Evan Cohen (Palm Beach Post photo)

WPTV-Channel 5 is letting the contracts of its two sportscasters, Ryan Lieber and Jay Gilmore, lapse and will outsource its sports news to West Palm Beach sports-talk radio station WEFL-760 am, the ESPN affiliate that covers Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

Starting Jan. 1, 760 afternoon drive-time star Evan Cohen will anchor the sports segments on Channel 5’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. 760’s Jason Pugh, a former Florida Atlantic University defensive lineman and Palm Beach Post sports department part-timer, will anchor weekend TV sportscasts. That’s in addition to their ESPN radio duties.

Ryan Lieber (Courtesy Channel 5)

“It’s a win-win situation for us and Channel 5,” said Steve Politziner, a part-owner of 760. “Members of our staff have been guests on the Channel 5’s extended sports Sunday nights for almost six years. We’ve always had a strong relationship with Channel 5.”

Politziner said 760 will be totally in charge of its segments and is providing three employees — Cohen, Pugh and producer Herb Uzzi — to replace Gilmore and Lieber. With the added body, he said, viewers will get more complete and far-reaching reports. Channel 5 gets the ESPN logo and news it doesn’t have to produce.

Jay Gilmore (Courtesy Channel 5)

Neither Gilmore, who’s been at the station for three years, nor Lieber, a nine-year veteran, returned calls.

A Channel 5 insider tells me the move isn’t as much a cost-cutting measure as it is a ploy to attract Cohen. No detail about the value or length of the contract is available.

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Jim Sitton, staring at one of his awards for a story titled "Dangerously Dim" (Courtesy b-roll.net)

The WPTV-Channel 5 newsroom is going through the toughest day in its 55-year history.

Tragedy struck the station’s best-known, award-winning photographer, Jim Sitton, on what should have been one of the happiest times of the year.

A gunman related to Sitton’s wife, Muriel, entered their Jupiter home and allegedly shot six people gathered for the Thanksgiving feast. Four have died, including Sitton’s 6-year-old daughter, Makayla. The suspect, Michael Merhige, remains at large.

“Since Makayla was born, Jim has been taking pictures of her every single day to chronicle how she was developing and growing,” said a station insider who asked to remain anonymous. “You’d turn on the computer used for editing tapes, and there’d be pictures of Makayla all over the screen. It’s like everyone at the station knew her.”

Sitton, 48, has been at the NBC affiliate for about 15 years, after a short stint at WPBF-Channel 25. Sitton mostly worked investigative assignments with the station’s Contact 5 reporters, Shannon Cake and Kelley Dunn. Both women spent some time with Sitton at the home after the 10 p.m. shooting.

“He’s the most amazing friend,” Cake said, her voice breaking with emotion. “I just can’t talk about it.”

For more about the tragedy, look below or click (Read more…)

James Wieland! Such a romantic guy!

The WPTV-Channel 5 weatherman just got engaged to advertising rep Jennifer Dalla Riva.

Wieland and his Chosen One

And boy did he dream up one Blue Lagoon-themed scheme to make sure his betrothed wouldn’t say no.

Wieland, 37, first bought a conch shell. He then stuffed it with clay, and set a 3-carat sparkler into the clay.

Then, as he and his blonde sweetie frolicked in waist-deep water in Atlantic near radio talker Rush Limbaugh’s Palm Beach home, he half-buried the conch in sand.

“At one point, I thought I lost the shell,” he said.

But the future bride, 38, was digging nonchalantly nearby, and suddenly yelled out: “I found the motherload of shells!”

Wieland actually snapped a picture as Dalla Riva found the ring, which probably will cost him a couple brownie points.

Bingo!

But he had a dozen red roses hidden in the car, just in case she needed another push.

She didn’t.

The lovebirds are looking for a beachside wedding venue. It’ll be the bride’s second marriage, Wieland’s first.

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Brooks in last year's election

Former WPTV-Channel 5 general manager and Town of Palm Beach Councilman Bill Brooks underwent his third round of chemo this week.

The 75-year-old is suffering from lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes.

“The doctors are telling me they’re confident we can beat this thing,” Brooks said from his Seabreeze Avenue home Wednesday.

Because the treatment has lowered his immune system, he’s home-bound for the next two months.

Brooks, who left the Catholic priesthood in the 60s then married a former nun, Martha, now spends his days bathed in classical music, Beethoven and Mozart. He mostly reads books on history and spirituality.

“The first chemo (in late May) knocked me on my fanny,” said Brooks, one of the architects of Channel 5’s rise to one of the nation’s top-rated local stations. “But I’m a fighter. There’s no whining here. Like Nike says, ‘Just do it.’”

And Brooks, who lost this third reelection last year, says Canada Dry has replaced whisky and wine, both longtime staples of his diet.

“I haven’t had a drink since May 14, and to tell you the truth, I don’t feel like having one,” he said.

Brooks never suffered any serious illness in his life. But the announcement in May that he was sick made him contemplate the true meaning of humility.

“I realized that, no matter how many press clippings you have about the things you’ve done, that’s insignificant when it comes to mortality.

“But I’m calm about it. Very content.”

There’s been a lot of talk at Channel 5-WPTV about News Director Peter Roghaar’s new set of wheels, a shiny BMW 7 Series.

Not only is the 745 LI an environmentally unsound gas guzzler, with 20 mph on the highway at best, but the smooth German-engineered car retails for $80,000 these days.

And that’s the point staffers have noticed.

Roghaar has been tightening the budget screw inside the station, with layoffs that included star anchorwoman Laurel Sauer, reporter Jesse Chavez and even the husband of morning anchorwoman Roxanne Stein, 20-year production veteran Steve Moss. He’s taken away company cars and forced reporters to lug their own cameras instead of pairing them with photographers.  

And all this, while telling viewers to stretch their own budgets. (Read more…)