Posts Tagged ‘Selena Wiles’

Where have your TV faves gone?

May 18th, 2011 joel

In a small television market like Erie, often new faces will become familiar but then vanish, and the viewer will be asking “whatever happened to…?” Here’s a few folks that in recent months have flown the coop of the Flagship City and where they are now:

(Selena) Sunshine Wiles

Sunshine Wiles

Selena Sunshine Wiles, formerly of WJET

It was big news when Selena Wiles left the Tri-Cities in Tennessee to replace long-time anchor Karla Mullenax at Action News 24. So after just a couple years, it was shocking for the Erie viewers when she left again, this time to return to her home area of West Virginia. So much so that Selena Wiles is the most “googled” personality’s name on Press and Tower.

Ms. Wiles brought back her given middle name to the West Virginia airwaves when she moved back home last summer. Sunshine is now back at her original broadcasting company and anchoring the 10:00 nightly cast on FOX 10, WVFX/Clarkesville, WV. According to her bio:

By the summer of 2010, Wiles was more than ready to “return” home and not just be “closer” to family and friends in WV.  An opportunity with Wither’s Broadcasting and WVFX opened a door to return to her roots.
She says “it’s deja vu all over again, go Mountaineers, and this is almost heaven.”

(more…)

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments »

Kim Thomas to join Lafferty at JET anchor desk

September 10th, 2010 joel

The management team at Nexstar/Erie turned their sights within their Peach Street newsroom in seeking replacements for Selena Wiles at news anchor and Luke Simons on the weekday sports desk for WJET/WFXP. From their release tonight:

JET-TV VP/General Manager Tim Dunst and JET-TV/FOX 66 News Director Lou Baxter jointly announced Friday September 10,  the appointment of Kim Thomas as the new co-anchor of Action News 24.  Thomas will join veteran news anchor Sean Lafferty at the news desk at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11pm on JET-TV’s Action News 24.

Kim Thomas

Kim Thomas

Kim Thomas was selected from a field of prospective anchor candidates from around the country.   She will begin her new anchoring duties in the next few weeks.

Kim Thomas joined JET-TV as a reporter in November 2006 after working for a short time at the local CBS affiliate.  She is a graduate of Edinboro University.  In naming her to this critically important position, Dunst said, “It’s always great when you can promote from within, and in this case because of her proven news talent and experience in our community, Kim was clearly the right person for the anchor desk.”

Kim Thomas has been JET-TV and FOX 66’s Erie City Hall and Erie Police Department reporter, and has covered every major local story involving crime, government, and politics.  Twice, she has co-hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for the MDA, and has served the community as an Erie Ambassador.

“In Kim Thomas, we have found someone who was educated in the area, has worked in the area, and has made a conscious decision to make Erie her home.  She’s a working mom who knows the region and brings a very real life sensibility and passion to her coverage of the stories that matter most,” said Baxter.  “We are very excited about her new role and her decision to continue to be a long term member of our news team.”

Craig Smylie

Craig Smylie

Also joining the weeknight anchor team at JET-TV and FOX 66 will be newly named Sports Director, Craig Smylie.

Smylie has anchored weekend sports on both JET-TV and FOX 66 for the past three years, after beginning his career in Lima, Ohio.  Craig “Let’s Talk Sports” Smylie is a graduate of Ohio University and has proven to be a favorite among area sports fans, players and coaches.  Smylie will be the very capable captain of Erie’s most aggressive television sports team, the home of the very popular and long running Friday Night Lights.

Sean Lafferty

Sean Lafferty

Also announced today was the appointment of news anchor Sean Lafferty as Managing Editor of Action News 24 and FOX 66.  In his additional new role, Lafferty will assist in responsibility for editorial content and direction of the evening newscasts and long range planning and implementation of strategic news initiatives.  Lafferty has been with Action News 24 for more than 20 years, and recently renewed a long term commitment to continue as the anchor of Erie’s TV news leader.

I think this is an excellent move for Nexstar, stopping the “revolving door” effect that the stations have experienced lately by elevating personnel that want to be in Erie, and excel at reporting about our town.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments »

The 2nd anniversary of P&T

September 1st, 2010 joel

P&T: Sept. 1, 2008

With a generous amount of encouragement, and a hope that I could make a difference, two years ago today I stayed up late on a Monday night to launch Press and Tower.

I wanted to provide a virtual meeting place, where current and former members of Erie’s television and radio stations, newspapers and new media outlets, could talk shop and interface with the consumers of their creativity, being held accountable and celebrating the good work being done.

To that vision much has been accomplished but still much more can be done. All in all the past year since our last birthday has been a good yet a hard year. Since last September we saw our audience explode as we covered the initial airing of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” shot in Erie. We covered the loss of strong TV personalities from Erie such as Jacqueline Policastro and Selena Wiles,  and the successful bids by the Kanzius Cancer Foundation and now Conneaut Lake Park in receiving Pepsi Refresh funding.

We started a very popular Facebook group, “We rocked Erie in the 20th Century!” which has brought Erie radio’s finest from 50 years together sharing stories, old photos and news clippings, amongst themselves and their fans.

Finally we noted the blog’s first mention in the mainstream media, when we broke the story of the FCC’s enforcement measures on two Pirate FM stations, which landed P&T in the Erie Times-News, as well as on pirate radio websites around the world.

We’ve had our slow and down times too, as real life took over and blogging suffered. However, we are here, entering our Junior year, outlasting many online initiatives which have come and gone since our launch. It’s not easy folks to create content about small market media on a every few days basis, but its fun to try!

Some things to look forward to in the coming year is a renewed effort toward creating and presenting media content; podcasts, video interviews, interesting YouTube clips, and such. I also want you to hear more from the current media gatekeepers; the editors, front office managers, and writers and on-air personalities themselves; to raise the value of this forum being a positive and constructive one for the betterment of our craft and community.

To you, my faithful reader, please accept my heartfelt gratitude. There are so many places and sources from which you can enjoy content, and it gives me great joy and a humble heart that you choose to read here. Thank you.

Here’s to what lies ahead for our P&T community!

Posted in From The Editor Tags: , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments »

Wiles leaving, new faces arrive at WJET/WFXP

July 23rd, 2010 joel
Selena Wiles

Selena Wiles

WORKING…

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.

Confirming reports that I received last week, Nexstar-Erie is advertising for a new anchor for 6 & 11 to replace the departing Selena Sunshine Wiles, given the nickname “Sunshine” when appearing on Tri-Cities television in Tennessee and Virginia. According to sources, Wiles is heading back to her home state of West Virginia.

P&T has requested comment from WJET and Ms. Wiles.
(more…)

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , 26 Comments »

WFXP begins prime-time hour newscast

January 18th, 2010 joel

24

With the new season of “24″ as a powerful lead-in, WFXP/Fox 66 begins Erie’s first hour-long prime-time newscast tonight at 10:00 PM.

Promos running Sunday night promised a greater and different approach to news, weather and sports for the 60-minute strip, which is slated to run 7 days a week. The prime-time news product should prove to be a powerful competitor to the current broadcast schedule. It also illuminates the reality of the cost of syndicated programming compared to repackaging local news.

What would make this move even more interesting is if WFXP put on a hip young anchor to match the prevailing network audience. I love Sean & Selina…but maybe a Jeremy Beecher-type would keep the high 18-35 year-old lead in.

Just my take.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , 3 Comments »

Erie media and the time crunch

March 25th, 2009 joel

Over the past week I’ve made a significant observation: when I get out of my Press and Tower journalism mode, and act as a typical Erie citizen in my routine, I consume little traditional Erie media.

The reason why this is occurring to me now is that for the past week, I’ve had a few really big deadlines at work that have me concentrating on the tasks morning, noon and night, so my blogging juices have gone on the back burner for a little while. My schedule put me in a mode of everyone else who doesn’t have a regular blog deadline, and here’s what I found out.

When I was in radio, we talked about “appointment radio;” making moments that people would stop and change their routine to listen to. This past week, when my life made me just average busy Joe Cume member, I found that there is very little in Erie media that I’ll make an appointment to watch, read or listen. Perhaps the most regular consumption is 15 minutes scanning the Times-News with my coffee and cereal. 15 minutes of NPR or Barry and Jim on the way to work. More sporadically I’ll catch Sean and Selena, or Amanda and Kevin about once a week each. Music on the radio is a weekend thing, 80′s on Classy 100, swing on WQLN, and worship on WCTL. Like many, I find that media viewing and listening is a secondary action while doing something else: eating, driving, getting ready for bed.
(more…)

Posted in From The Editor Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments »

Selena Wiles forecast: sunshine

September 17th, 2008 joel

Around the WJHL/Tri Cities newsroom, she was known as “Sunshine.”

Well the team at WJET TV 24 are hoping to catch some rays as Selena Wiles enters the anchor chair at Action News 24 opposite Sean Lafferty. Wiles replaces JET-TV fixture Karla Mullenax who left the station this summer to take a communications position at Gannon University.

According to a station news release, after a nationwide search, News Director Lou Baxter stated, “We’re very happy to have found an experienced anchor that has just the right mix of broadcast journalism expertise, education, passion, chemistry, and charm to continue Action News 24s tradition of trust.”  Baxter added, “Selena Wiles is a welcome addition to Action News 24.” (more…)

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments »
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