Give me an “E.”
Not only are the Philadelphia Eagles defending their NFL championship, but they begin doing it in the league’s first game of the 2025-26 season, at home, vs. possibly their most reviled rival, the Dallas Cowboys at 8:20 p.m. Thursday, on Channel 10.
The Cowboys are in their first season under new head coach Brian Schottenheimer and will be without potent linebacker Micah Parsons, who was traded to the Green Bay Packers last week.
Channel 10 gets the draw because its parent network, NBC, airs the season opener.
In general, and for the rest of this NFL season, “Thursday Night Football” airs on Prime Video.
The NBC announcing teams is led by Mike Tirico doing play-by-play, Cris Collinsworth as color analyst, and Melissa Stark on the sidelines.
The team represents decades of broadcast experience.
Fans are not always happy with Collinsworth. Some of his broader statements have led to controversy.
I disagree with the disdain. Collinsworth is the color commentator I prefer to hear.
I’d easily choose him over former Cowboys Tony Romo and Troy Aikman who populate other networks’booths.
And not because they’re former Cowboys. I find the expected hatred of Dallas or other rival teams, even New York teams, infantile. When I hear the subject come up on sports radio, I tune out.
Collinsworth is definitely knowledgeable and makes more interesting observations than his national network competitors: Romo, Aikman, Kirk Herbstreit or Tom Brady.
Toddlers who can barely speak make keener observations than Romo, who is teamed with Jim Nantz on CBS.
Tirico is also fine, always calling games clearly and with authority. He reminds me of baseball’s Jon Miller, my candidate for the best national play-by-play announcer ever in any sport.
Like Collinsworth, Tirico is my national favorite for NFL games.
As usual, radio coverage will be on WIP (94.1 FM) with newly extended Merrill Reese behind the mic for his 49th season and Mike Quick doing commentary for his 29th.
WIP regular Devan Kane reports from the sidelines. She has done an excellent job since taking over for Howard Eskin late last season.
Rickie Ricardo helms a Spanish-language broadcast on WEMG (105.7 FM) with Oscar Budejen and Bill Kulik as commentators.
Channel 10 is airing a week of 7:30 p.m. special programs leading to Thursday’s game.
Monday night’s show is called “Eagles Game Plan” and features news anchor Fred Shropshire as host with WIP’s best, former Eagles star linebacker Ike Reese and Mike Quick, a wide receiver in his day, as commentators.
Channel 10’s durable, reliable sports reporter John Clark completes the team. The program includes a piece about Eagles Hall of Fame-bound offensive tackle Lane Johnson.
Tuesday’s “Eagles Preview” features Shropshire and Clark with busy Channel 10 anchor Jacqueline London.
Featured this time are team fixture but first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo and running back A.J. Dillon, acquired from the Green Bay Packers in March.
Wednesday’s “Eagles Game Day” has John Clark discussing Eagles-Cowboys with CBS color analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Ross Tucker, who will cover many NFL games this year, with Phillies announcer Tom McCarthy as his primary play-by-play caller.
Tucker is also heard on Westwood One with the ubiquitous Scott Graham and on the NFL Network. Heand Clark will chat with Cris Collinsworth.
Other local TV stations are likely planning previews.
I have long given up expecting press releases or having a regular conversations with said stations, but I was surprised when none of their websites had the slightest information about any Eagles preview program.
And here I was looking forward to what Don Bell or Pat Gallen might have to say on Channel 3, especially ifthey were joined by former Eagle, Seth Joyner.
Channel 10, usually the least responsive local station, offered complete information, as is evident.
Mike Jerrick talk show to debut
Channel 29 morning man Mike Jerrick begins burning the candle at both ends of the day Sept. 8 when he takes helm of a new Fox Philadelphia talk show tailored, “MIKE” — the caps are Channel 29’s — airing for a half-hour weeknights at 11:30 p.m.
The show will have the feel of the great talk shows from history, using the model started by Steve Allen and passed on to Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and used by Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, and other legendary talk show hosts.
That means a desk, a couch, and a format that leaves room for interviews, news discussions, musical segments, stand-up comedy and skits.
Mike will even have a sidekick, Fox 29 executive producer, Vince DeFruscio.
Hearing about the show, via a press release from Fox, I thought, “How Mike Jerrick!” and “How Channel 29!”
In his two tenures in Philadelphia, the first lasting from 1999 to 2002, the second ranging from 2009 to the present, after Mike was host of a national daytime show on Fox and spent some time in New York, Mike has become one of the best known figures on Philadelphia television.
He is also quite the man about town. He may work early mornings, but he makes the most of his evenings socializing with friends and getting to know Philadelphians of all sorts, from politicians and sports figures to restauranteurs and others who make the most of the city and region in which they live.
From the time Mike arrived in Philadelphia in 1999, he developed a reputation as a ready conversationalist who had a knack for being funny and even surprising.
One thing I noticed during his first tour with “Good Day Philadelphia,” the program with which he is primarilyassociated, is how fast he could turn from being a personality, cracking jokes and chatting with Donya Archer, Alex Holley, Sue Serio, Karen Hepp, Thomas Drayton, or any number of micmates to being a serious newscaster if a story broke that required him to command the desk as a standard news anchor.
Mike is a raconteur who experienced and knows a lot and is quick to tell you when he’s unfamiliar with something.
He is also a storyteller who enjoys relating his days and evenings around Philadelphia, whether they involve doing a segment about a new restaurant or just things that happened while he out and about.
Mike is unpredictable. As one of the main “Good Day” panelists, he will often say the unexpected. The point is he can carry a conversation and make points.
This makes him perfect for his role on “Good Day Philadelphia” and for being a late-night talk host, especially one from the old school of Paar, Carson and Griffin.
“MIKE” also shows why Channel 29 is by far the most dynamic television station in the market. Certainly the most creative.
Other stations have homegrown programs, but none pepper their daily scheduled with fully produced shows tailored to their host or presenter the way Channel 29 does.
Even Channel 6, that can boast some good local programming, doesn’t show the flare the local Fox outlet does. Channel 6’s shows — “Inside Story” excepted — have a safe, sterile, standard feel while Channel 29 goes in for tightrope acts.
Channels 3, 10 and 17 don’t or can’t compete at all. With the exception Channel 3’s Don Bell and Pat Gallen on Sunday nights during football season, their output next to Channels 29 and 6 are ditchwater.
Channel 29 does exciting work. “Good Day Philadelphia” is a great alternative to the formulaic claptrap “Today,” “Good Morning America,” and CBS’s 7 to 9 a.m. shows have become, complete with their odious “Deals and Steals.”
Karen Hepp, Thomas Drayton, Sue Serio, Alex Holley, Drew Anderson, Bill Anderson and Jerrick are capable of interesting conversations that are usually about some aspect of everyday life, the choices people make, and the experiences that may influence them.
I am usually working at 9 a.m., but when I’m not, I look forward to hearing what the “Good Day” team has to say.
Channel 29 follows “Good Day” with Thomas Drayton’s super-intelligent “Aftershow,” something completely original and different, at 10 a.m.
The whole Channel 29 newsroom gets involved, including at times news director Jim Driscoll, and they make a great impression.
Then there’s the afternoon fare with everyman Hank Flynn getting to the heart of matters by roving the region and showing the great things that happen here.
Bill Anderson follows with takes of his own. Mike Jerrick also shows up in the p.m. Then, in the evening, there’s “The ClassH-room” with Richard Curtis pitting students and teachers from the same school againsteach other in a test of knowledge or Bob Kelly taking you to various spots on “Kelly Drives” or Mike Jerrick again!
Channel 29 programs like no other local station. It dances to its own tune, and it’s a good one. “MIKE” is a next step. I’m eager to see it.
Channel 6 GM retiring
An era ends with the year.
Bernie Prazenica, who has been president and general manager of Channel 6 since 2007 and is a trusted and able keeper of its bright, bright flame, is retiring after a career that brought him to Channel 6 twice, first as a sales representative and sales director from the ’80s to the start of this century, and then the one the finest GM’s in market history.
Prazenica was handed the most watched station per capita in the U.S. by such leaders as Larry Pollock, Rebecca Campbell and Dave Davis and not only kept Channel 6 at the top but innovated and modernized and kept what was established and hit gold in the 20th century a hallmark for a television station in the 21st.
One of Prazenica’s early achievements from moving Channel 6 from its iconic but cramped and dated round studio at City Line and Monument to a state-of-the-art broadcast facility occupying the same real estate.
He even found a way to keep the round studio a City Line landmark.
In between Prazenica’s tours at Channel 6, he held instrumental posts in ABC National Sales.
Before returning to Philadelphia in 2007, he was the president and general manager of one of Channel 6’s ABC sister stations, one that for a while was like a farm team for WPVI, the ABC station in Raleigh, N.C.
Prazenica, as a business leader, was active in the community and sat on several boards and served in advisory positions.
His leadership is exemplary. Channel 6 has had a history of doing well under a series of new execs.
Prazenica is the longest-tenured GM in Channel 6 history. It will interesting to see who ABC names to take his place.
Even with 18 years at the helm of one station, Prazenica is not the most senior of the GM’s in the market.
Channel 29’s Dennis Bianchi is. He has been at the Fox station since 2002 and before that was the GM at Channel 10.
Remember Murray and Saline
Philadelphia media was saddened by the deaths of two of the most liked figures that were part of our community, even though one was not a broadcaster or journalist.
The news of Jim Murray’s passing Aug. 25 at age 87, elicited one the largest outpourings of grief among Philadelphia notables since Jerry Blavat died in January 2023.
Murray was just a great guy. Whenever you met him, he was jovial and positive.
He did not delve into politics or get involved in controversy. He was one who made everyone feel happy and welcome to be in his company.
Murray achieved a lot in his life. He was the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles for several years and help build the team culture that remains to this day.
He will always be remembered and lauded as the indefatigable founder of the Ronald McDonald House, an idea that came to him when an Eagles player with a daughter being treated at Children’s Hospital needed a place to stay.
Murray brought together Dr. Audrey Evans, about whom a recent movie has been made, the Eagles, and McDonald’s, and a difference was made in thousands of a residence was established for parents who needed to be near an ill child being treated a distance from their home.
Carol Saline was a staple of Philadelphia Magazine as a lead writer for many years before she wrote her best-selling books, including “Sisters” with Sharon J. Wohlmuth, starting in 1994.
I was lucky in terms of meeting with Carol. I don’t know that we ever planned an outing together, but somehow, even in New York and London, we would manage to be in the same place, usually a theater or cultural museum, at the same time.
It was uncanny.
Recently, I took a random jaunt to New York, bought a random ticket to a show that was not the hit or the year but that interested me, and who was in the seat next to me? Carol Saline.
We laughed because it was like the 90th time in happened in an acquaintance that of more than 40 years.
Carol wrote many groundbreaking stories.
From the time she was winning school elections as Carol Sue Auerbach in Camden, N.J., her charm, curiosity, wisdom, and friendly nature made her both a leader and a great companion, even by accident.
Carol died Saturday after a bout with leukemia. Always the active one, in her last days, she submitted her obit to The New York Times.
Jim Murray. Carol Saline. Two greats, Now part of the ages.
Source: Berkshire mont
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