Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 3

REPUBLIC A-2Sun Aug. 0 The Arizona Republic Big names, helicopters aid in TV news battle gSSnu-' gp mjmm.ru (TTTjrjil (D'P. yfrgy JJ Sepuokc (MM by MkhMl Iptcttr KPNX-TV reporter David Page operates a videotape editing station at 1101 N. Central Ave. The NBC Television is burgeoning in Valley day, the cost of television advertising can stagger the unknowing thousands for a local ad, hundreds of thousands for a national spot.

"TV ADS are hard to sell to traditional businessmen," one local broadcaster said. "They pay out $800 bucks, they see their ad flash by in 30 seconds, and then it's gone. There's no record of it." Depending on program ratings, local TV ads on the major stations sell at varying prices. A half-minute of air time ads are sold in multiples of 30 seconds starts around $100 for the afternoon soap operas, then climbs steadily throughout the day. By prime time 7 p.m.

to 10 p.m. the prices for commercials hit their peaks. Thirty seconds on any KTVK (chan-. "Phoenix TV at times surpasses the big markets," he said. "Phoenix Is very production-oriented, very cosmetic conscious.

Some of the worst journalism Is In some of the biggest markets I've seen some dumb things in Sari Francisco, New and LA. things we wouldn't do here. was 15 years behind the times as far as sophistication and the stuff that was being done on the air. Now there are two helicopters in town. There are markets much larger than Phoenix that don't have that fancy equipment." The duel of news helicopters is another gee-whiz sideshow in the ratings fight between KOOL and KPNX.

The latter station purchased its first, a Hughes jet helicopter, last fall giving KOOL competition in the air for the first time. The station says' it paid $500,000 for that privilege and also hired away Jerry Foster, KOOL's airborne journalist. KOOL has maintained a news aircraft since 1961, starting with a Cessna airplane. The station bought the first of a series of helicopters in 1964 and today uses a Bell jet copter, as well as a Cessna plane. KOOL says it paid about $300,000 for the new copter and replaced Foster with Bill Dimond, a former Vietnam combat pilot.

DESPITE THE STATIONS willingness to spend money on equipment, former local reporters complain they couldn't make enough to justify staying. Steve Pascente, former KPNX reporter, said he agreed with Marshall's assessment "for the most part. It'i -changing a little now," he added. Pascente was drawn to WTCN-TV in Minneapolis when "they threw out a number and It just gagged me. "BY COMING HERE I got a 50 percent hike in salary, I'm in a bigger market, a better market, I can do more things in this market.

Phoenix can't offer me that, no matter what'' KPNX's Buch considers salary-inspired turnover inevitable. "Television is a transient, business by its very nature. There is always going to be turnover, both visible and internal. That is a natural phenomenon of this business. "I consider myself fortunate to have a minimal amount of turnover (but) anyone who has an opportunity to better themselves, I'll be the first to help them on to bigger and better things." BUCH BELIEVES the market is strong in areas besides pay.

"The market does put a lot of However, Andrew said, video ads are getting expensive enough to force advertisers into shorter time buys. "THE COSTS are moving up so high that more (clients) are moving to 10-second commercials, and there's talk of a 15-second Apparently, the lushness of the Valley advertising market is convincing other stations to locate here. Two new UHF channels are scheduled to hit the band in September, with one offering all-Spanish programming and the other movies, sydicated programs and sports. With local video soon to be chock-full of choices, it may shock the industry to learn residents seem to be spending less time in front of the tube. At least that was the finding of M.R.

West, a marketing research firm, in a survey in last August. THE STUDY showed 37 percent of those questioned said they were watching less television than the year before. Fifty-four percent said they were viewing about the same, and only 9 percent said they were watching more. Those who had cut back their view-ership listed reasons chilling to network producers: 18 percent said the shows were not as good as before, or that they disliked the programming; Lqpfll stations can't do much about theJShoVs their networks send them but; thiy can do- plenty to upgrade their locally produced news shows. In the Valley, competition gets beastly, and reporters, editors and producers learn to go for the jugular.

Young staffers it helps a lot to be young work intense and oftenJcng -fee errtiajr to beat out the other guys. "This business chews up people fast," KPNX news director Al Buch said. "You get burned out after a while. You change jobs or do some-thjnt different, or you get out of the hbirjess altogether and go sell something." POPULAR NEWS SHOW provides not only a crack at good ratings but lush ad revenues. These days KOOL and KPNX are battling it out to be top news dog.

KOOL was ahead 36 percent to 25 percent in the May ratings for 6 p.m. programming, with KPHO at 24 percent, KTVK at 11 percent and KAET at 1 percent. With competition so vicious and the work so demanding, those in TV news spend a lot of time talking and thinking about salaries. An annual salary of (15,000 may be par for a grocery clerk or a teacher, but it's peanuts to an anchorman. Pay is another one of those things that TV management doesn't like to talk about.

Those on the front line of the business, though, say paychecks at KPNX tend to be higher than at competing stations, with reporters earning $15,000 to $20,000 and anchormen $20,000 to $60,000. THE BIGGEST BUCKS are pulled down by the big-name anchors, people like KPNX's Kent Dana, reportedly at $60,000. Mike Hambrick, who was Dana's predecessor, supposedly was making $70,000 before he left earlier this month in a "mutual agreement" with the company. In the nation's bigger markets, such as Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and New York, those figures can double. Because of that, broadcast reporters are attracted to ever-larger markets, and those in Phoenix tend to leave as soon as they achieve the level of experience that permits them to do so.

"This really is a feeder market for other, bigger markets," said Dr. El-dean Bennett, a professor of mass communications at Arizona State University. "It has always been that way, in journalism as well as the technical side of the industry, to my knowledge." ADDS CHANNEL 12'S Al Buch, "We can't compete with Chicago, Los New York City. That's the the business; the bigger the jnarket is, the more money you can Tkp market hrA kas a lnt ftt 'tiWtwrtitanlft! fWritM MPhoW could not ceta lob in Saiuffotgo. They're lust not good :poQgri.i Iffirt.

according to some, Phoenix's as a beginner's forum is JeehOiDg to change. longer consider ourselves heijjrj-level station," said Bill Gose, KOOli's news director and anchor-JrnailiFor reporters, photographers, writers and producers, i-We iliHa them to have at least one Vear, Experience from somewhere "WE'RE NOW BEGINNING to hire peopleaway from bigger markets itott tf the stations in fthoseV mar-: ets hive a very bad product: and that is one reason. Another way -we get theiriHs 'because of the weather said examples of bigger-mar ket arrivals include Peter KOOL producer hired out of Indianapolis, and Mike Arra, KOOL general assignment reporter, who was lured from Houston. -y KPNX reporter Tim Ryan believes Phoenix's image is improving as a JJlace. for broadcast journalists.

The ultimate in deeping luxury! LAST CHANCE TO SAVE '80 TO 450 Oil SPRING AIR'S FINEST BACK SUPPORTER MATTRESS Sale Ends Acg. 31st nel 3) program at those hours run as high as $1,700 for a non-pre-emptible ad. KTVK (channel 3) has the highest rates in town, and it can get them because it's an affiliate of ABC, the network with "Happy Days," "Lav-erne and Shirley" and similar ratings-' grabbers. THE OTHER network stations are not far behind. KOOL (channel 10), the CBS affiliate, charges as much as $1,500 for spots on "60 Minutes." NBC's KPNX (channel 12) rakes in up to $1,000 for a bucolic half-minute with "Little House on the Prairie." Since ratings mean money, the local stations compete just as hard as the networks for good marks.

Not surprisingly, KTVK leads the local ratings with a 33 percent average share of the Valley prime-time audience. KOOL follows with 27 percent, KPNX is third with 22 percent, and KPHO and KAET bring up the rear with 9 and 4 percent, respectively. Those statistics are contained in the latest available quarterly report on viewing habits in the Phoenix market. The study was conducted in May by the Arbitron statistical service of New York. "WE ARE a fairly heavily sold market," said Ernie Hill, general sales manager for KPHO-TV (channel 5).

"It's hard to buy time here In the second and fourth quarters, and the first and third quarters are beginning to change, also. Over the last two years, the first and third quarters have started to even out more and more." Hill says the four commercial stations spoon fairly equal shares out of the advertising pot. "The spread between the stations is not that great," he said. "All four stations are pretty strong." THIS SEEMS to create an atmosphere more friendly than could be expected in a field known for one-upmanship. "I'd say there is a certain rapport among the TV-ad sales people," said Basil Andrew, account executive for KTVK.

"But you're looking at your paycheck, too, so, you're not going to do too much for the other guy." "We're seeing some businesses who were not TV advertisers before," Hill said. "We've seen the trend in the department stores and lately in the grocery-store chains." affiliate formerly was KTAR. of the Sun 15 percent said TV was less important to their lives than before; 6 percent said they were unable to watch as much television because of other demands on their time, and 3 percent listed other reasons. However, Ted Apostol, associate at the firm, said the poll may be weighted falsely to the negative: "It may be popular to say you're watching less TV so we can't be absolutely sure that they are, in fact, watching less." APOSTOL SAID his company will release a second such study later this year, "then we'll be able to compare the results." Besides its problems with the viewers, television also has difficulties with City Hall. The Phoenix Parks Board consistently refuses to expand the area atop South Mountain allocated to transmitters.

Back in 1943, the Parks Board set aside 15 sites on Mount Suppoa one of the peaks in South Mountain Park for radio and television transmitters. By 1968, thoses sites were taken, and new stations wanting to transmit from there were told to share sites with existing occupants. TODAY, THERE are 16 towers representing 26 television and radio stations on the peak. The Back Supporter mattress Is made only by Reg. $399 '319 mattress, boxspring and delivery.

WEST PHOENIX 12426 N. 28TH DRIVE 2 Blks. N. of Cactui, next to Mary Moppets in Larkspur Shopping Center 993-6537 Today 12-4 Pit Continued from Page A-1 expected of a once-sleepy market gone gung-ho: Phoenix television stations last year collectively made more money than the stations in the next largest market of Columbus, Ohio, despite the Eastern metropolis' larger population. KOOL and KPNX formerly KTAR spend fortunes on news helicopters, but they and other stations seem unable to pay the sort of salaries that will attract and keep top-notch broadcasters in town.

Local TV-advertising salesmen are now busy year-round instead of six months of the year and are friendly with each other because there are more than enough ad dollars to go around. two more arrivals bring the total number of television stations in the Valley to eight, and yet a recent survey reveals residents are cutting down their tube watching. South Mountain bristles with transmitting towers, but the Phoenix Parks Board refuses to allow broadcasters room to expand. NO LONGER is Phoenix considered the backwoods of broadcasting, explains Ellen Ehrlich, director of information services for CBS News. "Phoenix is an important market," she said.

"Anytime you're in the top 50, you're important. Phoenix has a large population, it's a Sun Belt city; it's where people are going." Economically speaking, Phoenix TV stations are as healthy as mice in a grain bin. In 1978, the four commercial stations network affiliates KOOL, KPNX, KTVK and independ ent KPHO had combined profits of $15.7 million, according to figures released by the Federal Communications Commission. TOGETHER, the stations took in $39.8 million in revenues and had $24.1 million in expenses. Revenue and profit information on individual stations, however, is jealously guarded, and both FCC officials and station comptrollers turn aside inquiries about particular station incomes.

Television in the Valley' last year did considerably better than markets closest to it in terms of earnings. The three commercial stations in the No. 32 market of Columbus, for example, had combined revenues of $30.8 million, expenses of $18.6 million and profits of $12.2 million more than $3 million less than the Phoenix market. STATIONS in the No. 34 market of Charlotte, N.C.

made considerably less money than their Phoenix counterparts. Stations there reported revenues last year of $29.1 million, expenses of $20.1 million and combined profits of $9 million. Profits are generated, of course, by revenue from advertising. The amount charged for an ad is based on the popularity of the program on which the commercial is aired. Because of the vast numbers of people who tune in at all hours of the Ml Lilli Ann Coat $199.90 Lilli Ann of San Francisco designed this striking coat in fur-look French tissavel and matching genuine suede.

Pastel, dark ranch or blonde. 6-16. SWITZER'S Pnruriisp Vnllfy Mull Thomas Mall Park Contrwl Chris-Town' Kanhion Square Muna Tri City Metru'e Downtown Phoenix OPKN SUN. 12-15 money into technology; I think Wnarkefc'-Ww- wiry hard to cover the tefj-ttOTjf and put reasonably large mirror on the community. "The market does a lot of things Buch and Close agree that Phoenix television news, like that of many cities, lacks depth.

"We are all inclined to do too many stories fast and dirty," said Close. "We duly report somebody knocked over a Circle (but) we don't go into the 'why. "I'D LOVE THE LUXURY of turn-ing a reporter loose and have him WKe 10 come UP Wlul 1 cant do u- Digging it takes a lot of digging and we don't have enough time." Similarly Buch laments, "I wish I had (enough) reporters so they could have the, time to contemplate. I think everybody misses the boat on what's really going on here organized crime, foreign money In Arizona, problems at all levels of government. "I'd like to have a couple of head-turning things a night." STANDARDS Is expected to be accurately described and readily No.

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