Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
January 17, 2006
Levittown native Susan Barnett, 33, is getting bombarded with emails from old friends and neighbors since her return to town as the news anchor on the CBS3 weekday news from 5 – 7 a.m.
“It’s a good thing I was nice to people when I lived here,” laughed the Class of 1990 Harry S. Truman High graduate who was Student Body President, Homecoming Queen, and Cheerleading Captain at Truman.
Barnett, the youngest of six children has her own built-in audience, as her parents Thomas and Margaret and her four brothers and their families live in Bucks County. Her sister’s family lives in Wilmington, DE.
Besides her family, Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA remembers Barnett who played “Bert” and “The Count” at the theme park during her summer breaks from the University of Delaware.
Since graduating from college, Barnett worked in Bridgeport, West Virginia, Champaign, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Miami, Florida.
She met her husband, dermatologist Dr. Greg Persichetti in Pittsburgh. He is completing his residency in Miami, Florida, where Barnett last worked and will be joining her in Philadelphia.
The couple was married in 2004 at the Old Church of St. Andrew in Newtown, PA, the same place her parents married 56-years ago.
“It’s a dream to be working in Philadelphia. I always dreamed of living in Bucks county again."
Barnett co-anchors with Ukee Washington on CBS3 weekdays from 5-7 a.m.
As we enter another topsy-turvy year in radio, listeners of WBCB 1490-AM enjoy the stability of Jim Foxwell, 53, who has manned the mornings for 11-years.
“I’ll do this till the day I drop,” he said.
Foxwell grew up in Central New Jersey. A baseball star in high school, Foxwell earned a scholarship to Florida State University, where one of his fellow athletes was future University of Texas football head coach Mack Brown.
Foxwell played first base in the Montreal Expos farm system, but didn’t make it to “The Show.”
His radio career began in Atlantic City in 1981 and he worked at various radio stations in the area, including a stint at the old “EZ 101” in Philadelphia. One of his highlights during that time was meeting his favorite recording artist, Johnny Cash, when Cash and wife June Carter Cash visited the area back in 1989.
“Forget about Brad and Angelina. Johnny and June Carter Cash are the power-couple of 2005,” said Foxwell, referring to the bio-picture “Walking the Line.”
Foxwell resides in Cherry Hill, NJ with his wife, Robin, an attorney, and their children, daughter Samantha, 11, and son Alex, 9.
Former Philadelphia weatherman Craig Weber is running for Congress in North Carolina (www.weberinthehouse.com).
Maybe weather anchor Kirk Clyatt should run for senate. The former NBC10 and WB17 weather anchor lost his job when the WB17 news was taken over by NBC10.
6ABC’s latest hire is reporter Erin O’Hearn from WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. O’Hearn replaces Michelle McCormack, who departed for Milwaukee a couple of months ago.
Former Philadelphia reporters Beth McDonough of NBC10 and Karen Scullin of CBS3 are working for the Fox affiliate in Minneapolis, Minnesota.