THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 111 lines
MORE THAN 100 men and women from throughout the country practically begged to anchor WAVY's weekend newscasts when Channel 10 recently announced it had an opening.
In the end, the choice came down to three.
There was the woman in Beaumont, Texas. There was the reporter already working in the Channel 10 newsroom in Portsmouth. And there was Shelley Harrell, a 20something anchor and reporter in Augusta, Ga., whose TV wardrobe runs to black, matching the color of her hair.
When earlier this year Carol Hoffman left WAVY to co-anchor the morning news at WVEC, it set dominoes falling in this, the 38th largest broadcast market.
To replace Hoffman, WAVY moved weekend co-anchor Christy Carlo to mornings, opening up the seat next to co-anchor Greg Starddard on the weekends. When WAVY news director David T. Strickland put out the word about the opening at the NBC affiliate, the resumes and audition tapes rolled in.
He put an ad in the ``Broadcasting & Cable'' weekly. He passed the word to others in the LIN Broadcasting family (nine stations) of which WAVY is a part.
The tapes, in black boxes with white labels, were stacked high in Strickland's office by the time he and executive producer Robin Freese got serious about choosing a replacement for Carlo.
``We were looking for somebody who fit in well here, somebody who projected warmth on camera, somebody with whom the viewers would be comfortable,'' said Strickland.
Miss Warmth turned out to be Harrell, whose career in TV didn't begin until after she quit her job selling long-distance telelephone service. Following college at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, N.C., Harrell worked off camera at the Fox station in Miami for $6 an hour, then advanced to reporter-anchor in Augusta.
And now she's at WAVY, co-anchoring the news and carrying the banner for consumers with the station's ``10 on Your Side'' team. It's the bunch that recently asked the question, ``How dare that used-car dealer sell a clunker to the old gent with Alzheimer's?''
Dozens of others wanted the job she holds today. She won. They lost. Their tapes and resumes have been chucked out.
Gone are the tapes from the young, ambitious reporters looking to make the leap to anchor.
Gone is ``I'm an aggressive, award-winning reporter'' from Fort Myers, Fla. Rejected is ``I'd like to relocate'' from Waco, Texas. Forgotten is the part-time sports guy in Richmond who thinks he's good enough to be an anchor here.
Considering her competition one day not long ago while having her picture taken with Starddard for this piece, Harrell said, ``I feel so lucky.''
Her voice is cottony soft. She looks kid-sister-young on camera.
No sooner did Strickland complete the search for his weekend co-anchor when he was told by Lisa Joyner, co-anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast with Carolyn Castleberry, that she was leaving for a job at the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles.
Oh, no! The search begins anew.
Dozens of men and women out there want Joyner's old job just as others lusted after the position now held by Harrell. There are 1,181 commercial TV stations in the U.S., with perhaps 3,500 anchor slots coveted by many.
When an opening pops up in a Top 50 TV market, news spreads quickly even before stations advertise. Many reporters and anchors have agents who sniff out job opportunities for them. There are job-finding services out there.
The latest buzz: WAVY in Portsmouth is looking for a co-anchor. WVEC in Norfolk is looking for a co-anchor (to replace Cynthia Lima). WTKR is looking for a sports guy to replace Jim Hale. Hold everything. That job's been filled.
Those who applied to WAVY, from the restless reporter in Elmira, N.Y., to the reporter for a rival station in Hampton Roads with her eye on the anchor desk, came with different looks, styles and deliveries. It is a supermarket of applicants.
``From great to downright awful,'' said Strickland after sampling what is on the shelf in his price range.
(The salaries of anchors and reporters is a closely held secret in this market. But you can figure the old pro anchors such as Terry Zahn of WVEC and Tom Randles of WTKR in the $75,000 to $100,000 range, with the weekend anchors probably in the $40,000 neighbor-hood.)
In the end, I believe, the job goes not to the best news reader or to those who look smashing on camera. The job goes to the candidate who makes the best impression.
That could happen face to face.
Harrell came up from Augusta to lunch with the WAVY brass. Did her table manners impress the executives and clinch the job for her?
Or was it that that certain something - the X factor - that sprang from her audition tape and swept away the station's news director and general manager?
Whatever it was, Strickland picked up on it right away.
``She fits in very well with Greg,'' said Strickland. ``She has the ability to draw viewers into a story.''
And she has. . . warmth.
Does Harrell makes you feel warm and fuzzy and comfortable all over while watching her? If she does, Strickland made the right choice. Warmth. She has warmth.
That is why she beat out Aggressive from Fort Myers and Ambitious from Richmond.
Want to hear something funny?
Harrell's tape wasn't in the batch that came streaming in when the job opening was first posted. Strickland said he heard about her from a news director in another market, and then asked Harrell to apply.
By the time her audition tape arrived, Shelley Harrell, the lady in black who is single and a native of Greensboro, N.C., had an inside track on the WAVY job. Now she's here, learning about Pungo and Poquoson, learning that there's a Hampton in Hampton Roads, and a Hampton on the Peninsula, and a Hampton in Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk. She's telling us that she's on our side while spreading warmth all over the place.
Bye, Lisa. Hello, Shelley. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Beth Bergman/The Virginian-Pilot
Shelley Harrell, left, on the WAVY-TV set in Portsmouth with
co-anchor Greg Starddard and stacks of other anchor's demo tapes.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB