Funding woes force cancellation of TV’s ‘Business in Nevada’

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 11 a.m.

"Business in Nevada," a weekly business news program shown on KLVX Channel 10, Las Vegas' public broadcasting station, will stop production at the end of the month.

KLVX General Manager Tom Axtell said today the five employees associated with the program were given 30-day notices Wednesday that the show would end production. The program airs Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., so the last show is scheduled to be broadcast Dec. 30. The program is rebroadcast Sunday mornings at 11:30.

Axtell said the station has been unsuccessful in its efforts to secure an ongoing sponsor for the show. The show's start-up costs and three-year run have been funded by a one-time grant from Anchor Gaming Inc.

The casino game designer donated 40,000 shares of stock with a market value of $1.4 million to the station in 1996. Axtell emphasized that Anchor Gaming has been one of public broadcasting's most ardent supporters through the years and the company already sponsors "Nightly Business Report," a PBS national business program.

An Anchor Gaming executive could not be reached for comment.

"Anchor Gaming is one of the top five financial supporters of public television in the Las Vegas area," Axtell said. "This isn't their fault."

Axtell said the station has received commitments from several businesses to co-sponsor "Business in Nevada," many of them contingent upon others sharing the cost. But so far, those commitments would only cover about a quarter of the annual production costs of the show, Axtell said.

Las Vegas businessman Bob Forbuss, a show co-host and chairman of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, has been pursuing sponsors. He declined comment and referred questions to co-host Karen Galatz, who could not be reached.

Galatz has produced and co-hosted the show since January 1997 when it debuted as "Nevada Business Report."

Prior to producing the show, she has worked as a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun and a producer for KLAS Channel 8 and PBS' "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour." She also was a personal assistant to former Secretary of State George Schultz, was chairwoman of the Colorado River Commission. She also was a vice president with First National Bank.