Channel Surfing
By Laura Nachman
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Since the attacks on New York City and Washington, here are some of the things the local stations have done this week.   

CN8, which normally doesn’t have weekend editions of the news and “It’s Your Call With Lynn Doyle,” put both on the air Saturday and Sunday.  The news department drafted Lou Tilley and Bruce Casella from their sports team. 

Fox-Philadelphia, also used its sports anchors Don Tollefson and Bill Vargus to report on the plane crash story.  Plus, it devoted 76 minutes of “Good Day Philadelphia,” to kick off its “Waive a Million, Raise a Million” fundraising drive with Pat Croce on Tuesday the 18th.

WB17, which was scheduled to expand its 10 PM newscast to an hour on September 17, started doing hour-long shows on September 11.

For KYW-3, since there weren’t sports to carry, an extra noon newscast was broadcast on Sunday.  Weekday anchors Larry Kane and Denise Saunders reported the news on Sunday night on KYW-3.  Regular weekend anchor Ren Scott was covering the story in New York.  KYW also ran live coverage from WCBS in New York Saturday and Sunday afternoons. 

6ABC aired special live editions of “Visions” on Saturday evening and “Inside Story” Sunday morning.

None of the stations ran their Sunday night sports highlights shows.  Since Major League Baseball and the NFL were canceled, Comcast SportsNet aired half-hour editions of “SportsNite.”

Most of the stations are utilizing their web sites to supply news and information to good effect. Some of the better ones are www.nbc10.com, www.kyw.com, www.wpvi6.com, and www.wb17.com.  Stations not taking advantage of their sites are www.cn8.tv www.foxphiladelphia.com

Community wise,  KYW-3 reports that in its first day, it’s charity drive with the Salvation Army, “Operation: Brotherly Love,” collected 30 truckloads of supplies (enough to fill three supermarkets) for the rescue workers who are aiding the effort in New York. NBC 10 and Wawa have raised over $500,000 for the Red Cross. The campaign will continue until Sunday, September 23rd.

In other programming notes, VH1 ran special videos all weekend titled “United We Stand,” Nickelodeon and ABC news had specials for children, and MTV ran emails in between videos.  TBS replaced Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts in “Conspiracy Theory” with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in “Overboard.”

WPHT 1210-AM ran special local programming with Dom Giordano from 9-12 PM and guest hosts in the evening to take the place of canceled Phillies games.  Rush Limbaugh continued his national show from 12-3 PM.  Of course, KYW 1060-AM had constant news from New York and, WIP-610, which normally mixes in current events with its sports talk, the conversation was focused on the tragedy. WMGK had an all-request commercial-free weekend.