Kathy Orr lands at Fox

IT WAS the first summer she's had off since she was 15, but starting Sunday, Kathy Orr will be back to work on Fox 29 as weather anchor for the station's 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts, the station announced yesterday.

Back in July, Orr was let go as chief meteorologist at CBS3's Eyewitness News Weather Team, replaced by Kate Bilo. Before that, Orr had a stint at NBC10, working alongside Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz.

Now that she's found her footing at Fox 29, Orr is back where she wants to be.

"Let me tell you what I love about Fox," she told me. "I love Fox's creativity. I think that's one of my strong points and I think they're very innovative and cutting edge . . . I think they're very open to ideas."

Earlier in her career, Orr worked for MTV and Nickelodeon, in New York. It prepped her for the launch of CBS3's "Kidcaster" campaign, which gives local young people the opportunity to try their hands at playing a TV weathercaster.

"The fun things I've done with weather with Kidcaster stemmed from those playful days at Nickelodeon and MTV," she said.

"Every step of your career helps build you for what you're doing in the future."

Orr, a mother of two, starts bringing us the weather this Sunday night, after the Emmys.

Meanwhile, Carol Erickson, who left CBS3 in July after 37 years with the station, has landed at the Burlington County Times' online newscast, "Newsbreak." She started on Monday and can be spotted weekdays at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon bringing you the latest news of the day.

Tune in tonight at 8 on PHL17 to see and hear some never-before-told stories from our friends at WPHL-TV, who are celebrating 50 years of broadcasting.

Audiences can expect a walk-through of the station's history, with segments dedicated to each decade stretching back to the first on-air voices in 1965.

Legend has it that during the station's "The Great Entertainer" era in the 1980s, Madonna was set to go live on a segment of "Dancin' on Air," but before she did, she and her friend trashed the studio's dressing-room bathroom. Word has it producers and management wouldn't let her go on until she cleaned it up. So, she did clean it up and went on.

WPHL-TV also has a 20-second, previously unreleased audio clip of sportscaster Harry Kalas signing on in 2009. Because he died shortly thereafter, the station declined to use it.

My spies tell me that actor Alan Thicke took part in the Philadelphia Flyers Celebrity Golf Tournament at Trump National (500 W. Branch Ave., Pine Hill, N.J.) on Tuesday. Sources say the "Growing Pains" dad couldn't wait to capture a photo with Flyers captain Claude Giroux. One of Thicke's sons (not Robin) is apparently a big fan of the hockey star. I hear the tournament raised a record $1.6 million for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, and the entire Flyers roster participated in the daylong contest.

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