A High State of PISSIVITY

That’s what I’m hearing is the condition of a few folks down on the river these days after the announcement earlier this week that former WHBQ anchor Claudia Barr will be filling in on the anchor desk starting next Monday.

While the lovely Ms. Barr brings her well-known name to the river (as did Jim Jaggers when he came over) this could be a stumbling block for those who aspire to that anchor chair vacated recently by Pam McKelvy.

As I’ve mentioned on previous postings, it’s a tough call on whether to promote current station personnel from posts where they are doing well and risk disrupting their current shows. These people who are interested in the job may find they are victims of their own success. Look at Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer. Chuck wanted the nightspot and some said he should have had it. But they’ve been giving the Today show a good run and management doesn’t want to fix what’s not broken.

Bringing in someone from the outside on an interim basis almost always gives that person the inside track on the fulltime job.

Of course all of this is happening with the station manager running the newsroom and the news director scheduled to arrive around January 30^th.

I’m told some folks are looking at this move as recycling. Hey, I’ve always contended there are only about 300 people in the business and every few years, there’s a huge job swap. It looks like we're in that cycle. Now, where did I put my IFB and my make-up kit.......