturday when it ran a review of the Ken Burns documentary Prohibition picked up from the Akron Beacon Journal. In the piece by Rich Heldenfels, Chicago readers were treated to a full paragraph about the important role that Ohio played in prohibition.

• Sun-Times readers may be in for a surprise this week when they see how much the paper shrinks to conform to the Tribune Co. presses that will be used to produce the tabloid. “As we transition over the next few days, you may notice some physical differences in the paper as we adjust to the configuration of the new presses, which require a slightly smaller page size,” publisher John Barron wrote in a note to readers. Although Barron said the Sun-Times’ editorial content “will remain unchanged,” a number of comic strips and TV channel listings are being lost in the transition. (Oddly, however, the recently dropped Love Is . . . has just been brought back.)

• Two local radio veterans make their Chicago comebacks today: Mancow Muller’s syndicated morning show begins airing here on Joe Gentile’s west suburban WJJG-AM (1530) from 7 to 10am (with a replay from 1 to 4pm). And Steve Cochran debuts on Salem Communications news/talk WIND-AM (560) from 5 to 7pm.