Was new KDKA weathercaster on WPXI?
Q: Did new KDKA-TV meteorologist Mary Ours appear on WPXI several weeks ago? I swear that she did.
— ROB VIA EMAIL Rob: Your eyes did not deceive you. She did some freelance work — a few weekend mornings — at WPXI while still employed at Johnstown’s WJAC before taking the job at KDKA.
Q: I just wanted to find out about one of the reporters on KDKA. His name is Chris Hoffman and he’s a new guy. I just watch all the news but I mostly watch KDKA, and when he came on he had such great diction and his speech is just impeccable and I just really like him and I wanted to know more about him. They have a lot of young girls in the morning, too, but with him they don’t have to worry about him getting pregnant and taking time off for pregnancy.
— LISA, MT. LEBANON
Rob: Hoffman is a freelance reporter working at KDKA. He previously worked at TV stations in Lynchburg, Va., and York, Pa. He is a 2014 graduate of Point Park University — he interned with KDKA’s Bob Pompeani in college — and is a 2011 graduate of Moon Area High School.
Q: In October 2018 I entered into a two-year contract with Xfinity for a Super Triple Play package that included all the premium channels. Eight months later they took Cinemax out of that bundle and replaced it with a movie channel called Hitz. And if you want to continue to receive
Cinemax you need to subscribe to this channel for an extra $12. Yep, that’s right, I would need to pay an additional charge to receive the premium channel that was previously included in my package. The notice that Xfinity was making this change was on the previous month’s bill in the back so most customers would certainly miss it as I had done. I was told by customer service that I can change my package anytime within the two years but if I decide to change my cable provider I would be charged an “early termination fee.”
I would like these
companies to honor their contracts. If they intend to make changes it should be done to the new signers or if a current customer decides to renew his or her contract.
— KAY, PLEASANT HILLS Rob: Is it super-lame that cable companies do this? Yes.
Is it lamer still that Comcast’s announcement is in small print on the bill knowing many will just pay the bill without reading it closely? Yes again.
Unfortunately, the contracts we sign with all the cable companies allow them to make changes even though those same contracts, if they are for a set period of time, do not give consumers the same right to cancel cable without penalty.
“Our agreements do make it clear that from time to time we might change our packages,” says Comcast spokesman Bob Grove. “We do this for a variety of reasons, including our ability to deliver good breadth and depth of content at the best value for our customers. HBO provides almost all of the content carried by Cinemax and remains part of this package, while Hitz provides more than 200 movie titles from a variety of top studios.”
Of course, HBO does not provide access to Cinemax original series (e.g. “Warrior,” “CB Strike,” “Outcast”). This particular change was made at the corporate level and the self-serving nature is particularly galling: Comcast owns Hitz.