Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 43

Star TribuneWednesdayMay 251994 Bill Doual as ho pes U.S. job law needed by gays and straights mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmrmmmn nj iimuuu lightning will strike again in Chicago His new station, WBBM, is 'a little like KARE was 1 1 years ago' Staff Photo by Brian Peterson CBS persuaded Paul Douglas to leave KARE-TV for its WBBM affiliate in Chicago, where it is building a national state-of-the-art weather center. CBS has now in prime time and late night and the investment 'BBM is making in technology and bringing in new anchors, my gut feeling is very good. "Will we be No. 1 in two years? I don't think so," Douglas said.

"But if we can even make a small dent, that translates into some pretty big dollars." Douglas will not have a back yard in Chicago, but WBBM is constructing a "weather deck or weather terrace" on the roof of the station's building, a former riding stable and roller rink about three blocks off Michigan Av. He said the station is also building a state-of-the-art weather center. It's a little surprising to learn that Douglas will not be WBBM's main weatherman initially. The showcase newscasts belong to veteran meteorologist Steve Baskerville. 'I'll be on at noon and in the 4 to 5:30 p.m.

block of three newscasts through the summer," Douglas said. "Then we'll see what By Noel HolstonStaff Writer Paul Douglas goal is to take Chica- storm, much as he did the win Cities when he came to KARE-TV, Ch. 1 1 (then WTCN) with back-yard schtick and helped propel the station from fourth in the TV news competition to a strong second and occasionally, first. I v. After his farewell forecast on KARE's 10 p.m.

news, he's heading to CBS-owned WBBM, where the anchors include former CBS News correspondent Bill Kurtis. "It's a little like KARE was 11 years ag6 when Gannett came in. 'BBM is third. They've got a new general manager Bob McGann, formerly of WCCO-TV, Ch. 4, They've got a new mission," Douglas said.

CBS wants WBBM back into contention for first place, he said, and weather is seen as the key to rebuilding the Nielsen numbers. "It's a calculated gamble on my part going down there," Douglas with the strength that Douglas admits that he has apprehensions about leaving Minnesota, more so than when he came here from Pennsylvania. "I had less to lose back said. "I was single and childless and and pretty clueless. But, you roll the dice." (Douglas and his wife, Laurie, have two children.) He also said he isn't burning any bridges in the Twin Cities and may eventually return.

"Anchor Paul Magers keeps kidding me that I'll come back as a casino greeter," he said. Deb Prico have a gay friend or relative, 57 percent told pollsters In 1988 s.ii inai tney wouia nor. nire anyone i ay ana 4U percent saia tney a ire gay employees. Most Americans find such preju-, dice distasteful. In poll after tnree-fourtns oppose joDDias against gay people.

Yet requests for passage of civil l3 rights laws to protect workers Vj against discrimination based on -4; sexual orientation are onen mis- heard as demands for not equal rights. That mis-' ui luet siai iuii ty at taos imvause uiny ou jbiwih ui Americans realize that gay workers aren't I. AA 1 A already protected by federal (Mellman, Lazarus, Lake Inc. (fV, poll, February 1994). Neither are straight workers.

Federal job protection catego- ln. ries now include race, color, reli-; gion, national origin, gender, age wr and disability. Eight states and more than 80 cities and counties also cover sexual orientation. rj '14 uur ngnts as worxers snouian depend on geograpny. Nem shouldn't be more vulnerable in New Port Ftichey than in at risk in Florida than in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Wisconsin or Vermont But she is.

Everyone is. room nau savings wnen site iost, ner juu. one uiun i novo iu skip Christmas presents tor ner children or pawn possessions to oav bills. Other ex-Late Show employees did. Now, six later, Nem tenas oar in a res- taurant ana manes about nan her old income.

Gay customers boycotted the Late Show because of the firings. The club closed in February. geAuai unoiiiauuii 19 nv foaauii to discriminate. There ought to be a federal law. Deb Price is a columnist for the Detroit News.

Letters should be addressed to her at GNS Fea- tures, 1000 Wilson Ailing-" ton, VA 22229-0001. Weather Barlow is a 'younger version' A Carolyn O'Neill never worried that her sexual orientation might cost her her A single mother, she was much more concerned about whether she was making enough in tips to pay the rent and keep her three rambunctious little boys in tennis shoes. O'Neill earned good money tending bar in a nightclub called the Late Show in New Port Ri-chey, a town on Florida's Gulf Coast just north of Tampa Bay. The club was struggling, though, and the owner decided to try to draw a different crowd. In mid-December, owner Audrey McGillivray informed O'Neill that in three days she'd be out of a job, O'Neill recalls.

Also let go were the club's cocktail waitresses, Judy Whyte and Julie Meindersma, and its other bartender, Kathleen Snapped. All four fired workers are straight. The club was being turned into a gay bar. O'Neill and her former co-workers say they're quite comfortable around gay people. What made them awfully uncomfortable was losing their jobs.

"She had no right to terminate me because of something that had nothing to do with whether I could perform that job," O'Neill declares. "It's irrelevant what my sexual orientation is!" The other three agree. But Joe Donato, who bought into the club as it changed images, told a TV reporter that keeping the women "would have been like a Chinese restaurant hiring a pizza chef." All four were replaced with gay men. O'Neill knows the Late Show saga is unusual only because the fired workers are heterosexual. She has met plenty of gay people who have lost jobs because of their sexual orientation.

In reviewing 20 surveys conducted since 1980, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that between 16 percent and 44 percent of gay people have confronted employment discrimination. Some bosses are quite open about not wanting gay workers: Among employers in Anchorage, Alaska, who do not 30 Off Entire Swimwear Collections Now thru Memorial Daf And Schuler ALSO on QflLS! KedsGrasshoppers 15 Off Minnetonka Mocs 20 Off New Balance 15 Off Dexter 15 Off Vans 15 Off GALLERIA 925-3424 otiabtewithaiyotliHiifleri. 'B Ms. than Continued from page 1E younger adults many advertisers covet, so it can charge premium ad rates. Lansing said KARE got where it is "by building this sense of teamwork between Paul and Paul, along with their feel-good stuff.

Both Pauls fit really well into KARE's image of soft and fuzzy. And nothing succeeds for a television station than talent that ultimately is the manifestation of the overall image. "To lose that, in my view, is a substantial loss," Lansing said. "Sure, he's a big guy," said KARE's assistant news director, Tom Lindner. "He's been a force in this market for 1 1 years.

"No one likes to lose good people," Lindner said. "But people do move on, and it gives you an opportunity to get new good people." KARE's management, after the proverbial nationwide talent search, settled on Ken Barlow, a meteorologist already on staff, to take over Douglas' back yard. Lindner said KARE has "done a ton of research on Ken, and it's solid in terms of support." He said the station is especially encouraged because a surprisingly large number of people knew who Barlow was, even though his primary exposure has been as co-host of the 9 a.m. "KARE 11 Today." "Ken is kind of a younger version of. Doug in my mind," Lindner said.

"Not that age is the factor, but he does bring the same kind of natural enthusiasm to the job. I think his forecasting abilities are No. 1. He's heard that over the years in his appraisals here. "He has an energy level that plays well on television.

He's an easy guy to listen to. He's liked by the staff "Ms- 1 happens." Douglas is also taking a chance on the possibility of national exposure for himself and his Earthwatch computerized weather technology. "One of the sweeteners of his deal was this national emergency-weather capability," he said. "CBS isn't obligated to do it, but the plan is, when there's a big national weather story, they come out to the CBS Weather Center in Chicago. It's not so much going to be me hip deep in muddy water, talking about the flood.

It's going to me in the middle of some technology, showing here's where the storm is or the flood or whatever, and here's where we think it's going." Barlow isn't a gardener, but is learning. "In some ways, he becomes Everyman, in terms of, 'All right, let's figure out what to do in our own back he said. Asked if KARE's garden is a reaction to the rooftop garden, complete with goldfish pond and greenhouse, that WCCO has built for its "master gardener" and No. 2 meteorologist Rebecca Kolls, Lindner scoffed. "I don't think so.

Ours probably speaks more to what people are really doing than penthouse gardens. Although an occasional comment betrays just how seriously these weather wars are taken, none of the competitors seems to be making too urgent a push to win the hearts of any KARE viewers who may feel like looking around after Douglas leaves. KSTP-TV, Ch. 5 news director Dean Bunting believes Dave Dahl, who has been with the station almost 20 years, is the logical successor as weather king. "But it doesn't matter what I think," (5) Cv.

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No limit on the number of advertised collections rjer family, but onfv one PjfZ Staff Photo by Brian Peterson KARE's management settled on Ken Barlow, a meteorologist already on staff, to take over Douglas' back yard. J- 1 -tr- of Douglas Bunting said. "All that matters is what Twin Cities viewers think. And our latest research shows that Twin Cities viewers think that Dave Dahl is the best in the market." WCCO's Mike Fairbourne is one of the best in the world, if you go by the award he went to Paris to pick up early this month at the International Weathercasters Conference. Lansing said WCCO will start a campaign next month, much as it did last June, to promote Fair-bourne and Kolls' noon and 6 p.m.

"4 Your Garden" segments. At KARE, although Barlow will be gardening and playing Mr. Wizard, the time he has for back-yard weather at 10 p.m. may shrink a bit. Douglas' weather segments were often twice as long as those of the other stations, simply because he was so popular.

Lindner said Barlow's time will be more flexible and tied to how big a story weather is on a given day. He said weather will share time with sports to give recently arrived sportscaster Russell Shimooka more time to do his thing. Douglas declined to predict what will happen when he leaves. He likes Barlow, of course, and encouraged KARE's management to pick him. "He's got that sort of naive optimism you need to stand out there when it's 30 below," Douglas said.

But he also noted that the Twin Cities, unlike some TV markets, have three "excellent" choices for weather information, four counting Joe DiGiovanni of KMSP-TV, Ch. 9's news at 9 p.m. At least one news director believes that personality just won't play as big a role in the weather wars with Douglas gone. "The way you win weather is to own the severe-weather position," Lansing said. "On nights there's thunder booming, you want to be the one that pops up." 1-900-4M-S7S; lovee ItUson offers daily penonalii horoscopes.

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In January 1995 NBC will begin carrying hourlong "National Geographic Specials" in prime time under a two-year agreement. The network said it will air five such specials each members, including Magers and Miles and Diana." Starting Thursday, Barlow will be doing KARE's weather at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. A new hire from Sacramento, Pat Evans, will be able, in a week or so, to take over Barlow's former backup duties and co-host "KARE 1 1 Today." Lindner said KARE will be launching a weekly feature, "Simply Science," to take advantage of Barlow's and the public's interest in science. They are also starting a Earden with the guidance of the yndale Garden Center.

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