Media Watch
by John Schuster
KVOA MAKES ADJUSTMENTS
KVOA Channel 4's new general manager, Bill Shaw, recently promoted Kathleen Choal from news director to station manager.
Cathie Batbie has been named Content Management Center director, a position that will handle day-to-day newsroom operations. Batbie has worked at KVOA for 10 years, and most recently acted as assistant news director.
Michael Hornfeck is KVOA's new local sales manager, after working at the station for five years.
"KVOA-TV is poised for strong growth in the dynamic environment of local news, sales and programming in Southern Arizona," said Shaw in a station memo. "This new management structure is fully committed to the needs of our viewers and advertisers now and in the future."
Shaw replaced Gary Nielsen, who retired in November.
HANSEN RELEASES SPORTS RETROSPECTIVE
Arizona Daily Star sports columnist Greg Hansen has compiled Hustling to Beat the Deadline, a compilation of columns he has written for the newspaper since his arrival in Tucson in 1983.
Hansen credits sports editor Shannon Conner and son Tyler Hansen for helping to complete the project, which spans more than 200 columns. The book is broken into theme-related chapters.
Much of Hustling focuses on UA related topics—including Lute Olson and football coaches Larry Smith and Dick Tomey—but it's the columns on sports that aren't convoluted with big-business interests that he views as personal highlights.
"Covering high school games, state tournament games, getting to know people and observing at the time," Hansen cites as highlights. "When Sunnyside won its first (football) state championship about 10 years ago, with two minutes to go, it looked like Sunnyside was going to lose. (Head coach) Richard Sanchez's son was in tears, bawling on the sideline, because he had just fumbled. And then Sunnyside came up with the turnover and won the game in the last minute. Those are the things I cherish the most, probably more than the UA stuff. You get to know people who aren't necessarily celebrities."
And sometimes you get to see the creation of celebrities.
"The day Kerri Strug won the gold medal with the flip on her injured ankle," recalled Hansen about his experience at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, "suddenly, the girl from the town I'm from becomes the biggest story in the whole Olympics, while I'm sitting there 25 feet away. That stays with you forever. I think I wrote a column about her every day for 10 straight days. She was such news."
Hustling to Beat the Deadline is available at Tucson.com/store.
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
Facebook Recommendations
© 2013 Tucson Weekly | 3280 E. Hemisphere Loop, Suite 180, Tucson AZ 85706 | P.O. Box 27087, Tucson AZ 85726-7087 | (520) 294-1200 | Powered by Foundation
