THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608030075
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 73 lines
LOCAL TV NEWS and notes to ponder while you go through withdrawal after watching 171 1/2 hours of the Olympics on TV:
Maybe he'll find our salt-water taffy irresistible - Burt Wolf, the famous gourmand, author and TV host - he's on CNN, The Travel Channel and PBS - has been taping in Virginia Beach for the last week or so.
He'll include what he sees and munches on hereabouts in two episodes of ``A Taste for Travel with Burt Wolf,'' seen on The Travel Channel, and two programs in the ``Burt Wolf's Origins'' series, which PBS stations carry. Wolf's also doing vignettes for ``What's Cooking with Burt Wolf?'' on CNN.
The folks at Barker, Campbell and Farley, who promoted Wolf's visit to Virginia Beach, say the city would have to pay $5-million-plus for this kind of publicity.
Before Wolf arrived, a crew from the CBS ``Sunday Morning'' program visited Norfolk to tape a segment at the Chrysler Museum. That's more
national exposure for the folks in this area, who see everyone as a potential tourist.
This weekend, ol' Capt. James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, is scheduled to appear at a ``Star Trek'' convention at Scope. Tickets to Trek-O-rama are $16 for adults, $12 for children; for information, call 1-800-243-8328.
And you thought Atlanta was crowded.
The bad news is that you have to work weekends - It took a while, but WAVY finally found a co-anchor for the Saturday and Sunday local newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. She is twentysomething Shelley Harrell, who moves up from the CBS affiliate in Augusta, Ga.
She's from Greensboro, N.C., and new to this area, which means somebody at Channel 10 will have to teach her the proper way to pronounce Poquoson.
No big rush - While WAVY has filled the vacancy at its anchor desk, WVEC seems in no hurry to replace co-anchor Cynthia Lima on the 6 p.m. newscast.
Lima leaves this month to accompany her soon-to-be-an-admiral husband on his West Coast assignment. Channel 13 news director David Cassidy says the station will take its time in finding a partner for Terry Zahn.
With Cassidy scheduled to leave soon for an assignment in Washington, D.C., it will likely be his successor who picks the new co-anchor. Godspeed, Dave. You're one of TV news' good guys.
Mail call - Got a card from former WAVY anchor turned aspiring movie actress Diana Morgan with this note: ``Next week, I'm flying to Nova Scotia to begin work on the new Warner Brothers movie, `Titanic.' Did you see me in the new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?'' I must confess that I did not see ``Eraser.''
If you saw it, and caught a glimpse of Morgan, call me on Infoline (640-5555, press 2486) and tell me about how long she was on the screen. A minute? Two? Five?
We hear you, Viola - When the producers of the PBS series ``P.O.V'' asked viewers to comment on-camera about recent documentaries, Viola Hayhurst of Norfolk responded to ``Talking Back: Video Letters.''
She had some words about a recent show which covered Patrick Kennedy's hardball campaign for a seat in the U.S. House from Rhode Island. ``It showed what a sham the political process has become by revealing the dog-eat-dog, let's-scrape-the-gutter nature of political television commercials,'' said Hayhurst, coast-to-coast.
Same wry guy, new time period - Sue Ann Matthews of Portsmouth is among a dozen readers who have called to ask if and why WVEC dropped ``This Week With David Brinkley.'' Channel 13 still carries the roundtable Sundays, but now the time is 11:30 a.m., an hour later than before.
Brinkley says he'll put off retirement until after the November elections.
He-r-r-r-e's Johnny! - Out at Family Channel Headquarters in Lynnhaven, they announced that starting at midnight Sept. 30, the cable channel will begin carrying 130 half-hour ``Carson Comedy Classics.'' Where have you been, Carnac the Magnificent? ILLUSTRATION: William Shatner is on his way to Norfolk for
Trek-O-rama this weekend. by CNB