You don't always get a second chance in the TV business, particularly in your city of choice, but for meteorologist Dennis Bowman, all the pieces fell into place for a second time around in Pittsburgh.

Bowman was the chief meteorologist at WPXI for almost 16 years when executives opted not to renew his contract in July 2000. Eight years later, he finds himself working full time for a Pittsburgh TV station again.

Last month, KDKA decided to migrate him from freelance fill-in to full-time status, replacing Valerie Abati in the mornings and at noon. KDKA management dismissed Abati after less than a year at the station.

"It was a management move, and they were going to bring somebody in," Bowman said. He said station executives offered no reason for the change.

After leaving WPXI, Bowman worked for the CBS affiliate in Topeka, Kan., for three years. In 2003, he returned to Pittsburgh, and his family's former home was back on the market.

"We couldn't afford it," he said, laughing. Bowman and his wife settled in a house built in 1900 in Bellevue, and he formed Dennis Bowman Enterprises (DennisBowman.net), setting up school visits to discuss weather with assistance from his ventriloquist's dummy, Chester Drawers.

"The downtime was great. You might have a week and a half where you weren't busy, and if I wanted to plan a trip or something, I could," Bowman said earlier this week, sitting in the KDKA weather center. "But the downside of being self-employed is that when you don't work, you don't get paid any money by anybody. ... The opportunity to get into a steady employment situation with KDKA was a godsend, so I was very thankful to have it."

Bowman, 58, said his company is basically folding as he begins making school visits on behalf of KDKA, although his wife, Debbie, is following in his footsteps, setting up school visits as Queenie Bee the Clown, offering bee education programs using ventriloquism (queeniebeeenterprises.com).

Bowman's re-entry to the Pittsburgh TV scene began in January 2005 when KDKA brought him aboard as a fill-in forecaster.

Since then, Bowman said, he's had a chance to get to know the station's management team and fellow employees, giving him a sense of what it would be like to work at KDKA.

"That, to me, is one of the upsides about having a foot in the door for that length of time," Bowman said.

Of course, Bowman's new job at KDKA requires some new sleeping habits. Debbie has put herself on Dennis' sleep schedule, falling into bed by 7:30 p.m. and waking at 2 a.m.

"She says, 'It's amazing how much you can get done between 2 a.m. and sunrise,'" he said.

In addition to the new wake-up time, Bowman's shift also takes on a different tone than when he worked the more buttoned-down evening newscasts at WPXI. He's also on the air more often, as the two hours of morning news cycles through weather reports and headlines again and again.

"I like the morning scenario because it's a more lively time. You can have a little more fun and joke around when everything is right," Bowman said. "We know people are just waking up and starting their day with us, looking forward to that first cup of coffee. We have a chance to be bright and cheerful and share a laugh with them along the way."

On KDKA's morning news, Bowman is the on-air veteran compared with the younger anchor team that surrounds him (Sonni Abatta, Keith Jones and Jim Lokay).

"I have great respect for their knowledge and abilities and talents," he said. "I don't think of myself as being the old guy because I'm simpatico with them as far as my sense of humor and things I like talking about. I see them as peers and friends. I don't see them as people I'm a guardian for or mentoring."

But he does feel an affinity for KDKA, and he has for some time.

Before his mother passed away a few years ago, she gave him a postcard sent to her father by KDKA-AM in 1920. Bowman's grandfather heard a broadcast in Charles City, Iowa, not long after the radio station first went on the air. Announcers asked listeners who heard the signal to write in. Bowman's grandfather did and received a postcard back in the mail.

"I still have that little memento," he said. "To be working with that storied franchise is quite exciting."

Last month Comcast customers endured a few channel changes; this month it's time for Verizon FiOS TV to make almost wholesale channel changes. The big difference: no shifting of tiers, according to Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski, just new channel positions for almost every channel, most likely beginning Tuesday.

Plus, there will be 23 new channels, 18 of them HD channels. New channels added include Big Ten Network, USA HD, TBS HD, CNN HD, Sci Fi HD and Bravo HD. Alas, still no FSN-P HD, and Verizon won't say if or when it will be added.

Customers should have gotten a new channel lineup in the mail. For a full lineup, including new channels added since the mailing, visit www22.verizon.com/content/fiostv/channel+lineup/channel+lineup.htm and enter your ZIP code. For questions, call Verizon (not me) at 1-888-553-1555.

The channel conversion chart in the Post-Gazette's TV Week will reflect these changes beginning with the Aug. 24 issue.

If you missed FX's "Damages" last year and have nothing to do tomorrow, catch up with the entire first season, airing from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ... Fox has ordered a fifth season of "So You Think You Can Dance" to air next summer. ... ABC has renewed "Wipeout" for a second season to air next summer. ... BBC America will air the third season of "Robin Hood" in 2009 with changes afoot. Spoiler alert: Marian has been killed off and Robin himself will depart at the end of season three. ... The Los Angeles Times reports a Cylon-centric "Battlestar Galactica" TV movie will be directed by series star Edward James Olmos with series players Michael Trucco, Aaron Douglas and Dean Stockwell in the cast. ... Comcast and CMT will search for a new country music star in Pittsburgh on Aug. 23, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., for the third edition of "Music City Madness." Auditions will be held at the Westin Pittsburgh Downtown, 1000 Penn Ave. Details at madness.CMT.com.

This week Post-Gazette entertainment editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss Sharon's summer vacation at Comic-Con and screenings of the "Heroes" third season premiere, our thoughts on the "Fringe" pilot and the surprise denouement for Marian on BBC America's "Robin Hood." Subscribe or listen at post-gazette.com/podcast.

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about on-air clutter, WTAE's vintage promos, and who's more annoying: HD gluttons or Comcast conspiracy theorists.