The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:

Broadcast Pioneers member Rob Jennings with Mayor Frank Rizzo
WPVI-TV, Action News
circa 1978

Rob Jennings has been an anchor fixture at WPVI for more than a third of a century. He's been in the business since 1966 and started in radio and moved to TV as an announcer and television director and wound up doing the news. He hosted the "Crimefighters" segments on 6ABC for 16 years. Jennings anchors the station's weekend news and fills in for Jim Gardner.

Cherie Bank, former NBC 10 Medical Reporter, was also the co-host of "Ten Around Town." Broadcast Pioneers member Steve Levy was Cherie's co-host on the program. She started with WCAU-TV in July of 1979. Previously, she was a KTVI-TV in St. Louis, her hometown. She started there as an intern and ended up co-anchoring 6 pm and 10 pm. During her career, she has won 12 Emmys.

Bruce Greenberg has been in the business for over 50 years. He's worked most everywhere including WMVB, WMID, WOND, WEEX and WRCP. He was a promotions guy for Motown (where he was A & R manager), MGM, Polydor and others. He was also involved with managing the 70s soul group"Blue Magic," which had many smash hits.

Broadcast Pioneers member Renee Chenault-Fattah
School Photo

Renee Chenault-Fattah has been with Channel 10 for twenty years. She is co-anchor (with Broadcast Pioneers member Tim Lake) of the evening NBC 10 news. Anchoring for more than fifteen years, Renee came to Philadelphia from WXIA in Atlanta. She previously worked for WTEN, Albany and NJN and was a correspondent of Fox's "Beyond Tomorrow." Like our President Jerry Klein, she is an attorney and remains a member of the Bar.

John Knapp has been at WHYY-TV and radio for three decades. He's a wonderful audio engineer (so says our Chairman of the Board, Gerry Wilkinson). John also performs maintenance on the station's equipment. Previously, he was with the RCA Corporation in Camden as a testing engineer. Knapp holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Film from Temple University's School of Communications and Theater.

Julie Bertha-Vasquez was the editor for Applause Magazine, the WHYY-TV and Radio publication for members. She's also worked for WMMR Radio as a Promotions Assistant. There, she wrote and edited the weekly in-house staff newsletter called "The Animalgram." She's also written for area newspapers and is currently a freelance writer and editor.

Art James Metzler is known to his listeners as Art James. His big-band/swing radio show called "Easy Street" is heard Tuesday mornings from 6 am to 9 on WRDV-FM based out of Warminster, Pennsylvania. Metzler refers to the program as "The Good Music of Our Lives." He was a close friend of the late John Beaty, a former member of our Board of Directors.

Broadcast Pioneers member Dan Fleishman
WPVI-TV, The Larry Ferrari Show
circa 1990

Daniel Fleishman made dozens of appearances on the Larry Ferrari TV program from 1983 to 1995. This professional entertainer was the founder and director of the Bucks County Summer Music and Arts Center and was director of Summer Music and Theater Workshop at the Bucks County Community College and has performed with Leonard Bernstein.

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Frank Krider started in the our wonderful, exciting business during the year of 1978. Retired at more than a quarter of a century, he worked at the Bucks County Community College (in Newtown, Pennsylvania) where Krider was a Technical Assistant in Engineering and he maintained the television studios for the Community College's TV outlet.

We are thrilled to have these new members. They've helped to bring our total membership up to 428 (an all-time record). We hope to see as many of you as possible at the April luncheon.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com