THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412290084
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
LOCAL TV NEWS and notes to ponder while you wait for Roseanne-Tom Arnold divorce to be final:
It's nice to know Chris and LeAnne will have jobs for the new year - LeAnne Rains, formerly of WAVY, and Chris Castleman, who reported the weather for WVEC, were the sexy, hunky darlings of local viewers who broke some hearts when they quit their jobs here.
Where are they now, you ask?
Castleman, he of the Armani wardrobe, is fit again - he had health problems when he worked the Channel 13 morning shift - and delighted to be working for the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Fla. Same deal he had at WVEC: He does the morning and noon weather reports.
In Orlando, he recently rubbed elbows with the movie elite at the opening of the latest Planet Hollywood. That beats a picnic in Pungo. Right, Chris?
Rains, recently married, is working as a reporter for ITN in London. It's the chief competitor to the BBC. No air time yet.
She says the Brits aren't keen about American voices or accents.
What Rains really, really wants is to land a job with CNN in Europe.
On the home front, WTKR has signed on local talent Tal White to report the weather on the morning and noon newscasts now that Janice Lee has taken a leave of absence. White's had experience in TV in Harrisonburg.
Maybe she was inspired by the makeover show that Oprah did - Did you catch the ``Oprah'' segment a few weeks ago when she invited female anchors from all over the nation to try a new look in the hair and wardrobe department?
Oprah Winfrey overlooked WAVY's 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor Alveta Ewell. But somebody's been working on her. Ewell's new feathery 'do is the coolest.
Don't know about you, but I can't get enough history - The folks who bring you the classy A&E cable network are about to launch the History Channel. But not here yet.
A spokesman for Cox Cable said the History Channel will likely be among the first channels added to its basic cable lineup if programming is expanded in 1995. Government regulators say it's OK for cable systems to add up to seven new channels next year as long as the cost doesn't exceed $1.50 per subscriber.
There's a TV food network I'd like to see. And ESPN-2. And Turner Movie Classics. And The Nostalgia Network. Cox this month elected to add the Disney Channel and charge extra for it - even for viewers who don't give a hoot about that channel's bland programming.
Cox will proceed with beaming out the Disney Channel when it and if it gets approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
She was only 4 years old when she last saw her father - Did you catch ``A Current Affair'' earlier this week when the TV tabloid carried by WTKR reported on the reunion of 21-year-old Sheila Michelle Duncan of Newport News and her father, Ed Honaker? A moving moment.
They last saw one another 17 years ago, before drifting apart.
In the years since, Honaker was arrested, tried and convicted of rape - a conviction that was reversed when DNA tests cleared him. That story made headlines. Duncan recognized the face she saw on TV and in the newspapers.
Father and daughter were reunited last week in Richmond as the ``Current Affair'' cameras rolled.
Another follow-up: Perhaps you saw the story of the Middle Peninsula family on ``Scared Silent: Exposing and Ending Child Abuse,'' which aired recently on WGNT. It was a repeat of a show that all the networks carried in 1991.
On that show, the father of a 15-year-old Virginian, a girl named Wendy, admitted that he abused his daughter sexually and deeply regretted it. This is three years later. How are things with that family?
Much better. Mother, father and daughter live in harmony after months of counseling. Wendy is growing up a normal, happy teenager, said her father.
It took courage for the family to go on camera with their story. by CNB