August 2001

August 27th, 2001
CENTRAL VALLEY MOVE: Eric Lerner is the new President/General Manager of KFSN/Fresno, the ABC-owned station in California's Central Valley. Lerner had been News Director at WLS/Chicago for the last three years.

MOVES BY THE BAY: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that KRON/San Francisco "Daybreak" show co-anchor John Kessler has left the station after ten years. Also, the paper reports that popular "Mornings on 2" co-anchor Mark Pitta has left that show, which is on KTVU/Oakland-San Francisco.

BIG, BIG SEMINAR: Registration is now open for the California Chicano News Media Association's 23rd annual conference in Los Angeles.
The October 4-6 event features seminars, and the chance to meet dozens of print and broadcast recruiters from media companies. The CCNMA event is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Asian-American Journalists Association, and the Black Journalists Association of Southern California. Get registration information by visiting CCNMA's website, www.ccnma.org, or contact Kevin Olivas with CCNMA, at Kevin@ccnma.org.

TREJOS FINDS A NEW HOME: Sportscaster Claudia Trejos has a new home, as the weekend sports anchor at KVEA/Los Angeles. She had been the weekend sportscaster at KTLA/Los Angeles.
MORE FOX CUTS: Fox has cut more than a dozen positions, mostly in the front offices, at its newly acquired UPN stations in Los Angeles and New York.

BECKY GOES TO DENVER: Becky Martinze is the new morning show Executive Producer for KWGN-TV/Denver. She'll oversee the stations three-hour morning news block. Martinez was most recently the weekend E.P. at KNBC/Los Angeles, but her career stops include KCBS and KABC/Los Angeles, KMGH/Denver, and KVBC/Las Vegas.

OFF TO THE STATE OF TALL TALES: Sandra Hernandez joins KDFW-TV/Dallas as a morning anchor. She had been reporting in San Diego at KSWB, the WB affiliate.

August 20th, 2001
ABC HITS THE JACKPOT IN VEGAS: ABC Radio is opening a Las Vegas bureau. ABC Radio Senior Producer Al Mancini will run the bureau, which will cover all music, sports, entertainment and news events from Las Vegas. Mancini joined ABC Radio Networks in 1994 as a rock producer. During his tenure, he helped create Rockwire, a news service for music oriented ABC affiliates.

INTERESTING POSTING FROM THE POST: The New York Post reports CNN may develop a replacement show for its "Showbiz Today", its entertainment news show cancelled during the networks massive layoffs several months ago. Among the names mentioned by the Post as possible hosts: Willow Bay and Jim Moret. Moret was a "Showbiz Today" anchor, and co-hosted part of ABC's Academy Awards presentation earlier this year.

THE STATION DEALS CONTINUE: It's happening quicker that kids trading baseball cards...yet more major station deals! As expected, News Corporation is trading its recently aquired UPN affiliate in San Francisco, KBHK, to Viacom. The deal means Viacom will have a new combo in the Bay area, teaming its UPN station with its CBS station, KPIX-TV. In exchange, Viacom will give News Corp (Fox) two stations...WDCA/Washington, D.C., and KTXH/Houston. Viacom had to get rid of some of its stations to meet FCC regulations following the Viacom/CBS merger. Since Fox already has stations in Washington, D.C. and Houston, the swap will give it powerful new duopolies in both cities.

HOFFMAN'S RUNNING A NEW SHOW: Mark Hoffman is the new topper at NBC-owned WVIT/NBC 30 in Hartford. Hoffman moves from CNBC, where he was VP/Managing Editor. His career includes stops from coast to coast, including VP of News at KNBC/Los Angeles.

MOVING UP FAST: Speaking of KNBC, new reporter Chris Schauble adds a regular anchor slot to his duties. He's been named co-anchor for the "Today In L.A.-Weekend".

VEGAS CONNECTION: Former KVVU/Las Vegas staffer Rusty Surette is named anchor for the new 5 p.m newscast at KVHP/Lake Charles, La.

August 13th, 2001
CONGRATULATIONS to KCOP Executive Producer Leesa Dillon who's moving on up! Leesa has just accepted the job of News Director of WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland, Ohio. WOIO is a CBS affiliate. WUAB is UPN.

THE LA SHUFFLE: One week after exiting KCOP-TV upon completion of the Chris Craft sale to FOX, David Woodcock has been named the new General Manager at KCBS-TV.

August 6th, 2001

OCN SHOCKER: The shock waves are still bouncing around from the latest major news cutback in California...word that Adelphia Communications will close down the Orance County Newschannel. The 24-hour cable news service has been on the air for more than a decade, reaching more than 600,000 homes in Orange County. Adelphia has owned OCN for almost two years. Company officials say while OCN is an excellent service, it's always lost money. OCN will shut down in September, with Adelphia expected to lay off virtually all of the newschannel's producers, reporters, videographers, and anchors. Adelphia says it possible some of the staffer will be offered jobs elesewhere in the company's operations, but aside from OCN, the cable giant only has limited local production in Southern California.

NO MORE 4 AT FOUR: KNBC-TV/Los Angeles is dropping its 4 p.m. newscast in favor of a new hour-long talk show by "Dr. Phil", the popular regular guest on "Oprah" who talks about relationships. The change is obviously a huge one for KNBC, which has lost the close 4 p.m. news battle with KABC-TV for the last few ratings books.

BRYAN'S LEAVING: Longtime Los Angeles televison reporter Bryan Jenkins is leaving KABC-TV to start his own business.

FIRST FOX MOVES: Fox is making its first moves at its newly acquired Chris-Craft television stations. Among the moves: The general managers at its new New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix are out, with the GM's at the Fox stations in those cities pulling double duty. In L.A., that means David Woodcock is gone from KCOP, with David Boyland now overseeing KTTV and KCOP. A number of front office positions have also been affected at the former Chris-Craft stations, with Business Manager Jane Clark axed at KCOP. Meanwhile, Fox is reported to be talking to other broadcasters, like Viacom, about station swaps in certain markets. Viacom would love to get the UPN station in the Bay Area, KBHK, so it could have a duopoly with its CBS owned station, KPIX.

August 2nd, 2001

DEAL OF THE WEEK (MAYBE EVEN THE YEAR)! The Federal Communications okayed, subject to conditions, Fox's purchase of the ten Chris Craft television stations. That means KTTV/Los Angeles and KCOP are now both owned by Fox. As part of the deal, Fox has to spin off one the two Salt Lake City stations it now owns. Fox quickly announced a deal to swap KTVX/Salt Lake City and KMOL/San Antonio with Clear Channel's WFTC/Minneapolis. The swap gives Fox ownership of the Fox affiliate in the Twin Cities, as well as a combo there (Chris Craft owned the UPN affiliate there, KMSP). And one footnote: WFTC recently started a news operation under the leadership of Jon Fisher, who had long stints in management at KCOP and KTLA in Los Angeles. More deals are a possibility. One big question is what Fox will do with its new UPN affiliate in San Francisco. Fox already has a powerful affiliate in KTVU/Oakland. Another big question: What will Fox do now that it has two stations, and two news operations in Los Angeles...and the same situations in New York, and Minneapolis?

PETE'S BACK: Pete Arbogast returns as the voice of USC Trojans football. The USC grad did the play-by-play for football broadcasts for several years, when their games were broadcast on KNX Newsradio. The station switched, and Pete was out. Now, the games move to all sports KMPC-AM/Los Angeles this year, and Pete is back. He hasn't been idle...Arbogast also has been the voice of the Cincinatti Bengals.

DISNEY SPENDS SOME $$$$: The Walt Disney Company, parent of ABC, worked out a whopper of a deal to buy Fox Family Worldwide. The $5.4 billion dollar deal includes cable channels around the world, including the Fox Family Channel.

SAN DIEGO CHANGES: KFMB and some longtime staffers are parting ways. Anchor Sandra Maas, a staple at the station for more than a decade is gone. Also departing: I-team reporters Gail Stewart and Kevin Cox.