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Send it to Llanor Alleyne, editorial assistant, Broadcasting & Cable (e-mail: palleyne@reedbusiness; fax: 646-746-7028; mail: 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010).
Broadcast TV
Therese Gamba, director, creative and strategic marketing, KGO-TV San Franciso, promoted to VP, programming and station marketing.
At WNBC(TV) New York: Giovanni Baquerizo, director, advertising and sponsorship sales, ESPN, New York, joins as manager, marketing and business development; Jennifer Newman, account manager, NBC National Sales, Boston, joins as manager, marketing and business development.
Terry Woods, national sales manager, KSTS(TV) San Jose, Calif., named account executive, KPIX-TV San Francisco.
Cindi Hagley, local sales manager, KTVU(TV) Oakland, Calif., named account executive, KBHK-TV San Francisco.
Cable TV
At Comcast Cable: Steve Boschi, senior manager, marketing sciences, Philadelphia, promoted to director; Larry Bournique, director, engineering, Atlanta, Southern division, promoted to senior director; Douglas Wells, director, regulatory affairs, Southern region, Atlanta, promoted to senior director, franchising and government affairs; Rachel Jones, coordinator, government and public affairs, Atlanta, named division government affairs administrator; Stacy Gordon, national director, retention marketing, Philadelphia, promoted to national senior director; Jim Shaud, national manager, marketing and promotions, promoted to national director; Mark Swan, senior manager, Philadelphia, promoted to director, new business development, digital engineering group.
At Charter Communications: Barry L. Wilson, CEO, United Pan-European Communications, Amsterdam, joins as senior VP/GM, operations, St. Louis; David Gilles, VP, fiscal operations, central region, named VP/GM, St. Louis; In the Greenville, S.C., office: Richard Bell, director, business operations, Cox Business Services, Atlanta, joins as VP, finance; Powell Bedgood, VP, Charter's digital services, named VP, engineering; Robert Carter, VP/GM, Cox Business Services, Arizona, joins as VP, Charter Business Networks; Alan Clairmont, VP, marketing and sales, AT&T Broadband, Pittsburgh, joins as VP, marketing; Michael Kelley, director, advertising, Mid-South region, named VP, advertising sales; Michele Parks, director, human resources, Charter's Georgia operations, named VP, human resources; Tom Gorman, director, national accounts and business development, Jedai Broadband Networks, Red Bank, N.J., joins as, VP, Midwest division technical operations, St. Louis; Tracy Pitcher, director, customer care, named VP.
Programming
At Court TV, New York: Art Bell, executive VP, programming and marketing, Court TV, New York, named president and COO; Galen Jones, executive VP, strategy and planning/GM, Court TV Online, named executive VP/chief corporate strategist, Court TV.
Rick Bergan, VP, business development, Music Choice, Horsham, Pa., promoted to VP, distribution.
At MTV Networks, New York: Alex Ferrari, CFO, MTV Networks, promoted to COO, MTV Networks International; John Cucci, COO, Comedy Central, New York, joins as CFO.
Scott Mills, COO, BET Interactive, named executive VP/CFO, BET.
Olivia Cohen-Cutler, VP, broadcast standards and practices, ABC Inc., Los Angeles, promoted to senior VP.
At Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Distribution, Studio City, Calif.: Barron Postmus, executive director, marketing and station relations, promoted to VP, marketing and creative services; Janet Bonifer, director, marketing and creative services, promoted to executive director; Paul E. Schreiber, VP, Midwest regions, promoted to senior VP, domestic syndication.
Joan Harrison, television agent, The Broder, Webb, Chervin, Silbermann Agency, Los Angeles, joins TLC, Silver Spring, Md., as VP, programming and development.
Michael R. Oesterlin, director, international sales, Hallmark Entertainment, London, promoted to VP.
Dario Spina, director, marketing and promotions, TNN, New York, promoted to VP.
At Starz Encore, Englewood, Colo.: Robert B. Clasen, former president, Comcast Communications, Philadelphia, joins as president, sales and marketing; Que Spaulding, president, distribution, will retire at the end of 2003.
Joseph LaPolla, VP, acquisitions, scheduling and digital programming, The History Channel, New York, named director, programming, Discovery Channel, Silver Spring, Md.
Cari Widmyer, senior research manager, Hallmark Channel, New York, promoted to director, sales research.
David Luner, VP, licensing and new business development, Moon Mesa Media, Los Angeles, joins FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide, Los Angeles, as director, brand licensing, North America.
Pascal Racheneur, director, international product development, Weather Channel, Atlanta, promoted to director, broadband product and business development.
Chris Fuoco, director, core programs, Bell ExressVu, Ontario, joins Alliance Atlantis, Toronto, as director, affiliate marketing.
At NFL Network, Los Angeles: Eric Weinberger, senior producer, Best Damn Sports Show Period, Fox Sports Network, Los Angeles, joins as coordinating producer, as-yet-unnamed show; Jennifer Love, senior associate director, Fox NFL Sunday
and Fox Saturday Baseball, Los Angeles, named the shows' director.
Jody King, account executive, New England Cable News, Boston, promoted to national sales manager, New York.
Journalism
At CBS News, New York: Wayne Nelson, senior broadcast producer, CBS Evening News With Dan Rather, joins 60 Minutes II, as producer; Lyne Pitts, executive producer, The Early Show, New York, named senior broadcast producer, CBS Evening News.
At ABC News: Kate O'Brian, GM, programming, ABC News Radio, Atlanta, named Southern Bureau chief; David Eaton, Southern Bureau chief, Atlanta, named Los Angeles Bureau chief; Charlie Herman, Miami Bureau producer, promoted to deputy Los Angeles Bureau chief.
Lisa Sylvester, correspondent, ABC Weekend News, Washington, joins CNN, Washington, in the same capacity.
Wayne Rogers, actor and co-chairman/co-CEO, Swifty Serve, Durham, N.C., joins Fox News Channel, New York, as business contributor.
At KCEN-TV Temple, Texas: Chris Walker, evening weekday producer, named executive producer; Denise Killian, producer/assignment editor, KRIS-TV Corpus Christi, Texas, joins in the same capacity; Jennifer Dodd, reporter/anchor, KBTV-TV Beaumont, Texas, joins as reporter.
Joe Trahan, sports director, WVUE(TV) New Orleans, joins WFAA-TV Dallas, as weekend sportscaster.
Radio
Bernard Pendergrass, executive producer, The Ken & Company Morning Show,
with Ken Minyard and Dan Avey, KABC(AM) Los Angeles, named assistant program director.
Advertising/Marketing/ PR
At PIC-TV, Los Angeles: Roy E. Tilles, VP/sales director, East Coast, promoted to senior VP; Marc R. Goodman, account executive, promoted to VP, sales; John Harper, account executive, promoted to VP, sales.
Allied Fields
Deborah J. Sinay, VP/GM, WPRI-TV and WNAC-TV Providence, R.I., joins the Children's Museum of Boston, as senior VP, institutional advancement.
Kerri Howland-Kruse, senior attorney, BMI, New York, promoted to assistant VP, legal.
Obituary
Robert M. Batscha, longtime president of the Museum of Television and Radio, died of cancer in New York City on July 4. He was 58.
Batscha joined the MTR in 1981 as president, six years after it was founded by former CBS Chairman William S. Paley as the Museum of Broadcasting. Paley's vision to make available to the public a collection of television and radio history started out with a modest 5,000 programs housed on two floors of a converted office building on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Under Batscha's guidance and deft hand at fundraising, the museum underwent several transformations, including a move crosstown in 1991 to the Paley Building at W. 52nd St. That same year, the institution was rechristened The Museum of Television & Radio to better reflect archival additions from other media, namely cable and satellite. In 1996, MTR opened a Los Angeles branch with a collection duplicating that of its flagship arm. Most significant, under Batscha's tenure, MTR's archives swelled—thanks to contributions from networks, studios, PBS, cable services, local radio and other sources—to 120,000 international programs spanning 80 years of TV and radio history, including documentaries, children's shows and commercials.
"There are people who really have the privilege of changing the perception of an industry, and Bob had that," said Leo Hindery, CEO of YES Network and MTR vice chairman. "His stewardship of the museum will have future generations come and understand the history of television from post-war onward."
Born in Rochester, N.Y., Batscha grew up in New York City. He graduated magna cum laude from Queens College and, in 1969, received a master's in international affairs from Columbia University. He followed that degree with a doctorate in political science in 1972, also from Columbia.
For four years before joining the MTR, Batscha was president of the Population Resource Center Inc., a nonprofit organization that studies demographic change and serves as liaison to policymakers on the issue. Before that, he served as a senior consultant at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris from 1972 to '75.
Batscha was also founder and trustee of the Center for Communication, a nonprofit venture that links students and faculty with professionals in various communications fields, and was an adjunct professor at Columbia's School of International Affairs and its School of Journalism, as well as associate professor of communications at Queens College.
He is survived by a son, Eric, and his former wife, Francine Sommer.
Buddy Ebsen, the veteran Broadway dancer who became a major TV star in the 1960s with CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies
(1962-71) and again with the same network's Barnaby Jones
(1973-80), died Sunday morning at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, Calif. He was 95.
In a late career highlight, Ebsen made a cameo appearance as Barnaby Jones in the 1993 film version of The Beverly Hillbillies, in which the late Jim Varney played Jed Clampett, the part Ebsen had originated.
The gangly and likable Ebsen first gained attention dancing with Shirley Temple in 1930s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals. Ebsen was chosen to play the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz
but had to back out after an allergic reaction to the aluminum makeup used as part of the costume sent him to the hospital.
He first became known to TV viewers when he played Davey Crockett's sidekick, George Russell, in The Walt Disney Co.'s Davey Crockett
series.
He was a sidekick again on NBC's Northwest Passage
in the late 1950s.
His TV credits also contained a variety of guest stints, including a memorable turn portraying a drifter on The Andy Griffith Show. Ebsen also spent a season in the cast of ABC detective series Matt Houston
(1984-85), playing Uncle Roy, a detective who had come out of retirement.
Ebsen is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his sister and former dance partner, Vilma; six children; and six grandchildren.
