Monday, July 13, 2015

Sylvia Chase KRON Experiment Was One Of Bay Area TV's Biggest Blunders




Sylvia Chase had name--BIG name. Like ABC, "20/20" name and big network gusto--and KRON, the old KRON, had plenty of desire and money to shove someone's way to make a splash --too bad it didn't work.


Chase was paid a handsome pile of dough, (close to a million bucks) to become part of the KRON family.


She debuted alongside co-anchor, Jim Paymar after the Super Bowl, 1986. Everything soon went downhill after that. Chase never moved the needle for KRON. In fact, her presence created quite a bit of jealousy and friction among station staffers-- I wonder why. In any event it was one of the biggest blunders in local TV history. And an expensive one at that.





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22 comments:

  1. So was Roz Abrams forced out or did she get the NYC reporting offer first leaving KRON a hole to fill?

    Thinking of the bench back then....who would have filled? Emerald Yeh was the only female anchor there at the time since the 5 was Bob Jimenez solo.

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    1. Roz? Forced out? Are you kidding? She was a huge piece of KRON's stature at the time. KRON didn't want to give that up. No, she got a great offer from New York.

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  2. Wow, that 2nd picture looks like Craft.

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    1. I actually thought it looked like Sylvia Browne.

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    2. While it's true that Sylvia Chase and I did not like each other, I do not now, nor have I ever had an eagle beak. My nose is retrousse. She thought I was too perky. She was a very good , serious reporter at 20/20, as you'll recall.

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    3. Amazing, even former women anchors don't like Christine. I wonder why. Maybe Sylvia Chase found Chrissie to "haughty.", not merely "perky."

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    4. 'To haughty or not to haughty", that's not the question.!0:49 whips out his superlatives (amazing!) to assert that women anchors(plural) don't like me. I have many friends and former colleagues who are and were anchorwomen. My case made in possible for them to work past their 40th birthdays. Apparently,10:49 not only is a whiz at confusing "to","too" and "two", but derives plural out of singular.

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    5. "Apparently,10:49 not only is a whiz at confusing "to","too" and "two", but derives plural out of singular."

      That really summarizes things. Gawd. Did you know that Albert Einstein and Jane Austen were poor spellers?

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  3. Isabel Duron and the crazy "mad scientist" Carl Sonkin were always begging to "fill-in".

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  4. KRON hasn't learned a thing. They're still experimenting. Witness the "Human Wonder Bra" on weekday mornings and of course, the human fart machine who does sports every night.

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  5. I really liked when she'd do her psychic stuff. Especially when she came from the Sunnyvale Toys R Us on the tv show "That's Incredible" from the early 80's.

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    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUaORxJTdow

      That was Sylvia Browne, not Sylvia Chase.

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    2. Many years ago, I saw Sylvia Browne at Canada College. It was during this time that the news was reporting that Sammy Davis Jr was very ill. During Sylvia's program, she stopped dramatically and announced that Sammy had just passed on. We paused for a moment of silence while some in the audience were amazed and others very sad. One woman near by sobbed for a while.

      Of course, you can see where this is going. When we got home, we turned on the news to hear reports that no only had Sammy not died, but his condition had improved some. Contrary to Sylvia's information, Sammy was around for another year or so.

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    3. Thanks, I was kidding :)

      I used to confuse the two as a kid.

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    4. I remember being freaked out about that Toys R Us ghost as a kid.

      I was shopping at that Toys R Us about 15 or so years ago. I was near the very back wall of the store next to the doors that went into the warehouse. A girl in her 20's was stocking the endcap shelves on the next aisle over. A female worker in her 50's came out of the warehouse area seeming kind of spooked telling the girl in her 20's that she felt his presence and stuff moved or something while she was back there. That's my ghostly encounter. I think I stayed near the back for a bit then headed to the front pretty quickly. Spook factor.

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  6. I always enjoyed her on the Montel Williams show where she'd talk to the dead.

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  7. OK, either this Sylvia Browne crap is two people attempting to troll, or just one person who should not be using a computer while unsupervised, The only dead thing Sylvia Chase knows about is her former career.

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    1. Rich's blog is fun. Enjoy the laugh or two here and there. We don't always have to stay on topic.

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  8. I knew Sylvia Brown's next door neighbor who said she was extremely difficult to live near. Psycho comes to mind, not psychic.

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    1. Was the psychic money good? Did she live in a well to do Radnich type neighborhood?

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    2. House not as nice as Radnich, but she never needed a door bell.!

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    3. Couldn't an uglier picture of Sylvia Chase from her ABC days been found? She looks like she was in a catfight and she lost! I thought she was very good on 20/20, but then, what do I know?

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