It will be another big Thursday night for Journal Broadcast Group stations in Milwaukee, with the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers playing at the same time the Green Bay Packers are facing the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau in the NFL season opener.
WTMJ-AM (620) has the broadcast rights to both games.
In normal times, the Packers would be the bigger draw. But with the excitement of the playoff-bound Brewers, things could be a little different this year.
NBC has the TV broadcast, so the game airs on Channel 4. Coverage stars with the "Football Night in America" pre-game show at 6:30.
Channel 4 is getting into the game early, with Susan Kim and Vince Vitrano anchoring the morning news from Lambeau Field from 5 to 7 a.m. Thursday.
Fox Sports Wisconsin has the Brewers-Phillies game from Miller Park at 7 p.m.
On the radio, the Packers game is on WTMJ-AM with pre-game coverage beginning at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Brewers-Phillies game begins at 6:35 p.m. on WLWK-FM (94.5) – Lake FM. The first pitch comes at 7:10 p.m.
The Journal Broadcast Group – which has Channel 4, WTMJ-AM and WLWK-FM – is part of Journal Communications, along with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
That other Thursday night TV event: President Barack Obama's speech to Congress is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, and Channel 4 says NBC is feeding its affiliates both the game and the speech.
General manager Steve Wexler tells me that the president's speech will be carried on over-the-air Channel 4.2 (Channel 999 on Time Warner Digital Cable).
Plenty of other channels are carrying the speech, including Channels 6, 12, 58 and, of course, the cable news outlets.
The president's plan is to finish up his speech before kickoff at Lambeau.
On TV: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences says Eddie Murphy will host the Oscar Awardscast early next year.
- "Live with Regis & Kelly" loses Regis Philbin on Nov. 18, the Friday before Thanksgiving. Philbin announced the departure date on Tuesday's show, which airs here at 9 a.m. weekdays on Channel 12. No replacement has been named for Philbin.
- Monday's premiere of Anderson Cooper's new syndicated talk show will feature the family and boyfriend of the late Amy Winehouse. "Anderson" will air at noon weekdays on Channel 6.
- "Bachelorette" alumnus Ben Flajnik has been named by ABC as the next "Bachelor" starting in January.
An advance peek at "Community": NBC is teasing the third season of "Community," the creation of Milwaukee ComedySportz veteran Dan Harmon, and featuring Marquette grad Danny Pudi.
The new season starts Sept. 22, and here's the video:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
