Well-remembered. Pam Daale, the KMGH-Channel 7 meteorologist who died of breast cancer in 2004, lives on in a tribute on the station’s website and in a new book, “Mostly Sunny Partly Cloudy,” excerpts from her online journal.
Daale was at Channel 7 for 11 years, the last two battling cancer, being on the air and, most important to her, being a mom to her two kids.
“Sunny,” which describes both her smile and her outlook on life, is a journal of her fight with cancer. “My determination,” she wrote, “is to help other women (and men) to be more aware of breast cancer and how to detect it early.”
Diagnosed in 2002, she thought she had it beat, but it came back with a vengeance and she died in April 2004. “Pam’s journal is a testament to her faith, strength and courage,” said her husband, Don Peitzman.
She received thousands of letters while she went through chemotherapy. When she wrote back, she signed her responses, “The Happy Cancer Patient.”
Her journal is available for a $13 donation at thedenverchan nel.com or at denver.susangko men.org. Proceeds will go to the Denver chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Hot time in L.A.
Former Denver anchorman Carlos Amezcua caught up in a pay-for-play controversy.
Amezcua left KCNC-Channel 4 in 1991 to be a founding anchor on “KTLA Morning News” in Los Angeles, which has become a model for similar shows across the country.
But it was anything but model when three of the station’s four anchors spent a free night at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena.
The threesome, including Amezcua, got free deluxe rooms at the hotel, at $300-$400 a pop, in exchange for the “Morning News” being broadcast from the hotel. The station did not tell viewers that the rooms were free.
Rich Goldner, the show’s executive producer, didn’t see a problem. “People often come to us with these things. We don’t go to them,” he told the Los Angeles Times last week. “If there’s something we don’t like or feel is inappropriate, we won’t put it on the air. … We’re a news show.”
News directors at Channel, 4, 7 and 9 in Denver declined comment.
Around the dial
Noted glass sculptor Dale Chihuly featured in “Chihuly at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew” (7 tonight, KBDI-Channel 12). Chihuly’s “Antique Gold and Pale Aquamarine Chandelier” hangs in the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House. … One-time Denver deejay George McFly (not his real name) starts today as afternoon jock at KVUU 99.9-FM in Colorado Springs. … Quotable: “She was raised to be courageous.” Don Peitzman.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
