Last week I complained that, although WPXI had a good idea when it chose to promote money-saving ideas this month given rising gas and grocery prices, too often the reports' execution was weak, restating the obvious.

This week the topics have tended to be less of a rehash and ultimately more useful. A Darieth Chisolm report on cables needed (and not needed) for digital TV sets offered a valuable consumer service on a subject many people know too little about.

About a week into sweeps, WTAE began aping WPXI with its own recurring money-saving feature. Channel 4's Aaron Saykin even offered his own version of WPXI's lame, make-money-by-having-a-yard-sale story. (Channel 4's story included a few extra tips, but do people really need to be told they can make money by having a garage sale? Really?)

Of course, both stations are chasing KDKA, which has made Yvonne Zano's consumer stories a staple of the 5 p.m. newscast for a couple of years.

This particular time slot always seems to be the most competitive, particularly between the players vying for the No. 2 spot, which in recent sweeps periods has been WPXI and WTAE.

On Wednesday, WPXI began promoting a gas giveaway in the 5 p.m. newscast, scheduled to begin yesterday. It will be interesting to see if WTAE tries to match it with a contest of its own.

All three stations offered some worthwhile explainer stories this week, taking viewers behind-the-scenes with an amusement park safety inspector (Karen Welles, WPXI), a weights and measures inspector for gas stations (John Shumway, KDKA) and an expert on what causes landslides and how they can be avoided (Sheldon Ingram, WTAE).

All three of these reports took viewers to places they don't normally go and explained a little piece of the world around them.

On the investigations front, WTAE remains head and shoulders above the other stations, reporting on the financial debts of suburban communities (not every municipality should have its own police force) and the inequality of base year property assessments.

And then there was WPXI's retread report (see: "Dateline NBC," July 2006, among others) testing ice for dangerous substances and finding mostly nothing that will make you sick. Stacia Erdos did a nice job putting the story together, but WPXI opted not to name the places it did find samples containing dangerous fecal matter, saying the problem didn't represent the chains as a whole. While I understand and appreciate the station's efforts to be fair, I'm sure some viewers may have wondered why they bothered to tune in if an important aspect of the test results was not forthcoming.

KDKA Westmoreland County bureau chief Mary Berecky will leave the station at the end of next week.

"I'm getting married and moving out of Westmoreland County," she said.

Berecky, a Pittsburgh native, will continue to live in the Pittsburgh area, but she'll be further from Westmoreland and didn't want to make the commute. KDKA general manager Chris Pike said her position will be filled.

Berecky, a Point Park graduate, has been at KDKA since 1997. She said she's not looking at other jobs in broadcasting.

"I'll always be grateful that KDKA brought me home," Berecky said. She previously worked at WDTV in Clarksburg, W.Va., and KGAN in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "I was a struggling reporter and they gave me the opportunity to come up. It's been a good ride."

She said she'll most miss the people of Westmoreland County, the police officers and firefighters she routinely dealt with on stories. And she's grateful to viewers who reached out to her after she was attacked while washing her car in 2002 and suffered a concussion.

"People who were watching me on TV personally sent me letters and cards," she said. "That really did pull me through a very difficult time. I was touched."

Her attacker is serving a 50- to 100-year sentence.

"When I [cover] similar cases to this day, it really bothers me," she said. "It was a weird position to be in, to be on the news and then be part of the news. I think it helped me that I had sat in courtrooms for so many years. When my case was going through I knew how the system works."

Even as she's enveloped by wedding plans (yes, there will be a cookie table), Berecky said she knows she'll miss her job.

"Walking away from television is tough. It's a big part of who I am, it's your identity," she said. "People see me on the street and say, 'Hi, Mary Berecky.' They always put your last name in there. It's sort of funny, but they know who you are."

PCNC will air highlights from the 2008 NAACP Human Rights Dinner. "Standing Strong in Times of Adversity" premieres at 8 p.m. tomorrow. The keynote speaker for the evening was Dr. Alex Johnson, president of the Community College of Allegheny County.

Beginning Tuesday, the digital lineup on former Adelphia cable systems will be realigned to mirror the traditional Comcast digital lineup.

TCM will be available on Channel 141 but it will no longer be carried on Channel 65 on former Adelphia systems.

"We are entering the final phase of fully transitioning the cable systems we acquired from Adelphia," explained Comcast spokeswoman Jody Doherty. "With the investments we have made in our infrastructure, we are now able to offer the same channel, service packages and pricing structure."

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "The Dead Zone," "Back to You" and a local newscast meltdown. Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.

This week, entertainment editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss the TV upfronts and share strategies for finding Broadway shows on TV.

Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.