The ongoing WBBM-Ch. 2 series describing life with AIDS has been successful enough that activist/reporter Rae Lewis-Thornton has had her contract renewed by the CBS station for at least two more stories.
The contract extension was made, according to a station official, because of “high public interest and overwhelming positive feedback.”
Lewis-Thornton was hired in February by WBBM and began her first-person account earlier this month.
Another signing: WMAQ-Ch. 5 has extended the contract of general assignment reporter Mary Ann Ahern. Terms were not disclosed. Ahern, 40, joined the NBC-owned station in 1989 from Atlanta’s WXIA-TV.
Big time: WGN-AM 720 overnight hosts Steve King and Johnnie Putnam will be heard on this week’s episode of “ER” at 9 p.m. Thursday on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
Bigger time: WGN-Ch. 9 was the main media benefactor last week of Michael Jordan’s comeback. The three Bulls games televised by the station averaged a 28.2 Nielsen rating with a 43 share. A local Nielsen rating point represents 31,000 TV households. Shares are a percentage of sets in use. While Saturday night’s 18 rating/32 share was below Friday night’s record 41/59, Tribune Broadcasting officials still were glowing over Friday night’s 4.4 national cable rating (an estimated 2.9 million homes), which surpassed TNT’s 3.3 rating (2.04 million homes).
Appearances: WLS-Ch. 7 sports anchor Mark Giangreco hosts a fundraising breakfast Friday to benefit Highland Park Hospital’s Surgical Pavilion. . . . CBS newsman Charles Kuralt honors his long-time “On the Road” cameraman Isadore Bleckman at installation ceremonies Friday for the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in the Chicago Marriott Downtown. . . . News anchor/reporter Art Norman hosts the WMAQ-Ch. 5-sponsored “Harold Washington Celebration” April 13 at Navy Pier. . . . Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua is the first participant in the Sondra Gair Memorial Lecture series that starts April 19 in the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall. Gair, a longtime host at WBEZ-FM 91.5, died last May.
Kids stuff: WPNT-FM 100.3 sponsors the second “All About Kids” interactive fair Saturday and Sunday in the Odeum Sports and Expo Center in Villa Park. . . . WJMK-FM 104.3 has teamed up with Commonwealth Edison to offer prizes for class science projects that use electricity in unusual ways. . . . WCIU-Ch. 26 owner Weigel Broadcasting, in association with the Chicago Board of Education, is sponsoring the “Tune into Your Heritage” video awards for a second straight year. Entries must be submitted to Weigel Broadcasting by April 14, with the winners being broadcast later this spring. . . . WMAQ-Ch. 5’s “News for Kids, Chicago Style” was one of the award winners at the recent Illinois Broadcasters Association ceremonies.
More Top Picks Best Utv Windshields For Side By Sides
Hear and there: Chicago television pioneer Sterling “Red” Quinlan will chair 10th anniversary festivities for the American Center for Children’s Television. Quinlan has been a director of the center since its founding in 1985 as the American Children’s Television Festival. . . . CLTV has dropped plans to air “Wheels,” a home-shopping auto show, at 10:30 a.m. Saturdays. “The Handyman Show” will remain in that time slot. . . . WNIB-FM 97.1 resumes weekly broadcasts of L’Orchestre de Paris for the seventh straight year at 9 p.m. April 6. . . . Tribune Entertainment’s “Charles Perez Show,” which started out airing only on the eight Tribune-owned TV stations, has added outlets in 22 other cities.