Jessica Savitch

"Encountering the lethal competition and relentless pressure of NBC's Washington bureau at the relatively tender age of 30 (she consistently represented herself as a year younger on all publicity releases) would have been hard on even the most mature and well balanced of broadcasters, and Savitch was neither . . . Newsroom regulars traded tales of her temper tantrums, her high-hat demands, her reportorial fumbles, and her alleged affairs with various news division VIPs. Nonetheless, even her most bitter critics had to acknowledge that she had a red-light reflex to die for; when the scarlet light went on over a studio camera, signaling that she was on the air, Savitch summoned up every ounce of her 100-pound frame and projected herself straight through the television set into the viewer's living room . . . In, 1983, Savitch was no longer young, nor was she a rising star.

Ed Bradley acknowledged yesterday that he did have a "romantic relationship" with Jessica Savitch in the early 1970s. The "60 Minutes" correspondent said he could not come to the phone to speak personally, but passed word through his assistant, Bonnie Bellamy, that he had an affair with Savitch when he was a radio reporter for WCBS in New York and she was an administrative assistant for CBS. Again through Bellamy, Bradley said he continued a...

Robert C. Buchanan, 67, a former stage manager for KYW-TV who worked with network television personalities, died yesterday at his home in the Torresdale section. During his 37-year career, Mr. Buchanan coordinated camera locations and props for entertainers whose shows originated from the Channel 3 studios. He worked with Ernie Kovacs, Mike Douglas, Tom Snyder, Maury Povich and Jessica Savitch, among others. His job with KYW, in fact, was the only position he held after graduating from Temple University in 1951.

Lori Savitch just wants to do a story - a whole bunch of different stories, really - in her hometown. "I love it. I love the idea of being a general assignment reporter in the place I grew up," said Savitch, who starts her job on Channel 29's (WTAF) "Ten O'Clock News" Feb. 29. "Something new every day. And I will be back near the family I love. " That family she loves, of course, is also the family of the late newswoman Jessica Savitch, Lori's older sister, who died in 1983 when a car in which she was riding fell plunged into the canal next to a New Hope restaurant's parking lot. But at least in the local TV news world, where gossip flows like the Mississippi during spring flood time, there is little bustle over the arrival of "Jessica's sister" in town.

The world of show biz - and that would include the news according to network television - is famous for eating its young, old, middle-aged and even innocent bystanders. Among the young was Jessica Savitch, among the innocent was Cheryl Crane, and two new paperbacks, one about Savitch and one by Crane, are mesmerizing page-turners in the best sense: You are haunted and intrigued by their lives and, by extension, by the possibilities of life. Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch by Alanna Nash (Signet, $4.95)

Bill Kuster, 76, the folksy Channel 3 weatherman who was known for his vegetable garden in a planter in front of the station and characters he designed for viewers to know how to dress that day, died of leukemia Saturday in a Denver hospice. He lived in Littleton, Colo., after leaving Philadelphia in 1978. "In the mid-1970s, we were known in the industry as the Dream Team or Camelot," Al Melzer, former Channel 3 sports director, said yesterday. "It was Jessica Savitch, Vince Leonard, Mort Crim, Bill and me. " Recalled Leonard, a former news anchor: "Bill's jokes were really corny.

Jessica Savitch may have appeared to have been a woman who had everything, but a forthcoming biography of the late KYW-TV and NBC-TV anchor says her TV image masked a tragic life. In Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, due early this summer, Kentucky journalist Alanna Nash says Savitch was plagued by drug problems (cocaine) and a miserable love life (her first marriage ended in divorce after 10 months, and her second husband became ill and hanged himself five months into the marriage)

It used to be about Jessica Savitch. Now, it's unclear who it's about or whether Michelle Pfeiffer or Robin Wright will star. What is certain is that the city's next major Hollywood production will be Up Close and Personal, which will star Robert Redford and, come spring, will begin shooting in Philadelphia, in the late NBC anchor's home town. The publicist for Redford and Pfeiffer confirmed yesterday that her clients were on board for Up Close, to be directed by Jon Avnet for Disney's Touchstone division.

The late Jessica Savitch's two biographers titled their books Almost Golden and Golden Girl. But Hollywood clearly decided there was no gold mine in the painful and depressing facts of the network star's meteoric rise and tragic fall. Up Close and Personal, with Michelle Pfeiffer playing a driven and ferociously ambitious reporter, contains some echoes of Savitch's singular and ill-fated career. But mainly it plays as an unwieldy marriage of a straightfaced Broadcast News and A Star Is Born with a dash of Pygmalion.

Harold J. "Penny" Pannepacker, 73, of Oreland, an advertising salesman at Channel 3 whose TV career parallels the history of the medium, died Wednesday at Presbyterian Hospital of a collapsed artery. "He was a big, boisterous person with a laugh you could hear from one end of the floor to the other," said Allen Murphy, director of KYW Enterprises. "He knew everyone in the world of advertising. " "He was friendly and special to an awful lot of people," said his son, Steven.

AT FIRST glance, Alycia Lane and Barack Obama might seem to have have little in common. The former CBS 3 anchorwoman is white, female, single and out of a job. The Illinois senator is black, male, happily hitched and not about to visit the unemployment line anytime soon. They are about as different as the positions of Mitt Romney and . . . Mitt Romney. But there's one vital thread that binds: The rock-star aspect of their public success. Now before the Obama supporters start declaring jihad on my little piece of journalistic real estate, I'm not implying that the Iowa caucus winner (and New Hampshire runner-up)

Bill Kuster, 76, the folksy Channel 3 weatherman who was known for his vegetable garden in a planter in front of the station and characters he designed for viewers to know how to dress that day, died of leukemia Saturday in a Denver hospice. He lived in Littleton, Colo., after leaving Philadelphia in 1978. "In the mid-1970s, we were known in the industry as the Dream Team or Camelot," Al Melzer, former Channel 3 sports director, said yesterday. "It was Jessica Savitch, Vince Leonard, Mort Crim, Bill and me. " Recalled Leonard, a former news anchor: "Bill's jokes were really corny.

Man the battle stations - this one promises to be epic. KYW-TV's Eyewitness News has declared war on its competition. No, not the competition with similar ratings, such as the cartoons on UHF, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, or Judge Judy, but the other local news operations. Eyewitness News has been mired in the ratings basement since the New Jersey Turnpike was a pasture. The last time Eyewitness News (Channel 3) consistently competed for the top spot with WPVI-TV's Action News (Channel 6)

Ron Tindiglia, a broadcast executive in Philadelphia and New York for three decades, died Monday of cancer. He was 51 and lived in Harrison, N.Y. Tindiglia, who carved a career of excellence in an industry where the product dissipates in moments and reputations may last little longer, left a legacy in the legions of broadcasters he mentored and helped from Philly newsrooms to New York executive suites. Among them was Dave Neal, an assignment editor at WCAU-TV (Channel 10), who in 1975 was assistant news director at KYW-TV (Channel 3)

Former Philadelphia news anchor Mort Crim isn't afraid to bite the hand that feeds him. Crim, 62, spent five years at KYW-TV, from 1972 to 1977, most memorably sharing anchor duties with Jessica Savitch, before Savitch went national and Crim moved on to become a senior editor and anchor at WDIV in Detroit. He retired from on-air life in Detroit in May. Now Crim has gone back to his first career and first love: radio. He hosts a daily series of inspirational and upbeat musings, Second Thoughts (heard locally on WDAS-AM)

Whatever happened to women in TV news? There is no female co-anchor on the 11 p.m. news at either Channel 3 or Channel 6. There is no local anchorwoman or reporter who is, well . . . the talk of the town the way the late local legend Jessica Savitch was back in the '70s. The local anchorwoman situation today is enough to make a grown feminist cry, in the opinion of Patricia Bradley, associate professor of communications at Temple University and a former broadcaster. If a Jessica Savitch clone showed up today, she might not even be hired, says Bradley: "She'd probably be considered too intense.

The late Jessica Savitch's two biographers titled their books Almost Golden and Golden Girl. But Hollywood clearly decided there was no gold mine in the painful and depressing facts of the network star's meteoric rise and tragic fall. Up Close and Personal, with Michelle Pfeiffer playing a driven and ferociously ambitious reporter, contains some echoes of Savitch's singular and ill-fated career. But mainly it plays as an unwieldy marriage of a straightfaced Broadcast News and A Star Is Born with a dash of Pygmalion.

Harold J. "Penny" Pannepacker, 73, of Oreland, an advertising salesman at Channel 3 whose TV career parallels the history of the medium, died Wednesday at Presbyterian Hospital of a collapsed artery. "He was a big, boisterous person with a laugh you could hear from one end of the floor to the other," said Allen Murphy, director of KYW Enterprises. "He knew everyone in the world of advertising. " "He was friendly and special to an awful lot of people," said his son, Steven.

Harold J. "Penny" Pannepacker, who helped shepherd Philadelphia TV from the nymph stage to the digital age, died Wednesday. He was 73 and lived in Oreland, Montgomery County. When he started in the business, only 500 Philadelphia households had television sets. As his era closes, 2.7 million households have televisions. Penny started in 1946 - the 13th person hired to work at Channel 3 - and worked there almost as long as commercial television has been around. Back then, the station was owned by Philco and was called WPTZ.

It used to be about Jessica Savitch. Now, it's unclear who it's about or whether Michelle Pfeiffer or Robin Wright will star. What is certain is that the city's next major Hollywood production will be Up Close and Personal, which will star Robert Redford and, come spring, will begin shooting in Philadelphia, in the late NBC anchor's home town. The publicist for Redford and Pfeiffer confirmed yesterday that her clients were on board for Up Close, to be directed by Jon Avnet for Disney's Touchstone division.