THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100055
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 67 lines
HELLO AND welcome back, Cathy.
It's been almost 10 years since Cathy Midkiff Lewis last anchored a newscast at WAVY. She left Channel 10 to start a marketing and public relations business in 1987. And now she's back in local television.
Midkiff and Barbara Ciara will co-anchor ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' starting Friday night at 9 on WHRO. The telecast is a partnership between public broadcasting (WHRO) and a commercial station (ABC affiliate WVEC) - a first for the Hampton Roads market. (WHRO will repeat the show Sundays at 3 p.m. and put in on the radio Mondays at 1 p.m. on WHRV-FM).
What kind of a program will ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' be? An hour of warmed-over news and features from the WVEC inventory? Another crushingly boring PBS hour with bureaucrats sitting in a studio spouting governmentspeak? Lewis, who is also the show's producer, promises a fresh, watchable hour. Surprises, even. A lively hour of local TV on Channel 15? I will believe it when I see it.
Lewis said the major portion of each ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' broadcast will be devoted to covering in depth two local stories that are making headlines. This week, Story No. 1 will be regionalism and what has to be done to pull the communities on both sides of Hampton Roads together.
It's an important but hardly telegenic subject. How will Lewis dress up this discussion?
By bringing five ordinary citizens on camera to have their say. ``We want the average folks to weigh in on these discussions,'' said Lewis.
``This Week in Hampton Roads'' will reach out and touch viewers by phone, fax and the Internet. I like Lewis' idea of inviting people to stand before the camera for 90 seconds and say what's on their minds - the kind of public-access television that Cox should be doing on Channel 11 instead of having Irvine B. Hill fawn over admirals and Chamber of Commerce members.
First up in the bullpen is Pamela Hoffler-Riddick, principal of Ruffner Middle School in Norfolk, who has the students in her school wearing uniforms. In her script, Hoffler-Riddick says its wrong for the kids to emulate the ``sag-bagging dress'' of urban street gangs.
Wearing a uniform to school means dressing for success, Hoffler-Riddick will say in her 90 seconds. The woman is so right. Lewis on Friday night will invite other viewers to make a sound-off video.
In announcing the second new local show to debut this fall after WTKR's decision to do an hour live daily at 9 a.m., the WVEC management promises that ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' will combine the best of newscasts and newsmagazines. ``WVEC and WHRO will pool WHRO's technical staff, equipment and facilities with Channel 13's reporting staffs,'' said the WVEC brass. Bell Atlantic Video Services underwrites the program.
Rick Keilty, WVEC's vice president and general manager, sees ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' as a broadcast that's more than bite-size TV. It will ``give viewers a better understanding of the how stories affect them,'' he said.
His opposite number at WHRO, John Morison, sees this as a partnership that's great for this area. WHRO has the studio and the air time. WVEC has the news gatherers. ``We believe the residents here will appreciate a local series that gives texture and strength to community issues,'' Morison said.
Sounds great.
And it's great to have Lewis back on camera.
Lewis is an old pro who is among the best news readers this TV market has seen. Starting Oct. 20, she'll also do a local radio talk show on WHRV-FM called ``Heresay.'' Lewis comes to ``This Week in Hampton Roads'' with gobs of energy and ideas.
But can she accomplish the impossible? Can Midkiff create a local TV show on a limited budget about things that matter to us all while not serving up a sleeping pill at the same time? by CNB