So I take two weeks of paternity vacation (girl, eight pounds, 20 inches, Elizabeth Ann, adorable, sweet disposition, clearly takes after her mother) and what happens?
-DANA PURSER LEAVES KTVX: The merry-go-round continues at local television stations, with weathercaster Dana Purser deciding that she had gone as far as she was going to go at Ch. 4.Purser said Tuesday that she had hoped that the departure of Rebecca Reheis from KTVX would lead to a more prominent position at Ch. 4 for her - and she still thinks it might have if Mark Eubank had stayed at KUTV instead of packing up his Weatherbank and heading for KSL.
"With Eubank going off the air for a year (Eubank will leave KUTV at the end of 1989 and won't be able to start on-air reporting for KSL until 1991), I think KTVX sees an opportunity to make a dent in the popularity he's built up over the years," Purser said. "From what I hear, (KTVX News Director) John Edwards is looking for someone really dynamic and strong - and male - to try and take advantage of the situation."
So rather than continue to work the early morning shift, Purser has decided to end her two-and-one-half-year relationship (there has never been a formal contract) with Ch. 4. She made her last appearance Tuesday night.
"I don't have any hard feelings - Ch. 4 has been very good to me," she said. "They made a business decision, and I understand that. They've got a marketing strategy in mind, and I hope it works out for them."
Edwards said that the search for a new weathercaster is ongoing and should be completed within the next few weeks. In the meantime, Clayton Brough will be handling most of the station's meteorological chores along with Bob Chmieleski.
As for Purser, he said he appreciates how she has "worked hard and grown a lot" during her years at KTVX. "I hope everything works out for her," he said.
And just what is Purser trying to "work out"? Well, for now she's looking forward to spending a little time at home with her adopted son and "enjoying being a mom." But don't be surprised to see her ship a cassette of her work to KUTV, where the weathercasting future is as hard to predict as the weather itself.
-KSL WINS: Since I didn't go on the summer network press tour (score one for paternity - even though I don't know nothin' about birthin' no babies) I had a chance to compare the 24th of July Parade coverage by KSL and KTVX for the first time in several years. And it seemed to me that KSL's coverage was clearly superior, with more interesting commentary and camera angles. And did you catch the hour of pre-parade coverage? Good stuff.
-KSL LOSES: KSL News Director Spence Kinard wrote an interesting letter to the editor recently in which he took both Salt Lake newspapers to task for not using local station call letters when quoting from their news reports. And he makes a valid point - which, by the way, should be passed on to his own staff. Or maybe Kinard didn't hear Jennifer Howe's July 24th report in which she said KALL-KLCY's Neighborhood Fair in Liberty Park was sponsored by "a local radio station."
-TV CRITIC IS CONVERTED: After spending two weeks trying to figure out what's on television during the daytime, I've decided that all of you who are disappointed in the Daytime TV breakout in the new TV Week magazine are right: It's a real pain. So beginning Aug. 13 we're going back to the old way of doing things. That is, we'll be printing complete day listings - no more of this compiled daytime logs stuff. That means we'll have to eliminate some of the other information we've been giving you, but the message I'm getting from readers is that the most important thing in that magazine is the logs. And now we're going to do them right. Again.
-SALT LAKE MAKES THE TOP 10: According to the folks at Nielsen Media Research, Salt Lake City ranks 10th in the nation in percentage of the population that has video cassette recorders. The Nielsen numbers indicate that 72 percent of Salt Lakers have VCRs in their homes, just behind Los Angeles at 72.4 percent and just ahead of Sacramento at 71.4 percent.
For the record, Anchorage is the leading VCR market, with 81.1 percent of the population hooked up for videos. Fairbanks is No. 2 (78.5 percent), which sort of leads you to believe that the VCR is seen as a real boon to Alaskan televiewers.
The rest of the top 10 includes Las Vegas (76.6 percent), San Francisco (75.1 percent), Monterey (74.1 percent), Reno (73.9 percent), Chicago (73.2 percent) and Boston (72.7 percent).
-911 RESCUES: A CBS crew filming a re-enactment of a daring Colorado mountain rescue Sunday got some real-life footage when the pilot of the helicopter they were traveling in spotted a 9-year-old boy who had spent a cold, rainy night lost in the woods.
The "Rescue 911" crew was restaging a June rescue of two girls who had been similarly spotted by a helicopter pilot when Peter Peelgrane saw little Ian Hawthorne, who had wandered 14 miles from where he had disappeared the previous evening. The cameras were rolling, of course, and the "911" crew got everything from the rescue to the boy's tearful reunion with his parents.
"They were just doing a dramatization," said Rescue Patrol chief Stan Bush. "They just flipped that they were able to get the real thing."
-VIDBITS: "Entertainment This Week" has dropped co-host Robb Weller, probably because he has signed on to be the new host of "Win, Lose or Draw." Weller, as you probably know, is also the host of ABC's "Home" show, which probably qualifies him as television's new "Most Host" . . . The Lifetime cable service has scored coup of sorts, acquiring the first off-network rerun rights to L.A. Law, beginning in September, 1990 . . . The New York Post is reporting that it looks like former KSL sportscaster Jim Nantz will be replacing Brent Musburger as a play-by-play man on college football telecasts this fall. Way to go, Jimbo!