WFMT-FM 98.7 and WFMT Radio Networks announced plans Tuesday to build a permanent office and studio facility at 5400 N. St. Louis Ave., adjacent to WTTW-Ch. 11, also owned by the Chicago Educational Television Association.
The $2 million, 15,000-square-foot facility will include a studio with modern digital audio capability, as well as a live-music performance space.
WFMT’s lease at Three Illinois Center is due to end in December 1995. CETA’s decision comes after a two-year search.
Despite the move from East Wacker Drive, “we’ll be able to serve our clients just as well,” said a WFMT spokesman. “We’re not talking a huge leap of miles. It’s not that big a deal.”
What is enough? When the O.J. Simpson circus resumed Tuesday, the regular broadcast media were faced with the question of how long to keep pre-empting programming.
CLTV program director Jim Disch decided to take the high road when he looked up at the station’s monitors Friday and saw the hearing on practically every screen. “People expect to see local news when they tune us in,” Disch said. “We’re real comfortable with what we’re doing.”
“We will carry it every day until the preliminary hearing is over,” said WFLD station manager Stacy Marks-Bronner, who has her news team anchoring the coverage. “When it comes to something like this, I’m not sure it’s a business decision as much as it’s a news decision.”
At CBS, which owns WBBM-Ch. 2, “we’re making the decision on a segment-by-segment basis,” said network executive Lane Venardos. “We didn’t make the decision to carry (Tuesday) afternoon’s session until the morning session ended.”
Radio stations are taking it almost minute-by-minute. Said WMAQ-AM general manager Rick Starr, “We’re dropping in and out of it. Six years ago, we never went out (of format) for anything, but then came along the (Persian Gulf) war and people couldn’t get enough of it.”
WBBM-AM has planned four updates an hour and will “monitor the proceedings in the newsroom and cut in when needed,” said a station spokeswoman.
More Top Picks Pool Vacuum
All this coverage doesn’t come without a price tag, from a reported $1 million a day for the networks to at least $15,000 a day for one of the local radio stations.
New game in town: Veteran game-show producer Jonathan Goodson has helped the Illinois Lottery create its latest foray into television, “Illinois Instant Riches,” which debuts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on WGN-Ch. 9. “States have done lottery game shows,” said Goodson, president of Hollywood-based Mark Goodson Productions, “but they’ve never been done by game-show professionals. We’ve been working on this for 3 1/2 years. Illinois is our first state, but we will be taking it to other states and other countries.”
Making his debut as a TV game-show host will be recent WKQX-FM 101.1 morning jock Mark Goodman, who joins former “$100,000 Fortune Hunt” co-host Linda Kollmeyer. “Almost all game-show hosts have come out of radio,” Goodson said. “Actors make rotten game-show hosts because they can’t ad-lib.”
Double duty: Steve Ruxton, an anchor/reporter for WCIU-Ch. 26’s stock-market programs, hosts “Your Money,” a one-hour talk show dealing with financial matters, at 5 p.m. Sundays on WJJD-AM (1160). . . . WCBR-FM 92.7 morning host Tommy Lee Johnston and station office manager/producer Scott King make their professional stage debut in the new Folio Theatre production, “Family Malfunction,” that opens Thursday.