According to the Philadelphia Daily News' John Morrison, former CBS-3 anchor, Alycia Lane, filed a civil suit yesterday against a laundry list of defendants. They include: KYW's parent company, CBS Broadcasting; Michael Colleran, President/GM of KYW-TV; the owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News--Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC; Philadelphia Newspapers LLC a subsidiary of Media Holdings as well as former co-anchor Larry Mendte and Philadelphia Daily News columnist Dan Gross.
The entire story is HERE
In other Daily News "news"...Dan Gross is taking a lashing on the "Comments" section of his column today regarding his coverage of the Alycia Lane story. Check out the comments HERE
Lastly, Dan Gross also reports today that Michael Klein sat down yesterday with former NBC-10 anchor Vince DeMentri for HIS side of the story of his termination from WCAU-TV in July. Apparently, he dissed Gross because he reported on the relationship between DeMentri and Lori Delgado plus a past report about DeMentri's divorce proceedings. I reported September 19th of "the other side of the story" concerning DeMentri's firing as reported by website NEWSBLUES in late August. Klein's article should be good for interesting reading if nothing else.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Pulling Out Glenn From the Archival Vault
I found some funny video of Glenn Schwartz of NBC10 in my old video and thought you might enjoy seeing it. Here's Glenn, in all his bearded glory, from his earlier days at WNYW channel 5 in New York.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The REST of the DeMentri Story
According to a post in late August on NewsBlues, it explains the motive behind the accusation of Vince DeMentri vandalizing not only fellow anchor Lori Delgado's car, but also a news photographer's vehicle as well.
Apparently, Delgado and DeMentri became involved in a nine month romance from late 2005 into 2006. Both were also married at the time. However, Delgado cooled things off once the rumor mill kicked in. A month later, she was reassigned to the Dawn Patrol anchor chair next to Terry Ruggles and DeMentri was given the 4 p.m. anchor slot. By late June of this year, the story goes, DeMentri became jealous of a relationship Delgado had with the photographer and allegedly vandalized both cars -- all of which was documented on station surveillance video! Station management were alerted by Delgado who subsequently went to police. However, when management told Delgado they had the culprit on security video "in the act" and it was DeMentri, she refused to press charges fearing their affair would put herself in a bad light. She asked management to deal with it discreetly which they did. DeMentri was confronted with the taped evidence by management and removed from the anchor schedule in July. He was never formally announced as being terminated but was also removed from the bio section of the NBC10 website several weeks ago. DeMentri now advertises his "talents" online looking for the next anchor gig in TV land. DeMentri and wife, Pat, a QVC host are in the midst of divorce proceedings. No word on the marriage of Delgado these days.
Apparently, Delgado and DeMentri became involved in a nine month romance from late 2005 into 2006. Both were also married at the time. However, Delgado cooled things off once the rumor mill kicked in. A month later, she was reassigned to the Dawn Patrol anchor chair next to Terry Ruggles and DeMentri was given the 4 p.m. anchor slot. By late June of this year, the story goes, DeMentri became jealous of a relationship Delgado had with the photographer and allegedly vandalized both cars -- all of which was documented on station surveillance video! Station management were alerted by Delgado who subsequently went to police. However, when management told Delgado they had the culprit on security video "in the act" and it was DeMentri, she refused to press charges fearing their affair would put herself in a bad light. She asked management to deal with it discreetly which they did. DeMentri was confronted with the taped evidence by management and removed from the anchor schedule in July. He was never formally announced as being terminated but was also removed from the bio section of the NBC10 website several weeks ago. DeMentri now advertises his "talents" online looking for the next anchor gig in TV land. DeMentri and wife, Pat, a QVC host are in the midst of divorce proceedings. No word on the marriage of Delgado these days.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Good Old Commercials
As we take another look at some old video from the archives--this clip was from a show in 1982 called "America's Greatest Commercials". If you grew up in the 60's or 70's you remember some of these very commercials. This piece was done pretty creatively, with the classic Aretha Franklin song "R-E-S-P-E-C-T". Check it out:
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Fall of the Chopping Block at Metro Traffic
Friday September 12th was not a good day for some at Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services as several full-time and part-timers were let go in a company wide cost cut of labor. Philadelphia's operations lost two news writers as well as a producer who had been with the company over twenty years! Additionally, Tom McDonald was let go from the news side of the operation. You probably have seen Tom in many news shots on the local airwaves holding the Metro Networks microphone capturing that sound bite. Rumor is Metro will soon terminate their news service all together at all Metro operations nationwide. This could mean the demise of lone news guy Paul Periello who worked previously at WWDB.
Also, traffic anchors Deborah Byrne, Matt Tacha and Mary Cantell were among those laid off. Byrne and Cantell at one time served as back-up on Channel 10 and Fox 29.
If that isn't enough, traffic veteran Rod Carson was also let go. Carson began the traffic service, "Sunoco Go Patrol", back in the 70's with several others. He provided the very first television traffic report on KYW-TV's morning news in the mid 70's and it was his idea right here in Philadelphia to install a video camera on a building for the use of capturing traffic shots. WPVI-TV was the first television station in Philadelphia to use that camera, SKY 6, at Route 1 and the Schuylkill expressway. On top of his service with Sunoco Go Patrol and Shadow traffic, Carson has been with Metro Networks almost twenty years alone and has been on every radio station in the region. His latest full-time shift was handling the overnights on KYW newsradio the last several years.
As of now, the traffic schedules on KYW handled by Sam Clover, Pat Winters, John Brown, Tom Collins, Eric Herr, Brian Ramona, RJ McKay and Cindy Graham still stand. Metro Networks no longer handles traffic services for any of the Philadelphia television stations -- losing Fox-29 to Traffic Pulse in late Spring.
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was voted into Metro Networks operations several month ago by employees who have tired of the poor management and broken equipment the past several years. Reports also include poor working conditions and little training for new-hires. Apparently, AFTRA had no intervention in the lay-offs on Friday and a meeting is scheduled for Tuesday between AFTRA negotiators and Metro management.
Metro Networks calls the move a "restructuring of its traffic operations" and plans to consolidate its traffic resources from 60 operations centers across the U.S. into just 13 regional centers. What this might mean for the Philadelphia operations center is that Philadelphia would also be responsible for handling one or two other markets which is the way Traffic Pulse has operated since its inception.
The restructuring is intended to improve the operating and financial performance of Westwood One and resulted in a staff reduction of 15 percent nationwide as well as a few relocations of operations centers planned by the end of this year. By the summer of 2009, the remaining markets will be relocated into the 13 operations centers mentioned above.
According to a Metro press release, the restructuring, as well as addressing underperforming programming, is expected to result in a $25-$30 million annual savings. Westwood One will host a conference call to its employees next week to discuss the reengineering of the company.
Also, traffic anchors Deborah Byrne, Matt Tacha and Mary Cantell were among those laid off. Byrne and Cantell at one time served as back-up on Channel 10 and Fox 29.
If that isn't enough, traffic veteran Rod Carson was also let go. Carson began the traffic service, "Sunoco Go Patrol", back in the 70's with several others. He provided the very first television traffic report on KYW-TV's morning news in the mid 70's and it was his idea right here in Philadelphia to install a video camera on a building for the use of capturing traffic shots. WPVI-TV was the first television station in Philadelphia to use that camera, SKY 6, at Route 1 and the Schuylkill expressway. On top of his service with Sunoco Go Patrol and Shadow traffic, Carson has been with Metro Networks almost twenty years alone and has been on every radio station in the region. His latest full-time shift was handling the overnights on KYW newsradio the last several years.
As of now, the traffic schedules on KYW handled by Sam Clover, Pat Winters, John Brown, Tom Collins, Eric Herr, Brian Ramona, RJ McKay and Cindy Graham still stand. Metro Networks no longer handles traffic services for any of the Philadelphia television stations -- losing Fox-29 to Traffic Pulse in late Spring.
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was voted into Metro Networks operations several month ago by employees who have tired of the poor management and broken equipment the past several years. Reports also include poor working conditions and little training for new-hires. Apparently, AFTRA had no intervention in the lay-offs on Friday and a meeting is scheduled for Tuesday between AFTRA negotiators and Metro management.
Metro Networks calls the move a "restructuring of its traffic operations" and plans to consolidate its traffic resources from 60 operations centers across the U.S. into just 13 regional centers. What this might mean for the Philadelphia operations center is that Philadelphia would also be responsible for handling one or two other markets which is the way Traffic Pulse has operated since its inception.
The restructuring is intended to improve the operating and financial performance of Westwood One and resulted in a staff reduction of 15 percent nationwide as well as a few relocations of operations centers planned by the end of this year. By the summer of 2009, the remaining markets will be relocated into the 13 operations centers mentioned above.
According to a Metro press release, the restructuring, as well as addressing underperforming programming, is expected to result in a $25-$30 million annual savings. Westwood One will host a conference call to its employees next week to discuss the reengineering of the company.
Monday, September 8, 2008
KYW Innovations
As I continue to go through my old video I found a segment aired on KYW's Eyewitness News back in 1986. It was a segment inspired by "NBC's 60 Year Anniversary of Broadcasting" special (remember, KYW was an NBC station initially).
Jerry Penacoli intro'd the piece while Judy Barton reported the segment of KYW "firsts". KYW-TV was initially licensed as W3XE and was granted permission to broadcast in 1932. The station was the FIRST television station in Philadelphia and the FIRST to sign on as an NBC affiliate. Founded by the Philco Corporation -- the first broadcast went to the homes of Philco employees.
By 1939, the station broacast the FIRST evening college football game -- Temple University played the University of Kansas.
By 1940, another FIRST. The airing of the Republican National Convention. That same year the station got their commercial license and the call letters changed to WPTZ, the first commercial station in the state and the second in the country (behind Pittsburgh's KDKA). The FIRST TV soap opera aired in 1942, "Last Year's Nest".
Other FIRSTS included: The first in the country to air a program from Walt Disney in color (1952); The Mike Douglas show which relocated from Cleveland to Philadelphia in 1965 and was later syndicated and moved to L.A. Former News Director, Al Primo, who went on to New York's WABC-TV, created the "Eyewitness News" format which began here in 1968. Lastly, KYW created the talents of Jessica Savitch, Tom Snyder and David Brenner. Check out the video segment:
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Philadelphia Loses SMOOTH JAZZ Station
Laura Nachman and Dan Gross have both reported what's been rumored now for the last several weeks--this past Friday evening Greater Media broadcast group dropped the jazz format (WJJZ-Smooth Jazz 97.5) after an unsuccessful attempt to gain listeners the past two years. The format originally aired on the 106.1 frequency--and was resurrected at 97.5 much to the appreciation of loyal listeners.
"Something new - Something now" is the new tag, for now. The website says to listen Monday morning at 9 a.m. for the new format and posted this letter:
Dear Listener,
After much consideration and review, our company has decided to make a change to 97.5 FM. As many people in the market know, we share a passion for this wonderful music, the smooth jazz format, and all the good people that made the special things happen for all of us.
For nearly two years we have committed substantial resources to this program. Unfortunately, we have had limited success with smooth jazz as judged by the marketplace. We are grateful for your loyalty and support, and we appreciate your understanding.
Like our other top tier FM radio stations in the market, we are committed to serving the largest population possible, and we are excited to offer our listeners a powerful new choice. We will reveal our new vision on Monday at 9am.
Again, we appreciate what you have done with us in the past, and look forward to a bright future together. Stay tuned, because the feedback we received from listeners tells us you will enjoy the new adventure!
Thank you for your continued support,
The WJJZ Family
Update/ 9/8/08: At 9 a.m.--the station formally announced the format as "soft rock". I listened over the weekend and love the music so far--which they've continued on into the new format!! Great station!
"Something new - Something now" is the new tag, for now. The website says to listen Monday morning at 9 a.m. for the new format and posted this letter:
Dear Listener,
After much consideration and review, our company has decided to make a change to 97.5 FM. As many people in the market know, we share a passion for this wonderful music, the smooth jazz format, and all the good people that made the special things happen for all of us.
For nearly two years we have committed substantial resources to this program. Unfortunately, we have had limited success with smooth jazz as judged by the marketplace. We are grateful for your loyalty and support, and we appreciate your understanding.
Like our other top tier FM radio stations in the market, we are committed to serving the largest population possible, and we are excited to offer our listeners a powerful new choice. We will reveal our new vision on Monday at 9am.
Again, we appreciate what you have done with us in the past, and look forward to a bright future together. Stay tuned, because the feedback we received from listeners tells us you will enjoy the new adventure!
Thank you for your continued support,
The WJJZ Family
Update/ 9/8/08: At 9 a.m.--the station formally announced the format as "soft rock". I listened over the weekend and love the music so far--which they've continued on into the new format!! Great station!
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