THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
LOCAL TV news and views to consider while you wait for your 1996 ``Baywatch'' calendar to arrive in the mail:
It's nice to have friends in high places - WAVY's Miss Sunshine, reporter and weekend co-anchor Lisa Parker, is on her way to Chicago. It took Parker just two years to make the leap from this, the 40th largest TV market, to the third biggest.
She smiled her way to the top.
In January, Parker leaves Portsmouth to report on consumerism for the NBC-owned and operated station in Chicago, WMAQ. That puts Parker on the same team with her old boss.
Parker departs not long after WAVY's news director, Gary Stokes, shuffles off to Buffalo, N.Y., to become general manager of the CBS affiliate there. That leaves Channel 10's general manager, Ed Munson, with two positions to fill.
Munson says he's already been swamped with applications for Stokes' job. After advertising for Parker's replacement in trade publications, Munson expects to hear from dozens of people who would die for an anchor job at WAVY. Some perkiness required.
At Northwestern, Parker was in the same sorority with Julia Louis-Dreyfus of ``Seinfeld.'' At home in Arlington, Va., she hung with movie queen Sandra Bullock. Name dropper.
Whomever succeeds Stokes as WAVY's news director faces the challenge of starting up a 10 p.m. local newscast on WVBT in Virginia Beach in 1998. That's when WVBT becomes a Fox affiliate. WAVY and WVBT are partners in marketing and programming.
If you ask real nice, maybe she will give a car away - In the TV commercials, Joe Falk of Little Joe's Autos in Chesapeake says he'd give the cars away but his wife won't let him. Now don't the idea that Shirley Falk is heartless.
There were a couple of times when she let her husband donate cars to charity fund-raisers. The Falks have been getting good mileage out of the Joe-wants-to-give-the-cars-away slogan for about 25 years, going back to the days when ``Daddy'' Jack Holmes used it on the radio here.
What's the price of fame? ``I get teased a lot,'' said Shirley Falk. The Falks once sold cars at a place called the Home of the Fat Boys. Joe wasn't one of the fat boys, so they named him Little Joe.
Just think what she could do if she lived in Hollywood - How hard is it for an actress to find TV work around here? Laura Robbins of Virginia Beach makes it look like a snap.
She's worked recently in Baltimore on ``Homicide: Life on the Street'' for NBC, and she's worked in Wilmington, N.C., on the CBS series, ``American Gothic,'' and recently did a made-for-TV film there. Robbins is a bonafide member of the Screen Actors Guild after paying union fees of $1,096.50.
Of this and that - A spokesman for a cable service that covers everything from how to feed your pet right to coping with allergies, the Consumer Resource Network, said she expects CRN to be available to subscribers here starting in January. . . . The folks who plan special events for the city of Hampton say the Spirit of Hampton Roads parade will air Saturday, Dec. 9, at 6:30 p.m. on WVEC. See bands! See illuminated floats! How about Channel 13 anchorman Jim Kincaid in a Santa suit?. . . When the producers of ``Leeza'' (mornings at 10 on WVBT) wanted an expert on restoring wedding dresses, they invited Bill Griggs of Wayside Cleaners in Portsmouth to Los Angeles to speak on behalf of the International Fabric Care Institute. They booked too many guests for the taping, and Griggs was bumped. He got a nice all-expenses-paid vacation out of it and an invitation to come back in 1996. . . . Jackie Reeves, a Norfolk reader, asks on Infoline (640-5555, Category 33333) why the bosses at WTKR send their weather reporters to the roof holding umbrellas when there are thunderstorms nearby. Asks Reeves, Don't they know it's risky? ``The whole roof business is goofy TV,'' she said. by CNB