Ann Devlin, the new "NightTalk" host replacing John McIntire on the PCNC cable channel starting Nov. 3, would like a new set.
"I wish the show would be broadcast live from a glass-covered pod suspended over the city," Devlin says. "It would be a dramatic backdrop." Something like a 60-minute version of magician David Blaine's 44-day starvation stunt in a glass booth dangling above London. "A girl can always dream," Devlin says.
She would settle for some comfortable chairs instead of the high ones behind the imposing desk on the NightTalk set. New theme music would be nice, too. "I like happy, upbeat jazz. You know it when you hear it."
NightTalk viewers might not recognize the show Devlin will be hosting at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with repeat broadcasts at 2 a.m. and 5 p.m. the next day -- even if the set and music remain the same. After seven years of McIntire's left-wing wisecracks, over-the-top commentaries and scores of double entendres, Devlin will play it straight. No off-color comments and no commentaries. No kidding.
Well ... maybe some gentle kidding with the guests.
"I am not opinion-driven. I am question-driven," says Devlin, who has been a talk host on several TV and radio stations over the years. She also had her own Internet interview show, which she ended about three years ago.
"This is all new," she says about succeeding McIntire. "In the beginning, the smartest approach is to recognize the mission -- deliver strong content, get good bookings (guests), prepare, and get on and off the air cleanly without any big technical gaffes or mistakes." That might be easier said than done, considering McIntire commented periodically about gremlins that created technical mischief and mayhem.
"I saw the night that the TelePrompTer was not working," Devlin says about the machine that had a scroll of McIntire's commentary. It was running so slowly that McIntire gave up in disgust trying to read it. "I believe that everybody will try to put their best foot forward and show good humor when things go wrong," Devlin says.
Talk hosts, like other human beings, have favorites. Mix certain guests who have good chemistry with the host, and create TV magic. "They just click," Devlin says about TV guests who seem to be invited back more often than others. "There are some people who are great guests. They bring a gift every time."
However, there is an incredible universe of potential guests, she says. "I would not want to limit us in any way (by) having too much of a great emphasis on those (favorite) guests," Devlin says. In other words, viewers might see fewer familiar faces who had been steady McIntire invitees. Viewers also might see Devlin's shopping bag.
"I'm centering myself to gear up for new professional challenges, to be the best I could be," Devlin says about her novel way of "backgrounding," or studying to understand the issues. To create her own clip library, Devlin has cut out sections of newspapers and placed them in a Kaufmann's shopping bag on her kitchen floor.
"I will be like a bag lady. I think that will work. I will have my shopping bag of clips."
Devlin has been practicing her talk host skills even though she has been off the air raising her two children with husband Bill Flanagan, chief communications officer for the Allegheny Conference and its affiliates and host of the "Sunday Business Page" at 8:30 a.m. Sundays on KDKA (Channel 2).
Between broadcast jobs, Devlin took all the questions on issues such as 9/11 or the region's economy that she would have asked her guests, and instead grilled Bill. "He was an audience of one willing to respond to questions in normal conversations.
"He is a genuinely good-natured person," she says about the one-on-one interviews.
Both take parenting very seriously.
"I did not want a full-time job," Devlin says. The job had to fit in with her family life, she said to station management. "I believed it could be workable. Family is most important of all."
She is first a full-time mom, and very happy to be doing it -- and having it all, she says. Flanagan will be with the children in the evenings, but Devlin will be able to have dinner with them before going to the studio.
Devlin knows that the transition from stay-at-home mom to part-time broadcaster might not happen perfectly overnight. She also knows that NightTalk viewers will be facing the challenge of watching the transition from McIntire's style to hers.
"I hope John McIntire's viewers give me a chance over time," Devlin says. "I hope they find it worthy."
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If it's Tuesday, it must be Pittsburgh
Brian Williams, 44, the NBC news anchor who will succeed Tom Brokaw as anchor and managing editor of the "NBC Nightly News" after the 2004 presidential election, was in Pittsburgh on Thursday taping a report on the domestic steel industry. The segment will air on the "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw" at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on WPXI (Channel 11).
Williams, who spent summers in the early '70s with relatives on the North Side and then in Penn Hills, interviewed area steel workers. "This is a tough one," Williams says. "You cannot drive through Braddock without being overwhelmed by the empty store fronts. It is terribly sad to see boarded-up towns. Families have broken up, too. I think they will find a way to survive, but now, times are tough."
Rushing to fill gap
While nationally syndicated radio talk host Rush Limbaugh is in rehab treating his drug addiction, the following guest hosts will sub for him next week from noon to 3 p.m. on KDKA (1020 AM), according to Inside Radio: Monday and Tuesday, San Diego radio talk host Roger Hedgecock; Wednesday and Thursday, Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow, whose writings have been carried in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; and Friday, syndicated columnist Dr. Walter Williams, whose column is carried in the Trib.
Everything old is new again
The former WDSY (107.9 FM) morning show host who goes by "Monty," as well as current morning host Chris DeCarlo, are the station's new morning team, according to Keith Clark, vice president/programming for owner Infinity Pittsburgh.
"The Y108 Country Crew with Monty and Chris" will air on the station that goes by "Y108" for the first time at 5:30 to 10 a.m. Friday. The following week, the program will air live Monday through Thursday from the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tenn. From there on, the show will air 5:30 to 10 a.m. weekdays from Pittsburgh.
DeCarlo had been part of the recent morning show "Welch & Woody," which was taken off the air Monday. Monty, whose legal name Clark would not release, has been working the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday shift at the station.
