Thursday, June 26, 2008

Equity's RTN Sold to Luken Communications; Me-Too in Chicago Airing Classic Movies Now, Too, More TV Shows Added

Equity Media Holdings Corporation announced it has closed an asset sales transaction with Luken Communications, LLC, a group led by Equity Media's largest shareholder Henry Luken III (the "Investors"). The Investors purchased Equity Media's Retro Television Network (RTN) subsidiary for $18.50 million. Equity Media has the option to repurchase RTN at any time during the next six months. Concurrently with the closing of the RTN sale, the Investors purchased for $1.50 million warrants to purchase up to 8,050,000 shares of Equity Media for $1.10 per share. Equity Media also has entered into asset purchase agreements with the Investors for the sale by Equity Media of certain television stations. Equity Media has received a $5 million prepayment on the stations sale from the Investors. The stations sale will be consummated, and Equity Media will receive the remaining payment of $12.5 million, upon receipt of FCC and certain other approvals. Following consummation of the station sales, Equity Media will continue to own and operate 100 stations in 35 markets representing 24.8% of U.S. television households based on Equity Media's current stations roster.
View the full press release for more details. So what does this mean? It is hard to tell. I have asked RTN to see what is up, so I'll let you all know what they say. I think it won't affect current RTN affiliates. It doesn't mean the network is on its way out or that it won't add more stations since it was sold to another group, but I don't know if this is good or bad. We'll have to see in the coming weeks.

Beginning Monday June 30 at 7:00pm, Me-Too (WMEU-TV) in Chicago rolls out the red carpet for "Me-Too Movie Classics," a showcase for a wide variety of Hollywood's greatest movies, stars and directors. From the classic to kitsch to cult, "Me-Too's Movie Classics" brings back classic films to free, over the air television with minimal content editing and only five minutes of internal commercial break time.
Theme weeks include a look at significant movies of the 1970s featuring Easy Rider, Bob, Carol, Ted & Alice and Butterflies Are Free. A week of screwball/classic comedies includes The Twentieth Century, Born Yesterday and the original Brewster's Millions. A week of Joan Crawford classics include the truly classic as well as campy Crawford performances from the 1950s and 1960s.
Adding classic movies to the schedule of Me-Too serves to further distinguish Me-Too as the snappy sibling of Me-TV, Chicago's beloved home of Classic TV, and provide a unique and uncluttered environment for advertisers seeking an engaged, loyal and receptive audience.
The movies will air weeknights at 7:00pm and Saturdays at 1:00pm with many other stars like Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Jackie Gleason, Jane Fonda, Carl Reiner, Peter Falk, Dick Van Dyke, Burt Reynolds and John Ritter. The movies for the summer are available in a list form on our message boards. You may also discuss the movie list and stars there, which also has a lot of classic TV stars in feature films.

Adding movies is not the only thing happening on June 30. Me-Too will change their classic TV line-up a bit too. Me-Too launched back in March with this launch schedule, that has continued until today, but now some changes are coming. Gilligan's Island, Ozzie and Harriet, Rawhide, are among the new series coming to Me-Too. View the new Me-Too schedule.


Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Tuesday, December 3

St. Denis Medical - "A Peanut and Caramel-Filled Miracle" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Ron and Bruce butt heads over a candy bar; Alex is forced to fire an incompetent employee; Matt seeks appreciation for saving a patient's life.

Night Court - "The Hole Truth" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When a citywide sanitation strike makes its way into the courthouse, Abby must find a way to solve it; Julianne shows Dan how to make the most out of the strike.

Tyler Perry's House of Payne - "If It Ain't Broke" (BET, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Ella prepares to open a battered women's home in the church's unused classrooms, but it is shut down when C.J. cites dangerous fire code violations.

Tyler Perry's Assisted Living "Where's My Refund?" - (BET, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Jeremy and Leah can't seem to see eye-to-eye on how to spend their unexpected I.R.S. refund check; Anastasia and Vinny have their hands full trying to help Theodore study for science.

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 2)

Tuesday, December 3

  • Kyle Mooney (Arrested Development/Hello Ladies) - Catch Kyle on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Fortune Feimster (Kenan/Bless the Harts/Champions) - Fortune is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. She also discusses her comedy special Fortune Feimster: Crushing It on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
  • Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building/Wizards of Waverly Place) - Selena appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
  • Keri Russell (Running Wilde/Daddy's Girls) - Keri is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm/Blockbuster/The Millers/Bent/'Til Death) - JB appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. He discusses his series Buy It Now on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
  • Brandon Kyle Goodman (Human Resources) - Brandon is a guest on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Ronny Chieng (Young Rock/Ronny Chieng: International Student) - Ronny hosts Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm.
  • David Alan Grier (St. Denis Medical/Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!/The Cool Kids/The Carmichael Show/Bad Teacher/Life with Bonnie/DAG) - NBC's Today catches up with David in the 9am hour.
  • Yara Shahidi (grown-ish/black-ish) - Yara is telling Drew about the new venture she's taking on, where she's currently at with dating and more on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Bridget Everett (Somebody Somewhere) - Bridget talks about Somebody Somewhere on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
  • Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken/Community) - Ken talks about his new film, A Great Divide, and the new season of Accused on Sherri, so check your local listings.
  • Carlos (Big Time Rush) and Alexa PenaVega (Ruby & the Rockits) - Carlos and Alexa are guests on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 8:50am.
  • Alicia Witt (Cybill) - Alicia appears on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:30am.


New on DVD and Blu-ray

Friends - The Complete Series (4K UHD) Young Sheldon - The Complete Series Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)

09/10 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-7
09/10 - The Ropers - The Complete Series (VEI)
09/10 - Ted - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/17 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - Video Scrapbook
09/17 - Top Cat - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
09/24 - Friends - The Complete Series (4K UHD)
09/24 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Seventh Season (DVD) / The Complete Series (DVD) (Blu-ray)
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
10/22 - Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/05 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/12 - The King of Queens - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2024 Release)
11/19 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fourteenth Season
11/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 4 (Blu-ray)
12/03 - Angel (1960-1961) - The Complete Series, Volume 1
12/17 - Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (4K UHD)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


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11/06 - Outer Banks to End with Season 5; Nothing to See Here Season 2 on Netflix
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