He's Got Bette Davis Eyes

NBC Bay Area's Janelle Wang On Her Way To Sochi To Cover Olympics; KGO-TV Still Mum on Heather Ishimaru; Classy; Tuesday Fast Starter

Janelle Wang/NBC Bay Area

 Janelle Wang is excited about going to Sochi, Russia to cover the Olympics for KNTV and has absolutely no trepidation given the terror alarms affecting the games.


NBC's Winter express begins Feb. 7th.


I asked Wang whether she had any jitters. "No trepidation at all. Just excited to cover it and our NorCal athletes. Security will be extremely tight. "


Normally, a two-week vaunted franchise like the Olympics would be a valuable entity to build up both local and national programming. But this Olympics, (set to begin February 7), has been littered with endless potential terrorism stories.


Combine that with a lack of American athlete star power and the dank surroundings of a relatively obscure and remote city in Southern Russia and you could have the least-watched games ever.


*Speaking of KNTV, they've added a new face to replace Marla Tellez; Peggy Bunker has been installed as the new 11 AM anchor and will also fill in on various news blocks as a general assignment reporter. Bunger comes to NBC Bay Area from Seattle's ABC affiliate, KOMO.


*To show you what the local TV News ND's and  assignment editors priorities were Sunday night post-game, just note the fact at least a pair of news choppers hovered over both the Mission district and Marina; downtown too. Wonder why.


*No class dept: KGO-TV has not said a word about its fallen reporter, Heather Ishimaru. Not a word. How about an acknowledgement? How about just showing some common human decency by telling its viewers about Ms. Ishimaru's condition. But of course that would require common sense which apparently is a foreign concept at 900 Front. Yeah, I know about the legal implications but this has nothing to do with lawyers and everything to do with class. That's a bad scene over there.


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33 Years Ago Today, How the Bay Area heard about the USA Hockey Team beating the Russians; Joe Starkey broadcast the Final 10 Minutes



Lake Placid NY, Feb 22, 1980

Thirty-three years ago today--a Friday no less, the news of the USA Hockey team's stunning victory over the vaunted Russian team in the Olympics, was first reported and heard in the Bay Area, by Joe Starkey.

Yes, that Joe Starkey.

Starkey was KGO Radio's morning sports anchor and was reporting live and direct from the Lake Placid Indoor Arena.

Of course, there was no Internet. And while millions of Americans knew the score via simple word of mouth and unintended wire service reports, it was Starkey's riveting account from a loud, cheering, upstate NY arena that would provide details of one of the biggest and most famous events in US sports history.

The actual game--a la Al Michael's, DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? chant, was televised later that night on ABC-TV.

UPDATE: Just received this e-mail from Starkey:

Rich: Some details you might enjoy knowing: The game was scheduled for tape delay on West Coast but actually played at a time that fit into the afternoon news block. I had just gone to work for KGO as Sports Director after 8 years in the NHL so I knew the game and players very well, even the Russians. When I saw the miracle begin to unfold I called the KGO newsroom and said I am willing to risk my job for you to stop the newscast and let me broadcast the final 10 minutes. There were no cell phones so I was on a regular phone line about 15 feet from Al Michaels and Ken Dryden and did the radio play by play which all West Coast ABC radio stations jumped in on immediately. I have always said for pure drama and scope of a sporting event it even surpassed the "Band is on the field". By the way, I didn't listen to the tape for many years and when I did I realized I used many of the same adjectives I used two years later at the end of "the play."

 

Best wishes,

Joe Starkey

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