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He replaces the well-liked Dave Huddleston whom the station chose not to renew in May. Drayton comes to the station from Sacramento's Fox affiliate KTXL where he co-anchored the 10 p.m. newscast. He's also worked in Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, but says he's happy to return to this area which he remembers from his Jersey youth.
Barkley by phone yesterday said he's flying to Alabama today to prepare for the procedure on Friday.
Sir Charles, 45, says he was surprised that the show approached him, but was happy to participate in promoting awareness for colonoscopies, which screen for colorectal cancer, polyps and other conditions of the large intestine or colon for prostate and other cancers.
Sources say DeMentri told colleagues Tuesday that he didn't touch Delgado's car. In the past, DeMentri and Delgado had a particularly close friendship. Delgado is married. In May 2007 we reported that DeMentri was in the process of a divorce from QVC-host wife Pat James DeMentri. NBC 10 spokeswoman Eva Blackwell said the station does not comment on personnel matters. DeMentri's attorney, Paul Rosen, did not return our e-mail or a phone call yesterday.
Tollefson returned to Fox 29 Sunday night after being out since early April recovering from a car accident, but was off-air Monday night when the station told us he was "back on leave." Why would the station bring a guy back from leave for one day only to announce he was no longer working for the station two days later? We asked and got no reply.
We were told Monday that Tolly's desk had been cleaned out that night when he did not go on the 5 or 10 p.m. newscasts. Earlier today we learned of an argument Tollefson had with news director Kingsley Smith last week after he showed up at the station and wanted to go on-air to be part of a send-off for Dave Huddleston, whose last day on the anchor desk was Thursday. It's unclear if the argument directly related to the station's decision to not renew the sportscaster. Smith's office referred our call to a station spokeswoman who could not address specifics of any decisions and said only that "his contract was not renewed today." We learned recently that management was upset that Tollefson was making public appearances at various charity events while he was staying off air due to doctor's orders. The station also declined to address those rumors. Tolly, who returned to ESPN 950 AM over the weekend, has not returned multiple calls for comment.
