A couple of local kids head out to cover the Oscars

0 Comments | Milwaukee Journal, The, Mar 17, 1995 | by Tim Cuprisin

TWO 14-YEAR-OLD TV reporters will see the Academy Awards up close and personal after they were picked to report on the event for Warner Cable's Kidz Biz, the cable company's news program for young viewers.

Ben Hertel, an eighth grader from Whitnall Middle School, and Ann Wakefield, an eighth grader at Oak Creek West School, will head for Hollywood on Midwest Express to report alongside an E! Entertainment Television crew at the Oscars.

Ben and Ann were chosen Thursday from among 600 students in 21 area schools taking part in this year's WCKB-TV program. They'll do interviews at E!'s live pre-Oscar show, which airs at 6 p.m. on March 27.

The interviews will run later on WCKB-TV's news shows on Warner Cable systems throughout the area. WCKB-TV is in its second year, teaching TV to seventh and eighth graders.

IT'S OFFICIAL: As we suggested Thursday, Mark Johnson is leaving WISN-TV (Channel 12) to join its Hearst sister station WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, where he'll do the 6 p.m. sports. His last sportscast will probably be around April 10, says Channel 12 news director Fred D'Ambrosi.

"He is one of the hardest working people I've ever worked with," says D'Ambrosi. Channel 12's still trying to decide how to replace Johnson, who also hosted the lottery show.

THANKS, MR. NEWT: Wisconsin Public Radio won't be replacing Jan Weller in the evenings. Instead, it'll be rebroadcasting weekday call-in shows hosted by Jean Feraca and Larry Meiller from 7 to 10:30 p.m. weeknights. "Chapter a Day" will be repeated from 10:30 to 11 p.m.

"With our current budget situation, we decided this was not the time to hire a new talk-show host or purchase programming produced elsewhere," says Joy Cardin, director of the Ideas Network.

THIS IS WEIRD: California's Gov. Pete Wilson, who's thinking about a presidential run, gets some free PR with an appearance in CBS' "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." He'll play the governor of the Colorado Territory in 1870. The scene will be filmed next Tuesday for broadcast during May ratings sweeps.

If we were Tommy Thompson, we'd be on the phone with Jane Seymour first thing Monday.

IT'S ST. PATRICK'S DAY: So Kathleen Dunn is interviewing Northern Ireland's now-reclusive former firebrand, Bernadette Devlin, by phone at 5 p.m. today on WHAD.

IT'S REALLY ST. PATRICK'S DAY: So Milwaukee's own Trinity Irish Dance Co. will drop by "The Tonight Show" at 10:30 tonight on WTMJ-TV (Channel 4). We hear the lassies'll try to teach Jay Leno and William Shatner how to trip the light, Celtic-style.

GET THIS: With "ER" (our new favorite drama show after last week's amazing episode) and "Seinfeld" (still the funniest sitcom on TV), NBC has the top-rated comedy and drama series of the season.

NBC tells us the last time they had that combo going was in 1960-'61 with "Wagon Train" and "Hazel".

Don't give us any of that lip about how TV was really really good in the old days. Yeah, that writing on "Hazel" sure sparkles. Don't it, Mr. B?