Richard Bey has been let go from KYW-TV’s morning gabfest, “People Are Talking.” That is, the boyish-looking 32-year-old actor turned talk-show host wasn’t re-signed when his contract with Channel 3, Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate, expired this spring.
Though “PAT” is third in its time slot (Channel 6’s “AM/Philadelphia” with Wally Kennedy and Elizabeth Starr has a substantial lead in audience ratings, and even “$25,000 Pyramid” outpoints it in audience shares), Channel 3 says it is committed to keeping the hour between 10 and 11 a.m. for local chatter.
For the station, it all began eight years ago as “AM/PM,” a vehicle for newscaster-interviewer Maury Povich. Povich stayed there three years (during which the program’s name was changed), then returned to television in his hometown, Washington, D.C., and married his longtime love Connie Chung before settling in on the edge of outrage with “A Current Affair” nightly at 7:30 p.m. on WNYW, Channel 5, New York City.
In one of those ironies that is not really so ironic when you consider the frenetic nature of television and the way it gobbles talent, the hottest contender for the KYW slot is KYW alumnus Bill Boggs, who was a sidekick on Channel 3’s morning variety series, “McLean and Co.,” in the early 1970s.
After Boggs left Philadelphia, he went on to New York to become one of Channel 5’s leading personalities before that station took a dive in direction last year. Channel 5 replaced Boggs’ “Midday Live!” with an hour of cacophony that didn’t last long, settling finally for the syndicated “Hour Magazine.” It canceled outright Boggs’ amiable and informative home/features series, “Saturday Morning Live,” sticking formula ratings-beaters like wrestling and “Star Search” in its place for two hours.
Channel 3 and Boggs are talking, the station admits. Nothing has materialized yet but rumors make a deal sound close. Having the likable Boggs back – like Steve Bell, a bigger fish in a smaller pond – could be a step in a constructive direction for the underdog station.
Meanwhile, guest hosts like Bey’s former “PAT” cohost, Dana Hilger, and comedian Wil Shriner have been filling in. Next week, it’s Jerry Penacoli’s turn.
Elsewhere on the talk show front, WCAU-TV, Channel 10, will debut its own live news/information show in September. Unnamed and without a host so far, it’s been given a 5 p.m. slot Monday through Fridays, and an executive producer. She’s Pamela Browne, who performed the same task with “People Are Talking” for Channel 3 in the early 1980s.
And remember Claire Carter, who cohosted Channel 6’s “AM/ Philadelphia” with Dave Roberts in the late 1970s before dashing off to INN News at New York’s Channel 11? Channel 10 is talking to her, too. The station has auditioned ex-Philadelphian Steve Baskerville (he left Channel 3 to become weatherman at WCBS, New York) as well as familiar in-house names Steve Levy, Terry Ruggles and the madcap Sheela Allen-Stephens.
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Peter M. Fannon, known as the man who brought PBS back from the brink when the federal government caused widespread consternation with its drastic 1981 budget cuts for public television, is quitting the presidency of the National Association of Public Television Stations. NAPTS is the lobbying arm of public television, and Fannon, who was in at its formation in 1979, has been a key figure in PBS’s money dealings with Congress all along.
During his address before the annual corporation meeting of WLVT-TV, Channel 39, in April, Fannon warned of the havoc that could be wreaked on PBS if a deregulation-minded Federal Communications Commission continued a “may- carry” instead of a “must-carry” mentality. The new rules don’t guarantee a spot for public television, Fannon cautioned, voicing concern that non-commercial systems like PBS would be undercut by the needs of commercial television interests.
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For those of you like Tim Hayes of Bethlehem who have written or called to protest the cancellation of “Our World,” the men whose ears you want are: John B. Sias, ABC Network President, and/or Roone Arledge, news division president, 1330 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019.
