WHERE IS WWEN?

[A Splainin 2 Do Essay]

The FCC has been getting a lot of attention lately, mostly over morality and censorship issues - Howard Stern; the infamous wardrobe malfunction; and now the question over whether the realism regarding the horrors of war in "Saving Private Ryan" was too "indecent" to be broadcast.

And its puritanical tyranny over the broadcast networks apparently isn't enough for M. Powell & Co. Now they may try to get their grubby little digits into the cable business as well.

The standards for the FCC are so vague, and the authority of its leadership so compromised by blatant nepotism that it's a wonder they ever get anything accomplished. And with the televersion of the FCC so focused on the forest of censorship, they completely screw up in taking care of the trees. Little details like allowing only one TV station at a time to own a particular quartet of call letters completely slips their notice.

WWEN-TV is based in New Haven, Ct., and it has an actual, 1300 year old dragon working in disguise as a "puppet" during the 'News At Noon' weather forecast. But its radius of coverage goes far beyond the borders of New Haven; they cover the news in all of Southern New England.

For example, when it looked as though Sami Brady might be executed at the penitentiary in Salem, WWEN-TV sent their reporters Harry Grunwell and Cydney Kelly to cover the story. (Now, there are those who think Salem is situated in "the Heartland". Well, until somebody in authority actually names the state where it's located, I'm content to leave it in Massachusetts. Why can't Massachusetts be considered part of the Heartland. All this blue-state/red-state bleep makes me sick.)

Just recently, WWEN-TV sent a news team to report on the plane crash outside of Boston in which everybody on board had been overcome by fumes and the plane coasted to its doom on autopilot. It was a legitimate call to cover the story because it affected everybody along the Connecticut River, and one of the passengers - the man who precipitated the crash - came from Livingston, Connecticut.

Everything would indicate that this TV station in New Haven had full rights to the call letters of "WWEN". And yet down in Miami there's another TV station with the exact same name; where it's 'Good Morning, Miami' program was in dire need of an overhaul two years ago.

It's surprising that this aberration went unnoticed, as Jake Silver, the hotshot producer of 'Good Morning, Miami', had been brought in from Boston to rescue the show from the ratings dump. Surely, Silver must have noticed that the new station had the same call letters as the New Haven TV station. After all, if WWEN-TV covered stories up in the Beantown area, they must have come to his notice.

But then again, Jake was too mopey in love at the Miami station, mooning over Dylan the make-up girl. Maybe he never noticed. But eventually it would have come to his attention. And so even though we'll never know for sure, we have to go on the assumption that WWEN is no longer being used for Channel 12 in Miami, but instead the call letters belong rightfully in New Haven.

['Crossing Jordan' & 'Good Morning, Miami' & 'Days Of Our Lives' & 'Scorch']

BCnU!
Tele-Toby