I Miss Rita Williams and Bob Melrose; KTVU and KCBS Never The Same; Reflections

Rita Williams

I MISS Rita Williams and Bob Melrose; she, the legendary KTVU reporter who retired a few years back, and he, one of the best radio street reporters in the business who also retired from KCBS.

Of course KTVU is not the same without Williams and KCBS has nobody even close to Melrose.

Rita is not only missed on the air but off too; her sense of humor and levity even in the most trying times was priceless.

Bob Melrose and I used to sit in the Oakland Coliseum press box and schmooze about the state of life and Bay Area media.

Bob Melrose

On occasional Saturdays, he would take me up to the 32nd floor of Embarcadero One when KCBS was headquartered there and allow me the pleasure of watching him broadcast and edit tape. Cool man, that Melrose guy.

It bears repeating: We have lost some of the greatest electronic journalists (TV and Radio) by way of simple retirement or other circumstances. It's life. It's reality.

But we have to acknowledge them and not forget how fantastic they were at their respective jobs.

We cannot forget.

I won't.

Oprah leaves; what will KGO do?; KCBS' Bob Melrose best reporter?; Friday media pulse

KGO-TV, (ABC 7, SF) faces an important programming decision once the Oprah Winfrey show concludes play in Sept., 2011. Winfrey announced Thursday that she would end her successful syndicated talkie.

Like most ABC stations, the sudden void creates key decisions: program news, sign up a new independent talkie, (Tyra?) or develop broad-based local programming. Bet on news here in SF.

According to many sources, executives at the ABC stations that serve as Oprah's key station group have long said they will fill the time slots by expanding their local news. The ABC stations remain strong--even in today's tough environment--and are news leaders.

If ABC replaced the show with news, it could easily produce newscasts for much less than what it's paying for Oprah. Even if the ABC stations' ratings dropped in the Oprah time slots, the cost savings would likely make up for those declines.

KGO reportedly pays 240,000 per week in license fees for the show; KABC pays around $270,000.

Expect KGO to expand its local news and hope that ABC has a strong lead in at 3PM.

**KCBS' venerable and dependable Bob Melrose is the BEST reporter in the Bay Area, with a close nod to KTVU's Rita Williams.

Melrose, who has been at the CBS station since 1975, is the epitome of a hard-nosed street reporter who doesn't mind the audio grit of say, covering a major story in the Caldecott tunnel. Indeed, it was the fire inside the tunnel that killed four people in April of 1982 that was one of Melrose' signature performances; another that comes to mind was the Loma Prietta quake.

Then there's KTVU's Williams, who in a day when too much glitz and puff stories dominate local TV news, Williams no-nonsense, steady, pointed reporting is a welcome sight on a nightly basis. Williams network quality work is a testament to her craft--she could easily be a correspondent on 'Nightline and make it look easy.

**Sports note: the Big Game will not be available to Direct TV subscribers, so look for a local bar that caries Versus network if you're planning on watching Cal--Stanford and don't have Comcast.

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