Stone Phillips, who helped launch "Dateline NBC" 15 years ago, was unable to come to terms on a new contract as the news magazine's co-anchor and won't be replaced.
Ann Curry, who has been Phillips' co-anchor for the past two years and doubles as news reader on "Today," will front "Dateline," with the show's reporters helping to introduce their own stories.
The ripples from dropping Stone reverberated through the same General Electric-owned network that has asked "Weekend Today" co-host Lester Holt to do double duty as anchor of the weekend edition of "NBC Nightly News," in place of John Seigenthaler, whose contract, like Phillips', wasn't renewed.
That said, "Dateline" probably doesn't need two anchors. After all, how hard is it to say, "What Chris Hansen discovered online may shock you: That person in the chatroom with your son or daughter may be not be who he says he is"?
Besides, while Phillips was paired with Jane Pauley for the show's first 11 years, he soloed for two years before Curry was added to the program.
Phillips was with the program in the bad, old days when it got caught blowing up a truck, which quite nearly incinerated the show, through the glory days when NBC aired it as often as five times per week. "Dateline" is still used to fill random holes in the now fourth-place network's prime-time lineup, but it's not as effective, efficient or economical in that role as, say, the game show "Deal or No Deal," which is why it was no deal for NBC and Phillips.
This fall, coming off a year in which it averaged around 6.3 million viewers per broadcast, less than half what CBS' "60 Minutes" draws, "Dateline" is scheduled to air Saturdays, although it's supposed to add a second weekly broadcast on Sundays after football season.
"Dateline" executive producer David Corvo, in a statement, called Phillips "a loyal leader and patient mentor," while NBC News boss Steve Capus said Phillips' "legacy here will live on with the program he established and cares so much about."
In his own statement, Stone refused to be thrown. "It's been a wonderful 15 years," he said.
STATION BREAK: Elroy R.C. Smith, whose phenomenally successful run as programmer at WGCI-FM 107.5 ended in a March managerial realignment at Clear Channel Chicago, on Tuesday made official his decision to leave the company June 1 to pursue other opportunities in terrestrial radio.
"I just want to do something new, and it's got to be challenging," Smith, who will be paid until August, said in an interview. "For me to just sit and maintain a radio station is not challenging. ... My goal is to remain [in Chicago], but if I have to leave, I will."
Until Clear Channel eliminated the title of operations director at its Chicago stations in March, Smith was operations and program director for WGCI and WVAZ-FM 102.7, and operations director for WGRB-AM 1390. With the shuffle, Smith's sole assignment for the company was reduced to program director for V-103, which he concedes was "a tough one" because " 'GCI became such an integral part of my life."
Smith, however, said he already had told Clear Channel higher-ups in December he was considering a departure. "So before we even got into that phase of the discussion, I forewarned the corporate and local guys that I would work through the end of the contract, but I would not be renewing," Smith said.
"It's been the most remarkable run, and I got to asking myself: What else can I do?" he said. "The answer was: You need a new challenge. It's no longer big news that 'GCI is No. 1. It's not even a news story anymore. I mean, it's great, but it's expected. ... You can maintain them and tweak them here and there, but there's nothing else because these things are brands at this point."
Earl Jones, Clear Channel's market manager in Chicago, said in a note to staff that Smith's "expertise was a tremendous asset to our stations during his 15 years of service." Jones named V-103 assistant program director Armando Rivera as Smith's interim replacement at that station.
THE LAST WORD: "Maybe they're becoming the Lifetime Network, but it's working." -- Marc Graboff, NBC Universal Television's West Coast president, on Disney-owned ABC's female-oriented lineup. ---------- philrosenthal@tribune.com
