Q: What’s up with Erica Mokay on KDKA-TV, who’s been missing from KDKA morning news with John Shumway? She has been off, then came back for a few days, and now she’s off again. Has she been sick?
— Nancy, via Facebook
Rob: It’s December, a time when TV news personnel schedules go out the window as vacations necessitate fill-ins and all sorts of shifting schedules.
“I’m not sick!” Mokay confirmed. “Since I’m the ‘new kid on the block,’ I’m usually the one working the holidays. So, I have a lot of [paid time off] banked up that I needed to use before losing it.”
Mokay was off the week of Dec. 7 and a few days the week of Dec. 14, but she’ll be working the week of Dec. 22.
Mokay’s usual shift is now 4:30-7 a.m. weekdays on KDKA and 7-9 a.m. weekdays on WPKD, AKA KDKA . (The station never externally, formally announced Mokay was moved into the weekday early morning anchor role after Lindsay Ward was laid off in August.)
Q: Is there a reason why WTAE meteorologist Mike Harvey seems to always have a blue shirt on?
— Ed, via email
Rob: My understanding is he wears both blue and white shirts, but more often white shirts.
Q: I have been seeing commercials recently regarding Verizon’s and WPXI’s inability to reach agreement and that WPXI might be dropped from FIOS on Dec. 15. Isn’t Verizon required to cover all local broadcast channels under the FCC’s “must carry” rule?
— Steven, Murrysville
Rob: Cable and satellite companies do have a “must carry” obligation for local, full-power broadcast channels, but it is pursuant to a contract between stations and cable/satellite distributors. So when there are retransmission spats, as in this case and others like it, a station may be pulled from the cable/satellite distributor.
Q: I am so mad that I can no longer watch the “Today” show in the morning and WPXI news and Jimmy Fallon now that Channel 11 is no longer on Verizon FiOS TV. Jimmy is doing the 12 days of Christmas sweaters, and Dec. 15 was the fourth night counting down from 12. Also, I love MeTV and last night I missed two shows of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” We should get a refund for not having NBC. Whose fault is it? I blame Verizon. How do I complain to them? I hope they come to a deal soon.
— Kimerle, via email
Rob: There’s plenty of blame to go around, so I’d blame both Verizon and WPXI parent company Cox Media Group. And while you’re at it, blame late-stage capitalism.
Complaining to either entity will do not good, although as a Verizon customer if you want to brave a call to the company you pay for cable to request a refund, that’s who you’d contact.
Bottom line: Neither company cares about their customers/viewers; they only care about the bottom line, which is what retransmission disputes are all about.
Q: I saw the first episode of a really good show called “Irish Blood” on the WE network. Now, after I am hooked, I find out I will have to subscribe to Acorn TV for $8.99 a month to keep watching. That is so sneaky. Is there any other way I could watch other than subscribing to Acorn TV?
— Becky, Scott Township
Rob: The only option I see is to move to U.K. and watch it on Channel 5 there. Otherwise, if you want to see “Irish Blood” in America, you’ll have to subscribe to Acorn TV. The showings on WE were promotional efforts to get viewers to subscribe to Acorn.