THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
LOCAL TV NEWS and views to consider while it dawns on you that ``Melrose Place'' has a special airing tonight at 9:
So close and yet so far - It is usually no big deal to beam a TV picture from Virginia Beach to WAVY's studios in Portsmouth. However, for Channel 10's 5:30 and 6 p.m. coverage tonight of the opening of the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, WAVY had to improvise.
The festival lawn, which was built to accommodate 12,500 concert-goers, rises to such a height that it prohibits WAVY's microwave signal from reaching Portsmouth. The solution: beam WAVY's live shots from the amphitheater up to an orbiting SBS-4 satellite, and then back down to Earth in Portsmouth - about a 2,000-mile detour.
WAVY news director Dave Strickland says he'll have his 6 p.m. anchor team and Chopper 10 in Virginia Beach. WVEC also is planning extensive coverage today. WTKR since Monday has been counting down to the grand opening.
And just as the Olympics are on the way - John Woodin, the news director who tried to jazz up WTKR's ratings with the ``Eleven at Eleven'' razzle dazzle, is moving up from boss of WSB's news operation in Atlanta to general manager of WHIO in Dayton.
Bet he hates leaving Atlanta just as the world is about to show up at that city's doorstep for the Olympics. It will be a news director's nightmare.
File this under local boy makes good - Shone Kirkpatrick grew up in Virginia Beach, graduated from First Colonial High in 1975, moved to Southern California, and there he is making his mark as a TV producer and writer. He's up for two daytime Emmys for a ``CBS Schoolbreak'' special he put together about children of the Holocaust.
Questions, questions - When I checked my Infoline mailbox (640-5555, Category 3333), I found a message from Tim Morgan in Virginia Beach, commenting on WVEC reporter and anchor Sandra Parker. ``She's fabulous looking,'' said Morgan. His question: Is Parker single? Yes, she is.
More questions - Mary Sheppard in Suffolk asks if NBC has canceled the Aaron Spelling prime-time soap, ``Malibu Shores.'' Not yet. NBC pulled it from the May sweeps because its ratings were low. Jane Mack in Virginia Beach, hearing a lot of fanfare about the season finale of ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,'' asks if the show is going off for good. Her kids love it. ``Lois & Clark'' is a big hit and will be back in September.
This man has a good memory - Tim Hagan in Virginia Beach, noting that in a recent column I invited the WTKR weather guys over to my back yard for a barbecue if they bring the food, asks if I've forgiven Channel 3 for firing meteorologist Duane Harding last January.
``It appears that you are ready to forgive and forget that Channel 3 kicked Duane off the rooftop weather deck, so to speak,'' said Hagan. I have no quarrel with WTKR's firing of Harding. That's show business.
His dismissal was handled awkwardly, however.
I can't forgive that, nor can I stomach Channel 3 using cash to get ratings, sticking with the hokey rooftop forecast and inserting its large and ghastly ``News Channel 3'' logo into every program.
It could be worse. The station might still be selling Woodin's breathless ``Eleven at Eleven.''
The wait is over - Perhaps you were among the visitors to Colonial Williamsburg last winter who saw public broadcasting tape ``Character Above All'' at the House of Burgesses. Host Jim Lehrer asked nine historians and journalists to comment on the leadership of U.S. presidents during the last 60 years.
Now you can see what it was all about. ``Character Above All'' airs May 29 at 9 p.m. on WHRO. Was Truman a better leader than Kennedy? Reagan better than Johnson? Lehrer sorts it all out. by CNB