The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal writes about one disgruntled suburban Chicago TV viewer who complained to the bigs at CBS station WBBM for preempting the CBS Evening News one day last week. The viewer just happened to be the mother of the EP of the broadcast.
Rosenthal writes, “Hazel Kaplan, who turns 90 Wednesday, was disappointed ‘Rikki’s show’ had been pre-empted. Rikki is Rick Kaplan. ‘I didn’t want to tell her it’s actually Katie’s show,'” WBBM GM Joe Ahern told Rosenthal. WBBM did not air Evening News last Thursday in order to continue their coverage of the Northern Illinois shootings.
Rosenthal writes that it’s happened before: “Years ago, when Rick was with The CBS Morning News, she wrote a vitriolic letter to CBS boss William Paley because Kojak had been moved. She happened to mention that her son worked for the network, so Paley passed it along with a curt note: ‘Will you take care of this or shall I?'”