FINALLY--Kerri Lee Halkett Is Departing...

Dan Gross of the "Philadelphia Daily News" has confirmed that Kerri Lee Halkett of FOX 29 News is FINALLY leaving! Station management has confirmed she will return to the air the second week of October for a "big on-air sendoff". She began at FOX in 2002 and at one time, station execs had all their eggs in KL's basket! No one is talking as to "why" the departure, except that her husband resides in Connecticut. Lauren Cohn, formerly from WCAU, was brought in from Chicago and will replace KL on the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. shows next to Thomas Drayton.

New Digital Channel Coming to WPHL-17

Tribune Broadcasting, the owner of WPHL channel 17 (a My Network TV affiliate), will debut a new digital network, Antenna TV, on January 3rd of 2011. The network's programming will include classic movies as well as classic shows "All in the Family", "Benny Hill", "Maude", "Dennis the Menace", "The Donna Reed Show", "The Partridge Family", "Married With Children", "Too Close for Comfort", "Good Times", "Three's Company", "Sanford and Son", "The Nanny" and "The Three Stooges". The network will also be made available to non-Tribune stations.

Orr, a NO-SHOW at Kammerer Going-Away Party

CBS-3 bids farewell tomorrow to Doug Kammerer, the morning weatherguy for the 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. "Eyewitness News" and 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. "Eyewitness News on the CW" broadscasts. Kammerer is headed for D.C.'s NBC affiliate to become Chief Meteorologist beginning next Monday, the 23rd. Station co-workers threw Kammerer a going away party at a Spring Garden hangout last week and most notably absent was Kammerer's sidekick, Kathy Orr.
Philly.com's Marnie Hall reports what I've also been hearing the last year -- that Orr and Kammerer did not see eye to eye more often than not. The problems began during last winter's once-in-a-lifetime heavy snows when station management decided to put Orr and Kammerer in "top billing status". Orr, the station's "Chief Meteorologist" had big issues with sharing her top billing with Kammerer which led to who got more facetime, who got to lead the coverage, etc. Once LaRosa accepted a position with The Weather Channel and departed the morning broadcast was when management found a solution to their problem by placing Kammerer in the morning weather slot, thus, separating the two. Orr and Kammerer never had much to talk about from that point on and there's been no love lost on either part. Orr's attitude is basically "don't let the door hit ya in the you-know-what", according to a few in-the-know.
It's quite a shame in that I preferred Kammerer over Orr any day and felt he was probably the best in this market since Rob Guarino was let go from FOX-29. I had high hopes KYW would bring on Guarino in Kammerer's slot but that wasn't meant to be with the newly hired Justin Drabick, who, lacks in the personality department.
Best of luck to Doug in his new job...keep up the great personality and the naturalness you display. You'll definitely do well in D.C.

FACT or FICTION?

I thought this was an interesting tidbit I've heard a few times now and comes from the newsroom at Channel 6. The tidbit is the possiblity of a 4 o'clock "Action News" once Oprah ends her run in that timeslot. It certainly seems plausible...since local programming would be much cheaper to air than the cost of syndicated fare. Scuttlebut is that Brian Taff and Shirleen Allicot are being considered for the anchor positions. Both have certainly been groomed in the anchor chair recently, Taff moreso with Allicot filling in while Monica Malpass was on maternity leave.
Who knows if this is just rumor or actually fact. It's anyone's guess -- but -- is fun to entertain the thought. If this pans out, "Action News" will compete with Channel 10's "NBC10 News First at 4" as well as Channel 3's "Eyewitness News".

New Channel at NBC10

Dan Gross reports today in the "Philadelphia Daily News" the folks at Channel 10 are in the process of putting the final touches on a new 24/7 digital channel that will appear on the Comcast and Verizon Fios channel lineup. A new studio has even been built to accomodate the new channel which will be a local lifestyle-type channel to the likes of "LXTV" aired on WNBC-TV in New York.
Shows that air on LXTV are "1st Look" (a look into local restaurants and sites); "Open House" (a home decorating type show) and "I Do" (wedding planning tips) to name a few. Also, Gross reports some type of local news effort on the channel in the weekday 7 p.m. hour.
Currently, Channel 10's other digital streams are sports programming from NBC Universal as well as the now-defunct Weather Plus! which continues to run minus any national programming.

WHO is Shirleen Allicot?

In my local news surfing...I've seen Shirleen Allicot reporting a few times on "Action News" as well as filling in on the anchor desk recently. Yesterday, once again, she sat alongside Rick Williams filling in for Monica Malpass. So, I wondered, who IS this Shirleen Allicot anyway?
According to 6abc.com, Allicot joined WPVI in May from "News 12 Network" in Connecticut where she began her career shooting, writing and editing her own stories and anchored the weekday morning newscasts. Allicot is a native of Queens, New York with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Hopefully, we'll see more of her on the anchor desk! She sure is much more of a compliment to the 5 o'clock newscast than Monica Malpass.

Maria LaRosa Spotting

Maria LaRosa, former CBS-3 morning meteorologist, has completed her maternity leave and is on-air at The Weather Channel. I spotted her on the evening shift one night this week working with Jim Cantore in the 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. timeslot. She's looking good and her hair is a bit longer these days.