Channel
Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
November 14, 2006
NBC10
officially announced what we reported two weeks ago – that it will be making
changes to a few of its weekday broadcasts, with the biggest change being that
Renee Chenault-Fattah will anchor one newscast instead of three.
At
4 p.m., Tracy Davidson will anchor a consumer-oriented hour called “All That
and More.” At 5 p.m., Vince
DeMentri will anchor a newscast that will focus on longer pieces.
At 6 p.m., Tim Lake will anchor solo.
Then at 11 p.m., Renee Chenault-Fattah will join Lake for the final
newscast of the day.
In an email, Chenault-Fattah wrote, “When it came time to renegotiate my contract, (starting in January 2007) I went to Dennis (Bianchi, the NBC10 general manager), requesting to do one show versus three. That’s been my schedule for over a decade. My reasons were strictly personal--my girls are getting of the age (Cameron, 8 and Chandler, 3) where I really wanted to be home with them more.
Finally, whether Chaka (Fattah, Chenault’s husband) runs for mayor or
continues in Congress...he is super busy..I just felt like one of us needs to
be around home more. I know the timing looks suspicious with his getting ready
to run for Mayor...but I can honestly tell you my decision to do the one show was
my request and it has nothing to do with him running for Mayor.
I know there has been a lot of speculation over whether if he runs for
Mayor (trust me, he is) whether I can continue as news anchor.
I have never seen a problem.
I think people know that our news operation is balanced and objective.
If (when) there was to be a negative story about City Hall or let's say
a “Mayor Fattah,” then this station, as aggressive as we are, would be out
front on the story...as well we should be. So I have never seen a problem with
a conflict of interest. And the
station by signing me to a multiyear contract (Chenault-Fattah signed a new
five-year deal), obviously feels the same way.
Chenault-Fattah,
who joined NBC10 in 1991, has been the weeknight anchor since 1995.
Not Every Democrat Won
Former
Philadelphia weather anchor Craig Weber lost his bid to become a United States
Congressman from North Carolina. Weber
lost by a 2-1 margin to incumbent Walter Jones.
Turkey Day
South
Jersey native Kelly Ripa returns to the 6ABC/Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade for the fourth year in a row. Other
celebrities in the parade will be “Wheel of Fortune’s” Pat Sajak,
Media’s Paul DiMeo of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition,” Renee Goldsberry of “One Life to Live,”
“America’s Got Talent” champion and Philadelphia resident Bianca Ryan,
and Paris Bennett and Ace Young from “American Idol.”
Dave
Roberts and Cecily Tynan will co-host the parade.
Did anybody else notice that during "Desperate Housewives," 6ABC ran a crawler that spelled the word "crash" wrong?