Paul (Pay Me a Fortune and I'll Tell the World I Love Ya) Moyer returned to KNBC-TV Channel 4 Monday after a long absence.
In response to being continually welcomed back on the air (including a taped greeting from Jay Leno), Moyer turned in an electrifying performance, saying "thanks," "thank you," "thank you, man," "thank you, my friend" or "thank you, sir" a record 18 times.
On the dark side, Moyer raised fears about his mental acuity when he welcomed his new co-anchor at 5 and 11 p.m., Wendy Tokuda, who had preceded him at Channel 4 by several months.
Those fears were intensified when Moyer twice was unable to recall the name of the Los Angeles station where he had been a news anchor for the last 13 years, referring to KABC-TV Channel 7 as "the other place."
Otherwise, Moyer's return to Channel 4 was triumphant, beginning with the 5 p.m. lead story that he had enjoyed his vacation and loved KNBC.
"Hello, everybody. I'm Paul Moyer. If you will permit me just for a moment, Wendy, all of you, a personal note off the top of the program tonight. Yah, eight weeks of vacation was terrific, but it is great to be back. It is wonderful to be back with all of you again, and it is terrific to be back on KNBC Channel 4. This is a very class operation. I am honored to be part of it, and one of the reasons I am looking forward to the years to come is sitting right next to me. She is Wendy Tokuda from San Francisco, now with us at KNBC. Nice to have you here."
Tokuda assured Moyer: "You will love this team. They're very smart people, and they're very nice people, and we're glad to have you here, Paul."
"I've noticed that," Moyer said. Then he thanked Tokuda and said, "Let's get on with it."
Moyer signed a six-year contract with Channel 4 estimated to be worth more than $8 million--or about $1.4 million annually. Allowing for vacation, that computes to $5,835 for every day he works.
Is he worth his salary?
Including reading promos at news breaks, Moyer spoke 2,564 words during his Monday debut. That amounts to $2.28 a word.
His word contributions to the two newscasts ranged from saying "yeah" ($2.28) to reading a 152-word narration of a story updating the status of Ross Perot's volunteers ($346.56).
His 36-word ($82.08) input into a brush fire report from chopper reporter Bob Pettee: "Bob, I gotta tell you, Paul Moyer here. Uh, I had admired your work when I was at the other place. You kicked our butts a good many times, and it's nice to be with ya."
