Zoren: NBC 10’s John Clark gets a ‘Lewie’ in Temple U ceremony

The ubiquitous John Clark, who seems to be a one-person band conveying sports news on Channel 10 but is actually on the team at NBC Sports Philadelphia, was among the recipients of this year’s Lew Klein Award, bestowed by Temple University to alumni who have made a name in broadcasting, news or communications.

Clark, who earned his degree from Temple in 1998, is the reporter you see on site at almost every major game and event. He started at Channel 10 in 2002 and has been a dynamic staple at the station since.

Several years ago, the station, owned by Comcast, which bought NBC, dissolved its sports department because the market’s 24-hour sports outlet, now called NBC Sports Philadelphia, had more resources than a more diverse station to cover the subject.

Clark, because of his association with Channel 10, became the sportscaster most assigned to the station.

Now it seems like he’s everywhere. He is the person I expect to see doing post-game interviews and analysis.

Cited with a “Lewie” as the market’s Rising Star is Beccah Hendrickson, who covers a wide range of stories for Channel 6’s “Action News,” where her official title is “multimedia journalist.”

Hendrickson, graduated from Temple in 2016, has been at 6 ABC since 2019. She arrived there from her hometown, Lancaster, where she’d made a mark covering complex stories.

Guest of honor at this year’s Klein ceremonies was ABC News prime anchor David Muir, who was recognized for Excellence in Media.

In addition to accepting his award, Muir held a “student conversation” with journalism students and others who registered to attend.

Muir is the anchor and editor-in-chief of ABC’s weekday 6:30 p.m. digest, “World News Tonight with David Muir.”

He has been in this important post since 2014, when he replaced Diane Sawyer, and is by far the dean among primetime anchors on legacy networks.

His national newscast is also the top rated in its time slot.

Lew Klein is one of the most influential pioneers of Philadelphia broadcasting, in addition to being a prolific educator and encourager to many embarking in television, radio, news, advertising and public relations careers.

He made a name for himself at Temple for being a beloved professor, but also a dedicated adviser to guided students towards success.

When Channel 6 was owned by Walter Annenberg and his Triangle Broadcasting Group, roughly from the station’s inception to 1972 when Annenberg sold it to Capital Cities, Klein, who died in 2019, was a major programmer and producer.

He worked on “Bandstand” while it was local, staying close to that show’s host and eventual national producer, Dick Clark, was incharge of the popular “Popeye Theater” featuring a generation’s perpetual sweetheart, Sally Starr, and brought Carter and Pat Merbrier to Channel 6 as Captain and Mrs. Noah.

Changes afoot at WRTI

WRTI (90.1 FM) looks as if in found an iron man in its recently appointed Jazz Associate Program Director Julian Booker.

I can’t swear to it, but in one recent 24-hour period, I had the impression I heard Booker in every day part on ‘RTI’s jazz schedule (6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily).

I might swear that I heard him on the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Late Night Jazz program he took over from Courtney Blue, when she wassuddenly laid off this fall — Why? I don’t know. — then woke up to him at 4:30 a.m. sitting in for Jazz Through the Night host Bobbi Booker, no relation.

I even recall a morning hearing, perhaps on a Sunday, when jazz and classical juxtapose less formally than on other days.

In any case, Booker is getting a lot of air time and making a strong impression because of it. He displays the knowledge you’re used from other ‘RTI hosts like the late Bob Perkins and “Big Band” host Bob Craig with the fluid conversational delivery I’ve come to expect from ‘RTI late afternoon classical host, Meg Bragle.

Booker is no stranger to the Philadelphia market. He was heard for several years on WXPN (88.5 FM), where he was a frequent host of what might be the most eclectic program on local radio, “Sleepy Hollow,” which airs weekday mornings.

I associate Booker with the Sunday edition because with my loopy sense of humor, I used to quip in my head about going fromBooker to Booker as I drifted from Bobbi Booker’s Sunday-morning spiritual show on ‘RTI to “Sleepy Hollow.”

In addition to the “Late Night Jazz” show Monday through Thursday, Booker is host of ‘RTI’s most far-ranging program, “The Get Down,” heard Friday evenings from 6 to 10 p.m.

He replaces ‘RTI associate general manager, Josh Jackson, another who might be heard around the clock, including doing classical duty.

All of this indicates a lineup juggle at ‘RTI this fall.

The classical shows remain stable, with John Scherch — pronounced “search” — from 6 to 10 a.m., Melissa Whiting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Meg Bragle from 2 p.m. to the handoff to jazz at 6 p.m.

The jazz schedule registers at entirely new with Nicole Sweeney establishing herself in the leadoff slot from 6 to 10 p.m., JulianBooker, moving in from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., Bobbi Booker providing her soothing overnight tones from 2 to 6 a.m., which might be a relief for Bobbi considering her shift was once from midnight to 6 a.m.

Other new voices I’m been hearing at ‘RTI are Joshua Lee on the jazz side, especially in the early mornings — which indicates prolific travel writer Bobbi Booker is off of one of those adventures that make me jealous and want to seek travel work when I hear of them — and Hannah Rose Nicholas, who has been heard a few times recently on the classical side.

Some other October changes at ‘RTI involve the disappearance of nationally syndicated programs that came from NPR.

These include the periodic reports from NPR News, to which I say “good riddance,” but also two shows I enjoyed, Sunday evening’s “Jazz Night in America” and the Saturday morning visit with talented teenage musicians in “From the Top.”

“Jazz Night” was replaced by “Sunday Rotation” and equally entertaining local shows.

On Saturdays, “Performance Today Weekend” will expand an hour.

I enjoy the program’s weekly “Piano Puzzler,” which plays a popular tune in the style of a classical composer, and asks a contestant to name both the song and the composer being copied.

Darius deHaas debuts new album

Darius deHaas almost turned down the job of being the recorded voice of Shy Baldwin on Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Producers were looking for a singer with a wide range who could do the musical numbers Baldwin would perform in his nightclub act or concerts.

That singer would be heard while the actor playing Baldwin on-screen, Leroy McClain, acted the part.

While performing his cabaret act at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Grill last week, de Haas told the audience that before he was signed to voice Baldwin, producers asked him whether he could sound like Johnny Mathis, one of the singers on whom Baldwin was modeled.

De Haas could. He’s a longtime admirer of Mathis. But he said no, he wasn’t interested in doing a Mathis impersonation.

His reason? That would take away the opportunity to do different songs in different styles.

De Haas cited everyone from Luther Vandross to Doris Day as influences. He said he wanted to serve the song, and while Mathis would be a great model, trying to always sound like him would be limiting.

Obviously, the producers eventually saw things de Haas’s way.

Their choice to hire him turned out to be a good one. De Haas said he thought the “Maisel” gig would be a one-off. Baldwin became so popular, McClain was seen and de Haas heard for several seasons.

At the Rittenhouse, he sang some original tunes written specifically for Baldwin. They were are good as the standards, jazz, and pop tunes de Haas also performed, including, in tribute to Johnny Mathis, his rendition of “Misty.”

On Friday, de Haas released a Christmas album, which has an original song, “Let Me Carry You This Christmas,” also the title of the album.

The song by composers Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore has the makings of a Christmas classic. I’d recommend it to WBEB (101.1 FM), which has already begun its annual playing of Christmas music from now through the first weeks of January.

Yes, B 101 has probably programmed the entire holiday season and, yes, it probably relies on proven tunes, but I think it would be refreshing to put a good new song into the mix.

Mariah Carey, Brenda Lee, Mel Torme, and others do fine with their Christmas classics, but the given heart that gets thrown away the very next day, simply having a wonderful Christmas time, and Andy Williams crooning a waltz, welcome as they are, get tiresome with repetition.

“Let Me Carry You This Christmas” deserves a hearing and, I think, some airtime.

Remembering June Lockhart

The passing of Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, and now June Lockhart has made this a sad fall for people who appreciate fine acting that leads to stardom.

Lockhart, whose parents preceded her in movies and theater, died Thursday, a few months after celebrating her 100th birthday.

Though the first family I remember on “Lassie” featured Jan Clayton and Tommy Rettig, the image of “Lassie” shared by most boomers, and watchers of vintage reruns is Lockhart and Jon Provost.

Cloris Leachman briefly played Lassie’s adult owner between Clayton and Lockhart.

“Lassie” and a later stint as the mother to the Robinson clan on “Lost in Space” cemented Lockhart as a beloved figure. She brought warmth and intelligence to both roles, certainly a more difficult task with “Lost in Space.”

As with most actresses, her famous roles are only a fraction of the fine work she did. Whether taking over from the late Bea Benederet on “Petticoat Junction” or guest-starring in dozens of television programs, Lockhart was always a welcome presence on the little screen.

She also had a stage and movie career, winning one of the first Tony Awards, in 1948, in a bygone category, Best Performance by a Newcomer, for her turn in the play, “For Love or Money.”

One of her early films was 1945’s “Son of Lassie,” set in England during World War II, where Lassie and her pup, Laddie, are the pets of a Royal Air Force trainee played by Peter Lawford.

Lockhart played the daughter of a British noble.

Missing a friend and colleague

On what I’d calculate to be dozens of occasions, I would encounter one of my favorite colleagues, Ellen Wilson Dilks, at theatrical events.

Often, we were working as reviewers for various newspapers. Sometimes Dilks was performing in or directing the play at hand.

In any case, we’d see each other, and a conversation begun heaven knows when would resume, usually for more than a hour.

A chat sparked in an aisle would move to the lobby, then the front of the theater, then to the parking lot, ending only when one of us realized we had to get home and write or go to another theater.

These were welcome moments when anything from Medea to the most modern play, and other stuff, ranging from nonsense to personal news, e.g. her granddaughter, could come up.

In recent years, these topics included our individual health, at times precarious in both cases.

As we reached our 70s, physical conditions and surgeries often occupied more time than what we’d just seen at Hedgerow, People’s Light, or Act 2 in Ambler.

Dilks had a particularly difficult couple of years. Oh, she kept up spirits and showed determination to sail past what seemed like a barrage of maladies.

Facebook photos from hospital rooms were both plucky and sad.

They chronicled an illness that did not seem to be improving.On Oct. 14, Ellen Wilson Dilks took her last curtain call. She was age 72.

The theater lost not only a great fan and practitioner, but an avid commentator, educator, and advocate.

Newspapers lost a kind but knowledgeable voice.

RIP Ellen. You will be missed.