Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman

Bucks County Courier Times
November 8, 2001

KYW-3 news anchor Denise Saunders will join 11 PM co-anchor Larry Kane to fill the vacancy at 6PM created by the tragic death of Siani Lee, who was killed in an auto accident October 28.  Saunders was a weekend anchor and reporter at KYW-3 until she was promoted to weekdays in September.  KYW-3, which once had an abundance of anchors, is suddenly short on supply, as Dave Frankel was taken off the air in September and Dawn Stensland was released from her contract only days before Lee’s death.  The station is still looking for a weekend evening anchor to take Saunders’ spot and a morning anchor to replace Pat Ciarrocchi who moved to the 5 PM show.

A tribute to Siani Lee highlighted the “2001 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards” which took place Saturday night in Philadelphia.  The awards, which were originally set for September, were delayed because of the terrorist attacks.  Lee was not nominated, but was scheduled to present an award with Denise Saunders.  Instead Saunders and Larry Kane narrated a video tribute.  On behalf of his station, Kane also thanked Lee's former station NBC 10 for offering to share video with KYW-3 during the days after Lee died.  

Ironically, two of the biggest awards of the night went to news directors who were fired earlier this year.  “Outstanding Single News Broadcast” went to the poorly rated “Eyewitness News at 5 PM,” whose news director, Melissa Klinzing was fired in May. “Outstanding Morning Newscast” went to Fox-Philadelphia’s “Good Day Philadelphia,” led by deposed news director, John Mussoni. Other stations that picked up multiple awards were WB17, Comcast Sportsnet, and CN8. Although NBC 10 and 6ABC do not participate as stations, NBC 10 allows individuals to submit entries, thus NBC 10’s Tracy Davidson won “Outstanding Individual Achievement – News Anchor” and Kathy Orr won “Outstanding Individual Achievement – Weathercaster.”  Some of the other on-air personalities who took home awards were Fox-Philadelphia’s Dave Schratweiser and Janet Zappala, WB17’s Brad Sattin and Steve Highsmith (who tied with Tracy Davidson for best news anchor, even though he was replaced by Mike Dardis earlier this year), Comcast SportsNet’s Dei Lynam, NBC10’s LuAnn Cahn and Larry Mendte, and CN8’s Mary Amoroso and Steve Adubato.  Stations from markets in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware compete in the Mid-Atlantic Emmys.  

Another Emmy winner was Levittown native Leanne Hinkle, who is the promotion director at UPN57.  Hinkle, a graduate of Bishop Conwell and University of Scranton is a 12-year veteran of Channel 57 and also worked at radio station WIOQ-FM during the days of “Harvey in the Morning.”  Hinkle won for “Outstanding Promotional Announcement.”

Besides previously announced Miss America 2002 and Dream Street, characters from the monster hit “Monsters Inc., ” Philadelphia disco legend “Evelyn “Champagne” King ("Shame"), and Lauren Hart will be part of the 6ABC/Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.   The Robert K. Shafer Middle School Choir of Bensalem will also perform.  Dave Roberts and Lisa Thomas-Laury host.

Over 700 people attended the memorial service for KYW-3 news anchor Siani Lee last week in Conshohocken

  
"Smallville" is getting big ratings for WB17.  The series about the teenage Superman beat the premiere of the critically lauded "24" on Fox-Philadelphia.  "Smallville" had a 7.4 rating and "24" was close behind with a 7.3 rating.  Each rating point equals 28,010 homes.
 
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