Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 47

11C Star TribuneThursdaySeptember 101987 HOLSTON: NBC blockbusters lend a hand Crossword puzzle ACROSS 1 Competent 5 Galloping sound 9 Cartoonist Addams 13 Freshwater food fish 15 Frog, to Fabius 16 Billiards frame 17 Pupil of Socrates 18 Vinegar: Comb, form 19 Dramatic opener 20 Ivy Leaguer 21 Reversed position 24 Plunder 26 Sty sound 27 Pulsate 28 She of "She" 32 Ramshackle buildings, e.g. 36 Hwys. 37 Type type: Abbr. 38 Rotating piece 39 Master Horner 40 Salt, to some 41 Items for 53 Across 44 Actor Werner and namesakes 47 Fissure 48 Preserves SO Indie dialect S3 Scout activity 57 Prohibit 58 Jai 59Tetticoat material, for short 60 Kindled anew 62 British gun 63 County in Ontario 64 Lycee member 65 King 66 Kind of lily 67 North Sea feeder DOWN 1 Berth or crust 2 Capital of ancient Macedonia 3 Rail 4 Calendar abbr. 5 Blind-side defensive block 6 Deficiency 7 a customer 8 Country, to Caesar 9Lollapa- looza 10 Cabbie IIEntr' 12 Sideslip 14 Tasmania's capital 22 Acidity 23 Way or where starter Iwo V-i KARE Anchors Paul Magers and Diana Pierce Weatherman Paul Douglas One story illustrates both: A WCCO report on the opening of the Minnesota State Fair featured recurring scenes of anchorman Don Shelby trying to win a stuffed animal by shooting hoops at a midway booth.

Ultimately, Shelby hit a basket and won a bear about the size of a chipmunk. Told that he dropped only $28 in his quest, he walked away smiling goofily and clucking over his prize. Skits like this are meant to reinforce the idea that Shelby, whom some viewers have considered arrogant since his days with WCCO's investigative l-Team, is just a regular guy. Instead of convincing viewers that KARE's Paul and Di and Paul aren't the only local news personalities with the common touch, however, such spots might con- vince viewers that Shelby a smart, experienced reporter is a dope. "WCCO is in a real bind," said Ted Glasser.

"They're on the brink of sacrificing their whole reputation. If they move closer to KARE's style, they may not only lose the ratings war, they may lose the prestige war as well. I don't envy the management team over there now." KARE, meanwhile, is sitting pretty. It has NBC's as well as its own momentum, no illusions about its identity and no regrets about its approach. Nor should it, necessarily.

Producing a newscast that emphasizes softer features is no more a crime than publishing People magazine. If everybody followed KARE's example, now that would be a crime. 13 14 17 ft' 21 2F 24 25 27 32 33 34 37 3T BO i41 44 45 46 149 56 59 -S3 15 3T pecially for the Twin Cities, however. Tom Kirby, KARE's vice president for news, brought the community-involvement credo with him when he moved here from Gan-nett's KUSA, the top-rated station in Denver, Colo. Kirby and news director Nick Lawler, who left early this year to work as a news consultant for the nationally influential Frank Magid and Associates, hoped the upbeat approach would create a niche for KARE, its deeply entrenched competition notwithstanding.

It did, and then some. Sullivan suggests KARE's success is also a function of the times. He is not the first to note similarities between the past few years and the 1950s. "It's a very calm time," he said. "On most nights, there's not something you have to know.

Some event will come along and jar that once in a while, but by and large, you don't have to watch the news every night." Stations with a more traditional approach to news, stations like WCCO and KSTP, are not essential in these times, Sullivan theorizes. "It won't be like that forever, though." Won't it? Connery of St. Thomas argues that entertainment values will increasingly dominate television. "You can't discount the cultural factor 'Entertainment 'Wheel of this whole entertainment ethos that is predominant now," he said. Connery touches on a theory expounded by Neil Postman, a New York University communications profes-sor, in his 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Busi-, that four decades of TV exposure have conditioned viewers to expect and even demand that pro Continued from page 1C sonable weather forecaster (Paul Douglas) whose ingenious gimmick, his outdoor "weather garden," is as unfairly maligned as his boyish looks.

And it has an anchorman (Paul Magers) with dark good looks, an earnest delivery and the residual reputation of his older brother, Ron, who was the most popular anchor to work in the Twin Cities this side of Dave Moore. Ah, yes, the Moore Factor! Gan-nett's upgrading of KARE has coincided roughly with WCCO's changing of the guard: the gradual phasing in of Don Shelby as successor to Moore, who had dominated TV news here even more than CBS' Walter Cronkite had dominated the national scene. Moore, whose 6 p.m. newscast still wins for 'CCO, hasn't been a factor in the 1 0 p.m.' news competition for two years now. KARE's upgrading also paralleled NBC's ascent to first place in prime time.

The lead-in value of NBC's 9 p.m. shows, few of them big hits, is often overstated by competitors. But it surely hasn't hurt KARE's profile to be local home of such early-evening NBC blockbusters as "The Cosby Show" and "Family Ties." The station's tireless promotions department even got Bill Cosby to plug their newscasts. Somehow, though, this explanation isn't enough. There is something else at work in KARE's rise, an intangible factor with disturbing portents for a metropolitan area that has been relatively untouched by the gloss-andglitter trend that has affected not just local newscasts around the country but network news as well.

When Bill Moyers resigned from CBS News earlier this year, he voiced concern over the increased blurring of news and entertainment. "In meeting after meeting," he noted, 'Entertainment Tonight' was touted as the model breezy, entertaining, undemanding." He could have been talking about KARE's news. In a letter published recently in the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, an ardent KARE convert commented: "A person can actually feel good after watching KARE news. can't say that about WCCO news.

You can tell that Paul (Magers), Diana (Pierce) and Paul (Douglas) love people." So do Mother Teresa and game-show host Richard Dawson, not that it makes either of them a journalist. But what a startling notion: newscast as balm for aching psyches, newscast as renewer of faith in mankind. Could it be that KARE is satisfying much the same need that Jim and Tammy Bakker did, the need to feel secure and loved in a mixed-up modern world? "That letter tells me that their marketing ploy is working," said Tom Connery, chairman of the College of St. Thomas journalism department. "They've won in that sense.

They've convinced the audience that 'We are a special part of your community and we do care about you and we're not just going to dwell on the "That's the important part," Connery said. 'Not only do we care about you and the community, but we're going to show you the upbeat, positive Thev're rede fining the whole concept of news." What Connery calls a marketing ploy, the station calls a philosophy. "This new name symbolizes the care and concern we strive to show in our programming, to our viewers and to the community as a whole," station president Joe Franzgrote announced in June 1986 when Gannett appropriated the letters WUSA for its Washington, D.C., outlet and the Twin Cities station was rechristened KARE. "It offers us another opportunity to remind viewers that they are the No. 1 priority of this station." And remind them and remind them and remind them ad infinitum.

KARE is more publicity-conscious than a Hollywood starlet. It's been joked that the station would rename the Big 10 the "Big 11" if it could. What rankles journalistic purists Alfred ShelnwoldBridge Yesterday's Answers I 0 NEpSHlIpIS 0 Itsj pL A MIT DEN 1 TTrifslo B11D ADO Wit dTsTn aWTPUsThIa e3s phrKaYfulK oInh Rig spal lIoIn eE, 1 6 eIBETS A fca A 0 Til MAI IjSjT I bTuJ I 0 SljT I HJEno 0 Jfu riElM API A Ink If 4q jrjBgaTrpESgi MiLNl J-aTd 0 if 0 I If I 0H1A KIT If EN El HARKS IQIBIBI 25 Decisive defeat 29 Some chairs and dishes 30 Euphemism 31 Queries 32Asfaras, in Firenze 33 Philippine natives 34 Bad review 35 Collide with 42 He, she, it: Abbr. 43 de Cristo Mountains, Colo. 45 Talk, mod style 46 Grazer's diet 49 Rocky debris 51 Credulous 52 Between: Prefix 53 Sit in the sun 54 Choral parti 55 City in Normandy 56 Ruler 61 English cathedral city 10 111 112 16 19 23 2T 2T 29 30 31 35 36 42 M3 50 51 152 57 61 67 10l7 singleton (he couldn't have three hearts and would play high with a doubleton).

West next led the two: of hearts, his lowest, as a suit-preference signal, showing interest in clubs, the jowest-ranking suit. East ruff6d. The defense continued with a club to the jack, a heart a club to the queen and another heart, ruffed by East and overruffed by South. Declarer still had to lose a spade, and he was down one because West had listened to his partner's silence. Daily question You hold: A82976KQ10 7510 7 Your partner is the dealer.

After two passes, you open with one diamond. Partner responds one heart. The opponents pass. What do you say? Answer Pass. Partner should have fair hearts.

He must beware of re-sponding in a bad suit as a passed hand since he may be dropped in his suit if (as here) you have opened light. If you make another bid, you confirm that you have a sound opening bid, and partner may bid too much. Send bridge questions to Shein-wold on Bridge, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, 425 Portland Av. Minneapolis, Minn. 55488.

You get good news about a piece of real estate. Cultivate your independence even if others oppose you. Someone may come back into your life from the past. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb.

18): Your overall judgment will be excellent. Now is the time to reconcile with a brother or sister. Short trips will be en-' Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): Expect a positive outcome in a major financial matter. Career advancement puts you in a good mood.

Love affairs still sizzle and even more suitors are interested in you. Astrological Mail: Career Guide: "I'm having trouble finding long-term employment as a real estate agent. How can I make money and keep my family life toother? My date is Oct. 5, Transiting Saturn, which is in your rising sign, is telling you to start at the bottom of the heap and be willing to work your way up, wherever you find yourself. This takes time.

Fight your impatience at all costs, and stay where you 1 can learn the most. Once you learn to stick with one firm, no matter what, your life will stabilize itself. most, however, is how prominently the news department figures in the promotions. If a terminally III child gets a ride in KARE's helicopter, you'll be sure to see it on a KARE newscast. If the chopper helps the police search for a fugitive, you'll hear about it on KARE exclusively.

When KARE isn't covering itself, it leans heavily toward human-interest stories. Ethnic festivals, pound puppies, spry senior citizens and kids, particularly kids fighting against illness, are staples. At their most dubious, the human-interest stories are so slight and lacking in broad relevance which is not to say appeal that they're barely worth a mention. Take the recent case of newlyweds whose undeveloped wedding pictures were stolen from their photographer's car. KARE presented the story as if it were a major tragedy, re-creating the couple's hunt through trash cans in alleys near the scene of the crime, displaying the frilly white photo album that sniff, choke, gulp may never be filled.

"They've shifted the focus of news," said Ted Glasser, associate director of the University of Minnesota's Silha Center for the Study of Media, Ethics and Law. "The focus is on what makes the individual feel good about himself and the community." Glasser doesn't dismiss feel-good news out of hand, but he believes KARE emphasizes such stories at the expense of hard news fires, highway accidents, murder scenes and other sure-fire photo opportu- nities not included. Also bypassed are the complicated feature stories of deeper, more lasting significance to the community. National and international news for the most part is summarized in a tightly edited picture-plus-headline feature called "Datelines." "The problem is not what they do," Glasser said, noting especially the paucity of detailed reporting on the arts and politics. "It's what they don't do." Indeed.

The motto of KARE's news is "We know what matters," but it ought to be, "We know what gets an audience." Much of what it reports has limited bearing, if any, on planning and budget issues that cry out for an Informed citizenry; it does, however, tend to create an emotional response. Mike Sullivan, who just ended an award-winning stint as WCCO's public affairs director to become senior producer of PBS' "Frontline" documentary series (and who is married to KARE reporter Jean-ette Harrison), said KARE's success reveals an appetite for a more emotional approach to news. In Sullivan's view, this urge hadn't even been recognized, let alone been satisfied, before Gannett bought the station. "Even the audience didn't know it had that appetite," he said, "because they'd never really been offered that style or that content." KARE's news was not designed es 935-1753 LuthefmChuwh 5 Minnetonka Mills Road, Hopkins block wst of HitarMcMon of Hwy. 7 A 5 Ar.

Nielsen ratings Because of the Labor Day holiday this week the Nielsen ratings of television programs were not available for today's newspaper. They will appear Friday. Midweek i Vacation Special today through Thursday attheAIINewRadlsson $55 plat tax pir iliM StiRdiri Rim $60 Hillside Room $65 Lakosido Room 14 persons per room Complimentary continental breakfast Complimentary drink coupon Indoor pool, whirlpool, sauna Cable TV, free parkine Dine at the new Top of the Harbor Restaurant Offer expires Oct. 15, 1987 100lscoutfwSeihirCltbiM Limited rooms available at these rates. 800-228-9822 West dealer Neither side vulnerable north K53 VKJ103, A82 984 WEST J10 VAQ852 J4 4KQ J3 EAST Q9764 4 963 4A852 SOUTH A82 976 KQ107S 107 West North East South 1 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass Pass 2 4 All pass Opening lead The opening leader usually bases his choice on what has been bid.

Very seldom can he be guided by what his partner hasn't bid. West had a strong club sequence to lead from but knew that his opening bid had promised a five-card heart suit and that his partner would usually bid two hearts over two clubs, even with a doubleton heart. West felt the odds were overwhelming that his partner had only one heart, so he started with the ace of hearts. East's four of hearts was surely a grams be entertaining news included. So, will the battle here be fought, increasingly for news viewers' hearts rather than their minds? Will the old journalistic credo, "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," be replaced by a shorter, sweeter Will KSTP and WCCO catch the KARE wave? Will KSTP become KMOM? Will WCCO become WOMB? KSTP appears to be least influenced by KARE's success, perhaps because that Hubbard Broadcasting station always has been flashier and more feature-oriented than WCCO, which clung to the low-frills CBS News tradition even longer than CSS.

But WCCO's style and content have changed in the past year as its audience slowly eroded and KARE's continued to grow. WCCO is still the station where you're most likely to find investigative reporting, political reporting and editorials with teeth; still the station most likely to give national and international news more than cursory play. Yet, despite WCCO management's insistence that copying KARE would be folly, it's obvious that 'CCO has picked up a few ideas about fluff and self-aggrandizement from the upstart. fTT Joyce JillsonHoroscope Thursday, September 10, 1987 Center RALLY SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 13 WORSHIP: 8:15, 9:30 11:00 A.M. Church School Nursery at all hours "A WINNING TEAM" PASTOR ROBBINS PREACHING Rally Sunday kicks off the fall season with a full schedule of programs to meet the needs of all ages.

AOTH Thursday, Priday, Saturday September 10, 1 1 and 12 1 5 Antique Dealers on the Mall An Annual Event Your birthday today: September is a powerhouse month for you, with plenty to keep you busy In your career. Culminating financial events come in October. Relationships are highlighted, too. Next year is climatic. Long sought-after goals will be realized.

You'll enjoy emotional fulfillment, love and family unity In March and June. Vacation in May if possible. Promotional activities will go well. Arte (March 21-AprH 19): You may have trouble communicating your feelings accurately; let them settle down first. Managing your money properly is important.

Finish what you start. Taurus (AprH 20-May 20): The next two days help you get further established in your career. Your financial judgment is better, and others are interested in your proposals. Release hurt feelings. Gemini (May 21-Jtme 11): Persistence will make the difference between success and failure.

Mental confusion could swamp you. Put your signature on contracts tomorrow, not today. Cancer (June 22-Juty 22): You feel a closeness to na ture. Shopping bargains are easier to come by. Relationships will have a special closeness and warmth.

Leo(July23-Aug. 22): You may not get things right the first time; if so, make another attempt. Property matters can prove lucrative. Keep a tight reign on your finances for now. Virgo (Aug.

23-Sept 22): Your judgment on personal and financial matters is apt to be clouded. If relatives criticize you, you'll prove yourself to be right in the end. Libra (Sept 23-0ct 23): Your productivity will be vastly increased. Extra stamina helps you get through the day. Financially, do what's best for your long-term security.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov. 21): Take other people's feelings into account. A new financial partnership looks promising. You'll feel better if you get extra rest. Bagfttarhtt (Nov.

22-Dec. 21): Your partner needs more time to decide on what he or she needs emotionally. Success with your investments is likely. Plan an evening out on the town tonight. Capricorn (Dec.

22-Jan. 19): VISITORS ARE WELCOME HEREI If you do not have a church home, come and worship check Gethsemane out. JOIN US THIS FALLI Pastors Harlan N. Robblns Steven L. Gartland David E.Hughes Lasse J.

Stohl VISITORS ARE INVITED I Mock Mwtfc A 2 71 Jb Easy, cool shopping in our air-conditioned mall in beautiful, downtown Wayzata just a short drive. i.