The Behind-the-Scenes People at KTVU Feel Anger Over Somerville Status --415 Media Exclusive

AT KTVU, you might think there's a good deal of sympathy for Frank Somerville, the troubled senior anchor. You would expect the troops to be supportive of their comrade.

You'd be wrong.

A station insider tells me (and this person isn't alone) that in fact, there's a great deal of ANGER and RESENTMENT. For real? You bet.

"Fact is, said the source, 'Frank has been given a long rope." I was prepared to move on but the person wasn't done talking. "There's sympathy, yes, but a lot of people are angry because Frank has been given lots of chances. More so than most people? "Yeah, quite a bit and so there's quite a bit of anger here, really anger and it's just a small segment; you'd be surprised."

Somerville for years has lived dangerously. He LOVES to drive race cars FAST and furious. As he exits a nasty divorce, he's been seen out on the Oakland/SF streets with very pretty, much younger women. He recently was dating a Peninsula woman (he's since broken up) but his relationships have hit snags. He recently sold his Oakland Hills house and moved to a Downtown luxury condo but his social life has taken a huge hit.

Somerville, who's been at KTVU since 1991, has never seemed to take his personal life into his day job environment but that hasn't erode some unsavory feelings from some of his co-workers. The hostility between him and rank and file is not too intense but what with the Sunday night on-camera incident, that little good will is now apparently eroding.

*415 MEDIA EXCLUSIVE