CNN, PBS stations to cover 1999 Legislature

Jennifer Coleman

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 3:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Beginning the first week of February, Nevadans curious about their legislators can watch nightly interviews with the lawmakers on CNN's Headline News.

Weekday evenings starting at 5:55 p.m., CNN will break away from national news for a five-minute segment on Nevada lawmakers. The segments will be repeated hourly, ending at 9 p.m.

"We feel it's a high-profile project that will allow the Legislature to get exposure," says Bob Gastonguay, executive director of the Nevada State Cable Telecommunication Association.

TCI Media Services will tape the interviews, which will be conducted by Steve Schorr, vice president of development for Cox Cable.

The Legislative Counsel Bureau has agreed to set aside rooms for the interviews, and Gastonguay said leadership of both the Assembly and the Senate like the arrangement.

"We are always looking for some way to bring the public to the process," said LCB chief Lorne Malkiewich. "It's a tremendous opportunity for people to get information."

CNN has been notified that Nevada cable organizations will be using the five-minute segue to break away for local coverage, and provided criteria to maintain a professional image, Gastonguay said.

"Viewers of CNN will see little or no difference in the quality," he said.

In addition to CNN, public broadcasting stations in Reno and Las Vegas will run weekly interviews with legislators on Friday evenings, starting in February.

"Capitol Issues" features news from the Legislature and one or two in-depth interviews. It will air on KNPB, Channel 5, in Reno and KLVX, Channel 10, in Las Vegas at 9:30 p.m. Friday evenings.

The weekly recap is co-produced by KNPB's Rosemary McCarthy and KLVX's Mitch Fox.

Cable TV or PBS stations aren't the only spots to find lawmakers on television.

The Legislative Building was recently wired to allow anyone with a television and cable access in the building to view proceedings.

Hearing rooms and Senate and Assembly chambers are wired to a control room on the third floor. There, with 13 television monitors and a bank of video cassette recorders, technicians can watch, record and transmit the proceedings.

That allows people in Las Vegas to view any public hearing that occurs during the session by going to the Grant Sawyer State Office Building.

"Ten years ago, people in Las Vegas had no idea what was going on up here. Now, with video conferencing, they can see what we're doing," Malkiewich said.

While the advances made in the cable system internally have been tremendous, Malkiewich said, there are still some bugs to work out.

"During the lobbyist orientation, Las Vegas couldn't see what was going on. The control room was frantically trying to find out what was wrong," he said. The glitch turned out to be an unplugged phone line.

The internal cable system could easily be set up to go to public access television.

"I expect that at the rate we're going, the Legislature will be readily available to television, if television wants to cover it," Malkiewich said.