WEDNESDAY DRILLStephanie Adrouny was wooed heavily by NBC Bay Area, (KNTV), for the position of Assistant News Director --the same gig she had for the past 14+ years at KGO.
Some of my Insiders at 900 Front speculate that Adrouny, who was widely respected and beloved by several staffers, was tired of working under ND, Tracey Watkowski.
"Trixie", as she's known derisively inside the Channel 7 studios, is an autocratic leader and looks over everyone's shoulder. "She's a royal pain in the ass", one of the producers told me. "She also rules by intimidation and that doesn't work here." So I asked if that's the case, why is she, (Watkowski), still working there.
"She has friends in high places at the network that still have faith in her."
Adrouny's sudden departure caught a lot of people off guard but the combination of tension inside the building combined with a chance to get away from Watkowski and earn a nice wage at KNTV was too good to turn down. Furthermore, Adrouny is a disciple of Kevin Keeshan, the former KGO ND, (before Watkowski), and who still possesses major influence at KNTV, an O and O NBC station. Keeshan has a hightop position at NBC News in NY and was instrumental in Adrouny's SJ courting. It also helped that she spent time there in 2000 working as a producer for the 5 PM News.
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*Another thing about KGO: their solo news show on sister station, TV20 at 9 PM anchored by Dan Ashley, is the BEST singular newscast in the Bay Area. Yes, The BEST. Ashley is consistent; a very businesslike, straightforward, no-nonsense and yes, engaging and entertaining news program that zips by fast and furious, is nicely paced and unlike PIX's abysmal circus act, is far more smarter and focused. And it even has pretty decent ratings, what a bargain.
*Here's a DREAM TEAM of ANCHORS, 2014: KGO's Ashley, KRON's Pam Moore, KTVU's Ken Wayne and KPIX's Juliette Goodrich.
*At KTVU, two lameduck managers--soon to be departing for Boston: Tom Raponi and ND, Lee Rosenthal. No wonder there's a lot of people with high pressure in Jack London Square. Combine that with the fact that Mark Ibanez's being courted by KGO--Ibanez' contract is up in March and seems less set with his dream of finishing his career at Channel 2. In other words, Ibanez will listen intently to what, (possibly), KGO has to offer. We continue to hear that Larry Beil would love to go back to his native Hawaii and "be a big fish in a little pond." The money would be a lot less but he loves Hawaii--who doesn't.
KTVU Add: With Fred Inglis' retirement set for August, already the station and Ibanez himself have been bombarded with tapes from interested tonsils. One local guy, (a radio sports fill-in), wrote to Ibanez, according to my mole,--this is no big news, but THIS is: the radio guy used to mock Ibanez' work when he did part-time gigging at a local sports station. I don't think the radio guy is on the short list.
*KGO RADIO UPDATE: The changes are a-comin' in September and they will be fast and furious--in the meantime, OPPS Mgr, Kevin Metheny is scoping the station and getting ready to implement the talk/news hybrid. KSFO too, where the morning zoo father/daughter mishmash struggles forward.
*Spencer Hughes, (aka: Sven Silva), the buffoon from 9-Noon at KSFO: hope you're still renting.
*At Comcast SportsNet Bay Area: the youthful worker bees in the newsroom are FED UP with the EGO-Prickster known as Chris Olivere. Says a staffer to me who asked to be anonymous, "He acts as if he's President of the US --what an asshole." Actually, assholes have more taste than Olivere.
*Hashtag #Likewesototallysuck at 10 PM's KPIX's MTV experiment on KBCW. Maybe they should go all-world and change the name from "NighBeat" to "MY Space News." Ba-Dumb-Bump!
*Ronn Owens on Israel and Gaza policy: We agree.
*That fat slob of a food geek, Grace Ann Walden, is an anti-Semite food geek at that--the fat food yenta referred to me as a "Zionist" in an ad-hominem attack on a Facebook thread. (I won't refer directly to the context but it was pretty gruesome). Another reason I don't do Facebook threads--stick to the casserole pictures instead.
By the way, Gracie, yes, I am a "Zionist" and proud of it--not a self-hating Jew like 99% of the Bay Area Jewish population.
*Jon Carroll of the Chronicle wrote his 798th column on cats--I think he really likes pussy.
*If KQED is looking for a fight with its rank and file union engineering department, then I think they're going to get one.
*Test-Pattern radio: 'Talk910' AM --The cryonics exhibit at the public library is more interesting. PS: When no one's listening it really doesn't matter if they don't take calls.
*KSFO new contest! Count the number of times the gravel-voiced chick says, "Thanks Brian"--Win a trip to Pleasant Hill!!
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