Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
November 7, 2006

NBC10 is tweaking its morning news lineup again.  Dawn Timmeney has been dropped from the morning anchor desk and re-assigned to daytime reporter.  Lori Delgado and Terry Ruggles will co-anchor the 5-7 a.m. news.  Station sources say that Timmeney has only a couple of months left on her contract. It will be interesting to see if she is renewed. Delgado replaced Lori Wilson in the morning last month. Timmeney did not answer an email for comment.

Radio legend “Wee Willie” Webber is the “Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s” “Person of the Year.” Also, NBC10’s Bill Baldini, 6ABC’s Monica Malpass, CBS3’s Larry Mendte, and former WFIL-AM newsman Allen Stone will be inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers’ “Hall of Fame.”

Jessica Savitch and Mike Douglas are among those who will be honored posthumously.

The 15th annual “Hall of Fame & Person of the Year” banquet takes place at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia, Friday, November 17.

NBC news anchor Brian Williams, CNN’s Larry King, and Tony Bennett gave video tributes to March of Dimes Achievement in Radio Lifetime Achievement winner Sid Mark at the annual awards luncheon last week at the Philadelphia Hilton. In his acceptance speech, Mark chided “Milestone in Radio” winner Terry Gross of WHYY, who didn’t bother to attend the ceremony.  Over a dozen awards were given out for this year’s top performers in radio.

WIOQ 102.1-FM’s Chris Booker appeared on “The 100 Most Awesome Videos of the 80’s” on VH1 last week.  “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi was number one.  Some of the other songs that made the list were “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, “When Doves Cry” by Prince, “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger, and “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran.

Former NBC10 news anchor and reporter Karen Hepp and her husband are expecting their first child in March.  Hepp, currently a weekend anchor for the Fox affiliate in New York City, recently auditioned for the upcoming 5 p.m. news on Fox29, but newsroom sources are saying that the position will probably go to somebody in-house.

Barker, You Were a Beauty!

My world was turned upside down when Bob Barker announced that he is retiring from “The Price is Right” in June.  I wouldn’t be surprised if CBS discontinues the show and replaces it with some kind of talk show.  “TPIR” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” are the only daytime game shows left on the air.  It’s not like the days of “High Rollers” with Alex Trebek and Ruta Lee, “Tattletales” with Bert Convy, “Match Game ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, ‘77, and ‘78” with Gene Rayburn, “Card Sharks,” “Joker’s Wild,” with Bill Cullen, the original “Wheel of Fortune” with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, and more.