The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 581

STTTeTif knows it in its current format, the Cf '1 't. fSS 73 broadcast averages between a 4 and 5 rating. (Each rating point equals 26,690 area homes.) As a point of comparison, ratings leader WPVI (Channel 6) averages about a 16 rating at 11 p.m. Factoring in "some audience drop-off," LaMay says his goal is to average a 5 rating for the entire hour. How will he do it? "We're broadening the areas we're covering, plus we're giving in-depth coverage to the major stories of the day in a way that a half-hour format just doesn't permit," LaMay says.

"Now, we barely have time to cover the news. With our new format, we can fill all sorts of other niches." Jay Lloyd remembers when Channel 48 tried to fill those niches. Lloyd, 55, a KYW-AM (1060) staffer for 20 years, was a reporter for WKBS's Ten O'Clock News during its one-year experiment as an hourlong broadcast. Doug Johnson, now with New York's WABC, and Jim Vance, now at Washington's WRC, were anchors, Lloyd recalls. "We had a very good, tight half-hour show," Lloyd says.

"When we expanded to an hour, management didn't substantially increase our reporters or crews. As a consequence, the show became tremendously watered down. The pieces became longer and we ran more features. It just didn't work." With 15 new warm bodies, not to mention new cameras, editing facilities, cars, a new satellite dish and a new newsroom, LaMay says he has no such worries. Stay tuned.

mmnr MihliiTii- "it 'i rii Mn nriiMra iir mi i jji Lea McCarthy (left) works in the editing room with photographer Elliot Feinstein. Cable News Network's Headline News. Each afternoon, she had to do a two-hour live stretch on camera before her first break. "I got it down to a science," she muses. "I took off my shoes, sat on a pillow, kept my coffee nearby.

I learned to eat lunch in about a minute and a half. I learned not to go to the bathroom for long stretches, although once I felt like I was going to die. It wasn't easy." Holding onto viewers for the second half of The Ten O'Clock News won't be easy, either, and LaMay "I don't care if Lee has five stories and I have six," says Chernekoff, a Philadelphia native and University of Delaware graduate. "It doesn't matter to me who has the lead story. We both write stories and contribute to the show.

Our role in the newsroom is equal." Adds McCarthy with a quick laugh: "I'm the senior member here in more ways than one, unfortunately. I'm a lot older than Jill is. Our roles on the show could be reversed and it wouldn't bother me. I see us as equal. We go to the same meetings.

We have the same input." The chemistry between McCarthy and Chernekoff is genuine, they both insist. in love with him," she deadpans.) Off camera, the two are friendly and will sometimes hoist a few together after work. "Lee and I are not the type to put on airs or act," Chernekoff says. "We're not glitzy people." Chernekoff, a Channel 29 employee since 1980, left the station in February 1989. (LaMay let her out of the remainder of her contract so she could follow her then-fiance to Atlanta.) She returned to WTXF with a new four-year contract on Jan.

8, exactly one day after her previous two-year pact here was scheduled to expire. While in Atlanta, Chernekoff proved her mettle by anchoring four hours a day, four days a week for cr wr i ii i I I I I 'ft I agafiaw- i. 1 I f- I I I I jf I jfe fT I ft v- 0T i ji HIJApW- Tjjmiij I Jl ,,,1,1 Jill Chernekoff checks copy before it's time to go on air with the night's broadcast. 5 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER TV WEEK, MARCH 4, 1990.