Bay Area Media Figures--Stock Up and Stock Down; Sunday Pulse

BAY AREA MEDIA FIGURES:

STOCK UP--

*Frank Somerville, KTVU: As long as the numbers remain steady, and they have, Somerville begins his third year as the lead anchor at KTVU, ("AR"--After Richmond) with solid work and consistency. He gets a few cat calls because of the "anchor look", but he remains Channel 2's top dog.

*Ken Wayne, KTVU: Arguably the most underrated anchor in the market, Wayne delivers a solid, steady, no-nonsense delivery. He's great on the weekend, but he might be headed for a weekday gig if KTVU doesn't see him long term somewhere other than Sat.-Sunday.

*Tom Sinkovitz: The recently-departed NBC-BA anchor is enjoying life with his kids and family waiting in the wings for a local outlet to offer him a gig. Sinkovitz is a veteran performer, A-rate newsman with both style and substance. He'd be an instant ratings-grabber for a station that wants some extra buzz, (Hello KPIX, KTVU?)

*Carolyn Johnson, KGO-TV: I have consistently said that Johnson has immense star power. A supreme hard worker with grace and style who is part of Channel 7's weekday anchor team. Johnson is network-quality talent often taken for granted at ABC.

*Dana King, KPIX: There are some in the local industry that says King is overrated and a 'softie', but I beg to differ. I find King a dedicated, hard-working anchor who has become CBS5's top personality. And even as she gets older, still is drop-dead gorgeous, (It IS, after all a visual medium.)

*Mark Ibanez, KTVU: After 32 years, the dean of Bay Area sports anchors is still holding court at KTVU and has now even dabbled in the news anchor chair. Something tells me that the widely-respected Ibanez has "news tonsil" written all over him. Ibanez proved on many occasions that he can handle any assignment, so don't be surprised to see him in another chair sometime soon. Either way, he's the consummate pro.

*Roberta Gonzales, KPIX: Sure, go ahead and laugh at this one. I get a flood of e-mail from industry peeps knocking me for applauding CBS5's weather wonder woman. Gonzales may be perky and sweet, (and yes, hot too,) but she's simply doing her job. I like it. I like the fact that the giddiness is from the heart; sorry if that sounds corny, but yes, I like looking at her and she's knows her stuff.

*Rita Williams, KTVU: Really, what else can be said. She's just damn good. Period. End of story.

*Wayne Freedman, KGO-TV: I often goof on Freedman's 50 or so Emmy trophies, but one forgets that the longtime Bay Area TV reporter is still doing magical stuff after two decades. Freedman could have easily gone to NY and become a network news star, but he wanted to remain here and prosper. He has and we're all grateful. (By the way, Freedman, where do you house all those trophies?)

*Pam Moore, KRON: Effortless delivery and steady performance, all-around professional with a capital "P"--and a nice person to boot.

STOCK DOWN--

*Brian Copeland, KGO-TV/Radio: Must have pictures.

*Scott Reiss, Comcast Sports Bay Area: Seriously now, how much more vanilla and phony can one get? Gees, Scotty, you're doing sports. There's only one Brian Williams, (and, yes, Jim Nantz)

*Damon Andrews, Comcast Sports Bay Area: Yo, Damon, quit reading the handbook and try to act as if you're not that "important"--Bryant Gumbel already has the job too. Put away the pretentiousness and just read the damn sports.

*John Sasaki, KTVU: Please!

*Dennis O'Donnell, KPIX: Another guy who thinks his -hit doesn't stink. Denny, it's just sports, not nuclear science. Don't be so damn serious. And Mike Singletary says hello.

*Darya Folsom, KRON: I don't have to say another word.

Madden to do KNBR--wonder how KCBS feels?; News Anchors and Money; Christina Loren is Hot; Did anyone notice Wendy Tokuda split?; Thursday Dish

MEDIA NOTES THURSDAY...John Madden, who has about $100M in the bank, will appear on KNBR around 10ish this morning to sell something and might talk about the Super Bowl too; I wonder what the people at KCBS think about that considering the obscene amount of cash they pay Madden to offer his thoughts every day in the morning...The topic around media gulch near Broadway and Battery is the status of the high-profile anchor at KPIX who is in the final year of a contract and seems to be in the "bulls-eye" of management's intention to either slash his $300-400K contract, or send him packing outright...NBC Bay Area's weather goddess in the morning, Christina Loren is a hot-looking babe and wears tight skirts and has gorgeous attributes and is cool too. The difference between Loren and others is that there's NO transparency in Christina's performance. WE.LIKE.TO.LOOK.AT.HER and she knows it and that's why the KNTV folks have been highlighting her all over the place. The other weather yentas think we give a shit about the snow in Arkansas while we look at their boobs, sorry but that's for the Weather Channel--we watch weather women for one reason and one reason only and you know it...I knew Wendy Tokuda had been de-aired on PIX, but had no clue she officially was gone from CBS, (she's still on the KPIX website,) maybe I should have called KPIX' publicity dept--wait!....While Cairo was burning overnight, Ray Ratto was dissecting the Sharks third line on KNBR...This is a blog about 415 media. It may seem to you all who complain that all I post is sports items, but in reality its news, sports, weather and traffic too, first on the 5's, traffic first, first traffic, 5 is before 8, this traffic, our traffic, my traffic, everyone wants traffic...Speaking of hot and weather, Roberta Gonzales may be too perky for her co-workers and detested by an upper news mgt. guy, but I love my Roberta because, A. she's classy hot, b. does a lot of charity work for the kids and c. anybody that can piss off the management in that building is a good friend of mine...Roberta? YOU GO GIRL!...Adam Meyer is a betting guy who buys chunks of time on radio stations, like here, locally on KNBR, for instance and appeared Wednesday on, surprise!, KNBR! That's NOT the item--if you heard who he was talking to, THAT'S the item and gawd, I was on the floor LOLing so much I needed help from Brenda Vacarro to get up...After Simon Perez leaves PIX to teach, that leaves the station with 3 field reporters, (Joe Vasquez, Robert Lyles and Mike Sugarman) in its newsroom. Three..."Tonight on "Chronicle Live", host Greg Papa will do an in-depth interview with Cam Inman and Ann Killion to breakdown the 49ers running game while after that, Marty Lurie will discuss what its like talking on the air for 17 hours about the Giants hitting coach"...."HI, I'm Liam Mclean, I have a British accent, although I was born in Ireland and I'm on TV in the Bay Area for no apparent reason, but what the hell, they pay me and I eat good."...Yo, Dave Clark, KTVU: I'm told you're a cool guy and that I should be more mellow, so yeah, its all cool, let's have a cold one at Bocanova and go deep...Great weather guys who don't need big boobs to get noticed: Bill Martin at KTVU and Lawrence Karnow at CBS5. Calm, cool, intelligent, and know their shit...Flashback: Howard Cosell doing his "Speaking of Sports" radio commentaries on KGO while Dunbar and Wygant held court. When Cosell the master was at his best and when the "KGO Morning News" was relevant...OK trolls, are you happy?

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EB Express' Buel and SF Weekly's Harper go to work for Phil Anschutz; Ultra-Right owner of SF Examiner

Phil Anschutz is a Denver billionaire listed as the 37th richest person on the planet, according to Forbes.

He's also an ultra-right ideologue who owns the SF Examiner, (and Examiner.com, where most of the content is delivered by three-cent-a-view "examiners.") Anschutz also owns percentages of the LA Lakers, Staples Center, and Staples Corp..

He's also known as a guy who's to the right of Attila the Hun.

How ironic, then is it that two of the Bay Area's most "progressive" editors working for left-leaning publications, have gone to work for Anschutz.

In separate moves, Stephen Buel, part owner of the EastBay Express, (who was ousted under mysterious circumstances) and Will Harper, editor of SF Weekly, are now at the Examiner. Buel is the assistant city editor and Harper, the assisting managing editor. It should be noted that Harper used to work at EBE, under Buel. Buel will now report to him.

The lesson here: Gotta feed the family. Right, left, progressive, commie-pinko, ruthless capitalist. Green rules.

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