Roundabout WMC-TV’s latest news director fakes to Boston, then swerves to Memphis. by Jim Hanas eggy Phillip began her duties last Wednesday as news director at WMC-TV Channel 5, replacing Ken Jobe, who recently departed for the assistant news director slot at WABC-TV in New York. Nothing strange about that. Just another first day at work. Unless of course you consider that Phillip was scheduled to start as assistant news director at WBZ-TV in Boston last Monday, two days before starting in Memphis. Phillip’s appointment at WBZ was announced in the Boston press, with some fanfare, almost a month ago. But then she didn’t show. A memo was posted at the station on the Thursday before the Fourth of July weekend – the last business day before she was to start work – citing “personal reasons” for her eleventh-hour decision to come to Memphis instead. For his part, WBZ news director Peter Brown doesn’t seem at all put off by the snub. “It happens,” he says. “I think the world of Peggy. I think she’s a very decent human being.” Brown also says that no contractual agreement was broken. No harm, no foul. More interesting, however, is the buzz around Beantown about Phillip’s last-minute decision. As it turns out, Phillip has been a longtime protege of Joel Cheatwood, the undisputed king of trashy local news. He made headlines most recently by signing Jerry Springer to do commentaries for newscasts at WMAQ-TV in Chicago, prompting both anchors to quit and sending the station into a tailspin. Phillip worked most recently at WMAQ, where Cheatwood has been kicked up to a network position with NBC. Before that she worked for Cheatwood at Boston’s WHDH-TV and Miami’s WSVN-TV, the alleged cradle of tabloid-style TV news. So close was Phillip’s association with Cheatwood that industry-watchers in Boston worried that Phillip’s now-moot appointment meant WBZ would be taking a flashy Cheatwood-style turn, an impression reinforced when Cheatwood himself turned up in the offices of WBZ last month, fueling speculation that he too might be hired at the station. Cheatwood has denied any interest in leaving NBC, according to The Boston Globe, but says he would like to return to Boston eventually. According to Monica Collins, who reports on television for The Boston Herald, the local industry buzz is that Phillip swerved to Memphis to professionally distance herself from the increasingly poisonous Cheatwood, who many believe will land at WBZ one way or another. True? Who knows. Phillip says she simply had second thoughts and decided to hold out for the Memphis job, which – it should be noted – is a position as news director rather than as assistant news director. “This is a great job, a great company,” she says. “A number-one job at a number-one station in one of the fastest-growing media companies in the country.” She also points out that the buzz in Beantown has been generated, and published, without anyone ever soliciting comment from her. The Herald, she says, never called. Nevertheless, if Bostonians were worried that Phillip would bring flashier, trashier newscasts along with her, it’s not their problem anymore. Free Speech Dead? Members of the Constructive Interference Collective – the group that operates Free Radio Memphis, an unlicensed radio station near the University of Memphis – held a “memorial service for Free Speech” Monday morning in front of the Federal Building downtown. The demonstration was pretty rag-tag, consisting of less than 10 people and witnessed by almost no one save some federal employees on smoke break. Still, it’s worth noting what it was all about. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission finally won an injunction allowing it to close down Free Radio Berkeley, an unlicensed radio station in the Bay area that had managed to keep its case in court and its signal on the air for over two years. A California judge ruled on June 16th that defendant Stephen Dunifer had no standing to challenge current regulations because he had never attempted to obtain a broadcasting license. The ongoing case was the beachhead for the so-called “microradio movement,” which had begun drawing sympathy from publications as mainstream as USA Today. Free speech dead? That’s a little dramatic. But microbroadcasters have indeed been dealt a blow. For the time being, FRM remains on the air at 94.7 FM. Science Fiction The line becomes thinner. It’s no big secret that large media companies use the various outlets they own to promote the products of the various other outlets they own. More and more, media is becoming an advertisement for itself. Last Tuesday, however, Disney really went for it with a half-hour special titled Armageddon: Target Earth. Hosted by Leonard Nimoy, the special made vague gestures toward being informative by talking to scientists about the possibility of an asteroid crashing into Earth, a scenario handily illustrated by footage from Armageddon, the summer blockbuster, which had a disappointing opening over the Fourth of July weekend. The footage, in turn, provided a nice segue into interviews with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck and, well, of course it was just a big ad. Not mentioned was the fact that Disney owns both Touchstone Pictures, which produced the film, and ABC, which aired the special. Aren’t infomercials supposed to be labeled or something?