Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 32

9 Jan. 20, 1978 Minneapolis Tribune 4C Chrysler thinks big, scores with new small car models tew IP i je Lig i 0 Staff Photo by Pete Hohn urate With no one to hand him fast-breaking bulletins, sportscaster Joe Boyle Chrysler has been shorn of Its big car image. Forced out of the big car specialty by government "fleet average" edicts that decree mileage for an entire line, and suffering a 5-percent sales loss as a result, Chrysler has come up with a stunning retort: The finest small r.rs made In the United States, the Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni. The cars, identical 4-door twins, reflect years of corporate anxiety mixed with a little German Ingenuity. A Rabbit-like, 75-horsepow-er engine-transmission team is at the heart of the cars.

Chrysler's contributions are everything above the engine block manifolds, electronic ignition, etc. and everything below the engine, Including the suspension system, which Is a masterpiece. As comfortable as cars weighing 1,000 pounds more, the Omni and Horizon are spacious, with room comparable to a compact-size car. Leg room, front and rear, is generous. Three slim people can be accommodated in the rear seat.

Cargo space, ingeniously designed, is sufficient for two large and one small luggage pieces, with a hatchback that opens like a drawbridge to reveal the cargo space. Braking and steering (both with power assists that are not essential) are smooth and precise. Pickup and passing abilities are about as quick as the best cars of this type. Performance aspects lift the cars above the field, and their seating and comfort are superior to the former champion in this size car, the Honda Accord. Options include expensive items like air conditioning and automatic transmission, but together they reduce gas mileage by as much as 10 miles per gallon.

Other options, highly desirable and urgently recommended, include heavy-duty suspension and rear window wiper and defogger. They cost about $120. Thanks to the car's front-wheel drive, traction on ice and snow is sure-footed. The engine which is slightly larger in some dimensions than the Rabbit's, is mounted across the front. Ignition is Chrysler's "lean burn." Luxury options, Including a suedelike upholstery, stereo sound system, and lighting, can make the cars as posh as the old luxury Chrysler.

One standard feature is Got a problem? I Ask Mnneapafcs I Lock what's at H. Salt' Ship Mioy glasses. Take one home each time you buy a drink for just 49 There are six diileient historic sailing ship glasses to choose from 2906 Chicat Ave. lii't Tl I. il 1 check for late scores.

the ones who dig and scratch at one another's eyes over at the other stations. There are few budding ulcers in his newsroom and that counts for something. Two nights later, when a basketball game runs late, they will scratch the 9:30 news altogether. What WTCN has is a refreshing small-town like TV news operation in a major city market. "We have the luxury of an understanding management," Amundson says.

"They know our competition has been things like Baretta and Charlie's Angels and we can't beat that. They don't want us to sit on our hands either. I'm sure if our numbers started falling, we'd hear about it. So we give it a good effort every day. But we don't have any undue pressures from management.

I assume that's because they know we're squeezing all we can get out of what we've got." paper or magazine articles under the author's name). It was one of those authors, Milt Machlin, who suggested she a write the book. "The only idea I had ever had for a book was the botulism one," she said. "So, I did some research to see if what I had in mind really could be done, worked up an outline of the book and wrote the first two chapters. Milt said it was wonderful, told me to get an agent and arrange for an advance from a publisher." The advance was $10,000, high by publishing standards and extremely so for a first-time author.

Still, it took her a year to write the book and she had to take time off to supplement her income by continuing to work as a writer's assistant. "Although such work takes me away from my writing, I enjoy it because it keeps me out meeting people, it lets me expand my areas of knowledge," she said. "I just like finding out about things." And find out she did. Falling back on biology training she had received at the University of Minnesota, she proved to herself that a botulism murder plot was possible. "That was the reason for the autopsy report I had put In originally: To prove that the whole thing really was plausible.

I like to write factual books, and the fact that I could justify what was happening was nice to know. But then 1 decided just knowing it myself was enough and that I didn't have to overdo it. "Not that I think anyone would really ever try it," she said. "The toxin is too difficult to handle safely. There are so many easier ways to kill someone." Despite the enthusiasm of her.

publisher, Ms. Lee remained skeptical about the book's chances of success. "I thought of it as a disaster book," she said, "and by 1975 I thought such things were passe. I thought there already had been too many disaster stories. It wasn't until much later that I realized that this isn't a disaster novel It's a terrorism novel." One of the biggest problems facing Ms.

Lee now is getting people to eat in her presence. It seems her friends suddenly lose their appetites upon entering her New York City apartment, especially if she has been careless enough to leave a couple of autopsy reports and textbooks on botulism on the coffee table. "If nothing else." she said. "I've written the ultimate diet book. It's the real last -chance diet." Buy right Arthur Darack the sound insulation that makes the Omni and Horizon as quiet a pair of performers as the usual six-cyiinder vehicle.

Visibility Is especially good, but it can be enhanced with an optional outside passenger mirror and the already-mentioned rear wiper and defogger. The cars' instrumentation includes gauges for charging and water temperature instead of "idiot lights," and a cluster stalk at the left of the steering wheel to control various functions. Controls fall easily into hand gesture patterns, as if designed for real people. Ventilation also is designed effectively. The cars have basic price tags of around $3,700.

This means they are competitive with Fiesta and Rabbit, but higher priced than low-priced Datsuns, Toyotas, the Subaru, Chevette and Pinto. But few people will buy a basic car, and if you drive away with a luxury version you can spend close to $6,000. (That would include air conditioning and automatic transmission.) That's expensive for a small car, yet it has to be considered one of the best buys in today's market. What products would you like to have investigated? Jot ihem down on a postcard and mall to Buy Right in care of the Minneapolis Tribune. Requests will not be answered Individually, but those products mentioned most by readers will be analyzed and reported on in future Buy Right columns.

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860 E. Maryland Ave. rui 1714 Excelsior Blvd. Hopkins left the set during a commercial to Boyle gets In a critical jab at the North Stars case you haven't noticed, the North Stars are In a class by themselves. They have the worst record in professional but there's not enough time for the night's scores.

It is true: The product probably has less polish than the others. There are heavy shadows on the set. There are no network cutaways to film reports from the Middle East or Capitol Hill, just Amundson reading what he has rewritten from the wires and a map of the Sinai desert as a backdrop. Amundson, the traditionalist, prefers not to use a teleprompter and reads only from the script in front of him. All three reporters have local filmed reports.

Boyle has a film clip of women bowlers. When it is over, the troops are jovial. Amundson heads for his car for the long drive to his three-acre suburban homesite in Eagan. You get the distinct impression that he knows something the others don't. Lee Continued from page 1C wanted to scare up the reader's interest.

My brother and sister read galley proofs (advance copies) of the book and their first comments were, 'Well, I don't know about that first "But I left it in because I wanted people to get to the bottom of the page and have to turn to the next page. I wanted to weave a plot that would make people think, 'I should go to bed now, but I'll read just one more chapter Part of the blame for the lack of hero's welcome for Ms. Lee must lie with her publisher, Simon and Schuster. Upon arriving in North Branch, she was upset to find that most Twin Cities bookstores didn't have copies of the book. And an expected invitation to speak at the high school never materialized because, Principal Grant White said, he was not notified in time.

"But then there just hasn't been much reaction to the book at all," Ms. Lee said. Which is not to imply the people of North Branch are prudes. A town of 1,200 located about an hour north of the Twin Cities at the intersections of Hwys. 95 and old U.S.

Hwy. 61, it is a blending community of farmers and commuters who are aware of life in the big city but, for one reason or another, would just as soon forget about it. It is an attitude Ms. Lee can accept. "I think if I had written about something they could relate to, it would have been different," she said.

"While I was writing the book, I never once thought of North Branch. The two just don't go together." At first, even Ms. Lee wasn't convinced the idea for the book was a good one. In fact, at first she tried to give the idea away to another author. "I was working as an assistant editor of a publishing house," she explained, "when an author suffering from writer's block came in and asked if I had any story ideas.

That was in 1971 during the time of the vichyssoise thing, and the first thought I had was for a book about a murderer who poisons his victims with botulism. It seemed like the perfect crime." The author never did anything with the Idea, and Ms. I ee soon forgot about It. When she lost her job because of a financial crunch at the publishing house, she found work as a writer's assistant to several authors (a writer a distant does research, answers the mail and occasionally writes news- of that." (It was such a consulting firm, Magid and Associates, that overhauled KSTP's news and help push it to its current top ranking.) Amundson, 48, has been at WTCN for 17 years. He made it through one purge 12 years ago when the station went from the hands of news-conscious Time-Life Inc.

to Chris-Craft, the boat company, which dismissed all but two of the 25 to 30 people then in the news department. Metromedia, bought the station in 1972. Rumors have resurfaced recently that ABC, currently a high rider in the Nielson ratings, is disenchanted with Channel 9 because of low news ratings and is looking at a possible affiliation with Channel 11. Such an affiliation would almost certainly bring in the news consultants, but Fransen says ABC has not been in touch. "We've had no contact with them," he said.

Amundson glances at his watch and does another live teaser from the newsroom. It is a quarter to 9, 45 minutes to air time. Toni Hughes, looking 10 years younger than her 39 years, strides into the room and makes a dash for the weather wire. For the past eight years, she has been the WTCN weather person. WTCN is the only commercial station in the market without a meteorologist.

That doesn't bother Ms. Hughes much. People don't really need color weather radar and some of the other gimmicks, she says. "Basically people are interested in whether it's going to rain or snow, how cold or hot it's going to be. They want to plan their activities for the next day and want to know how to dress.

I can get that information from the weather bureau and interpret it." Still, she knows the future of TV weather announcers probably will fall to meteorologists and, being a nurse and former medical student, might like to try medical reporting. Someone flicks one of the newsroom TV monitors to Channel 4 and Boyle sneaks peaks now and then at Lou Grant. Amundson gets a phone call from someone asking for sports scores. He tells him the sports ticker is broken. "It's a bookie who calls all the time," he said, knowing he's got better things to do than run to the wire room.

Amundson heads for makeup, which for him means simply a shave and a small touch of lightner below the eyes. Then he ducks into his private office for a final run-through of the script. At 9:15, he calls his wife and chats quietly. Five minutes later, all three are on the set in one of the two studios at WTCN's palatial headquarters off Hwy. 55 in Golden Valley.

The red lignt goes on. It is air tim. All does not go well in the control booth for substitute director Frank Stackowitz. The chromakey, a device allowing slides to appear behind the announcers, is not working. The name of Bruce Vento, subject of a film clip, has not been punched on a machine that projects names onto the screen.

There is some confusion over whether he is a U.S. representative or a state representative. Finally it is decided he will be identified as Brure Vento, representative. Ms. Hughes, the only weather person in the Twin Cities market who is likely to give the temperature in Burlington.

is a minute over on the weather and tells the viewers that Thief River Falls is in Wisconsin. Stackowitz handles it all smoothlv. WTCN Continued from page 1C "I think we have a very serious effort." he said. "We believe in it very strongly. We are always trying to upgrade, little by little adding people and services.

I am satisfied that we are very competitive, especially locally." At 7:15, sports director Joe Boyle enters gingerly, complaining of a sore back. "I wish I had gotten it In a sporting endeavor or even in a sporting house," he jokes. "Maybe you ought to go see Fred Cox (the former Viking place-kicker and a chiropractor," sompone suggests. "I would," says Boyle, "but he'd probably miss wide to the left." Boyle, 44, grew up in Minneapolis and he thinks he has finally found a home back here after an abbreviated career as a minor league pitcher and close to a dozen radioTV jobs from Fargo, N.D., to Moline, 111., to New Orleans. The newscast's place at the bottom of the standings probably bothers Boyle less than the others because one of Channel It's strong suits is its telecast contracts for 30 North Star hockey games a year and 50 Twins baseball games, plus University of Minnesota basketball and the state high school hockey and basketball tournaments.

For now, he is content to scan wire copy to see who the Twins picked up in the college draft and to grumble about the North Stars recent feeble attempts at hockey. Despite its No. 4 news ranking, WTCN has refused to panic. It has not fallen to "happy news," nor has It taken any of these steps that could be seen as drastic: It has not gone bizarre, adopting the tabloid format of some big city independents. You know, the lead story about Cher and Gregg followed by graphic film of assorted kinky crimes and "Weather Woman" chained to her map.

But then, Minneapolis-St. Paul is not a tabloid city and any news team would be hard pressed to dig up the necessary looting and pillaging. "To be honest," Amundson said, "this isn't even a very good regular news town. Oh, we talk about crime, but mostly it's the peaceful Twin Cities, predictable, pleasant. And weekends, well, they're pretty slow after the politicians go home.

You can watch any channel. Three minutes of news and they're into features." Although the WTCN atmosphere is relaxed, its news has refused to go to a laid back, FM-radio formula, you know, the hip anchorman with the soft, slow voice against a black backdrop: "Gonna have some nice news for you now on TCN. First we'll have a cut from Jimmy Carter's latest speech, called 'Easy Then we'll do a little from Rudy Per-pich's new release on Power Line." The station also has avoided the greatest fear of every veteran anchorman: The news consultants. These firms come in and redesign formats, often tossing aside experience for full heads of hair with nice smiles. "We haven't done that yet," Amundson said.

"I hope nobody wants to. I have pretty strong feelings about that. They seem to be treading on the show business part. That's where they're aiming. How a guy's hair should be fixed, the clothes he should wear, what kind of stories you should use.

how many, the length. I just don't understand how they feel they have the knowledge to presume they can do that in a city they don't know much about. A lot of careers have been cut off because Offer encU Tab. 28 or while quantities laet. Lynda MmnM; S.

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