Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502270025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I don't have to tell you how popular he is."
But it was a big offer Meck had to turn down a couple of months ago when WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, came courting. Indianapolis is the nation's 26th largest television market. Roanoke is the 66th largest.
Meck was offered the back-up weather position, from which he was assured he'd move into the main weather anchor seat.
Unfortunately for Meck, or fortunately for Channel 10, depending on your point of view, the popular weathercaster had signed a new three-year contract with WSLS just weeks before the Indianapolis offer - which included a 50 percent raise - came along.
Meck told Smith about the offer, but "we weighed the pros and cons, [and] it was just one of those things that didn't work out," Smith said.
"We're very thankful that he's here," Smith said, "that he will be here for at least three more years."
\ A former Channel 10 weather personality, Vinton native Karen Eden, recently was featured in a cover article in the January issue of Inside Tae Kwon Do magazine.
Eden and her husband teach Tang Soo Do, a traditional Korean martial art, in Pittsburgh, where she now lives.
She is a 1983 graduate of William Byrd High School and worked in radio in the Roanoke Valley from the time she was 15. She worked briefly as a weathercaster for WSLS in 1988.
Eden continues to work in radio, but spends much of her time teaching and competing in national and international karate tournaments.
Her performing ability recently spilled over into the movies. She did stunt work for an upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, "Sudden Death," scheduled for release next fall.
\ An Abingdon High School graduate, Rebecca Cross, is one of the stars of "University Hospital," a new syndicated drama being carried on WSLS (Channel 10) at 12:30 a.m. Mondays.
Cross plays Megan Peterson, "a wide-eyed innocent from Montana who will learn much more than nursing during her training" at the fictional hospital.
Born in La Jolla, Calif., Cross' father is a physician and composer, and her mother is a teacher. Her mother taught her at home until the family moved to Virginia and Cross started high school.
Cross graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in English literature from the University of Virginia. During summer breaks she performed in theaters in Vermont and London. She plays the piano, writes short stories and continues to keep her ballet skills sharp, the show's publicist says.
She has appeared in the ABC Mystery Movie series "Christine Cromwell," as well as on such shows as "Murder, She Wrote" and "Murphy Brown."
by CNB