Channel
Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
October 4, 2004
When
NBC10 produces a newscast that will air on WB17 in mid-December, does that
create an ethical dilemma?
Robert
Strauss, an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Delaware and a
former producer at KYW3, sees problems with the arrangement.
“My feeling about this is that when you are the contractor--as Channel 17 is-- you will always get the short end. No one at Channel 10 is going to be as enthusiastic for you as they are for the more watched broadcast. Unless there is language in the contract, which I doubt, there is nothing to warrant Channel 10 to give anything urgent or scoop-worthy to Channel 17.
It seems strictly a money deal. I don't see any reporter or producer at
Channel 10 being happy with this either. The trade-off is some money for
Channel 10 and potential bad employee relations, but it doesn't seem news
organizations care that much in general about that of late.”
Last week, Tribune Corporation, which owns WB17 and other television stations, outsourced its newscasts to NBC stations in Philadelphia and San Diego, CA.
An NBC10 spokesperson said
the station had no comment.
Also,
people are wondering what will become of “The
Mummer’s Day Parade,” which airs on WB17.
Last year, WB17 personalities hosted the parade.
There has been no announcement yet from WB17 management yet about who
will do the parade in January.
Grey
Coy is the new permanent co-host of CN8’s “Your Morning.” Coy has been the
interim co-host with Connie Colla since Kevin Walsh joined the evening news a
couple of months ago. Coy has been a news reporter for CN8 since 2000.
Before that, he was on Fox29.
“Good
Day Philadelphia” co-host Jennaphr Frederick is expected back from maternity
leave October 17. When Frederick
returns, humor-challenged substitute Sharon Crowley will return to anchoring the
early morning news.
It’s
official. As we reported last week,
Bucks county native Susan Barnett will co-anchor the weekday morning news on
CBS3. Currently Barnett works for
the CBS affiliate in Miami, Florida. Also,
CBS3 is adding a fourth on-air sports staffer – Don Bell from KPLR-TV in St.
Louis, Missouri. Bell will be the
sports anchor for the weekday 4 p.m. news and a sports reporter. He joins
Beasley Reece, Steve Bucci, and Garry Cobb on the sports staff.
There
are rumblings that “Action News” may replace Metro traffic with rival
traffic.com. Traffic.com is the
service for NBC10.
A
new 24-hour version of WPVI’s “Action News” is on Comcast Digital Cable
channel 246.
Sidebar:
In honor of Terrell Owens appearing on “Late Show” with David Letterman tonight (CBS at 11:35 p.m.), here’s my top ten list of T.O. moments in Philadelphia.
10. Catching a touchdown on his first pass from Donovan McNabb vs. shunned team Baltimore in an exhibition game last summer.
9. Tights!