Media Beat

Of course, the funeral service for comedian Bert "Chili" Challis – who died Tuesday, Oct. 9, after a brief hospitalization – will be an open mic night.

That was quick. Weekend morning meteorologist Ashley Brown has left WLWT-TV after only 15 months.

WLWT-TV has posted two openings: One for a meteorologist, and another for an anchor-reporter, even though Channel 5 hired anchor-reporter Ashley Kirklen last month.

Editor's note: Cincinnati movie expert Margaret McGurk screened Robert Redford's The Old Man & The Gun for me last month while I was recovering from knee replacement surgery. McGurk, the former Enquirer movie critic, has also reported on films for WCPO-TV, WXIX-TV and WKRQ-FM.

Here's her report on how Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky look as locations in the film from Dallas to St. Louis:

With the Books by the Banks Cincinnati Regional Book Festival coming up on Oct. 20, WVXU-FM's Around Cincinnati will replay my July conversation with Chad Dotson, co-author of The Big 50: Cincinnati Reds: The Men and Moments That Made the Cincinnati Reds.

George Clooney and business partner Grant Heslov have signed a two-year "first look" deal with Paramount TV for all of their "television, digital and episodic projects," Deadline reports.

As a kid, Meg Hanrahan loved family vacations in Shawnee State Park, where she roamed the lush forests of Southern Ohio. Maybe you did too. Or love to do it today.

Then you need to set the DVR for A Force For Nature: Lucy Braun airing 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7, on WCET-TV.

When WKRC-TV reporter Larry Davis retired in July after 35 years covering Cincinnati news – a month after Deb Dixon retired after 44 years at the station  – I posed the question: Are we witnessing a changing of the guard at Channel 12, the station with Cincinnati's most veteran reporting staff?

Today the answer is: Yes, definitely.

Drummer John Von Ohlen, co-founder of the Blue Wisp Big Band and featured soloist with the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman orchestras, died Wednesday. He was 77.

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard visited Middletown Tuesday while preparing to make a film  adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the best-selling book by Middletown native J.D. Vance.

Steve Martin is the first to say this is unreal.

The Northern Kentucky trial attorney for 40 years was named "Broadcaster of the Year" by the International Bluegrass Music Association at its convention in Raleigh, N.C. this week.

Here's a "before and after" look at HGTV's "Urban Oasis" home in Oakley to be given away in a sweepstakes starting Monday, Oct 1.

Will Marty Brennaman retire when the Reds season ends Sunday, Sept. 30? Is this his final week in the Reds Radio Network booth after 45 seasons?

10:45 a.m. Wednesday Sept. 26 update:  Tributes to reporter Joe Webb from former WKRC-TV coworkers Deb Dixon and Larry Davis:

"In a newsroom, we don’t really have time to watch the news. But I made the time to watch Joe’s stories," says Dixon, who retired in May after 44 years at Channel 12. "I knew I would be left thinking about the parties involved, and I would be left feeling something for them. That’s a gift that is fading away in the storytelling world of Facebook Live and tweeting story highlights.

Here they come! Nine new shows– half of the 18 series to debut on the five broadcasting networks – premiere during the Fall TV season's biggest week.

Can't wait to see Robert Redford's Old Man & The Gun? Want to tour the Dayton bank where Redford, Danny Glover and Casey Affleck filmed scenes a year ago?

Here's the deal:

On this day 40 years ago, America was introduced to Dr. Johnny Fever, The Big Guy, Venus Flytrap, newsman Les Nessman, sexy receptionist Jennifer Marlow and the crazy WKRP in Cincinnati gang when the sitcom premiered on CBS at 8 p.m. on Sept. 18, 1978. It aired for four seasons (1978-82).

Baby, have you ever wondered, wondered what happened if we never met them living on the air in Cincinnati, Cincinnati WKRP?

Here are 40 reasons to celebrate the beloved sitcom's 40th anniversary:

Oscar-winner Robert Redford talks about his last film – The Old Man & The Gun, filmed in Greater Cincinnati last year – on CBS Friday night and Sunday morning.

The early reviews are quite positive for a trio of movies filmed in Cincinnati – Robert Redford's The Old Man & The Gun, the backwoods Donnybrook fight and Emilio Estevez's The Public.

All three were screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, which ends Sunday Sept. 16.

It's one and done for Luke Null, the Cincinnati area's first Saturday Night Live cast member.

The 2008 Lakota East High School graduate will not return for the 44th season this fall, according to Deadline.com.