NY Anchor's Son avoids Jail Time

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WNYW news Anchor ­Rosanna Scotto’s son dodged a stint behind bars, taking a no-jail plea deal Wednesday in Manhattan court for allegedly swiping a Chanel purse at the Marquee club.

Louis Ruggiero, 21, copped to petit larceny for allegedly slipping the fancy pocketbook under his jacket and exiting the Meatpacking District hotspot March 7.

He has to complete an outpatient substance-abuse program at the Center for Living and stay out of trouble for six months, said Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Louis Nock.

Ruggiero will then be able to withdraw his guilty plea and cop to disorderly conduct as a violation, leaving him with no criminal record.

“It’s a fair resolution for both sides,” said his defense lawyer, Peter Frankel.

Cops arrested Ruggiero as he left the club after the frantic victim called 911 when she noticed that the handbag she tucked under a bench had gone missing.

Police allegedly found cocaine and a false ID on Ruggiero, who originally was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of a controlled substance and possession of a forged instrument.

Scotto is co-anchor of WNYW's “Good Day New York” with Greg Kelly. She is the daughter of Anthony Scotto, a former boss in the Gambino crime family.

H/T NY Post

Get Ready for the News Chopper Promos

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It's fall promo season, and some Boston tourist were a bit disturbed on Monday as CBS O&O WBZ was flying two choppers very low over Downtown and the waterfront for hours. 

One chopper without markings shadowed the WBZ chopper in a number of low altitude passes over the city.

Diners at outdoor restaurants had trouble carrying on a conversation with the choppers passing back and forth overhead. 

We're sure the footage is now sitting and editing and a new chopper promo will be hitting the air soon at WBZ. 

Stay tuned... 

These TV People are Moving on to Bigger and Better Gigs

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3 Kings Entertainment, LLC is pleased to announce the following job placements: 

MEGAN RYTE joins HOT 97/New York Middays M-F 10am-3pm from FOX O&O KRIV in Houston.

JASMINE SIMPKINS signed a test-option deal as a Contributor with FOX and PopSugar in Los Angeles.

TAHMAN BRADLEY moves back to his hometown in Chicago and joins WGN as a freelance Reporter from ABC News in Washington, DC.

BRANDON HAMILTON joins WFAA in Dallas as a Feature Reporter from reporter at KPNX in Phoenix.

TISHA LEWIS moves back to her hometown in Washington, DC and joins FOX O&O WTTG-TV as a Reporter/Anchor from WFLD-TV—Fox News Chicago. 

SULA KIM becomes an Anchor at KING-TV in Seattle from anchor/reporter at WDSU in New Orleans.

KAYLA AYRES joins FOX O&O WJZY-TV in Charlotte as the Weeknight 6 and 10pm Anchor from weekend anchor/reporter at KRQE-TV in Albuquerque.

KRISTEN KEOGH becomes the Weekend Weathercaster at KGTV in San Diego from reporter/anchor at FOX O&O KSAZ-TV in Phoenix.  

CHASE CAIN moves to co-anchor of “WISN 12 News This Morning“ in Milwaukee from weekend anchor at XETV in San Diego. 

ELISE MENAKER joins WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee as a Sports Anchor/Reporter from WAND-TV in Decatur.

EMILY VOLZ moves to WJAR in Providence as the 5:30 and 7pm Anchor from morning anchor at WGGB in Springfield, MA. 

COLLIN HARMON becomes the Sports Director at Hawaii News Now (HNN) in Honolulu from sports anchor/reporter at KVAL in Eugene.

DORIAN CRAFT joins WLEX-TV in Lexington as a Sports Anchor/Reporter from WHAG in Hagerstown.

Megan, Jasmine, Tahman, Brandon, Tisha, Sula, Kayla, Kristen, Chase, Elise, Emily, Collin and 

Dorian are all represented by Matthew Kingsley - President & CEO of 3 Kings Entertainment, LLC. 

P: (713) 248-1210 E: matthew@3kingsentertainment.net W: http://www.3kingsentertainment.net

Houston Station Hires Actor as New Sports Anchor

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Pablo Alsina has been in with some 20 national commercials and also appeared on ABC’s General Hospital.

Now, Alsina has a new TV role at KHOU in Houston. The station announced that Alsina will join the station in mid-August as their new Sports Anchor.  

“Pablo connects with people—the athletes he’s covering and the audiences watching him. He clearly loves that human connection just as much as he loves sports. He has fun—and it shows,” said KHOU 11 Executive News Director Philip Bruce. “Plus, he can’t wait to start covering all the big-time sports in Houston.”  

Alsina comes to Houston from Los Angeles, where he has worked as a bilingual anchor for Fox Deportes.

H/T Mike McGuff

 

Please Make It Stop

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From time to time, FTVLive has posted videos of news talent attempting to dance. Let's just say it, TV news people can't dance....at all.

If you need more proof, check out some of the talent at WCCB in Charlotte showing off their touchdown dance. I don't think Victor Cruz has anything to worry about.

Here's the video:

Karma is a Bitch

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TMZ and it's founder Harvey Levin about to have the tables turned on them.

Next week, The New Yorker will publish a tell-all story about the inner workings of TMZ.

Writer Nicholas Schmidlehas been working on the story over a year and Levin is scared to death about it.

TMZ debuted in 2005 and stands for “thirty-mile zone,” its 30-mile radius of coverage emanating from Hollywood (starting at West Beverly Blvd. and North La Cienega Blvd.). The site has broken infamous stories, such as the elevator dustup involving Solange Knowles, Beyoncéand Jay Z and the audio of former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist rant.

Levin, a former attorney whose site is often first with death and divorce documents, has deep roots in the L.A. legal community. TMZ stories often fuel speculation that he pays big money to keep the site’s traffic high. Now the tables are about to turn on Levin and his crew, with sources telling Hollywood Reporter that the reporting in the article is “aggressive,” and that Levin has warned staffers it probably won’t be a light read.

Levin has warned his staff not to speak to Schmidle.

Might be too late for that. 

H/T NY Daily News

Bounced Cleveland News Director Resurfaces in Chicago

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FTVLive FIRST told you back in January that WOIO had parted ways with News Director Dan Salamone.

Salamone, who had been at the station nearly 10 years has resurfaced in the Windy City. 

I a couple of weeks, Salamone will be the EP of WFLD's very low rated morning show. 

“Growing the ratings in this time period is a big challenge and very important to the company,” Salamone told friends on Facebook. “I’m ready to dig in and help the entire team produce newscasts that will have the Windy City talking!”

Robert Feder writes that “Good Day Chicago” has had a revolving door of executive producers in recent years. Jennifer Vander Sanden, who held the job until last May, until going into PR. 

Salamone won't be the only manager that worked in Cleveland.  WFLD Assistant News Director Jill Manuel competed against Salamone as news director at WEWS.

Weatherman Goes off on Complaining Viewers

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Viewers were not happy when WVEC (Hampton Roads) broke into programing to cover some severe weather in the area.

Which begs the question, with so many ways to get instant weather information now-a-days are these extended break into programing hits really needed anymore?

WVEC Weatherman Jeff Lawson thinks they are and he took to social media to scold viewers that complained about the interruptions.

Here's what he wrote:

 I should not have to write this but I want to talk about severe weather and our coverage of it. 

Our general policy is to stay on the air anytime there is a tornado warning for our viewing area until it expires. Because severe thunderstorms usually are not as deadly we generally cover commercial breaks for those. 

Tonight there were 2 different tornado warnings for Accomack County in Virginia. One was from 7:37 until a bit after 8 pm. The other was from 8:15 until 9 pm. For one I stayed on the air for much of the warning. For the other I only covered a couple of minutes of programming and was able to use commercials for updates. I was able to do that because one storm looked on radar like it was very possibly a tornado while the other looked like it probably was not a tornado after the first 5 minutes. 

Some of you were quite upset that I covered some of our normal programming and did not just do cut-ins over commercials. The most common complaint is "why don't you let us watch our show and just run the crawl. Let me tell you the reason that we don't do that unless we are certain that there is not a threat of a tornado. The 2nd most common complaint is that the severe weather is an hour (or more) away and not something we should worry about. The problem with that is that we have tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of viewers who only get Hampton Roads stations but live up to 2 hours away by car (Outer Banks, Eastern Shore etc). Their lives are just as important as our viewers here in the Metro areas. 

Also, MANY people cannot read because they have very poor eyesight (or are totally blind) that prevents them from reading a crawl. If one of those people were to hear a storm coming and turn on the tv to get a warning, what would happen if it was a person who could not read a crawl, and was relying on audio from a cut-in to get the warning to take cover? If a tornado was about to hit they could easily die all because it was decided that a tv show was more important than making 100% sure that anyone tuning in could find out about the severe weather whether or not they were hearing impaired or visually impaired. 

The bottom line is that we don't stay on the air because we "like to hear ourselves talk". We don't like to "show off" our technology. We stay on until we are convinced that the tornado threat is gone so that someone's life might be saved despite the inconvenience to others. Hopefully when the rest of the area is sunny and beautiful but there is a possible tornadic cell over just your neighborhood you will be happy that we have this policy. 

Thanks for listening.

Second Job in the Second City

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Once again, A reporter with little experience is making the leap to a big market.

Alex Maragos a Reporter and Anchor of the morning and noon newscasts at WLFI in West Lafayette, is leaving the station for Chicago.

Yes...the guy is going from market 187 to market 3 with just two years experience in a tiny market.

Maragos is headed to NBC O&O WMAQ as a Reporter.  

Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at WMAQ, announced that Maragos starts August 11 as a Reporter at the station. “We’re excited to bring Alex back to his home town,” Whittaker said in a statement. “His experience in Chicago and his passion for breaking news will be a great addition to our news team.”

Here is the reaction from everyone that is wasting away in a middle market station trying to move up:

Crossing the Street in Palm Springs

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After almost 20 years predicting the weather for KESQ (Palm Springs), Meteorologist Ginger Jeffries has left the station and is crossing the street to competitor KMIR.

Jeffries announced her new position as Chief Meteorologist at KMIR Tuesday.

"I am ecstatic to join the KMIR News team!" she said in a news release. "Their commitment to the community and responsible news coverage is something I admire. This is a professional goal come true for me!"

"We are honored that Ginger recognizes the commitment to local news and weather that KMIR News brings to the Coachella Valley," Gene Steinberg, Vice President and General Manager of KMIR, said in a news release. "We are thrilled Ginger is making the switch to KMIR News."

As for her old station, where she spent nearly two decades? KESQ General Manager Mike Stutz says, “We thank Ginger for her many years of service.”

20 years at the station and you get one line as you walk out the door. 

Jeffries will begin appearing on KMIR News in September.

Just Who is Changing Channels?

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The NWT Group would like to congratulate the following:

Ellina Abovian is moving to KTLA as a reporter in Los Angeles form KSWB in San Diego. 

Chris Jose moves to KXAS, the NBC O & O in Dallas, as a reporter from KDVR in Denver.

Mark Boyle has moved to his hometown of Denver as a reporter for KMGH from primary anchor/investigative reporter at KNOE in Monroe, Louisiana. 

Shawn Chitnis is heading to KCNC in Denver to be an MMJ from KREM in Spokane.

Rosa Flores enters into a new agreement at CNN as a correspondent. She will be based in the Chicago newsroom. Rosa will continue to cover breaking news as well as enterprise stories in Latin America. 

Jennifer Gray renews her contract at CNN as a meteorologist and correspondent. 

Kera Mashek  is moving to Tampa as a reporter at WFTS from weekend anchor/reporter at WCHS/WVAH In Charleston, WV.  

Stephen Fisher is heading to WPXI in Pittsburgh as a reporter from WHTM in Harrisburg, PA.

Nicole Phillips will be the newest member of the KSHB weather team. Nicole moves from WETN as the morning meteorologist in Elmira, NY.  

Rob Collins has renewed his contract as the weekend anchor at WDAF in Kansas City.

Emily Rittman signs a new agreement at KCTV as a reporter in her hometown of Kansas City.

Katherine Johnson signs a new agreement at KSTP in her hometown of Minneapolis. 

Ali Hoxie jumps up 45 markets to KSHB Kansas City as MMJ/Reporter from MMJ at WTOL in Toledo, Ohio. 

Andrew Capasso joins KOLD as their new morning anchor from anchor/reporter at WTLV Jacksonville, FL. 

Walter Smith-Randolph is moving to WWMT In Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, MI as a reporter from WEYI in Flint, MI. 

Shelby Croft has signed a new contract as an anchor/reporter at WBNS in Columbus, OH. 

Jenna Browder signs a new agreement at KNOE in Monroe, LA as main anchor.

All of these journalists are represented by The NWT Group, No Whining Talent. For more information, please visit our website: www.NoWhiningTalent.com or contact us at 817-987-3600.