KRON-TV colleagues toss family reunion
A collegial gang of former KRON co-workers — Pam Moore, Emerald Yeh, Linda Yee, Susan Blake, Sandy Lee and Sue Kwon — got together and created Saturday’s rollicking exKRONvicts reunion at the E&O Trading Company. The event was sold out, with nearly 175 alums attending. “There is a reason for this,” said Yee, welcoming guests with a few remarks. “We’re buying back KRON.”
I was there because when this newspaper was owned by the same family as the TV station, several newspaper staffers had gigs on Bay-TV, the shortlived cable station that was under KRON’s umbrella. It was fun not only being on TV but also seeing it behind the scenes, and it was the basis for several long-lasting friendships. But I recognized more people in the crowd from years of watching TV — Fred LaCosse, Terry Lowry, Suzanne Shaw, Jerry Graham, Karl Sonkin, Jan Wahl, Jim Paymar — than I did from my gig at the station.
On the way out, each guest was handed a copy of the 1987 book, “Shannon: What’s It All Mean, 101 Commentaries by Wayne Shannon,” with a foreword by Warren Hinckle. Those had been brought to the party by weatherman Mike Pechner. In the days when KRON was still the Bay Area’s NBC affiliate, Shannon, some will remember, was a kind of Andy Rooney-like commentator whose newscast segments featured him sharing his wisdom.
Or not; Shannon was a matter of taste. Among the blurbs on the back of the book was one from the Examiner’s Bill Mandel: “Channel 4 used to have several people who made my skin crawl. Now they’re down to just one.” Bill Mann of the Oakland Tribune wrote that viewers were “mistrustful” of the anchorwoman’s “chuckles at Wayne Shannon’s dreadful material.”
I’m just getting into the book, having stopped for a spell to study Hinckle’s introduction. “Wayne Shannon is the genuine item . ... He is not, as Whistler said of mauve, pink trying to be purple.”
The speeches were short, the hugs aplenty, and everyone seemed to be basking in the reliving of triumphs and mishaps — remember the anchor who had to be told that she should keep up with the news in addition to reading it? — and assuring each other that they looked younger now than they did when they were in KRON harness.
So even though my KRON cupcake fell face down on the carpet when I inadvertently carried its presentation box upside down, I loved the party, too. And never mind the pastry mishap; the book is icing on the cake.
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Susie Buell’s fundraiser for London Breed last week featured Chelsea Handler. At one point, reports Mark Buell, the comedian and talk show host said she’d love to have a house in San Francisco but housing is so expensive, she can’t afford anything.
Breed said her roommate had just moved out and invited Handler to move in. This item is presented as an Only in San Francisco, a city where a mayoral candidate has a roommate.
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⏩ Bumper sticker Margery Eriksson saw in the Berkeley hills: “McKinley/Roosevelt ’00.” And having watched news clips of Donald Trump on “Fox & Friends,” Laura Jacoby has “realized he’s both evil and demented, a condition that I’m naming Malzheimer’s.”
⏩ Eileen Alexander, an avid birdwatcher, attended the Audubon Society’s annual Mother’s Day picnic in West Marin, where she was “appalled to find an avian on the menu.” Those who wouldn’t eat chicken were served quiche.
⏩ M.T.T., Carey Perloff and Tony Taccone have all announced they’ll be leaving their longtime posts. And now, another ultra-recognizable face (and uniform) on the San Francisco scene: Tom Sweeney, doorman at the Sir Francis Drake for some 42 years, has announced plans to retire in 2020.
⏩ Gary Kell forwards a letter from his sister, who lives in Salt Lake City and was looking forward to a Hawaii vacation with her husband: “First, we’ll be spending five days at our hotel on the Big Island, where we understand we can toast marshmallows for s’mores in record time right off our lanai. We canceled our rental car, deciding to just go with the flow. We managed to find tropic gas masks to match our luau shirts . ... Our fishing trip now features fissures . ... ”
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “I consider myself a natural-born athlete.” Male spectator to female companion, overheard in the stands at a game at AT&T Park by Morgan Zeitler