Goodbye Pete Scalia

Channel 5 traffic reporter Pete Scalia will be paying a lot of attention to I-75 traffic reports… when he begins commuting to Dayton's Channels 22/45. Scalia has been hired to co-anchor the morning news.

"It's a good upgrade for him," says Richard Dyer, Channel 5 president and general manager. And it's another change for the "News 5 Today" morning show, which in the past 14 months has changed half its cast (weathermen Eric Green, co-anchor Jonathan Hawgood).

Scalia was hired 2-1/2 years ago from Channel 5's on-air traffic tryouts. At the time he was the keyboard player for the rock band Freekbass. But he wasn't a stranger to TV. After graduating from Ohio University in 1996, he worked as a Channel 5 production assistant back in the Crosley Square days before hitting the road to tour with a band. He's also been a Channel 19 production assistant, overnight WARM98 DJ, and a producer for Dusty Rhodes' morning show on old WSAI-AM (1530).

When the 1991 Oak Hills High School graduate was hired by Channel 5 in October 2005, Scalia said: "Even with my musical background and experience, I have always wanted to somehow end up in TV here in my hometown."

Now it's time to move on, to move up to a better job. He joins primary co-anchor Candice Hunter, who left Channel 5 last summer for the same stations. The Cincinnati connection here is news director Pat Casey, former Channel 19 news director.

Can he anchor? We'll see. Traffic guy Bob Herzog does a pretty good job as Channel 12's Saturday morning anchor.

One more thing: Don't look for another "Traffic Tryout" stunt by Channel 5. "We don't have plans to do that at this point," Dyer says.