John Kiesewetter: Media Beat

It's the biggest story of my news career, one I've written about for 40 years – the 165 deaths in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire on May 28, 1977.

For the past two months, I've been speaking to Beverly Hills employees and patrons, firefighters and journalists, for a one-hour documentary. "Inside the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire: 40 Years Later" airs 7 p.m. Sunday May 28, and 1 p.m. Monday, May 29.

Before he wrote comic books and advertising, Chad Lambert was living his dream – and it nearly killed him.

Lambert was a radio host-producer for several Cincinnati and Dayton stations -- at the same time -- before joining Gary Burbank's afternoon radio show team on WLW-AM.

It's official: The D.W. Eye comedy club reunion mentioned on WVXU-FM's "Around Cincinnati" in March will be Friday, June 23, at the 20th Century Theatre in Oakley.

At CBS, they're turning back the clock a different way. Instead of reviving a 1990s show like NBC ("Will & Grace") and ABC ("Roseanne"), CBS will launch a "Young Sheldon" fall sitcom about the childhood of "Big Bang Theory" main character Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

Move over "Will & Grace," here comes "Roseanne."

ABC announced Tuesday that it will premiere four dramas and one comedy this fall – but the sitcom many ABC viewers could want to see will be the "Roseanne" reunion in 2018.

Let me get this out of the way first: I've been listening to public broadcasting for 40-plus years, and I would write this column whether or not I work for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM now.

Nobody welcomes public broadcasting fundraising drives, which interrupt our favorite formats, but Maryanne Zeleznik and Jay Hanselman do it better than anyone else I've heard. They truly put the most fun into fundraising, of all the Cincinnati non-commercial stations.

Will the "Will & Grace" revival make NBC "Must See TV" again on Thursday nights?

Don't be fooled by Fox Broadcasting's bare bones fall TV launch, with only three series premieres in September.

It's official: Howard Wilkinson will be honored in Columbus as one of the best Ohio politics reporters today -- which I've known since we worked together on The Post student newspaper at Ohio University 40+ years ago.

But he's much more than that. He's one of the best storytellers I've ever read -- on practically any subject.  

Country singer Kellie Pickler and "Extra" contributor Ben Aaron (husband of "Good Morning America" meteorologist Ginger Zee) will co-host a weekday lifestyle show for WCPO-TV and 19 other Scripps TV stations this fall.

Update 3:15 p.m. Thursday, May 4:  Northern Kentucky University has issued a revised comment today about the status of selling Middletown's WNKN-FM (105.9), which indicates the university is in serious talks with a prospective buyer.