Channel 10's new weather chief makes sexy splash leaving Chicago

TV stations in big markets are notorious for using sexy female talent to deliver weather forecasts in the morning.

Still, images of Chicago forecaster Tammie Souza's last day at Fox's WFLD -- she's coming to Tampa to serve as chief meteorologist at WTSP-Ch. 10 -- show she may have amped up her sex appeal a bit for her final day on the morning shift in the Windy City.

The images come courtesy of a site called TV Anchor Babes, which said they were taken from Souza's last day on air last week in Chicago.

Which, if true, raises another joking question: What kind of forecasts will we be getting when she arrives here in the Tampa Bay area? When WTSP announced her hiring a few weeks ago, I theorized they were targeting female viewers, but perhaps male fans will come along, too (rim shot).

We'll find out Oct. 27, when she comes to WTSP.

To check out a more conventional sample of her forecasting work, check out the video below:

St. Pete's Vinoy Resort appears on Sci Fi Channel's Ghost Hunters series Wednesday

At first, it wasn’t something they really wanted to acknowledge.

After all, pop culture is littered with stories about haunted houses or hotels, and few read like tourist brochures: The Shining. The Haunting. The Amityville Horror.

Then officials at St. Petersburg’s Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club heard about how an appearance on the Sci Fi Channel’s Ghost Hunters exploded the business of a bed and breakfast where they filmed. And calls from the producers to film on the premises got a much different reception.

"(That hotel was) inundated with people who wanted to come and be a part of this thing," said Dennis Lesko, director of sales and marketing for the luxury hotel. "It’s a market niche you would never think of exploring, but it’s literally found business — people who follow ghost sightings and may want to stay in a place that has ghosts. In a dawn economy, you need to build business any way you can."

The Vinoy opened its doors to Ghost Hunters back in July, reserving the hotel’s entire fifth floor for the 10-day production (actual filming only took about four days, Lesko said). The episode airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday night on the Sci Fi Channel, called "Ghosts of the Sunshine State." The public is invited to watch the episode at the hotel, at 501 Fifth Ave. NE, St. Petersburg.

Hosts Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson — plumbers by trade, believe it or not — head the Atlantic Paranormal Society, a group that investigates tales of paranormal sightings to separate the spiritual from the superficial.

Producers were drawn to the Vinoy by a host of stories from staffers and visitors claiming to sense an otherworldly presence in the halls — from a misty woman in white touted by local ghost tours to a man dressed in clothes from the hotel’s 1920s-era founding, described by visiting major league baseball players.

An entire chapter of the book Haunted Baseball details the ghost stories from players staying at the Vinoy, which houses the visiting teams playing the Tampa Bay Rays. Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Scott Williamson famously told of encountering a ghost at the Vinoy in 2003, along with members of the Pittsburgh Pirates and former Toronto Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore. Click here to read.

Water faucets turning on by themselves. Doors opening and closing mysteriously. Lights in the rooms flickering with no apparent cause (though some of us living in the Tampa Bay area know that can happen anywhere). All these pranks and more are supposedly the results of mischievous spirits floating through the corridors of the Vinoy.

Still, Lesko’s quick to point out these are not the make-you-want-to-kill-your-family ghosts from classic horror tales such as The Shining. "There are no negative vibes here," he said, tongue planted firmly in cheek. "The people who embrace this are fun and they embrace the fun nature of ghost sightings."

Vinoy staff can’t say what the ghost hunters found, for fear of busting the episode’s suspense (here’s a hint: an episode would be really boring if they didn’t find something weird).

But the hotel has concocted a special "ghost-tini" drink, offers a special "Ghostly Getaway" package for Halloween and may put a book at the front desk where people can document their ghostly experiences.

And as the Rays proceed through the baseball playoffs, perhaps more opposing players will find themselves housed on the fifth floor.

"We have 360 rooms, so anyone who needs to move, can be moved," Lesko said, laughing. "But it might help to put the opposing teams in there."

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Jennifer Howe let go as weekend anchor at WTSP-Ch. 10

Jennifer Howe was just a few hours into her shift Sunday, preparing to anchor WTSP-Ch. 10's 5 p.m. Webcast, when the news director asked her to come to his office.

Before long, Howe's concern about seeing the station's top news manager in the building on a weekend were realized: She was informed the station was exercising its option to end her contact early, terminating her employment then.

Howe says she was told to turn in the employee ID and work-related materials and asked to leave the building. Anchor Heather Van Nest anchored WTSP's late night newscast; Howe says she was never told why the station chose to let her go.

"(News director Darren Richards) said they chose to do it on a Sunday because there were fewer people around," said Howe, 42, who worked at WTSP for more than 12 years.

WTSP general manager Sam Rosenwasser said he could not comment on the specifics of Howe's termination and wasn't sure who would replace her in the long term. Peter Nikiel, WTSP's director of marketing and promotion, said such transitions sometimes happen in the TV news industry.

In the past few weeks, WTSP has let go weather forecasters Anna Allen and Randy Rauch and traffic reporter Meredyth Censullo. But Nikiel said the trickle of departures hasn't affected morale at the station.

"It's TV -- people come and go for a lot of different reasons," said Nikiel, who could not say who would replace Howe on the station's weekend newscasts in the short or long term. "We will continue on, like we always have."

Howe came to WTSP in as a morning anchor in 1996, moving to the weekends in 1997. She was married to former WTSP anchor Pat Minarcin, who won nearly $300,000 in 2002 after filing an age discrimination lawsuit against the station. He was replaced by current evening anchor Reginald Roundtree in 1998.

But Howe said her departure likely had nothing to do with that lawsuit. Her marriage to Minarcin ended in 2006; they have a daughter, 7-year-old McKenna Katrina Minarcin.

A native of St. Petersburg, Howe hopes to develop work voicing commercials and stay in the Tampa Bay area. "A lot of media outlets are suffering economic difficulties and having to make tough decisions," said Howe. "I just wished I'd had a chance to say goodbye last night."

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Creative Loafing files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Creative Loafing, the Tampa-based company that owns alternative newspapers across the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning, according to public documents.

The filings list Creative Loafing Inc. and its papers in Tampa, Sarasota, Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Chicago, along with its stake in a newspaper in Birmingham, Ala.

Last year, the company announced a high-profile deal to purchase the Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader. One open question: Did the financial strain of closing the deal push the company into bankruptcy?

Despite a story on the Washington City Paper Web site quoting Creative Loafing Inc. president Ben Eason saying "this filing has little to do with the acquisition," documents included with the bankruptcy filing indicate the company had trouble keeping up with payments on a $40-million debt, including a loan taken last year to pay down $15-million in debts and to purchase the two newspapers.

Company president Ben Eason assured journalists and employees the filing was intended to buy time for completion of its national online advertising network using the Web sites of publications such as Creative Loafing in Tampa, the City Paper and the Reader.

“I’m filing (bankruptcy) because the economy sucks,” said Eason. “The question is, how do we emerge from bankruptcy with a fresh start and everybody getting their debts settled? We believe the answer is in finishing off our digital strategy.”

According to documents included with the bankruptcy filing, Creative Loafing missed an interest payment of $282,219 on Dec. 24, a $10,000 servicing fee on Dec. 31 and an interest payment of $294,369 due Jan. 24.

Also according to the documents, as the media economy grew worse, Creative Loafing negotiated agreements to modify the financing terms with Atalaya Funding in New York and BIA Digital Partners. But last week, Atalaya said the company was in default, though Creative Loafing disagrees, according to the court document.

Creative Loafing has asked the court to prevent Atalaya or Atalaya and BIA from taking control of the company, allowing Eason to focus on reorganizing to better meet its debt obligations and develop the online revenue sources prompting the Reader and City Paper purchases.

“The mood is hopeful here, more than it is doomsday,” said Creative Loafing Tampa editor David Warner, who expects now to focus more on generating material for the paper’s Web site. “There’s a lot of cautious optimism, is the best way to characterize it.”

According to the documents, Creative Loafing describes itself as the second-largest group of alternative publications in the United States, with 2-million unique visitors to its Web sites each month and 1-million print readers each week for six newspapers targeted to consumers aged 18 to 39.      

“If the economy was the same now as it was when we put the deal together, we would have hit all our financial objectives and we’d be Wall Street’s darling,” Eason said. I’d be dealing with the same economic issues if I did or did not buy these papers.”

But given the turbulence in the nation’s credit and financial markets, can Eason be sure completing the company’s online plan will bring the revenue it needs?

“We think so…this is an opportunity for a fresh start,” Eason said. “I don’t look at this as a failure or a (a sign) we haven’t been prudent or haven’t been smart.”   

Tampa's Tina Hunter Greene survives Week 1 on CBS's Amazing Race

When we met in Tampa, businesswoman Tina Hunter Greene came off as energetic and personable -- though her eye for detail was revealed when she noticed a dying plant in her office boardroom during our photo shoot.

But another side of Greene was shown during tonight's debut episode of the 13th cycle of CBS's hit unscripted global competition, The Amazing Race.

During an hourlong episode documenting her and once-estranged husband Ken Greene competing against 10 other two-person teams to travel from Los Angeles to a pit stop in Salvador, Brazil, Tina Greene was revealed as a hard-nosed competitor with a bit of a barbed tongue.

Her husband Ken may have been a former pro football player and college football coach, but it was Tina Greene who was shown barking orders for much of the episode, pushing Ken to use any language skills he might have to communicate with the local cab drivers, and egging him into driving past competing teams in the initial race to drive to Los Angeles International Airport from the race's starting point in the city.

But tonight's episode showed her mostly pushing Ken to move faster -- with hints during the preview for next week's episode that their alliance with another team may cause some friction with their fellow racers.

"Sometimes I may come off like the Wicked Witch of the West, sometimes I may come off like Mother Teresa," Tina Greene told me last week, noting that she gave away some of her clothing to people she met during the race.

I wrote a feature on Tina Greene for today's Floridian, documenting her idea of competing in the race as a way of determining once and for all whether she will stay married to Ken -- who admitted during the show that he cheated on Tina in the past, fracturing their marriage.

Ken was expected to be in Tampa today for a private viewing party the couple arranged at the Westshore Yacht club tonight. In this week's episode, Ken and Tina are shown placing second in the scramble to reach the first pit stop, leading viewers to believe they might be around for some time to come.   

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Judge keeps Lifetime from taking Project Runway from Bravo

Once upon a time, Lifetime's move to snatch the hit reality show Project Runway from Bravo looked like a bold move. But it looks like a judge may have squashed it all by granting an injunction to keep the show off its new home until the lawsuit over the move was resolved.

Here's Bravo owner NBC-Universal's triumphant release:

"NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against The Weinstein Company. The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that The Weinstein Company violated NBC Universal's right of first refusal to future cycles of Project Runway. After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting The Weinstein Company from taking the show or any spin-off to Lifetime."

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Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer: 'We're at the main event'

Initially, I prepared this story as a preview in the St. Petersburg Times for tonight's presidential debate -- based on an interview I'd done with moderator Jim Lehrer back in August -- before John McCain kept everybody guessing until the last moment over whether he would actually participate.

Now that we know McCain is showing up in Mississippi, here's a look at the American journalist who may be best suited to handle this clash of the electoral titans: PBS anchor Lehrer.

Well known for his old school journalism values and determination to keep the focus away from himself during debates, Lehrer, 74, will take the stage just months after recovering from heart valve surgery in April.

Here are some quotes about the debate culled from an interview with Lehrer in August:

“My bottom line has always been that after one of these debates -- and this will be my 11th debate -- if people are talking about me or some question I have asked, then I have failed. This is not about the moderator -- it never has been. It’s about the people who are running for president of the United States. It’s not about the question, how cute they are or how tough they are -- their only purpose is to draw out the candidates about what they think and what they believe they will do, end of statement, there’s nothing more to it than that. It sure as hell is not about me -- and it never will be.”
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“You gotta remember what’s going on here. This is the final act. This other stuff has been the preliminaries. Now, we’re at the main event, we have the two people there, one of whom is going to be the president of the United States, and a lot of people haven’t paid attention to any of this stuff. Polls have shown in the past, 30, 40 percent of the people are still not sure who they’re going to vote for. Some people want the debate to confirm their opinions, other people are undecided . . . it’s a new stage, with a new curtain going up and a whole new audience. Everybody will be there for that. What happened before, is not anywhere near the same frame of reference.”
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“I’m very old-fashioned. I believe each type of journalist should do his or her own type of journalism. There’s straight reporting, there’s analysis and there’s opinion and those three should not be done by the same people. And I think if they blur the lines too much they’re going to lose some credibility when they really need it. They’re going to need it when there’s a breaking news event and there are some struggling facts. And when somebody who is giving you the facts that are struggling to be understood also has been giving you their opinion, well . . . I just think the route toward credibility and retaining credibility is to keep those separations there.”
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“Nobody is sick of hearing about the next president of the United States. And if you think of them, in this case, you’ve got John McCain or Barack Obama -- one of them is going to be the next President. And the American public cares deeply who that person is going to be. Because their home mortgage, their jobs, whether their kids or themselves is going to be sent into harm’s way, is riding on who that person is going to be. The fact that somebody (in some poll) says ‘Oh I’m tired of hearing about fill-in-the-blank’ -- that’s ridiculous. There’s no evidence that I’m aware of that people are tired of this at all. They may be tired of hearing trivial matters about these people. But they want to hear everything that matters about them -- what they want to do about energy, what they want to do about Iraq -- If they’re on a substantial subject, they’re engaged.”

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Ads in Florida black-owned newspapers criticize the state Democratic Party

Look at a copy of the black-focused Capital Outlook or Florida Courier newspapers this week, and you'll see ads accusing the Democratic Party of failing to mobilize black voters for this year's presidential election.

"Will Republicans steal the presidency again while Democrats stand around and watch?" asks one ad, part of a protest by a coalition of black-owned newspapers across Florida that say they have been frozen out of commercial spending by the state's Democrats before a crucial election. (Click here to see the half-page ad Download halfpage5052webad.pdf.)

State Democratic party officials say Barack Obama's campaign has assumed control of their advertising operations for the presidential election and has placed advertisements in black-owned media.

The conflict comes at a crucial time for the Democratic Party and Obama, a history-making black presidential candidate who needs a large turnout of black voters in Florida to boost his chances of winning the state.

According to Vaughn Wilson, director of sales for the 14,000-circulation Tallahassee-based Capital  Outlook, similar ads will run this week in black-owned newspapers such as the Westside Gazette in Fort Lauderdale and the Pensacola Voice, aimed at getting the attention of Democrats who purchase campaign ads for political races.

"We just wanted to inform people that the Florida Democratic Party was not reaching people by established means, and we didn't want what happened in 2000 to happen again," said Wilson, noting that Democratic party officials have already begun talks with the group, which may resolve their concerns. 

But at least one black-focused newspaper in Florida isn't running the ads, concerned that explicitly criticizing Democrats for not advertising in their newspaper unfairly inserts their business concerns into Florida's presidential balloting.

"It's putting ourselves into the story in a way that might help or hurt a candidate . . . which is crossing a line for us," said Brad Bennett, a former Miami Herald reporter who now serves as executive editor of the South Florida Times in Fort Lauderdale.

"It seems as if the Obama campaign has gone to great lengths to reach out to the black press (in ways) we have not seen from the Florida Democratic Party," added Bennett. "But we don't want to insert ourselves into the presidential campaign."   

Turns out, this is a longstanding gripe for black-owned media outlets in Florida.  Black-focused radio station and newspaper owners say they get little political advertising from a party that enjoys near unanimous support from black voters in elections. But because these media outlets often have smaller audiences that  are tough to verify, advertisers sometimes target black voters in more general media outlets.

An explosion of similar concerns in 2006 led to meetings with black media owners and some additional spending. But the Obama campaign's move to take over advertising in Florida may have led to a misunderstanding about where advertising dollars would come from in 2008.

"The Florida Democratic Party . . . has advertised and will advertise with these institutions in the future," said Leonard Joseph, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party. "We have an open door to talk about their concerns."

But Charles Cherry, publisher of the 70,000-circulation statewide Florida Courier newspaper and a leading voice in the protest, said the Democratic Party hasn't invested in the consultants and activists who have historic connections inside the state's black communities, starting with black-owned media.

"The black press and much of the black political culture has been shut out,"  said Cherry, noting that his newspaper isn't shy about supporting Obama's presidential run. "They want the black vote, but they don't want to pay for it through newspapers and advertising. They feel they don't have to market their product to a voter they're going to get anyway." 

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McCain's game-changing gambit earns media blowback from David Letterman

Give John McCain credit for bold moves: Not long after Barack Obama called him to suggest moving together to press a compromise on the home mortgage bailout Wednesday -- which conservative House Republicans were resisting -- the GOP presidential candidate was making a beeline to the cameras forcing moves that would benefit his campaign.

As a legion of commentators have noted, McCain has managed to insert himself into a situation where a compromise was already imminent, trying to force delay of a presidential debate when he is most politically vulnerable, giving him precious days to find a way to claim credit for any solution that emerges. All, by the way, without any meaningful consultation or cooperation with Democrats.

But he made one big mistake by lying to a guy with no tolerance for such shenanigans: David Letterman.

McCain wound up sitting for an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric at the same time on Wednesday when he should have been making an appearance on Letterman's show. He had called the TV host to say he would be jetting back to Washington, instead.

Didn't anybody in McCain's campaign think that the CBS talk show host might have access to a satellite feed of Couric's interview?

Also, this morning the GOP candidate was giving a speech at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative in New York -- odd behavior for a guy who found the financial crisis so dire, he suspended his campaign yesterday. But instead of telling Letterman he didn't want to be seen yukking it up on a late-night show when the economy was in crisis, he made up a yarn.

The only question left: Will the American people call McCain on some of this behavior? Watch Letterman call him on it below.

 

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Chris Rock questions Bill Clinton's Obama support

Appearing on David Letterman's Late Show on Monday night after Bill Clinton, comic Chris Rock gave the former president a seriously hard time for what he saw as a tepid endorsement of Barack Obama.

It's hard to imagine that Clinton is still trying to game the system for his wife, holding back support for Obama so she can be a contender in 2012. But it's even harder to imagine that Clinton is having trouble endorsing a guy he doesn't like; this is a guy who had the country convinced he wasn't cheating on his wife until there was DNA evidence against him.

Whatever the reason, Clinton seems to be repeating the kind of late-game critical comments that caused trouble for Al Gore in 2000. But Rock has a much funnier way of calling him on it.

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