Channel 5 weekend morning anchor Evelyn Robertson called last week with an early morning apology after Mixed Media tried to solve the mystery of her extended absence from the station: "I'm sorry I'm not there and I'll be back as soon as I can. Honestly, I didn't know so many people cared."

Here's the story, in her own words:

"I was rear-ended twice in three months on my way to work. Both times, it was driver inattention, once by a woman looking in the rear view mirror because she forgot her earrings. But it was twice in three months! What are the odds?"

Robertson can't discuss the injuries and she still isn't sure how long the recovery will last. "I keep shouting at my body to feel better. As soon as it listens, I'm there."

WVXU nominated

There are some mighty big smiles over at WVXU-FM (91.7) right now. The station has been nominated for a Crystal Award, one of the biggies of the industry. The Xavier University station is one of only two noncommercial stations nominated for the awards, handed out by the National Association of Broadcasters.

The award is given for year-round community service efforts.

What has Xavier broadcast director Jim King happy and sad all at once is the nomination is in the Major Market Category. He's happy because it means the station held its own with the monster stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, all the big guys.

The same thing's making him a tad sad because it means the competition will be fiercer.

Winners are announced April 20.

Winternitz everywhere

Meanwhile, off in the world of print media, long-time Cincinnati journalist Felix Winternitz is suddenly all over the place. After a lengthy stint as a free-lancing househusband, he's now full-time senior editor at Ohio Magazine and editor of the new Cincy Business magazine. Both are owned by Great Lakes Publishing.

Winternitz is former deputy features editor of the Enquirer, author of a handful of travel books (Insider's Guide to Cincinnati, Panoramic Ohio, Daytrips From Cincinnati) and former editorial director of Cincinnati Magazine.

Now, he's an editor with a mission. Make that two missions. One is to make sure Cincinnati shows up a whole lot more on Ohio's pages. The magazine has traditionally ignored Cincinnati. So much so, that when the magazine's new editorial director did an audit of geographical mentions, he found Steubenville turned up in there more than Cincinnati.

That changes with the April edition where Cincinnati has three stories covering 13 pages and the cover (this month's Flower Show).

Mission No. 2 is Cincy Business, where Winternitz is determined to tell the story of Cincinnati's business community through profiles of the big guns. The quarterly's debut issue did it with a profile of Fifth Third CEO George Shaefer.

Local chef on TV

Look who's popping up on the Food Network. It's Todd Westermeyer, sous chef at Jean-Robert at Pigall's. He'll be on Recipe for Success at 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

Recipe - it's a new show that debuted last week - is all about people who bite the bullet and make a career change from something or another into cooking. In Westermeyer's case, it was from advertising to food. Successfully, it appears.

E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com