DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160108

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LARRY BONKO

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

NSU LUCKS OUT WITH APPEARANCE BY BROKAW

TODAY'S LOCAL TV buzz:

Tom Terrific - Is it coincidence or perfect timing? Norfolk State University selected NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw to headline its 13th annual communications conference Oct. 29 at a time when Brokaw is on a roll.

His ``NBC Nightly News'' leads the 6:30 network newscasts with 10.9 million viewers. Next month, Brokaw will be among 13 men and women, including Danny Thomas and John Chancellor, inducted into Broadcasting & Cable Magazine's Hall of Fame.

Brokaw is scheduled to speak Oct. 29 at 12:30 p.m. by satellite to an NSU conference to include panel discussions on women in media and the media under scrutiny plus a sales and marketing workshop. Call 683-8454 or 683-2386 for details about registering.

Going, going, gone - With The Family Channel undergoing a transformation to kidvid - Pat and Tim Robertson last June sold FAM to Rupert Murdoch and friends for $1 billion-plus - FAM headquarters in Virginia Beach is emptying faster than the Oceanfront after Labor Day.

The latest to clean out her desk is Diane Linen Powell, vice president of corporate communications. Between 30 and 40 FAM workers, including several in publicity and marketing, have left.

``It looks like a ghost town around here,'' said one of the survivors of the Murdoch purge.

Terry update - WVEC anchorman Terry Zahn, on leave while undergoing treatment for cancer, called to say it's been hell but he's beating back the disease.

Tests are positive. Looks like the bone-marrow cancer is in remission. Zahn expects to be back at the anchor desk around Thanksgiving.

A city that floats - We may be blase about the Navy's warships, but there's a great big country out there eager to learn what it takes to keep an aircraft carrier's crew of 5,700 clean, comfortable and battle-ready.

The Learning Channel will soon show life aboard the Norfolk-based George Washington on ``How'd They Do That?'' The show is about such stuff as climbing frozen waterfalls and 300 people sky-diving all at once.

Local producers Charles Tudor of Tudor-Kahwagi Productions and Kevin O'Sullivan of Dominion Productions spent several days at sea on the GW for TLC, taping everything from jet fighters landing and taking off to the crew weighing anchor.

How'd they do that? With much noise.

Tudor and O'Sullivan focused their cameras on a city at sea operating around the clock. The chow was great, said Tudor. He favored the cuisine in the chief petty officers mess.

Separated at birth? - You'll have to convince me that WAVY reporter-anchorman Charles Pugh is Montel Williams' long-lost twin. But I know for sure that Channel 10 forecaster Don Slater is the mirror image of Chris Elliott, who plays a paparazzo on ``The Naked Truth.''

Tony, Tony, Tony - If you've been listening to Tony Mercurio's cut and slash sports commentary on radio (WGH) and want more of The Mouth of the South, hear this: Starting Saturday at 10 a.m., he'll do an hour live on WPEN. That's TV.

``No holds barred,'' said Mercurio, who thinks professional wrestling should be part of the Olympics. He invites viewers to call with their two cents' worth.

This looks familiar - When Channel 13 weather guy Jeff Lawson was invited to the White House recently to talk global warming with President Clinton and other TV meteorologists, he didn't need a map to the Oval Office or the Rose Garden.

Lawson's father was a Secret Service agent assigned to the White House detail. He long ago gave young Jeff a peek backstage at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Lawson did his 5 and 6 p.m. weathercasts from the White House. ``Pretty cool,'' said Lawson.

Answer man - Donna Hall in Virginia Beach called to ask what's become of Nancy Glass of ``American Journal,'' which WVEC carries at 5:30 p.m. Glass either quit or was dumped as the show's host - the producers aren't saying - in favor of Charles and Michele Dabney-Perez, who are brother and sister.

Am I the only one who thinks it was a better show with Glass? Also on WVEC, you can catch re-runs of ``The X-Files'' on Saturday night at 11:35. ``Siskel & Ebert'' moves to Sundays at 12:30 p.m., with WPEN giving you first crack at the film critics Saturday night at 11. MEMO: I'll take your questions and comments about local TV on Infoline,

640-5555. Press 2486. ILLUSTRATION: AP FILE PHOTO

Tom Brokaw is scheduled to speak by satellite to an NSU conference

at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 29.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu