Dr. Neil Frank is retiring from KHOU

[snoman]

Matt Lavine has some of the details on his blog...

http://blog.whereismatt.tv/

 

[hrhwebmaster]

There's a 30 minute salute tonight at 7:30, following a Hurricane special.

Here's a link to stories and clips: http://www.khou.com/doc/

I have a link to his farewell announcement on Monday somewhere, will try to find it an post it.

 

[Slambang]

Another one of the greats is leaving the airwaves. We lost our "Dr. Neil" (Troy Dungan-WFAA) around this time last year as well. Is it just me or is Belo pushing out all the good talent and replacing them with sub-standard product??

 

[jd]

Uh, maybe they're just tired. Troy and Neil, I mean. And sub-standard? I disagree when it comes to Delkus, who I hate to admit has grown on me. At this point he's just what Belo needed...reasonably credible and someone who can spar with Hansen.

 

[genius]

Sad to hear about Neil Frank. Though I have never worked in Houston or met him, I remember reading about him at least fifteen years ago now in an interview with Jack Williams in USA Today and I thought "We need a good weatherman like that!"

 

[snoman]

Another one of the greats is leaving the airwaves. We lost our "Dr. Neil" (Troy Dungan-WFAA) around this time last year as well. Is it just me or is Belo pushing out all the good talent and replacing them with sub-standard product??

The odd thing, Slambang, is that Belo takes better care of KHOU, than they do their flagship WFAA. They guy who is replacing Dr. Neil is Gene Norman, who was with another station here for quite awhile, left the market and came back. Unlike WFAA, whose ratings have swan-dived since Tracy Rowlett left, Chip Moody died (God rest his soul), amongst others, KHOU has had people come and go, but they have replaced them with some decent talent. Steve Smith retired, but they replaced him with a better anchor (in my opinion in Greg Hurst), Marlene McClinton left and they replaced her with Lisa Foronda (a big step up). She also left the station, but they hired a good replacement in Lucy Noland. Sylvan Rodriguez, like Chip Moody, lost a cancer battle, and Jerome Gray assumed his duties. Gray recently bolted for KPRC, but he was replaced by Len Cannon, who has done a decent job.

Now behind the scenes, it is just like WFAA, a lot of unhappy people. Just like the big Belo campus in Dallas, there is no shortage of people getting screwed. It's just the people running KHOU, seem to be making better decisions than their Dallas friends and counterparts. Is Kathy Clements-Hill still in charge of the store up there?

 

[KTN Corp]

The odd thing, Slambang, is that Belo takes better care of KHOU, than they do their flagship WFAA. They guy who is replacing Dr. Neil is Gene Norman, who was with another station here for quite awhile, left the market and came back.

Belo would actually sell its flagship to ABC over giving KHOU to CBS in order to complete the first all-network O&O competition between Dallas and Houston? Right

I don't remember Gene from KTRK before he left for WGCL (from what I read that station really sucks and probably was lucky to have a way out probably thanks to some old buddies in the old city. But isn't a step down to go from market #8 to market #10?) but then I was watching KHOU news exclusively at the time. I'm glad he's back in Houston though. I can't wait until the drama about Doc's retirement is finally over. It should have happened one or two months ago!

 

[BreakingNews08]

Another one of the greats is leaving the airwaves. We lost our "Dr. Neil" (Troy Dungan-WFAA) around this time last year as well. Is it just me or is Belo pushing out all the good talent and replacing them with sub-standard product??

The odd thing, Slambang, is that Belo takes better care of KHOU, than they do their flagship WFAA. They guy who is replacing Dr. Neil is Gene Norman, who was with another station here for quite awhile, left the market and came back. Unlike WFAA, whose ratings have swan-dived since Tracy Rowlett left, Chip Moody died (God rest his soul), amongst others, KHOU has had people come and go, but they have replaced them with some decent talent. Steve Smith retired, but they replaced him with a better anchor (in my opinion in Greg Hurst), Marlene McClinton left and they replaced her with Lisa Foronda (a big step up). She also left the station, but they hired a good replacement in Lucy Noland. Sylvan Rodriguez, like Chip Moody, lost a cancer battle, and Jerome Gray assumed his duties. Gray recently bolted for KPRC, but he was replaced by Len Cannon, who has done a decent job.

Now behind the scenes, it is just like WFAA, a lot of unhappy people. Just like the big Belo campus in Dallas, there is no shortage of people getting screwed. It's just the people running KHOU, seem to be making better decisions than their Dallas friends and counterparts. Is Kathy Clements-Hill still in charge of the store up there?

Snoman...WFAA is #1 in DFW. They are tied with FOX 4 in the mornings now for the #1 spot. I don't think too many people are unhappy.

 

[KERCAlum]

You can be unhappy and still do quality work.

That's called "integrity." I still believe, even after all the hoopla and drama that is WFAA, that the folks at Channel 8 still have it.

 

[Rick Rose 2.0]

I think that leaving a horribly rated newscast on the CBS affiliate in market 8 to a competitive cbs affiliate in market is an upgrade. Gene has been replaced by some weather girl in Atlanta and that is sad in 2008.

 

[snoman]

Another one of the greats is leaving the airwaves. We lost our "Dr. Neil" (Troy Dungan-WFAA) around this time last year as well. Is it just me or is Belo pushing out all the good talent and replacing them with sub-standard product??

The odd thing, Slambang, is that Belo takes better care of KHOU, than they do their flagship WFAA. They guy who is replacing Dr. Neil is Gene Norman, who was with another station here for quite awhile, left the market and came back. Unlike WFAA, whose ratings have swan-dived since Tracy Rowlett left, Chip Moody died (God rest his soul), amongst others, KHOU has had people come and go, but they have replaced them with some decent talent. Steve Smith retired, but they replaced him with a better anchor (in my opinion in Greg Hurst), Marlene McClinton left and they replaced her with Lisa Foronda (a big step up). She also left the station, but they hired a good replacement in Lucy Noland. Sylvan Rodriguez, like Chip Moody, lost a cancer battle, and Jerome Gray assumed his duties. Gray recently bolted for KPRC, but he was replaced by Len Cannon, who has done a decent job.

Now behind the scenes, it is just like WFAA, a lot of unhappy people. Just like the big Belo campus in Dallas, there is no shortage of people getting screwed. It's just the people running KHOU, seem to be making better decisions than their Dallas friends and counterparts. Is Kathy Clements-Hill still in charge of the store up there?

Snoman...WFAA is #1 in DFW. They are tied with FOX 4 in the mornings now for the #1 spot. I don't think too many people are unhappy.

Hmm, things must have gotten better over the last year or so. I have friends at both KDFW and KTVT (one who had bolted from WFAA) that said both KXAS and KTVT were beating WFAA in most dayparts, but especially the 6pm and 10pm. I had several friends who worked for the now defunct TXCN, and they said morale at the Belo Campus was very low, especially at WFAA and the Morning News, who lost many staffers to the Star Telegram. I'll take your word for it. I haven't talked to my friends in quite some time. If WFAA is back on top, then I am glad, because when I got into TV, that's where I wanted to work. They were far and away better than everyone else, and you could see it in their product. The last few times I have been to the DFW area, and watched, it has been a train wreck of technical problems (some of them have wound up on You Tube). You rarely see that here at KHOU.