Joel Cheatwood found something he wanted to take with him from his time in Chicago. Cheatwood, who was in New York last week to begin as WCBS-TV news director and vice president of news for CBS'station group, recruited Amy Stone away from his former station in Chicago, WMAQ-TV. Cheatwood worked on the deal, along with WCBS-TV general manager Tony Petitti, before actually getting to New York. "I worked with Amy in Chicago," he explained. "I hired her there, and she's very good. Her contract there was coming up, and we'd heard from her agent that she'd been talking to a station in New York, so we saw opportunity knocking."
As he took over the group's flagship news department, which has had ratings problems for awhile, Cheatwood-known for his dynamic, often controversial style-said he had no preconceived notions and would take time to get to know the people and the challenges.
