The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 98

6-E Thursday, Pea' 12, 1985 The Philadelphia Inquirer On its way, Channel 29's "So we'll hire somebody who NEWS, from I WTAFs operating budget In addition to the salaries of 26 employees (about SI million), there are a news set (about six Chevy Blazers five Ikegami cameras four video-playback machines a two-way radio system a sophisticated weather-graphics system ($75,000) and a variety of other necessities that will bring the overall cost of equipment to about $1 million. LaMay and Bonilla, who came here Salaries for reporters will be sub-' stantially less than those at the other stations in town, probably in the range. But LaMay says he believes this will not preclude him from assembling a sound news staff. The salaries of a handful of anchors have given the public a distorted perception of what the average TV news employee earns, he says. In all but the biggest cities, LaMay says, reporters' salaries average about $25,000.

mayte grew up in Philadelphia, went to Temple, then went off somewhere to work," LaMay says. "And now they may be five years out of school, working at their third Job, making $25,000 in Tampa or Cincinnati. "Not only can they come to their home town, and their mom can see them on TV, and they can make more money, but they can also get major-league experience." To help compensate for his own (Continued on next page) from New York's WABC-TV, where he was producer of the 11 p.m. news. have no doubts about the potential of fttmi i.

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mcotaaoiTwnicwnu 30 1 100. EiMa news in 15 years. But others wonder: What makes Channel 29 think that the city wants or can support another news program, especially one at 10 p.m.? "Because it works in other places," says Channel 29 general manager Randy Smith, the man who spent four years trying to sell Taft Broadcasting, which owns WTAF and 11 other stations (five are independents), on the idea. Many medium- and large-sized cities have a prime-time newscast on an independent station, Smith points out, and some New York and Los Angeles, for example have several. In Oakland, New York and Washington, 10 p.m.

newscasts are among the highest-rated news shows. And the numbers for the prime-time news on WCLX-TV in Miami, Taft's only other independent to develop a 10 p.m. news broadcast, have been reasonably satisfying. Add to that three other factors. First, no one serves the people who don't get home in time to see the 6 p.m.

local news and who don't want to wait to see the 11 p.m. news. Second, Philadelphia has more than enough news to go around. "I have seen more excitement and turmoil in two months in Philadelphia than I did in two years in Los Angeles." LaMay says. Within a few months, say Smith and LaMay, Channel 29 hopes that overflow of news will permit The 10 O'clock News to expand to weekends and, eventually, to an hour on weeknights.

And third, Philadelphians just plain like TV news. "Take Washington, which is supposed to be a great news market," Smith says. "The combined 11 o'clock ratings are substantially lower there than they are here." Losses expected Initially, perhaps for the first two years, Channel 29 expects The 10 O'Clock News to lose money. Commercial time is not yet being sold, but ad revenues are expected to reflect the broadcast's low ratings in early months. For the first two years.

Smith anticipates 10 O'Clock News ratings to hover between 3 and by comparison, in November, Channels 3 and 10 averaged 13 ratings, while Channel 6 averaged a whopping 17. Locally, one rating point equals JACK ISIZSHJAN DeBONT DOUGLAS JACK BRQOSICy nlilAlK ROSENTHAL LAWRENCE KOEfl aiMTOUAS 7 PG nnmm buqajb amam swthrTcK-CTTM Vjt fMesa) ltttti CPBftFti flgrfaw 111. TV EC Richard (hombfrtoin (f 140. 3:1 e. JO 7 1OO0 ton.

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"News takes time to build," Smith says. "We think a 5.0 rating is achievable by the end of the second year or early in the third." Taft, Smith says, has made a five-year commitment to The 10 O'Clock News. To help distinguish Channel 29's news from the 11 p.m. broadcasts on Channels 3, 6 and 10, LaMay plans to avoid fluffy feature stories, the "infotainment," and to give viewers straight, hard news. He figures that people craving entertainment aren't likely to tune in to the news at 10 p.m.; they'll be watching Hill Street Blues or Miami Vice.

And besides, with a news staff and budget roughly one-quarter the size of those at KYW, WPVI and WCAU, LaMay won't have the resources to tackle news and fluff. He also plans to adopt something of a "big-story" approach, a strategy that served him well at independent, Metromedia-owned KTTV, where he was also news director. "Many viewers are tuning in for a particular story, local or national, whatever the big story of the day is," LaMay says. "We will cover that in as much depth as anybody in town. If that means we devote the entire front section of the news to one story and have to ditch a couple of secondary stories, fine." For national and foreign reports, the broadcast will use the Cable News Network.

4-CHANNEL 8TTREO SOUND! YOUR CHOICE OF FEATURE TIMES AT WTTENHOUSt 1 00. IS. 3:30. 6:00. 600 7 JO.

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5:20. 7:30 AND 9:45 $2.60 TIL 1 PM SR. CITIZENS A NO CHILDREN $2 60 ANYTIME win JU if fa, A Berri-: A 1JFETIM1: OF they to nn: afa evii ri: OFAI.IET-TI.ME. YOUNG SHEIIiXK TiV71lVll Looking for a theme Still to be developed is a theme for the show something along the lines of Channel 3's "eyewitness" concept or Channel 6's "action news" slant. LaMay is also working to develop a "Philadelphia feel" to the program, in part by taking local slants on national and international stories.

Next month, Channel 29 will launch a $250,000 print, radio, TV and billboard ad campaign to hype its forthcoming newscast But LaMay thinks the hiring of Howard Eskin, the controversial, live-wire Channel with WTAF in return for a salary of more than $1 million over five years, may already have solved the newscast's visibility problem. "Hiring Howard Eskin was probably one of the most successful public-awareness campaigns in history," he says. "I mean, the cabdrivers were talking about it" So far, LaMay has made nine hires: Eskin, Bonilla (who is married to Channel 10 anchor Deborah Knapp), a secretary, two news pholographers, two assignment editors, a producer and a reporter. The reporter Sm Ringgoli now a City Hall rrixirter for WPEN-AM is from as are all but two of the oisc-rs. Still to be filled are eight camera positions (assignment tc rs, producers, writers, news plm' gra-phers and technicians) and on camera positions (six reporters, a weathercaster and, of course, a news anchor).

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