Diary of a Newspaper Hawk

Oprah's TV show is ending. JR was shot. The Korean War ended and Hawkeye went home. The Superbowl will come again in 2012. Big deal. I still see a homeless guy walking by my corner in these windy, cold May days in Chicago. Some silliness revealed. Oprah's Last Show: Rumors We Will Not Hear

Apparently green rivers weren't what the Real St. Patrick in Ireland had in mind. It seems he was more sober than the cartoon Americans have made him into. Rahm Emanuel is now Mayor Emanuel, the guy who pulled a Sarah Palin in Washington DC and left his job to chase another one (which is really the same as President Obama, who left Illinois a mess to chase the White House). Chicagoans had to choose whose rear-end they would kiss. With only screw-ups like Carol Mosely Braun on the ballot, the schmucks had no choice. The new rage is the old rage, and that's the baby laughing while tearing paper video. Expect to get a good laugh in yourself. The Chicago Code TV show. What do you think? Lots of cliches in there. Teresa Colvin (Jennifer Beals) reminds me as a clone of the Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein - see the free download:  'Get Happy' - House musical performed by Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein [HD] ) character on House. The trouble I have is I don't believe de...

Kathy and Judy were like a feminist version of the basic shock jock. They weren't much for swearing, but they talked about the same kinds of topics that made Steve Dahl famous in the 1970s. Nothing ground breaking about what they said, except that they steered clear of the kind of controversy which would get Dahl fired from places like WLUP back in the day. Apparently, WGN audiences were tired of cute stories about divorce and sex by two old women. Former Chicago newspaper columnists Kathy O’Malley and Judy Markey hosted for their show 20 years. Coming across like a mix of suburban gossips and hair salon complainers, audiences grew weary, and WGN decided enough was enough. Needless to say, the ol' Hawk is tired of them two. The began sounding like two moms chatting as if no one was listening, but ended up like two biddies chatting - and no one was listening. Chicago Tribune : The Girlfriends are going away. WGN-AM 720 this morning announced it is discontinuing the "Kathy ...

Radio Legend Paul Harvey Dies ABC News That's all. There's no more to his story until he meets God. I'll miss him.

Curious people, mostly wondering what the new tabloid look of the Trib is like, rushed to buy in the last few weeks. Warmer weather helped. If you don't count yesterday, that is. Rain soaked my stock. Most of it, anyway. The rain came down so hard, I couldn't keep my plastic on. That's not the real news though. News Sadness today. You saw the headline. Red and Norm died. Cancer for Red. Norm - they don't know yest, but 'natural causes'. Chicagoans know who I mean. Red was the guy in booth, and Norm was more of an analyst after the game. They loved basketball, and helped guys like me who never had the skills love it more. They both played it, (Red even coached it), and both were fans through to the end. These guys were the Harry Caray of their game. I got get to my corner, but this is big for us. To you, Norman Allen Van Lier III, and to you, John G. “Red” Kerr, rest in peace. It is a different ballgame now.

Scum ex-cop, and scum ex-governor are peas of a pod, and pees on a pod, both shaking what little they've got on TV. I was telling someone, as we both worried about the great Chicago Tribune's troubles, that Illinois has so much scum it is a wonder we aren't called 'Detroit.' Here Drew Peterson talks about a possible dating game on Steve Dahl's radio show. Rod Blagovich gets his mouth on with Barbara Walters on the View. I guess Rosie O'Donnell was too busy.

There are days a man doesn't want to sell a paper. Not in Chicago. This day was coming since the moment he was born. It took 96 years to finally close shop, but I'll bet he was at a typewriter at the last possible moment.  Studs Terkel lived a life that was about everyman. It didn't matter that he was wealthy beyond belief, hob-nobbing with the literary elite. He still had class. So that's the news. It might be why you are here. Now, it's true. I got papers to sell, and it is Saturday. Used to be the working man grabbed a paper, got some coffee, and read the news. Now he logs on, and clicks through. So do I. Me too. But Studs was a writer and radio guy. Today, now, he's on the front pages of the Daily Herald, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune. He's on PBS, and every local station. He knew everybody, and met everyone else. I even shook his hand once. Short little Jewish man with a big mouth. Won't ever forget that. Good guy, now gone. Sure, I don'...

The news is sad. Although the Olympics started amazingly (Mayor Daley cameos throughout), the morning's joy is squashed by the death of Bernie Mac . He had his ups and down. The Bernie Mac Show was a class act. His support of Barack Obama gave us some low notes. But, he was through and through a Chicago man. White Sox fan to the hilt. Rest in peace, Bernard Jeffrey McCollough. Bernie Mac, I'll miss you.

Pouring rain now as I set ready for bed. Up early, you know. Papers never sell themselves, my old boss Pete McDaniel would always say. Coffee timer is set to go tomorrow at 4:30. That's not always true. Selling a newspaper is easy. Getting someone to pay for it is the hard part. Was stiffed more than once, across the demographic range. Black, white, rich, poor. Whatever bias you've got, stick it back where you picked it from. Your people, your kind walked off with a paper without paying too. When Wally died two weeks ago , I sold a few more. Was tipped a bit better too. Maybe they remembered that this news shtick is a full-bodied thing, that there's a team of people hawking the paper. Not just the guy on a milk crate. There's the writer, the editors, the headline guy, the engineer, audio, video, the talent, the columnist. Wally was a radio guy, but directly connected to the print world. If he said anything interesting, I sold more papers. Simple as that. The News Moses ...

Wally Phillips kept this old newspaper hawk warm on the coldest days. There's not much more to say except I'll miss you. Wally Phillips, pioneer of talk radio, dies at 82 See more news Wally Phillips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chicago Tribune's thoughts : Wally Phillips, whose wit and charm dominated the art of the on-air radio personality in Chicago for two decades, has died after battling Alzheimer's disease for the last five years, WGN Radio announced Thursday. He was 82. Phillips was the morning program host on WGN Radio from January 1965 until July 1986, and was number one in the morning slot from 1968 until his departure for an afternoon radio slot in 1986. He retired from WGN in 1998 after 42 years with the station, but came out of retirement the following year to host a weekly two-hour program on WAIT-AM, a station based in Crystal Lake.... Good-bye, old pal. R. Hawk, a faithful listener since childhood

No one at the Hawk home will be voting tomorrow for Super Tuesday. Me? I think they are bums. The whole lot of them. Bums. When November comes, I'll send my love to the Chicago Bears, and, if the right bum is still running, to him. When the ones who say they care for the poor are raking in millions to suck up to the American public, I have got to say no. I know Chicago's a Daley Democrat city, and there's a good chance my dead Uncle Roberto is casting a few votes tomorrow, but I'm going with someone will kick Osama bin Laden in the behind. The News Huckabee's still running . The weather is strange. And I'm going to bed.

The snow is unbelievable. I've seen more snow, but this much and at such an inconvenient time. My regulars stayed home today. Oh, the train commuters and workaholics are in, but the salary girls, the work-a-days, the project managers - all home. It is shooting me in the foot. A few flakes and I'm not selling papers. The politics are picking up, so I'm thinking I'll see a few more sellable headlines as the primaries close in on Chitown. The News You might think the news is politics, but frustrated voters are getting tired of the hogwash coming at them. Bobby Fischer died, but that's old news now , and you knew that. Drew Peterson is looking less guilty if the photos that look like his missing wife Stacy are really her. If those photos are Stacy, there will be big apologies to Drew. If they are not, and worse yet, Photoshopped, then Drew will look more guilty than ever. Amy Winehouse is living up to her name . Don't ask illiterates Kelly Pickler or Charlize Ther...

Thursday, February 15, 2007 9:03 p.m. Radio in Chicago has its ups and downs. The downs I'll get to, but the ups are what I'm listening to. On my feet, or on my crate all day, and keeping it low-key at night, I listen a lot to WGN. Milt Rosenberg (Extension 720) might be my favorite. He's smart, and where is he isn't as knowledgeable, he's done his homework. I can tell when Charlie Rose hasn't read the book he is interviewing the author about, but not with Milt. His guests aren't just some wannabe, but real authors. He's upfront about his biases, but I get the impression he tries to remain objective and ask questions that his all sides fairly. Charlie's less open about his biases. Spike O'Dell gets a few listens a week, though he's on when I'm busiest. John Williams and Steve Cochran are more my style, though. Funny guys. Of all those on WGN, I'm bound to listen to Kathy and Judy the least. They are fun, but witless. I feel like with ...

Thursday, February 8, 2007 2:38 p.m. edit (3:42 p.m.) big news: Anna Nicole Smith dies Also see USA Today . Luckily, the snow has not continued, and it was so cold that it has not stuck. The streets are clear, and getting to my corner has not been difficult. The rushing from here to there is odd as always, watching people try to race walk. Cold is cold, and when it is cold, people hurry. Why don't they run? I do. Walking just keeps me cold longer. Might be their skin doesn't freeze when mine does. The News Blogs are in the news. I was pleased to learn of several important Chicago area blogs (see links on right), including which looks at what people say on the CTA. A story on WTTW (PBS Chicago) highlighted them in a quick roundtable. I did not know about them until the show. Chicagoist CTA Tattler: Seen and heard on the Chicago Transit Authority Gapers Block: Information on news and events around Chicago Politician John Edwards made news when bloggers (Amanda Marcotte of Pand...

Wednesday, February 7, 2007 5:04 p.m The sun is lifting inches each day when twilight comes. That's not right. It is lowering slower. Either way, the brighter the night, the better my evening papers sell. Snow mitigates this and last night's snowfall has chopped into today's sales. Half of usual. It doesn't matter. There is no real news. The Bears' haven't won since the Super Bowl and however many articles are written, the score never changes. The editorials are routine, the same old bitterness about keeping abortion legal (this time the support of surgical and chemical abortions), blatherings about school funding (as if another buck will induce the kids into learning) and someone complaining about severence pay that a CEO got. Radio voice Bob Collins is back in the news with some non-news. Physician: Radio star not impaired before fatal crash The personal physician of Bob Collins testifies that the WGN-AM 720 radio star was examined the day before he died in a...