Posts Tagged ‘Leisa Zigman’

With a drastic vacancy in office buildings and emptiness in the hallways of hotels, the Renaissance Grand Hotel has been no exception other than Saturday night when the local Emmys took place.  As for the hotel, let’s be reminded of Ogden Nash‘s line, “Progress was a good thing once but it went on too long.” There was no end of fascination during the presentations, although big names of news anchors, reporters, sports and weather on-air talent seem to be a thing of the past.  Cable penetration, pubic TV, production houses, universities and online video websites have forced the competition and its out-of-town judges to use the same measuring stick against free commercial network affiliates, due in part to the recession or just the need for a full house. Conspicuously on hand for the event were KSDK’s Mike Bush and Fox2′s Mandy Murphey, but MIA were Larry Conners, Vickie Newton, Dave Murray, Russell Kinsaul, Leisa Zigman, Cindy Preszler and a few news reporters. But there were teams of talent from Springfield, Mo.,, Kansas City and Little Rock.  Strange that the entire Channel 4 management and on-air team weren’t on hand, while the station’s promos tout, “We’re 4 St. Louis.”  Presenter Patrick Clark, trimmed and slim, came in from L.A., carrying his guitar to the stage. WIL Radio’s deejay Cornbread grabbed an Emmy for Best Commentary/Editorial on KSDK and quipped, “I thank KSDK  for giving a fat man a chance to express himself.” Shocker of the night: Channel 4′s David Souza, Jr., nabbed an Emmy, while he said of his missing female colleague, “I told her to keep her ass at home – there was no need to come.” Ted Koplar revealed that his World Events Productions will be back in 2011 with a global release of 26 new animated episodes of “Voltron” in partnership with Mattel Toys and a full-length theatrical movie of robotic action. Yesteryear chief of KPLR, Hal Protter, confided that he and CW Network in Burbank have parted ways.  Protter joined Koplar to back-pat Spencer Koch’s marketing exec Suzi Schrappen, who was inducted to the 2010 Emmy Silver Circle. Not to be outdone by Oprah’s gifting audiences with exotic trips and cars, Schrappen got guffaws for having servers pass out hundreds of Fox2/KPLR 11 branded cookies during her presentation.

Former KSDK, Channel 5 news reporter Jasmine Huda, whose contract, with a non-compete clause for six months, has joined KMOV, Channel 4, where she is serving as field producer. Her on-air chores begin on Aug. 1.  Good luck to another talented hometowner!  Meanwhile, KSDK has just renewed hottie Leisa Zigman‘s contract for another three years.  “I’m thrilled, that the station still wants this middle aged mom on TV,” said Zigman.  “My anchoring duties will increase and I’ll continue in my role as investigative reporter.”

Since KSDK’s savvy Leisa Zigman‘s opus on the Vianney Renewal Center for the treatment of priests, the St. Louis Archdiocese mouthpiece, Anne Steffens, has requested of the station’s news director Mike Shipley to send a different reporter in the future.  Steffens said she will no longer work with Zigman.  The uber professional Shipley declined Steffens’ request.

Tensions between the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Dept. and KSDK (Channel 5) eased a little Friday.  Station sources aver that the parent company forked over $3,000 to settle fines and penalties assessed on several vehicles.  Unpaid parking tickets had grounded some of the station’s vans and attracted the attention of the city’s boot crew.  Soreheads on both sides of the simmering dispute point to a story by newsie Leisa Zigman detailing overtime parking around Police HQ with setting off a flurry of ticketing to the station vehicles parked illegally.  Bosses at both the Police Dept. and Channel 5 have been mum about the situation. . . Catherine Werner, widow of former Post-Dispatch editor and former dean of the U of Nevada’s J School’s Cole Campbell, will join Mayor Francis Slay’s administration next month as an advisor on sustainability issues… Five and three.  Those are the numbers of new charter school proposals that Slay has accepted and rejected since asking for proposals for “best practices” charter schools from around the country. That was a factoid offered up by hizzoner at a State of the City meeting last week in WashU’s Fall Assembly Speaker’s Series. . .The campaign to make emergency radio communications in St. Louis county more reliable has received an infusion of cash from a predictable donor.  The Missouri Ethics Commission reports that Motorola Corp. a maker of two-way radios, has sent a last-minute contribution of $15,000 to Citizens in Support of E-911. Crepes in the City and Espresso Mod, two downtown stores popular with the sometimes fickle tight jeans crowd, have shuttered in the last week or so.  The Crepes folks blamed slow weekday business; the coffee people cited competition from the immensely popular Culinaria.  Meanwhile, rumors continue to swirl that south St. Louis landmark Chris’s Pancake and Dining is scouting for a downtown satellite location, most likely near Police HQ. (insert joke here!)… And St. Louis author and N.Y. Times best-seller) Laurell K. Hamilton is a very busy woman. Her latest, “Divine Misdemeanors” (8th in her Merry Gentry series), is due to hit the bookstalls in early December, and she has promised publishers (and, according to her fan blog, is toiling away on ) two new books (18th and 19th in her Anita Blake series) next year.

Zigman

An “investigative report” earlier this summer by KSDK (Channel 5)’s sassy Leisa Zigman spotlighted the illegal (and routine) parking practices of officers and other public employees around the St. Louis police department headquarters on Clark Street. The report drew howls of protest from some viewers – and, claimed the reporter, retaliatory tickets to Channel 5′s vehicles illegally (and routinely) parked outside the station’s own downtown studio. Channel 5 execs, say some insiders there, simply ignored the tickets. And that’s created a new sort of news crisis: the state of Missouri will not renew the registrations of the apparently scofflaw vehicles.