Political Columnist
What would Irv, Rick & Tom think of state of Channel 7 news?
DAN MEYER
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. After close to 30 years of dominance as THE local news station to watch in the Buffalo area, WKBW-TV Channel 7 has been floundering in recent years. The recent departure of sports director John Murphy is just another nail in the coffin of what has become the laughing stock of the local news industry.

Not only have WGRZ-TV Channel 2 and WIVB-TV Channel 4 surged past Channel 7 in the Nielsen ratings for virtually every newscast time period, but also the morale at Channel 7, described to me by a station insider as "utterly deplorable and downright depressing," has to be even lower following the news that "Murph" was leaving the station after nearly 20 years of employment.

Murphy is just the latest on-air personality to run for the hills as major fiscal woes for Channel 7's parent company have resulted in a horrible product that's the result of too few people working both on the air and behind the scenes, resulting in countless technical errors.

Irv Weinstein, Tom Jolls and Rick Azar made up the news anchor-weatherman-sportscaster trio who helped set the standard for many years of great success on "Eyewitness News." I wonder what those broadcast legends think about Channel 7's current state of affairs?

As for the future of WKBW, all that's left to do now is ask the last one out the door to please turn off the lights.

* * *

Seven, count 'em, seven, drunken driving-related convictions. Seven DWI arrests tallied up during a 23-year period.

That Timothy Gilpatrick was ordered earlier this summer to serve 16 months to four years in state prison following his seventh DWI-related conviction isn't the news nugget that seems to have people worked up. Sure, the punishment probably doesn't fit the crime, but the stance certain judges have taken when it comes to dishing out punishment for DWI offenses didn't surprise many when Gilpatrick's sentence was announced.

What got more than a few people upset, including yours truly, was the fact that Gilpatrick is waging a fight with the Erie County Medical Center that he wasn't drunk and, in fact, was having a hypoglycemic reaction when he was arrested two summers ago.

Gilpatrick's so-called "compelling evidence" of his innocence and his reported suspicion that certain medical documents will "disappear" once the door slams behind him in state prison can

best be described as pathetic. The man has a dangerous history of drinking and driving, with arrests that date back to the mid-1980s and include alcohol related arrests in both Erie and Niagara counties.

That he is insulting the court system and apparently trying to brush aside his first six incidents in an effort to use fancy legal tactics to throw out or change the ruling on his seventh conviction is an insult to anyone whose life has ever been impacted by a drunk driver.

Lock him up and throw away the key may sound a bit harsh, but that's my opinion on repeat offenders who are either too stupid, too foolish or just too drunk to recognize when he or she cannot operate a motor vehicle.

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With the Buffalo Bills off to a less than stellar start in 2007, I'm sure the increase in parking on the grounds of Ralph Wilson Stadium will be even that much harder to swallow.

In case you missed it, the price to park in Orchard Park for a Bills' home game is now $25. That's 25 bucks per vehicle. Per game.

No word on if you can be reimbursed a portion of that fee should you choose to exit the stadium early, something I think a lot of fans will be doing quite often this season.

After forecasting what I thought was a realistic preseason pigskin prognostication of 8-8 at this early juncture, I believe a 4-12 record accompanied by another quarterback controversy is probably in the cards for football fans across Western New York.

Let's all hold hands and say together, "There's always next year."

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. For more information on WIN, or to provide feedback on this column, visit our Web site at www.wnynewspapers.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)