Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 23

REPUBLIC HNAL THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, CITY Wednesday, September 29, 1982o and the arts DDdl IF II .1.111 II II I HI. II) WH A llJilisM 'Tv-m iVil Come Saturday, it'll no longer be KOOL in Phoenix as Channel 10 changes hands By Bud Wilkinson Related story, 1 1 I'll have to guess on that. Knowing the man, I think that's absolutely right, but I can't prove that. I would be willing to guess that the profile was so low that nobody ever knew who it came from. That is the man.

I'm sure he's done that far more times than anybody could relate. What specifically has KOOL-TV pioneered in Arizona television? I honestly think we were the first ones with videotape; we were the first ones with color television; we were the first ones to go all-night broadcasting. I think we were the first ones on South Mountain (and) the first ones to really do documentary work with a purpose. We were the first with the helicopter. I know we were the first ones with an hour news.

It wasn't as successful as we'd have liked, but we're back to it now. I think we were the first to commit to a half -hour news. You say, "Listen, we need to do things. We certainly have to have a good product and we have to do it better." You can't stop and say, "We have black-and-white film now. Isn't that wonderful! The next step will be color film and then we won't have to do anything else." The technologies keep catching up with you.

I remember the first videotape machine we got was in '58, and it sat in a crate for a week and a half while we were doing Art Linkletter's House Party from the State Fairgrounds, live to the CBS Television Network. They had their people here, the director and all that, but our people were the ones who did all the camerawork. KOOL-TV does a good bit of local programming, aside from the news, such as Ninos Contentos, Chapter 10 and the award-winning Copperstate Cavalcade. Do you see these programs continuing? It's a difficult question to answer in that the new people have ideas of their own. Who's to say they will not come in and say, "All these shows are out, but in their place we will do these local shows." I don't know how they'll work that.

I believe the shows we're doing are good. Face the State gives people an insight into some politicians. Obviously, it's not something everyone raves about, but it's an insight into the problems that exist. Ninos Contentos helps the preschool Mexican-American youngster learn to speak English, which gives him a better start in his education. The things we do on Chapter 10 give young teen-agers an insight as to what particular jobs are so they can make a better career choice.

Where the Jobs Are, if it gave somebody Republic Staff On Friday morning, officials of Gulf United Corp. and KOOL-TV majority owner Tom Chauncey will sign the necessary papers transferring ownership of the CBS affiliate from a local family to a Dallas-based corporation, ending an era in Arizona television that began in 1953. Jack Sander of WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio, will replace Homer Lane as Channel 10's general manager. And on Saturday morning the station is expected to sign on with the new call letters KTSP-TV. The station first signed on in October 1953 as two stations that split air time in a timesharing arrangement.

One was primarily "owned by Gene Autry under the KOOL-TV call letters and the other was owned by KOY. The KOOL interests purchased KOY's half in March 1954. In its early days, KOOL-TV was an ABC affiliate but switched to CBS in 1955. One longtime employee of Channel 10 is Bob Davies, vice president of sports, production and special projects. He agreed to talk about the history of KOOL-TV with The Arizona Republic.

QUESTION: KOOL-TV has long been a favored CBS affiliate and has a tremendous national reputation. Why is this? ANSWER: I would say, predominantly, (because o0 the man in charge. Mr. Chauncey has always been a guy who has said, "We're going to be first class. We're going to be No.

1. And we're going to do it the right way." He has, if necessary, put up the money to make sure we had the right equipment andor the right people and he, indeed, has been a spokesman for CBS. In the early days, I remember him testifying for CBS at some Senate committee hearing. They never forgot that. He has always basically cleared 100 percent or, at least like Ivory soap, 99 44lOOths percent, of all CBS programming.

And, of course, the network needs that. They need all their programs aired. Sometimes programs get poor ratings because they are not carried by a lot of stations. You cannot rate if you are not seen. And he's always said if there is some necessary event, public-service event, some local thing that needs to be aired, then we will pre-empt but at the same time we better make sure we offer CBS a "make-good" time.

In other areas, he would stand up for the network in telling other affiliate representa- tives, other owners and managers, that CBS was doing the right thing. He was convinced of it and, in turn, attempted to, and in most cases did, convince these people that this network was good and would continue to be good. They dominated television for 21 years, then lost out to ABC for a couple, and have now come back. I guess you'd call that vision. KOOL-TV has always had a commitment to public service and to community involvement, probably more than the public realizes.

What have been some of KOOL-TV's contributions and why the low profile? I think probably the greatest contribution at the time when it was needed most (was) a documentary called Face of the Inner City. It was about the problems the inner city had and from that show, directly from that show, the LEAP Commission was formed LeadershipEducation for the Advancement of Phoenix is what I think it stood for. That group worked primarily to help the inner city. That was in the early days, when we were in black-and-white. We really didn't have tape; we did it on film.

At that point it showed people that we wanted to help and did help and that this medium is made for that purpose. Again, we're back to what kind of commitment you have if you're an owner. Are you sitting out there saying, "Am I just going to be part of this community and watch?" Our people have never done that. It's always been, "You better be out there first and you better be out there doing something for it." Almost all of our managers belong to two, three, four, five different charitable organizations not only to work for those organizations but to bring back the problems facing those agencies so that stories, documentaries, words can be said; so that people in this community will know what those problems are and can, therefore, help solve them more easily. If you don't know a problem exists, you don't do anything about it.

Our management has always said, "You better do it. And when somebody is in trouble, you better help." A lot of people think you have to do it, and I guess maybe in the long run there's something to that, but there's no law that says you must run public-service announcements. The FCC indicates that once you make your promise, you better live up to it. But every time we've made a promise we've gone beyond it. And, actually, it's the right thing to do.

Haven't there been cases of Chauncey making monetary contributions to charities, very quietly, keeping a low profile? Earl McCartney Republic Longtime KOOL-TV employee Bob Davies, vice president of sports, production and special projects, has witnessed many changes at Channel 10. never felt, any of us, that we have the only ideas. The new people may have just as good or better (ideas), and they may work. What have been the biggest changes, either technological or otherwise, during your tenure at KOOL-TV? Being as old as I am (Davies laughs here), I think videotape was probably the biggest change. Next, the helicopter.

While that was not a technical advance helicopters have been around the use of it was very, KOOL-TV, E10 one job per week, would be well worth it. All those shows do something for somebody. It's a little different in that you program television for the mass. You have to. It's a business that's crazy because you're in a business to please everybody, and you can't.

Everybody has diversified tastes, so you have to give a little here and there and, while we program for the mass, these particular shows are aimed at smaller groups. You have to do some of that, too. As far as the new people coming in, you never know. We have The impact of the music is heightened by movie shots from both world wars Comedians dance to excellent beat in 'Policeman's Ball' Powerful composition protests horrors of war Dimitri Drobatschewsky Music Michael Maza Movies i if WAR REQUIEM By Benjamin Britten. Jill Gomez, soprano; Robert Tear, tenor; Stephen Roberts, baritone; the Kammerorchester der Dresdner Philharmonie; the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra; the Dresdner Kapellknabenchor and the Rundfunk Choir of Leipzig under the direction of Herbert Kegel.

A co-production of the German Democratic Republic Television and the British Broadcasting Corporation, 8 p.m. today on Channel 8. One of the most powerful musical compositions, conceived as a protest against the horrors of war and the wickedness by which man is forced to kill his fellow man, will be telecast at 8 tonight on Channel 8. Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem for the dedication of St. Michael's Cathedral in the English town of Coventry, razed in the Battle of Britain during World War II.

As a symbolic gesture, the performers in the work's premiere, which took place in the rebuilt cathedral on May 30, 1962, were from both sides of the battle lines: British, Russian and German singers and musicians performed under the composer's musical direction. Dresden, in what is today East Germany, was a World War II victim of saturation bombing, and its cathedral was destroyed. (Coventry and Dresden are now "twin" cities.) Dresden, too, celebrated the dedication of its rebuilt cathedral with a performance of the War Requiem. An international cast, consisting of soloists, several choirs and two orchestras, was recruited in East Germany and England. That performance, filmed in the Dresden cathedral, is the subject of today's telecast.

The War Requiem is Britten's most profound composition. The work exists on three planes, each represented by a different group. Soprano, chorus and full orchestra perform the Missa pro Defunctis; pure sounds of innocence emerge from the boys' choir; and two soldiers, onetime enemies during the war, are represented by a tenor and a baritone. They sing, accompanied by a chamber orchestra, music set to the poems of Wilfred Owen. I British Lt.

Owen was killed in action one week before the end of World War I. The poet was one of the first war protesters of modern times who believed tha he would THE SECRET POLICEMAN'S OTHER BALL A Miramax release produced by Martin Lewis and Peter Walker, directed by Julian Temple. Cast: John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Peter Cook, Terry Jones, Pamela Stephenson, Sting, Peter Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck. Rated R. Any movie big enough to embrace Venezuelan beaver cheese, weekend Rastafarians and a no-strings trapeze act could only spring from the Monty Python comedy troupe.

The Secret Policeman 's Other Ball is, and it does. Intercutting comedy sketches and songs by a half dozen British musicians, the Other Ball is a concert picture clipped together from two London fund-raisers organized by Python John Cleese and producer Martin Lewis on behalf of Amnesty International. The Pythons dominate the comedy proceedings with their lie-swapping Four Yorkshiremen sketch, a cheese shop sketch, an end-of-the-world sketch and Top of the Form, a college bowl-style quiz show. But individual comic excellence also gets its moments in Chris Langham's ultrashort course in the Japanese language, singer-satirist Victoria Wood's devastatingly clever blows against the male ego, and big Alexie Sale's high bludgeoning of party people. The music comes from Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, Peter Townshend of the Who and Sting of the Police.

Townshend's solo versions of Pinball Wizard and Won't Get Fooled Again, both performed with only acoustic guitar accompaniment, are remarkable. Technically, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball doesn't measure up to its material. The photography is head-on stuff throughout. While the front-and-center approach works well in comedy close-ups, it tinges bigger scenes with claustrophobia. Most of the footage appears to have been shot by a single camera, and most of it is grainy.

Still, nobody goes to concert movies for glorious cinematography, and The Secret Policeman's Other Ball has pleasures enough to overcome its home-movie look. SECOND OPINION! From Joan Tarshis, Film Journal: "A potpourri of British humor interwoven with historical rock music, with members of Monty Python troupe at their best." 4 w-i Benjamin Britten composed War Requiem to war. Channel 8 presents a performance, filmed in commemorate the dead and protest the horrors of Dresden cathedral, above, at 8 p.m. today. sacred music to the physical reality of the horrors of war produces shattering effects and adds a strong new dimension in pathos and drama to the performance.

All performers are ideally cast. The soloists' voices are superb, and their interpretation of the tension-packed music is almost unendurably emotional. Professor Herbert Kegel has singers and orchestra under perfect control and, without showmanship, achieves intense and deeply stirring results. The show is introduced by British actor Ray Smith, who underlines the highly moral purposes of poet and composer. This aspect is further enhanced by the unusual cooperation between British and East German television forces, who produced this magnificent event It should be enjoyed by lovers of music and advocates of peage everywhere.

gain greater credence for his pacifist outcry if he participated, voluntarily, in the conflict. Owen found nothing glorious in war. "Any man's death diminishes me," he wrote home from the battlefield. "My purpose is to wage war on war!" Owen strongly believed that war is a violation of the principles of Christianity, a crime against nature and a denial of human values. Britten was deeply moved by the poet's message and his fate.

No English composer was more responsive to English poets; many of Britten's works are filled with the theme of outraged innocence. The impact of the musical performance is heightened by the insertion, from time to time, of movie shots from both world wars. The shifting from the spiritual plane of.