Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
April 1, 2003

     Some local television casualties of the war have been “10” and “The Hollywood Squares.”  WCAU’s locally produced entertainment/magazine show “10” was shut down the entire week due to war coverage on NBC.  The expanded “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” blocked the “Squares” as KYW opted to run “Entertainment Tonight” at 7:30 p.m. 

     On the other hand, Lynn Doyle has been the good soldier for CN8 as her talk show “It’s Your Call” has been doing expanded shows as well as extra shows on the weekend.

     Philadelphia’s Viacom/Infinity stations are reviving “Operation Brotherly Love” which collected supplies for the rescue workers after the 9/11 attacks.  Now the items will go to local military bases for the troops scheduled to leave for Iraq.  Batteries, disposable cameras, CDs, books, hard candy, sunblock, and toothbrushes and toothpaste are some of the things that stations such as KYW and WPSG will accept.

            WPVI news and sports anchor Scott Palmer knows first-hand on what it is like to be in the military since he spent three years in the Navy from 1971-1974.  After getting drafted, Palmer was an air-traffic controller for two years and a Lieutenant for one year while stationed in Jacksonville, FL.  He also spent two years in the reserve. 

          Former “Good Day Philadelphia” Hollywood reporter Molly Mayock hit the big-time Sunday night as she was an analyst for Joan and Melissa Rivers’ “Academy Awards Pre-Show” on E!  Since the show had to be revamped due to the Academy cutting out interviews from the red carpet, Mayock was recruited to give Oscar predictions. 

  Things are sunny at WSNI “Sunny 104.5-FM” as the station jumped to fifth place in the recent Arbitron radio ratings for ages twelve and above.  The top station is KYW 1060-AM with a 7.5 share of the over four-million listeners in the Philadelphia market.   The rest of the top twenty are WDAS-FM (2), WUSL-FM (3), WBEB-FM (4), WSNI-FM (5), WIOQ-FM (6), WJJZ-FM (7), WYSP-FM (8), WOGL-FM (9), WXTU-FM (10), WIP-AM (11), WPHI-FM (12), WMGK-FM (13), WPHT-AM (14), WMMR-FM (15), WPEN-AM (16), WPLY-FM (17), WPTP-FM (18), WEMG-AM/FM (19), and WMWX-FM (20).

     Syndicated disc jockey Delilah, whose night-time dedication show had a couple of tours of duty here, popped up on the awesome “Hall and Oates:  Live by Request” special on A & E Monday night, requesting a song from their vast collection of hits.

     WPHL entertainment reporter Tracy Humphrey will emcee the opening night of the “Philadelphia Film Festival” April 3 at the Prince Music Theater featuring the screening of “Confidence” starring Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, and Edward Burns.  Burns will attend.