Did WPXI’s Trisha Pittman once work at KDKA-TV?
Q: A co-worker of mine and I have gone down a rabbit hole on old Pittsburgh TV personalities. We both “clearly” remember a Trisha Pittman reporting the traffic for KDKA-TV morning news in the early to mid-’90s when John Shumway and Larry Richert were the anchors. I remember I would watch in the morning before high school which would have been some time from ’91-95. Is the Trisha Pittman we remember the same person who covers the traffic for WPXI today? According to Google, she was born the same year as us and that would put her in high school at thet time. Thanks.
— MIKE, VIA EMAIL Rob: I didn’t even remember Pittman being on KDKA, probably because she was not shown in-studio.
“I was at KDKA radio and TV for two years,” Pittman explained. “I started there in January 2000 and worked in the morning with John Cigna and in the afternoon with Fred Honsberger. In addition to being on the radio, I also did live traffic hits for KDKA-TV, although I voiced over traffic cameras and was not in-studio. They used my picture on the screen. I joined WPXI in 2002 and have been here ever since.”
Q: Is there any hidden meaning behind the choice of a baseball card featuring pitcher (and former Pittsburgh Pirate) John Candelaria on “This Is Us” a few weeks ago?
— BARB, VIA EMAIL Rob: Per the show’s writers, “We liked the idea of it being a player who started and ended his career with the Pirates, so that’s why John was chosen.”
Q: I tried March 6 to tape “American Housewife.” It has not been on. “Shark Tank” has been on at that time.
I checked online and didn’t see anything. Can you tell me how long it is hiatus?
— MARILYN, VIA EMAIL Rob: ABC sure likes to move “American Housewife” around. Last seen on Friday nights, the show moves back to Wednesday on March 18 airing in the 9:30 p.m. time slot.
Q: Do you know why, all of a sudden, there is voice captioning happening during “A Million Little Things”? The last two episodes have had this and it’s very odd. I opted to watch it On Demand instead and there is no voice captioning going on there. Just wondering if anyone else is having this issue. — REBECCA,
OAKMONT Rob: It sounds like Rebecca accidentally hit the SAP button on her remote control — SAP is secondary audio program — which provides descriptions of a show for visually impaired viewers.
Q: When a TV commercial is no longer aired, whose decision is it to “retire” it? The company/ sponsor that it is for, the TV stations it airs on, etc.
— JOE, VIA EMAIL Rob: As long as the ad conforms to the station’s standards, the decision to pull an ad is at the discretion of the advertiser.