I'LL NEVER FORGET THE FIRST TIME PAT CIARROCCHI and I sat down behind a bank of typewriters to bang out a script for the evening news on KYW-TV in the autumn of 1985 when the Inquirer went on strike and I went on TV. Directly across from Pat, at the typewriter that fronted hers, sat Jack Jones, the Facenda-voiced "first black TV news anchorman" in Philadelphia. A good guy.

While lost in my own wordiness seeking a story worth telling, I heard Jack Jones and Pat Ciarrocchi repeating a phrase as they wrote their stories. "Baby talk.," Jack said. "Baby talk," Pat said. "Baby talk,"Jack admonished. "Baby talk," Pat agreed. It was pretty spooky. Especially because I understood what they meant. Don't try to tell television stories in grown up language. The worst part was that neither Pat nor Jack believed it. "Baby talk" was just a shorthand phrase for the KISS principle -- Keep It Simple, Stupid.

And this was 1985. (I'm sure you remember the great television news renaissance in the mid-to-late 1990's when TV news directors had not yet successfully been gentically cloned.) Oh, I'm sorry. That never happened . The rennaissance, not the cloning. Twenty-some years later local television news is simpler than ever. It has become a vehicle to to deliver traffic and weather reports every ten minutes. It is a formula that hasn't been challenged in more than a decade. Every station does the same thing with interchangable anchors and field reporters As comedian Fred Allen said back in the 1950's, "Imitation is the sincerest form of television."

And yet there are some great people in local TV news who have maintained their dignity, grace and genuineness in spite of the industry's retreat from substance. Two of those people are Pat Ciarrocchi and Ukee Washington, co-anchors on Channel 3's early news. For the last eight years Pat and Ukee have co-hosted an event called Celebrate the Children, a musical performance by pre-school-aged kids who receive weekly music education classes by travelling music teachers from the Academy of Community Music, a non-profit school of which I am a board member. Pat, Ukee and I have shared hosting duties at the annual event at either the Academy of Music or the Zellerbach Theater at the Annenberg Center since May of 2000. Yesterday during the performance I presented both Pat and Ukee with the Academy's "Heroes" award for their generosity and goodwill all these years.

And yesterday, like every other year, both TV news personalities threw themselves into the event with spontanaeity and warmth, singing and clapping with the children and generally hammng it up in a most charming and authentic way. They are Philadelphia originals in the best sense of the word and I am proud to call them friends.

Yo, Pat! Yo, Uke! Thanks for being the real deal.