Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 88

4H DETROIT FREE PRESSSUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1998 OICESHEARD SARAH T''MWW'qpglBg" Iff I 111 I Vr I III imu -J -J ft mmA Sarah Norat-Phillips, center, is a hands-on NoRAT-PhILLIPS, from Page III zlUd Occupation: President and general manager of Detroit's Channel 20, WDWB-TV, the Warner Bros, affiliate owned by Granite Broadcasting. Born: York June 19, 1956, in New Education: State University of New York College at Buffalo (known as Buffalo State), 1978. Bachelor of science degree in speech communications and theater arts. Professional: Community activist in Buffalo in college. Started a 17-year stint at Buffalo's ABC affiliate, WKBW-TV, as a volunteer.

Worked her way up to production assistant, documentary producer and finally director of station programming. Ended her career there in 1997. Moved to Granite's WDWB as station manager; promoted to president and general manager last month. Personal: Married to Juan Phillips, a Buffalo police officer who commutes to Detroit on his days off. He'll continue the commute until he reaches the 20-year service retirement level and joins his wife here.

Their daughter, Carmen, 12, resides with her mother in a Southfield apartment and is a student at South-, field Arts Academy. Hobbies: Was active in Buffalo theater as a producer, director, actress and singer. "I don't know if IU ever get the opportunity to get back to that level of involvement." honest way. If Alan Frank at Channel 4 got up one morning and said "I can't take Jerry Springer anymore" and the show became available, would you be interested in running it on Channel 20? (Long pause.) Yes. And the question would be, "Where would I put it?" Why? Because there's a huge percentage of the Detroit market that enjoys watching that program.

It is very successful. Again, I don't believe as a business and as a TV station I have the right to decide what people want to watch. I don't believe that's my role. I think communities decide what shows exist and don't exist. But don't TV stations make these decisions every day? Yes, they do.

But I think as it relates to a program some would consider controversial, then whether or not that program continues to exist in a particular community is based upon viewer acceptance of it. And the time question? I would not put it at 4 p.m. in the afternoon. TVs a cutthroat business these days. Your background is programming and community affairs.

What's your strategy for raising the advertising revenue bar? Programming is absolutely key. Programming brings viewers; viewers bring advertisers; advertisers then pay money for advertisements. There's a very natural connection there. But the other side is, once we've got ratings, we will have the best sales staff, the most creative sales staff out there. Granite has a great reputation for creating and delivering value for its advertisers.

We will go above and beyond selling the spots. We have to. If you're No. 1 in the market, you might not have to do that. We'll have different ways of selling the station.

We'll be aggressive on the Internet; all the Granite stations are. Since you're from Buffalo, ever bet on the Super Bowl? Aw, that's not funny. John Smyntek, can be reached at 1-313-222-5169 or by E-mailing Sarah Norat-Phillips chats with Paula Bohammed, the station's creative services director. i manager. Here, she works with staffers Greg don't want to say "the distant future" where we will be in local news and programming.

When and what that looks like is something we are formulating with the creative staff we're putting together. When we get to joining the news game in this town, we will find a way to do it differently than how other people are doing it. That's because this is a mature news town. We won't categorically go into news just to go into news. But at the same time, I don't think you can be competitive as a TV station and not be in local programming and not be in local news and information, so that is absolutely on our plate.

Granite paid a lot of money ($200 million) for the station, but needs to spend lots on upgrades. How much money will it take to make Channel 20 competitive during the next five years? Well, that's tough. You talk about physical plant within a two-year period, we're talking about moving into a station facility. (WDWB now rents space in Southfield's American Center). We have an architectural firm looking at drawings and looking at sites.

What's the ticket price on that? Anywhere between $7 and $15 million. Meanwhile, we're investing another $1 million in our analog transmitter, and that has nothing, to do with converting to beta format, rnpre satellite dishes and then there's digital and where our new antenna is locally. That's another $25 million before it's all said and done. We are here to be a player. Detroit has had a minority-owned TV station before (Channel 62 under the ownership of the Masons), but your station is the first with a major network affiliation and the muscle of a broadcast group.

How can a minority-led local broadcaster make its mark in today's world of dissipating audiences due to cable and satellite viewing? I think the key to success for any TV station is: When it all comes down to the end of the aout the programs. If any broadcaster wants to survive on a local level, they have to find the niche that's not being served. Then they have to build thatniche and create the response to that niche via programming. 1 4 UlicliiiiDi The Christian vote "Southern Baptists, with 15 million members strong, is a force to be reckoned with." THE REV. JERRY FALWELL, i who says he is a fidl-fledged Southern Baptist and who last week served for the first time as a voting delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention gathering in Salt Lake City, saying the organization is one of the most powerful political organizations in the country.

The gracious Christian "What that doesn't mean is if you don't respect your husband and you know in your heart that he is not leading you and your family in the right way that doesn't mean you should let him lead you down a path of destruction." DORIS GARDNER RATLIFF, whose husband is a Houston minister, explaining that a resolution adopted at the Southern Baptist Convention that calls on women to graciously submit to their husbands assumes that the husband is a Christian in the first place. A resounding no "I don't plan to go back into politics. I've got a wonderful mission field." ELIZABETH DOLE, whose name surfaces repeatedly as a possible candidate for president, saying once again that she will not run for the office. Casting his net "The problem he faces is there are already a bunch of people in the water, and some have big flotillas already. He can't stay on the beach too long." BRUCE OPPENHEIMER, professor at Vanderbilt University, saying that Sen.

Fred Thompson, R- is testing the presidential waters. Forging ahead 1 think it probably means he has shored up some support among the conservative wing of his party." ALAN MURRAY of the Wall Street Journal, on the effect Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, will have after House passage of his budget plan. His brothers' keeper "I guess you could say I'm kind of into basics. And I think it's something that will give a lot of pleasure to a lot of people." ALAN GREENBERG, chairman of Bear, Steams' talking about his $1-million donation to pay for Viagra prescriptions for the poor.

On the money "I remain concerned that economic growth will run into constraints as the reservoir of unemployed people available to work is drawn down." ALAN GREENSPAN, chairman of the Federal Reserve, telling Congress that Americans are enjoying the best combination of strong growth and low inflation in 50 years. Getting smoked This is the first standard tobacco liability case where the jury got angry at the companies and awarded punitive damages." RICHARD DAYNARD, chairman of Northeastern University's Tobacco Products Liability Project, a public health advocacy group, after a jury in Florida ordered Brown Williamson Tobacco Corp. to pay nearly $1 million to the family of a man who died after smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes for almost 50 years. Uncle Sam wants you "It's been extremely difficult to recruit with the economy so strong. What's good for America isn't necessarily good for military recruiting." MAJ.

DEREK KAUFMAN, a spokesman for the Air Force recruiting service in San on the difficulty of getting people to sign up for military service. Control that urge "If you can't afford it, don't buy it." REP SCOTT McINNIS, debating in favor of a bill that would make it harder to file for bankruptcy. A few good men "It's difficult to meet a real man here. Good men are already -married, and if they are not already married, they are no good." TATYANA DENOSHOVA, of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, explaining why she and thousands of other Russian women have turned to catalogvideo and Internet matchmaking serifices to find American and European husbands. 1 Winning with friends "I have a lot of African-American friends." LARRY PRESSLER, former Republican senator from South Dakota, talking about his chances of -becoming mayor of Washington, D.C.

Photos by PAULINE LUBENSDetroit Free Press Campbell, left, and Paula Bohammed. That was the Fox plan. Fox came in and said they were going after a young, urban, ethnic, audience, and they got a foothold. Then they said they were going to add sports to that and then add other shows. You've got to start somewhere.

It's the same philosophy in getting a base of an audience that watches you. Once you've got their ear, then you can expand. The trick is to keep them while you expand. We're doing the same thing. If you have very strong numbers age 18-34, then they eventually become 18-49, then they eventually become 25-54, so that the philosophy becomes: You grow them yourself.

It's a long-term plan; you can't turn it around overnight. What about WB prime-time programming beyond its Tuesday night strength? What about "Dawson's Creek," a show that dwells on teen sexuality, or the Wayans brothers' comedy, which some people say stereotypes black humor? How does that jibe with your goals for high-quality programming and building strong ties in the community Even though our Wednesday night schedule of ethnic comedies has extraordinary success in the Detroit market with the black audience we do a better than a 40 (percent) share with the black audience for that night that's going to Thursday in the fall, and we're taking that audience niche to Thursday. And going up up against the NBC Thursday powerhouse? It's for an audience that for all intents and purposes has been abandoned by the other networks. So in Detroit, I believe we'll have great success on Thursday night with WB. Will the other markets respond? I certainly hope so.

WB has been very successful in reflecting the voice of young people in their shows and in their writing and in their producing (with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Seventh And they've hit a chord. It has rung true with young viewers, and they are coming through, and they are watching religiously. Is 'Dawson's Creek' a little racy? I think it started off a little racier than it has ended up. I don't think they do things irresponsibly. If you get past the candor of the language, they are handling it (sex) in an producing TV community affairs shows and got to know the folks at Channel 7 there.

Then an opening came up for a production assistant. Granite's purchase of WDWB has made the Detroit TV market supercom-petitive, especially for syndicated shows. After a year here, what do you think? It's a good market. I have been treated' very well by competitors on a personal basis. People have been kind and calling and welcoming to the market.

From the syndicators' perspective, Granite being a player here has changed the landscape significantly. They talk about the market being improved when it comes to competing for strong product. Detroit has had several female network-affiliate station chiefs over the years (Amy McCombs at Channel 4, Jeanne Findlater and Grace Gilchrist at Channel Tenicia Gregory ran Channel 62 when it was an independent), but you're the first black woman to hold such a post. Most of the stations in the market are 50 year9 old or so. Why did it take so long to get a black female chief? I don't know.

I was very surprised when I came to the market that there weren't more African Americans in senior management positions at TV stations, at radio stations, in advertising agencies. I just didn't expect that in Detroit. I have since spoken to a number of individuals and tried to make my own inquiries into the black community to see why that exists and to see if there, are things we can do as a TV station determined not to fall into that kind of pitfall. One of the things we need to do is identify talent and then create an environment where minorities want to come and work. It's a combination both of not having individuals with the skills required to compete in a market the size of Detroit and that the environment has not been created where the people were wanted and welcome.

It's not just Detroit, though. Detroit is glaring because it has such a large percentage of the population that is African American. But it's industrywide on this issue. You look across the board it's the case for news directors; it's for sales man- agers. We'll make concerted efforts to create opportunities to impact that.

Channel 20, over the years, was known mostly as the station for "Baywatch" babes and badly cut movies with a rather amateurish on-air presence. What do YOU want Channel 20 to be known for? We are working diligently in every department to make WB 20 a strong, well-run, well-respected television station in this market. Quite frankly, I was very surprised at the way the previous Channel 20 looked on-air. There was no real investment in its presence in the community, much less its on-air look. We have spent a great deal of money in a 10-rrionth period to invest in programming which we won't see the benefit of until the fall of 1999 or 2000.

In addition to blowing up the call letters (the former WXON), we've created a graphics package and are doing a station image campaign and public service campaign that puts a positive spin on Detroit. We're buying radio, buying billboards, getting a message out that this is not the same old Channel 20. We have combed the country to try to bring in great talent who was willing to be part of the station rebuilding process. The thing that excited me most about my position was the challenge, the opportunity to take something in its infancy and to mold something that works the way I think a TV station ought to work. Your boss, Granite chairman Don Cornwall, reluctantly told me just after taking control of the station there would be local news, and soon.

But you're still far removed from a daily news operation, right' Are we ever going to see local news on Channel 20? I think there will come a time and I I 1. I 'V i fsrf -t zz v. i.