March 2015 - The Dudek Abides

Who will replace WTMJ-TV anchor Mike Jacobs?

Posted March 31, 2015 by Duane Dudek

Who will replace WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) anchor Mike Jacobs?

Let me state the obvious: it will either be someone you never heard of or someone from within.

Jacobs was the longest-serving anchor in the Milwaukee market; he joined WTMJ in 1977. He announced his retirement last week.

Several factors suggest the station could go off campus to replace him.

And clearly there is precedent for doing so.

On Wednesday the station’s ownership the Journal Broadcast Group will merge with E. W. Scripps, making it the fifth largest independent TV station group in the US, with 34 stations in 24 markets, covering 18% of households.

Scripps papers mourn loss of famous blue lighthouse under Journal Media

Posted March 29, 2015 by Duane Dudek

On April 1 E.W. when E. W. Scripps and Journal Communications merge, the group’s newspapers, including Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, will be spun off into a new company called Journal Media Group.

The Journal Sentinel will be the group’s flagship paper, but it will not be the only one undergoing a transformation.

So will the 14 daily newspapers owned by Scripps.

The newly formed newspaper publishing entity will have its headquarters in Milwaukee and operate in 14 markets. It will have about 3,600 employees. Over the weekend numerous Scripps papers took note the upcoming changes.

Watch trailer for new Bond film “SPECTRE”

Posted March 28, 2015 by Duane Dudek

Below watch the trailer for the new James Bond film “SPECTRE.”

Yes, I asked.

The title, a reference to an enemy spy agency, is all upper case.

I don’t pretend to understand all the mythology or backstory but, is that a “Luke, I am your father,” moment in there?

“You are a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond,” one of the villains tells Bond, played by Daniel Craig.

“SPECTRE,” by “Skyfall” director Sam Mendes, co-stars Ralph Fiennes and Christoph Waltz.

“Gett” a tense and torturous portrait of a failed marriage

Posted March 27, 2015 by Duane Dudek

“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” is a tense and torturous journey through a failed marriage.

It is a Kafka-esque portrait of the maneuvering required for a woman to obtain a divorce from an Israeli rabbinical court. In Israel only rabbis can certify a marriage and its dissolution. The caveat is that both sides must agree, which becomes a maddening Catch-22 when one side refuses to cooperate.

“Gett” chronicles the five-year ordeal of a woman, played by Ronit Elkabetz, to divorce the husband who will not let her go.

Lawrence and Cooper in stilted and misbegotten “Serena”

Posted March 26, 2015 by Duane Dudek

“Serena” was dead before arrival. The misbegotten adaptation of the popular and well regarded best seller and PEN/Faulkner finalist by Ron Rash, has been delayed for almost two years. And while it is getting a theatrical release today, it is already streaming on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play.

Starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, flush from the success of “Silver Linings Playbook,” it was filmed before their duet together in “American Hustle.”

“Serena,” by Danish director Susanne Bier, is a tale of passion, greed murder and betrayal in 1930s timber country that flirts with early feminism and environmentalism.

In Gibney’s HBO doc “Going Clear” Scientology is a “Rogue Nation”

Posted March 26, 2015 by Duane Dudek

An argument could be made “Rogue Nation,” the subtitle of the upcoming fifth Tom Cruise “Mission Impossible” movie, applies to Scientology as well.

Which is why Alex Gibney’s new documentary makes it.

According to “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” – Sunday on HBO – Scientology is a church the way organized crime is a business.

Gibney previously explored the cost of blind trust in religion in the documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God,” which explored clergy abuse a St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis.

Blight frosts pensive, diabolical “It Follows”

Posted March 26, 2015 by Duane Dudek

“It Follows” follows the modern horror movie formula as surely as an unwanted pregnancy or an STD follows teenage sex in the real world. There’s a high school-age virgin, a group of freaked out friends, no apparent adult supervision and an other-worldly force stalking them that plays by its own set of rules.

And sex is the trigger.

It begins as a curse passed on during intercourse like a game of tag, as if following an epidemic transmission model. Only the person cursed can see the force that pursues them afterward.

WTMJ’s Mike Jacobs, longest serving anchor in market, to retire in May

Posted March 25, 2015 by Duane Dudek

Veteran WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) anchor Mike Jacobs will retire at the end of the May ratings sweeps period, the station announced Wednesday.

Jacobs who joined WTMJ in 1977 is the longest-serving anchor in the Milwaukee market. Jacobs co-anchors the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Carole Meekins.

Jacobs has won two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. From 2005-207 he was named Television Journalist of the Year by the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2008, he was inducted into the Chicago/Midwest Regional Chapter of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle.

WDJT-TV news director Garner reportedly fired

Posted March 24, 2015 by Duane Dudek

WDJT-TV (Channel 58) news director Genie Garner has reportedly been fired. Her departure was announced to staffers Monday. She had just returned from vacation last week.

Garner joined the station in August of 2012 from KITV-TV, in Honolulu.

Prior to that she worked at WHAS-TV in Louisville.

Her firing came after the station’s 10 p.m. newscast moved up to third place during the February sweeps, after having been in fourth place 22 times since February of 2010.

The station underwent a certain amount of turmoil during Garner’s tenure.

Joe Dorsey, “best voice in Milwaukee radio,” dead at age 90

Posted March 24, 2015 by Duane Dudek

Deep-voiced Joe Dorsey, who worked at WEMP and WOKY during the Golden Age of Milwaukee radio, died in hospice surrounded by family on Monday night, one day after his 90th birthday.

Dorsey worked in radio for 55 years beginning with Armed Forces Radio.

He was inducted in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2012.

“Joe was a popular, extremely funny and a gentleman broadcaster for many years. He will be missed by his friends and peers,” Milwaukee radio veteran Bob Barry posted on his Facebook page.

The Dudek Abides

Archive for March, 2015

Who will replace WTMJ-TV anchor Mike Jacobs?

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Scripps papers mourn loss of famous blue lighthouse under Journal Media

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Watch trailer for new Bond film “SPECTRE”

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“Gett” a tense and torturous portrait of a failed marriage

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Lawrence and Cooper in stilted and misbegotten “Serena”

Like this:

In Gibney’s HBO doc “Going Clear” Scientology is a “Rogue Nation”

Like this:

Blight frosts pensive, diabolical “It Follows”

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WTMJ’s Mike Jacobs, longest serving anchor in market, to retire in May

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WDJT-TV news director Garner reportedly fired

Like this:

Joe Dorsey, “best voice in Milwaukee radio,” dead at age 90

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