New TV Anchor Line-up, New Daily Local TV Show, Kids Cove Controversy, Action at Westwood Mall, and Gas Up/Covid Down
The Latest From Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
THE NEW ANCHOR line-up for TV6 and Fox UP is set—this, after a difficult year for the stations that saw several departures amid vaccination and sexual harassment controversies…Here are the anchors you’ll be seeing after stalwart Steve Asplund retires on March 16th…5 pm: Kendall Bunch, who’s been filling in, in recent months…6 pm: Cody Boyer and newcomer Pavlina Osta, out of New York and Florida. She’s been doing mostly online media, podcasts, and radio until now…7 pm: Boyer and Osta…10 pm (Fox UP): Ben Kouchnerkavic, another newcomer, out of Holland, Michigan…11 pm: Boyer alone.
AND SOMETHING NEW and potentially exciting on Fox UP a little later this spring—a brand new, locally produced lifestyle show at 9 am…It’ll be the rebirth of Upper Michigan Today, a show that TV6 featured a few decades ago…The anchors? Elizabeth Peterson and Tia Trudgeon, both of whom will still be part of the TV6 Morning News…Locally produced shows can be popular and profitable, or they can fail if they don’t find an audience in a highly fragmented media environment…
With Peterson, who’s become an authoritative and engaging morning anchor, and Trudgeon, who’s emerged as a young, likable and adventurous personality, WLUC (the parent of both TV6 and Fox UP) is betting that it’ll find success with a live, free-wheeling show that will likely cater mostly to women.
WJMN, THE LOCAL station that recently lost its CBS affiliation, is now airing a three hour morning news show, Morning in America, anchored by former ABC correspondent and anchor, Adrienne Bankert…A solid show, produced for Nexstar stations, certainly comparable to the higher profile morning shows on NBC, CBS, and ABC.
WZMQ, THE BRAND new local CBS station, is still searching for its bricks-and-mortar studio and offices in the Marquette area, but it’s now making some local hires…Mitchell Rife, soon to graduate NMU, has started as a reporter/multi-media journalist, and an account executive has also started training…The station, meantime, continues producing its “local” newscasts out of a studio in Pennsylvania.
THERE’S BEEN SOME Facebook pushback recently on plans to tear down the wooden Kids Cove Playground at the Lower Harbor, and replace it with a modern, mostly plastic playground fully accessible to all children, including those with handicaps…The criticism might resonate with some of us who prefer wood to plastic, but promoters of the new playground say the old wood has been deteriorating and the overall design is not safe… “We could not rebuild the old one to today’s standards,” says Nheena Ittner, part of the group raising funds for the playground’s conversion.
They’ve raised $900,000 so far of the $1.3 million needed. Contributions have come from individual donors, businesses, grants, and foundations…The material being used is actually recycled plastic. Tough, hardy, no splinters. “It’s been used in climates worse than ours and it holds up wonderfully,” says landscape architect Bill Sanders…Anticipated completion date? Uncertain, but likely before the end of the year.
GAS PRICES ARE rising worldwide because of the war in Ukraine and the economic squeeze on Russia…We’re likely to top $4 a gallon here any day now, and who knows? Maybe $5 after that…Of course, we’re all 100% behind the embattled Ukrainians, but you gotta wonder how much we’ll be willing to sacrifice before we start whining about prices at the gas pumps.
ON THE OTHER hand, we’re now finally taking our masks off and breathing a huge sigh of relief…New Covid cases in Marquette County are now averaging only about 14 every day…Back in late January, that number was 200…An enormous, gratifying decline…Now, please, please, please, no more variants and sub-variants. Let’s retire the Greek alphabet for a while.
LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA on Washington Street downtown is no more. Permanently closed. No reason given on its Facebook site for the closure…The building, at a busy intersection, is up for sale…Don’t cry, though. There are still approximately 374 other restaurants in Marquette County where you can buy pizza.
A NEW SHOP on Third Street. Silver Lining is what it’s called…A sewing center in which three different businesses are sharing the space…Alexandra Kralova Zender runs Sakra—she makes dresses on commission and has her own line of clothes made of natural and sustainable materials…Cathe Hahn runs Patagium Sewing Company—she makes sails and does alterations…And Babette Welch, who actually owns the entire shop, is planning to hold sewing lessons and classes there…And the shop will also regularly feature pop-ups—crafters and artisans. “There’s a lot going on here,” Kralova Zender says.
ACTIVITY IN THE otherwise quiet Westwood Mall this weekend. A flea market with up to 50 booths…Also music to be provided by one of the tenants—The Stage, toward the back of the mall, where the owner of the shop, Todd Noordyk (Great Lakes Radio CEO), provides a venue for various local musicians… “This is a great place to make music,” he says. “Bands love to play here.” A place to jam, to rehearse, to record…and to entertain a flea market crowd.
IS THERE A market in town for a second fine dining restaurant (besides Elizabeth’s Chophouse)? Apparently so…The Cellar (underneath the Zephyr wine bar) has been open Friday and Saturday nights for four months now. “We’re getting really good traction, especially considering the time of year,” says Dan Rutz, the owner of the wine bar and Everyday Wines…Superlative four course, fixed price meals with wine pairings…An intimate atmosphere…Minor kinks being worked out…Summertime—with the influx of tourists—will bring more diners, cash…and pressure.
HOLY CRAP! CAN this be true? UrbanSitters, which connects families with child care help, says the nationwide average hourly wage for babysitters is almost $21 for one child…$23 for two children…$24 for three…Surely, it’s gotta be less than that in the UP but we coulda sworn it was more like $10-12 an hour…Maybe it’s time for some of us to consider a career change.
(A reminder: Man About Town is a newsletter, not a blog. It arrives by email, free of charge. You can tap the Subscribe button below to sign up. Know someone who would like to subscribe? Let them know they can go to www.SubscribeToMAT.com and they can sign up there.)