SUN, Channel 8 to start 24-hour news station

Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997 | 12:12 p.m.

The Las Vegas SUN, KLAS Channel 8 and Prime Cable are teaming up to develop a 24-hour local news channel that will debut in April.

In a joint announcement today, representatives of the companies said a live 30-minute broadcast airing at 10 p.m. weekdays would be the first show produced by the partnership, beginning April 1. Later in the year, another 30-minute newscast will be offered at 9 p.m.

The channel, as yet unnamed, will be carried exclusively on Prime Cable on a channel that will be announced at a later date.

"We are thrilled to bring this new local news service to Southern Nevada," said Brian Greenspun, president of the SUN. "We're excited about being able to combine the reporting depth and talents of the Las Vegas SUN staff with those at 'Eyewitness News' to provide a unique news service with enormous potential."

The prime-time newscasts will feature the news-gathering and reporting staffs of both the SUN, Las Vegas' daily afternoon newspaper, and KLAS-TV, the city's CBS network affiliate. The broadcasts will originate live from KLAS' studio just off the Las Vegas Strip and from a new studio to be built at the SUN's office at 800 S. Valley View Blvd.

In addition to the shows jointly produced by the SUN and KLAS, the channel will offer repeats of Channel 8's "Eyewitness News" broadcasts as well as in-depth business, national and world news and continuously updated weather information and forecasts.

"We look forward to offering our viewers an opportunity to watch 'Eyewitness News' at various times of the day and we're thrilled to join our new partners in delivering not one, but two prime-time local newscasts each weekday evening," said Dick Fraim, president and general manager of KLAS Channel 8. "We're confident viewers are going to love these newscasts."

Fraim said that by repeating Channel 8's newscasts, a broader audience can be reached by KLAS.

"Every station in the nation is attempting to broaden its franchise, which for us is 'Eyewitness News,"' Fraim said. "We've operated as just one television station for nearly 45 years. We look at this as a wonderful extension of the good work we do now."

Once the prime-time newscasts have been established, the partnership has plans for content to develop the 24-hour news station. In subsequent months, the partners plan to add more local live newscasts as well as talk shows, news magazine programs, sports interview shows, business news and other information programming to round out the daily lineup.

"This new 24-hour news channel will provide a further showcase for the SUN's news-gathering capacity, which will now be available to Las Vegas through the medium of television," Greenspun said. "We believe that with this partnership, we have chosen the best of all worlds to make this 24-hour news channel the very best information source in the Las Vegas Valley. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen soon."

Bob Stoldal, news director of WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tenn., has been named general manager of the new station. Like KLAS, WTVF is owned by Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark Communications Inc., a privately held media company. WTVF operates its own 24-hour news station on cable.

Stoldal, who was news director at KLAS for 20 years before moving to Nashville, said starting a new station from scratch using established journalists convinced him to move back to Las Vegas.

"We have two powerful teams and the combined resources will allow us to produce content in the long form and in the short form," Stoldal said. "Las Vegas viewers will have news that is important to them at their fingertips 24 hours a day."

Prime Cable officials say a 24-hour local news channel has been something subscribers have wanted for a long time.

"Cable's popularity is due to its diversity of programming," said Harris Bass, general manager of the company that has 350,000 customers in Southern Nevada and is one of the 10 largest cable companies in the country. "A news channel in the fastest growing city in the United States is a natural. In a city that never sleeps, the news shouldn't either."