Emmy honoree "Big Al" Meltzer stricken
The sportscaster is resting at home after a trip to the hospital before Saturday night's ceremony.
"Big Al" Meltzer was to accept the Board of Governors' Award at last night's Mid-Atlantic Emmys, but he was taken ill during the cocktail party at the Loews and had to leave for the hospital.
He is resting at home now, an Emmys rep said. His buddy Bill Baldini accepted the award in his behalf and the audience watched a video tribute.
Meltzer, 82, a veteran of Channels 10 and 3 plus Comcast SportsNet, started his Philly broadcasting career in 1966 at WPHL-17, where he covered the 76ers and Big 5.
He retired in 2003.
Update: Meltzer says that he "overdid it" by standing during the meet and greet and that docs diagnosed him with hypotension.
We'll have the Emmys night wrap-up in Monday's Inquirer. Here's the list of winners.
Big station winner was CBS3/CW Philly with 22 categories, followed by Comcast SportsNet/The Comcast Network with 9, WHTM-TV (Harrisburg) with 6, KDKA-TV (Pittsburgh), WQED Multimedia (Pittsburgh) and NJN Public Television (Trenton) each with 5, Multi Media Productions (Langhorne) and WHP CBS21 (Harrisburg) each with 4, Fox29 and NBC10 each with 3, ManPri Productions (Pembrook Pines, Fla.), WPSU-TV (University Park), and WFMZ-TV (Allentown) each with 2.
Winners of 1: Blue Ridge Communications (Lehighton), Center City Film & Video (Phila), Commonwealth Media Services (Harrisburg), Eagles Television Network (Phila), eMediaWorks (Center Valley, PA), Everest Production/Ebru TV (Somerset, NJ), Qwaves Documentaries (Washington, DC), Studio TEN Creative Group (Phila), WGAL-TV (Lancaster), WLVT PBS39 (Bethlehem) and WPXI-TV (Pittsburgh).
As usual, 6ABC did not enter as a station.