St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 59

E5 SEP 3 0 200 C6 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH METRO SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2001 i Votes in Congress i 1 1 "MM Key House votes 3 Votes for the cislirS wee enoVng Sept. 28 llclsfl OOIiuOclo5 DEFENSE BUDGET (HR 2586) YES YES YES YES YES YES YB YES MILITARY ABORTIONS YES YES NO lw YES Mm FEDERAL WORKERS (HR 2586) YES YES YES YES "no" DOMESTIC PARTNERS (HR 2944) YES YES YES YES YES YES BOY SCOUTS (HR 2944) NO YK YK YK YES YB YES watched affiliate of the WB network. Channel 2 delivers strong ratings for Fox, and has exploited the fact that the network's programming ends early to build a strong 9 p.m. newscast with growing audiences.

Currently, ABC's evening news with Peter Jennings ranks a close second to NBC's Tom Brokaw, who is drawing a 6.5 national rating and 13 percent of the audience. In St Louis, however, Jennings averages under a 3 rating, with less than 6 percent of the audience. By contrast, Brokaw almost doubled his national average in St. Louis, drawing a 12 rating and 27 share. ABC's popular soap operas and shows like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and "NYPD Blue" also rank far lower in St.

Louis than nationally. Ratings bear no direct relationship to quality, and KDNL's news department has no reason to be ashamed of the product it put on the air. The newscast, which won a regional Emmy in 2000, is solid if unspectacular, with the staff including anchors Rick Edlund and Gina Kurre and reporters Andy Banker, Paul Brown, Jean Jackson and Dawn Kendrick a real strength. "Day after day, against tall odds, this group of people did remarkable job," Edlund said after the announcement Friday. "They deserve better." Critic Gail Pennington: E-mail: DEFENSE BUDGET: Members approved, 398-17, a $343 billion defense uuugei iui nauii cwc, uij jo i.tmuii ur i i peruem over mui.

yes voie was to pass a bill that more than doubles missile defense spending and funds military pay raises of at least 5 percent. (HR 2586) MILITARY ABORTIONS: The House rejected, 217-199, an amendment to HR 2586 (above) allowing military personnel and dependents to receive privately financed abortions at U.S. military hospitals abroad. A yes vote was to end a congressional ban on such abortions. Nielsen Media Research's mea- surable levels.

Meanwhile, Sinclair worried about its corporate bottom line. It went to court to attempt to avoid defaulting on loans and announced that revenue would drop as much as percent in the current quarter. Finally, it decided to cut its losses at KDNL Beyond the local picture, TV news is suffering a loss of viewers in general. A study conducted last year by the Pew Research Center found that just 30 percent of viewers watch a network evening newscast; that percentage was 60 percent as recently as 1993. But through the years, news ratings at Channel 30 stayed low in part because the station was never able to profit from the switch to ABC.

In an odd quirk of St. Louis viewing patterns, ABC programming, both news and entertainment, has never been as popular here as it is nationwide. That trend was true for Channel 2 as well. Rivals often joke that St. Loui-sans' dials are stuck on Channel 5, which ranks among the most-watched NBC affiliates nationwide.

Channel 4 was the country's top-rated CBS affiliate during the May sweeps period, and KPLR (Channel 11) was the most- FEDERAL WORKERS: Members rejected, 221-197, a Democratic bid to curb the contracting out of civil service jobs at military bases. A yes vote backed a plan to allow federal workers to use a form of competitive bidding to show they can do the work better at less cost. (HR 2586) Channel 30 KDNL newscast struggled in tough market Continued from CI The station was considered the big winner that August when it became an ABC affiliate after switching networks with KTVI. But when Baker merged River City into Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996, at a profit of more than $1 billion, that left KDNL in the hands of an out-of-town chain with no ties to the community. St Louis' viewers, always slow to accept change, already had been presented with an unfamiliar newscast and all-new personalities.

But the changes at the station were just beginning. General managers and news directors came and went, as did on-air talent, with six principal anchors rotating through the 10 p.m. newscast in six years. Even the look of the news changed, with the station going through five different sets in its first four years. The beginning of the end came during a year in limbo, as owners went to court in June 1999 to challenge a proposed sale.

To cut costs, the 5 p.m. newscast was dropped, and the station was put on an austerity budget from which it never recovered, especially as the media recession hit hard this year. Equipment fell apart, including a bad transmitter that knocked the station off the air repeatedly, even during "Monday Night Foot-balL" Key staffers fled. When the 5 p.m. newscast was restored, viewership remained desperately low, occasionally falling below DOMESTIC PARTNERS: Members refused, 194-226, to prevent the District of Columbia from providing homosexual couples and other nontraditional families with the sante health benefits received by married couples.

A yes Vote opposed D.C.'s domestic-partner law. (HR 2944) 'oiiit. BOY SCOUTS: Members blocked, 262-152, a D.C. Human Rights Commis- Editorials and Commentaries Daily sion ruling that the Boy Scouts of America must reinstate two homosexual i scout leaders. A yes vote opposed the D.C.

ruling as counter to a U.S. Su- preme Court decision on behalf of the Scouts. (HR 2944) ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Key Senate votes Votes for the week ending Sept.28 BASE CLOSINGS (S 1438) NO NO NO NO rSMehaels BASE CLOSINGS: Senators approved, 53-47, a round of military base clos-, ir.gs in 2003, following four previous rounds that have shut nearly 100 major bases since 1988. A yes vote backed new closures over arguments now is I not the time to restructure the military.

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