Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 9:35 a.m.
THE NEWS biz is abuzz.
And there's plenty to be abuzz about:
In Denver, a media watchdog group filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to deny license renewals to all four of the city's commercial TV stations. "Night after night, the local news is an onslaught of trash journalism," group founder Paul Klite told the Boston Globe. "Instead of informing people, it just scares and polarizes and titillates them. That has a toxic effect on the community." The action is stirring serious soul-searching by TV types elsewhere in the country -- as well as at the besmirched Denver stations.
At a Birmingham, Ala. station -- which renamed itself WIAT, as in "It's About Time" -- a new newscast debuted with two anchors who do not sit together and never speak to each other; and minus inane chitchat, on-camera reporters (their reports are read by the anchor) and useless live shots ("we're here in front of City Hall, where only 12 hours ago, the mayor held a press conference!"). There is also a much higher story count. "We're making the content the star, rather than the individuals," the station's general manager told Electronic Media magazine.
Here in town, Las Vegas One, the new SUN/Channel 8 24-hour cable channel (debuting in April) will also have newscasts with two anchors in separate locations, and Channel 5's upcoming 10 p.m. newcast -- supervised by news director-to-be Gwen Castaldi -- will have only one anchor. The theory, once again: News should be the star, not the mugging and self-inflated nattering of the news crew.
In Austin, Texas, KVUE-TV hangs onto the top spot in the ratings even after creating guidelines designed to cut back crime coverage and dump fluff.
Spasms of indignation reverberate through the news industry when the Fox News Channel dredges up Matt Drudge -- proud nonjournalist and acknowledged fact-check-free gossip-monger of Internet infamy -- for its news stable. Mr. Sludge -- er, Drudge -- "broke" the Bill/Monica story by tattling that Newsweek was holding it. Newsweek still wanted to verify the allegations, an inconsequential bit of Drudgery to Our Man Matt. TV news executives reacted to Drudge's hiring as if Fox had just passed gas in a small, crowded elevator.
In a letter to Electronic Media magazine, New York news producer Steve Howard proclaims: "America is newsed-out. News is important to viewers, but not in two or three-hour blocks. News is just a noncreative, easy way to fill a schedule. ... It is apparent that local television stations still insist on expanding news rather than creating kids, teens or daily talk-info programming. I suppose it's easier to put a pair of journalists behind a desk and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve graphics, rather than develop other forms of programming."
Forgive me for being giddy, but I can't help it. After years in several cities observing local news -- shot through with flash, sensationalism, alarmist hype, crime-and-grime obsessions and blow-dried egotism frenetically flacked (cue the pretentious, pulse-pounding music) as TV's "immediacy" -- with a skepticism on the cusp of hard-core cynicism, my stone-cold heart senses the hint of a warming trend.
Self-examination -- or navel-gazing, if you prefer -- is nothing new in the news business, as discussed here weeks ago when the national media did yet another autopsy on itself after yet another scandal, the presidential sexcapades.
But this smells different. "There's a great deal of self-criticism going on in this industry right now," Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-TV News Directors Association, told the Globe, reacting to the Denver uproar. Referring to crime coverage overload, a Denver news director added: "There are times when I watch our news and think, 'Am I the only person in Denver who didn't die today?' "
For one thing, in a media universe where playing follow-the-(ratings)-leader -- even if the leader is a snake -- is the 11th Commandment, some brave souls in Alabama, Texas and right here in Las Vegas are breaking ranks. Actions trump words. For another, TV news types themselves, such as letter-writer Steve Howard -- from the country's largest market, no less -- express frustration at the mindless multiplication of the status quo. And in Denver, criticism from what some might dismissively label a reactionary fringe group is, surprisingly, met with self-examination rather than an arrogant snort.
Way short of an industry-wide epiphany, I'll grant you. But even epiphanies have to start somewhere.
THIS & THAT: Chicago/Vegas radio vet Sig Sakowicz is returning to the local airwaves. Sakowicz, who currently lives here, broadcasts back to Chicago every Saturday via the Windy City's WPNA 1490-AM. Starting Monday, he will air five minutes of "Vegas Hotline" weekdays at 3:15 p.m. on KNUU (K-News) 970-AM, following Fred Lewis' show. ... Josh Taylor and Joshua Morrow -- no Josh-ing around -- of "Days of our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless," respectively, have been added to the list of soapers attending the "SoapExpo '98" here in June. ... Continuing tonight and through the next three months, the Nevada Department of Transportation is sponsoring the live call-in show "NDOT Update." It airs Thursdays at 6 p.m. on Cable 42.
CROON A TUNE: Alex Jeanos is movin' on up -- although I don't know if he lives on the East Side, in a DE-luxe apartment, in the skii-ii-ii-y. But he's finally got a piece of the pie since he knew that "now we're up in the big leagues, gettin' our turn at bat" is from "The Jeffersons" theme. Nicely done, A.J. As long as we live, it's you and me, baby -- although there might be something wrong with that.
Next? What instrumental theme, composed by Bally's regular Paul Anka, played on network television for nearly 30 years? Coo the correct answer -- and a few sweet nothings, just for fun -- into our ear before anyone else (via phone or e-mail) and find your name purred with sultry seductiveness right here in the cozy, candlelit confines of Casa de Dial File. As always, spell your name and leave a daytime phone number -- OK, snugglebunny?
As that legendary Casanova, Elmer Fudd, might put it: Ain't dat womantic?
HE IS FA-MI-LY: Say so long to Dave Courvoisier, who, as reported in the SUN last week, is leaving Channel 3 and Las Vegas, his home for the past 13 years, for a station in Cape Girardeau, Mo., near where his parents live.
Courvoisier cited "personal reasons of family priorities," adding: "My parents are in their 80s and my mother barely survived a serious surgery last summer. I've reached the time in my life that many baby boomers have realized -- where it becomes necessary to return to a more intimate relationship with my parents."
Kudos to Courvo. I won't suddenly pretend to be a fan of the station to which he has pledged his allegiance lo these many years, because I'm not. That's the way I genuinely feel.
And so is this: I greatly admire Courvoisier's decision and his sense of priority.
It's doubtful that fate will ever find Courvoisier on his deathbed, regretting that he didn't anchor the coverage of one more Strip implosion. A man who says he puts family ahead of career -- and actually backs up the words with actions -- is a man with his head on straight. May you share many more years of happiness with your loved ones, Mr. C.
Clearly, your life is a place Where Family Comes First.
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