KPIX Newsroom Turmoil; "We're All Just Frustrated"; Plus Covid Hits 855 Battery in Earnest; KRON is OK; ABC News Star Correspondent Rachel Scott Heads to SF; Dan Ashley Contract Status at Circle7 is News; Lisa Chan/KCBS Update; Sunday Schmooze

"We're all just frustrated here. There's no apparent plan. They seem content to just keep us out of the loop, which is why so many people are leaving and why there's so many new faces."

That's a quote from a longtime KPIX staffer who talks about the general unease inside 855 Battery. Everytime I think things can't get any worse, they get worse. PIX is not alone; there is quite a lot of turbulence at other Bay Area TV News stations, but especially pronounced at the CBS local O and O.

The latest turnover item: Len Kiese leaving to be closer to his family. It's not as dramatic as a weeknight anchor or veteran but it shows in dramatic fashion how many PIXers are leaving the building and leaving in droves.

New GM, Scott Warren and new ND, Lisa White, I'd suggest, would be to have a lunch powwow and rally the troops. Hurry up. Your newsroom is in mighty turmoil these days.

*ANOTHER BAD DEAL: The PIX news staff --a lot of personnel across all fronts--have been hit by a Covid outbreak. "Just what we need," lamented one of the few people inside the building.

*I didn't say it was all lovey-dovey at KRON. I just stated, given the crud everywhere else, KRON seemed relatively cool. It's remnents are still gooey but given the state of Bay Area TV News, KRON both looks and sounds slightly above average. The mass weather reports and uneven video still are dopey but overall, KRON is decidely a much better look. That's not sucking up (from me, of all people), that's just a fact.

*Rachel Scott, the spectacular ABC News congressional reporter (and frequent correspondent on Sunday's, "This Week") will be enroute to SF on Wednesday to speak to a Black journlist conference--I'm told, Scott, a USC grad and LA native, would love to be back on West coast, specifically the Bay Area.

In the old days, KGO (ABC7) would pounce on someone like Scott: she's 31. She's got a great look and she's one tenacious reporter, anchor material. But that was yes, a move in the old days. Today? Are you kidding. Let's bow to the anchors who think changing their hairdo seven times is journalistic girth.

*Dan Ashley: it's not hideous to speculate about your contract status at Circle7. It's quite rather news. Given the major screw-up--at ABC7 --with regards to one, Caroly Johnson (now at NBC LA) your contract situation is ripe for discussion.

Ashley is probably not going anywhere and remains a KGO constant but the lack of movement on an extension by the mouse house is a little disturbing.

*Yeah, maybe we should have a parade down Market Street: KCBS Sunday anchor, Lisa Chan, managed not to screw up a broadcast this morning, for the most part.

Chan either had a board assistent and/or was trained to run the operation again.

About time.

Chan is still awkward-sounding on the air and has bizarre low-energy spats. Hardly a decent news reporter, but then again, it's KCBS, the home of mass screw-ups, 50 thousand commercials an hour --but traffic and weather together.

*A sage local media wonk tells me this: if KGO couldn't keep Amy Hollyfield aboard, then it really must be a horrible place at 900 Front. I agree.

*Carolyn Tyler, the retired ABC7 anchor, has a way for words. Off the air. Words do have meaning, Ms. Tyler. And so does gossip too. Especially when it's you talkin' the gossip abouy someone else.