St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 57

ST. U3UE POST-DISPATCH EVERY1LW SUNDAY Living and the arts MONDAY Health and science TUESDAY Living WEDNESDAY Relationships THLKSDSY Arts and entertainment FRIDAY Entertainment SATURDAY Consumer news SECTION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1994 vi-v 43- 1 Birth of the News u. After 12-month gestation, Channel 30's baby goes on the air at 9 p.m. Sunday Scott DinePost-Dispatch Channel 30's on-air team of (from left) meteorologist Steve Jerve, co-anchors Jim Wicks and Leslie Lyles, and sports director Joby Smith will say Happy NEWS Year at 9 p.m. Sunday.

By Gail Pennington Post-Dispatch Television Critic HERE ARE SOME of the people you'll see on the air when Channel 30 begins its news Sunday night: Anchor-reporter Jim Wicks, from CKY-TV in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Anchor-reporter Leslie Lyles, from WCBD in Charleston, S.C. Sports director Joby Smith, from Chicagoland Television Chief meterologist New Faces, Old Places give him some advice." Says Filandrinos, "At first, we brought Gary on as a consultant, got him to do some budgeting and help us figure out what kind of news to put on at 9 o'clock." By phone, Whitaker offered advice, in the process developing a friendly relationship with Filandrinos and Baker. February: An Empty Page Frank Quitoni had already signed on as River City's director of engineering and operations. But first, he had to finish a little job for CBS, as chief engineer of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

As soon as the Olympic torch was extinguished, he reported to St. Louis and began figuring out how to start news organizations here and at River City's station in San Antonio, Texas. Filandrinos was thinking about "sets, graphics, what kind of people we'd need, what we'd have to pay them, what equipment we'd need getting an expense line on what the news would cost." March: People And Spaces At Channel 30's offices at 1215 Cole Street, Quitoni and Filandrinos were poring over blueprints. They were contemplating people and spaces. "In the first phase, probably about 30 people would be added to the staff, not all in the newsroom," Quitoni says.

"So we had to decide See NEWSCAST, Page 5 FROM ANCHORS to ads, from computers to cameras, from choosing the color the sets should be, creating a television news operation is all about details. That's what Channel 30 has learned in the last 12 months, since the station set out to put a 9 p.m. newscast on the air Jan. 1. The process was painstaking, exhilarating and sometimes frustrating.

But at 9 o'clock Sunday, all those involved hope that the birth will be worth their labor. No St. Louis station has built a news organization since 1959, when r' Channel 11 went on the air. Following the process at Channel 30 provides a look at some of the thinking behind television news today. December 1993: Why News? "We'd wanted to get into the news business for several years," says Gregg Filandrinos, general manager of KDNL, Channel 30.

"Being locally owned, we felt we owed something to the community. News is a way of giving something back. And with viewers having more possibilities than ever, what makes you different is your local identification. Our news is what would distinguish us." Then, there was the business angle. "There's a lot of money in news," Filandrinos says.

"We're spending a tremendous amount to do this, but we will make our money back." Owner Barry Baker was also committed to starting a news operation. "I felt that if we were going to be a full-service station, we had to do news," says Baker, a St. Louisan whose River City Broadcasting owns nine television stations, including Channel 30 and KPNT in Ste. Genevieve, and five radio stations. Steve Jerve, from WFTV in Orlando, Fla.

Weekend anchor Sherry Sissac, a veteran of Channel 30 and also the station's public affairs director. Weekend anchor-reporter Darren Kramer, from KREM in Spokane, Wash. Weekend weathercaster Susan Hiland, from WTBW in Evansville, Ind. Weekend sportscaster Mitch Roberts, from WSJV in South Bend, Ind. Reporter Ollie Dowell, from WTVG in Toledo, Ohio Reporter Andy Banker, from WKEF in Dayton, Ohio Reporter Kathleen Willis, from WGGB in Springfield, Mass.

Filandrinos did a financial analysis last December, after the incentive to go ahead gained momentum from Fox's purchase of rights to telecast National Football League games. "We knew that would expand our audience, that people would watch us for football who hadn't watched many of our programs before," Filandrinos says. January: The Go-Ahead "Barry and I sat down in January and decided to do it," Filandrinos says. "I began talking to other stations that had started news." Gary Whitaker was in Atlanta when Filandrinos tracked him down. Whitaker, former news director of Channel 4 here, (see Page 6) was talking with Atlanta's Fox 'affiliate, which was thinking of beginning a news operation, "and Gregg asked if I could Jerry Berger's column returns Jan.

3. ABOVE: Bill Christman preaches soul cleansing at his Guilt-O-Rama display. RIGHT: A giant oil pump gives a guilt-clearing kick to the artist's posterior. For Art's Sake, Start 1995 Guilt-Free iiJI Bfc 4 iWi TTiill i.fcr. psychiatrists; booth No.

3 has the sages a beautician and a cab driver dispensing wisdom. On the other side of the corridor, the Guilt-O-Rama offers chances for atonement. The first booth provides for mortification of the flesh and has St. Louis Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. administering public floggings with a pseudo whip.

Bosley proposed to the city's Board of Aldermen that some juvenile miscreants be publicly whipped. The next booth has three women dressed as nuns operating a spanking machine, a knuckle-rapping contraption and a blackboard where visitors can write their penances. After 12 years of Catholic-school education, Christman acknowledges that his religious ponderings take form in his art. He also says he throws in artifacts from years of working as a commercial and graphic artist, and makes frequent use of advertising signs from the 1930s and '40s. He takes a normal object like a giant oil pump and subverts it to fit his theme.

For Guilt-O-Rama, he says, "I'll somehow tie the pump into guilt." Kent Baker portrays another subverted icon: Will Rogers. He is See GUILT, Page 7 By Deborah Peterson Of the Post-Dispatch Staff WHOA, it's the Guilt-O-Rama with legendary rope-spinner Kent Baker rounding up First Night visitors and hauling them in for a soul cleansing. From the neon-lit entrance to the exit where visitors get Steak 'n Shake-style white hats showing stamped proof of their purification or lack thereof Bill Christman's corridor of art is like a midnight walk down a slightly skewed carnival midway. Like most artists, Christman would rather show what he's doing than talk about it. In describing Guilt-O-Rama over iced tea at a downtown restaurant, he drags out a paper napkin and starts sketching.

The picture that emerges shows one side of a corridor lined with six tent-style booths. Up the other side are a couple more booths and a larger area that he labels "public humiliation." The booths offer opportunities for redemption through psychic counseling. For example, booth No. 1 houses the Bob Dylan Discussion Group and Bob Dylan's Psychic Hotline; booth No. 2 has Christman's son, Sam, 11, and his cousin, Kathy Deichmann, also 11, playing child Renyold FergusonPost-Dispatch' Callie, a 2-year-old calico, is spayed and housebroken.

She is good with children. To adopt: Apply inperson at the Humane Society of Missouri, 1210 Macklind Avenue, before noon Saturday. A i i.