News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 60

SUN-PRESS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1992 FOX: New regime brings changes Local clubs joining forces fio present Labor Oay parity By LARA GOLD Sun-Press Staff Writer audience the news in a clear and straightforward way," he said. "There are three very good news shows down there. There's no question about that." Network expanding, too FOX also has expanded programming in the offing. The network has no Monday and Tuesday prime-time programming, but by Dec. 31 FOX is expected to roll out a consistent Tuesday lineup and eventually will have Monday programming.

WFTX now airs movies on Mondays and Tuesdays. Also, "Roseanne" will air on WFTX this fall, and the station already has bought the rights to several other network shows in syndication for 1993 and '94, including "Coach." Additionally, a plan is in the works to bring Chevy Chase to a new late-night show in the fall of '93. Andrews said she's pleased with the progress of WFTX and its successful five-year affiliation with FOX. The best, she anticipates, is yet to come. "Our business has changed so much in the last five years.

And it will change even more in the next 10 years," she said. There is a martial arts show, llama rides, game booths, music, a bake sale, a flea market, hand-writting analysis, a ferris wheel, bumper cars, clowns and more. Bingo Mania from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m.

Sunday "should keep bingo fanatics going. Saturday's winner will receive $2,500, and $7,500 will be awarded to Sunday's winner. Here are more events and the activities for the Labor Day celebration. The Caloosa Cloggers, the Workout Dancers, Robin Dawn Showstoppers, the Hula Dancers and Lisa Lynn Dance World will perform. Music of Tom Keogh, Roger Howell, Glen Williams, Skip Haynes Dixieland, The Transitones, "Elvis," Rhythm Club and 1 1 Suncoasters and Bunny Hansen's Big Band.

The Cape Coral Fire Department will put on a fire-safety puppet show, and the Cape Coral Police Department's canine division will demonstrate how they sniff out drugs and firearms. Admission and parking at designated lots are free. "It's a good old family-type picnic," Wadas said. Jerry Brooks, manager of the Knights of Columbus, credits Wadas for coming up with the idea for all the clubs to do something together and then organizing it. "It was Greg's brainchild," Brooks said.

"It's going to be a lot of fun." For those of you who think there is nothing to do here, seven Cape Coral clubs want to prove you wrong. "We figured if we did one big event together, we would make a whole lot of people happy," said Greg Wadas, manager of the American Legion, Post 90. The big event is the All American Family Labor Day Celebration which will run from noon until 1 0 p.m. Saturday. Sunday and Monday in the parking lot at S.E.

10th Place, behind the American Legion, the Power Squadron, the Elks, the Eagles and the Knights of Columbus. Those clubs plus the Italian-American Club and Veterans of Foreign Wars are hosting the event, which will have an assortment of things for the community to see and do. "We wanted to show people what's available in the community," said Wadas, who also is the chairman of the planning committee for the celebration. It is the first time all the clubs, which are located on or around S.E. 47th Terrace, are hosting an event together, Wadas said.

The seven-group union is called the Club Square, and it wants to plan other events together, he said. Money raised from the event will be divided up by the clubs and donated to each of the clubs' charities in the community. "This was something to dramatize our ability to cooperate," Wadas said. The clubs have done more than just cooperate. They have pulled together a holiday celebration that literally has something for everyone.

From Fage 1 success. There has been an estimated 70-percent turnover in staff in the five years since Andrews took over as general manager, but to a good end, she said. Along with programming, "hiring the right people, people who care about what they do" has the key to the rapid growth ofWFTX. WFTX signed on the air in October 1 985 as a station of Family Television, which owned several other properties. Andrews said WFTX has always had surprisingly good She even remembered calling its general manager when she was with ABC in 1 985 and congratuIating.the staff for dfMng' good work.

It had broadcast a daytime movie and an older genre of situation comedies, such as "Gilligan's Island," "Mork and Mindy," "Benson" and "Too Close for Comfort." It also aired the usual afternoon cartoons for kiddies. But Wabash Valley Broadcasting of Indianapolis bought WFTX in 1986 and quickly changed its complexion, signing on as a FOX affiliate in 1987, the same year Andrews joined the station. Wabash Valley wanted to be a competitive network in Southwest Florida, so it pumped money into market research to learn what local viewers want. touching." Always room for news Scovill said the show is not all advocacy but also is open for news issues, such as its segments on Operation Desert Storm and, most recently, the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. In fact, Scovill has traveled back and forth to Homestead twice since Andrew leveled the city last Monday.

He said Southwest Florida response has been phenomenal. "Troubleshooter" collected at least 1 0,000 in donations for the Homestead Relief Fund and received about 800 calls from people offering help. "The show was always driven 3un-Press Vol.3, Issue 109 Goal is to offer something special to is published Wednesday Friday by News-Press especially for the residents of Cape Coral. Please address all inquiries to the Sun-Press office at 2323 Del Prado Cape Coral, Fla. 33990, or call 574-5777.

Results made one thing clear: The station's primary audience were not watching cartoons at 4 p.m. So WFTX switched its afternoon lineup and has continued to upgrade its afternoon programming. It now airs "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Hard Copy" and "Troubleshooter" in its 4 to 6 p.m. lineup. Armed for viewer warfare Television-network competition has increased with the advent of cable, intensifying efforts by local stations to upgrade programming to compete with national networks.

Andrews said WFTX has less network programming most of the other local stations, such as WINK, WEVU.WBBH and WNPL. She believes local programming will be a decisive factor in the TV wars of the '90s. "Localism that's the thing national broadcast networks can't provide," Andrews said. "That's going to be the future." Duffy said the news show WFTX will broadcast may be different from the traditional four-anchor setup that sits behind a desk and reads the news, but was uncertain what format Channel 36 might try. He also declined to discuss costs, but said that starting a news broadcast would be expensive.

"We have to build'an audience and we have to give the community by the responses," Scovill said. "We've been getting a lot of calls from people who said 'we want to help' and from people who said 'we have some specific Saturday, Scovill will lead a 50 to 1 00-member work crew to Homestead to aid in relief efforts. The crew will do some repairs and help clean up Sunrise Community Center, a non-profit center for the developmentally disabled. The center was damaged in last week's storm. After Saturday's trip to Homestead, which will be Scovill's third in less than two weeks, he plans to organize several more trips to lead volunteers who want to help in relief efforts.

A troubleshooter, indeed. buusiuuie: jouu omun runeyj, a I Keith Gibson Ruth Bylandsr Bruce Fine Mike Hoyem Lara Gold bl'lii'l'lllillBI Cynthia Jordan Eva Powell ijii.w.id.irri KenRiddick- think he has an good sense of fair play. He is consistently flooded with requests for inquiries, fielding up to 30 letters daily and dozens of telephone calls. "I'm real accurate. We go on the air and I'm real accurate.

We catch people. We're not afraid to go on the air and say this person did this. We name names," Scovill said. One of his favorite shows featured a young couple who proved they were swindled out of their van. The woman was pregnant and had just moved to the city with her husband when the incident happened, Scovill said.

A man apparently told the couple he would give them a vehicle in return for their van. They gave the man the title to their van and he left town. Scovill found the man and interviewed him, but said the man was confrontational and wouldn't back down. In the end, a pastor called the show and gave the couple a van. "The baby's 3 now and I still see them around town," he said.

"People watched their plight, felt moved by it and intervened. I think quite frankly (viewers) made the difference, we made the difference. It was real TROUBLE: From Page 1 taken advantage of." WFTX chief executive officer Chris Duffy developed "Troubleshooter" in 1989 and Scovill helped plan and produce the show, which airs on WFTX Channel 36 from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Chris Andrews, vice president and general manager at WFTX, said "Troubleshooter" is the cornerstone of the local FOX affiliate and out-rates some of the area news shows, according to recent Nielsen and Arbitron figures.

Duffy said his idea for "Troubleshooter" was not original but was derived from similar news stories he had worked in his own career. He said there is one thing unique about the show: He claims it is the sole 30-minute consumer-advocate news show in the nation, Duffy said. "I'd like to come up with some great, philosophical statement (about the making of that sounds good," Duffy laughed. "But as we moved along, we knew that in order to become part of the community we had to do something special." He wouldn't talk money, but Duffy conceded the station committed "major dollars" to "Troubleshooter." He knew it was a risk worth taking, and with the right talent, would be a success. "We just hung on," he said, "and now'it's a profitable show.

For the number four station in the market at that time (1989), it JL UP TO KING KOIL THER-A-PEDIC CDCC DCH with purchase Hi was quite an effort." Right man for the job Duffy, of Indianapolis, hired Scovill before "Troubleshooter" was developed. He remembers seeing him on local television a few months after acquiring WFTX. "I was sitting in a condo in Naples right after we bought the station and I saw him on a Palmer cable TV station and I was fascinated," Duffy said. "I found out he was a former Marine and I had been in the Marines." So when Duffy developed "Troubleshooter," he knew enough about Scovill to decide he was the man who could make the show a success. "Pete wanted to go out and work and he wanted to do some good.

He was natural and he cared," Duffy said. Scovill was in the Marine infantry from 1965 to '69 and served in Vietnam from May 1 966 to September 1 967. He was injured in combat but declined to discuss his military career further, except to say, "All those kinds of experiences I bring to the show every night." Scovill was a husband and a father when he returned to college at age 35 to complete work on a bachelor's degree at Indiana University. He earned a degree in journalism in 1981. "When I returned to school in the '80s, it took every bit of effort to figure out what I wanted to do," he said.

Scovill said he puts his heart and soul into the show and likes to 5 01717 (suggested retail price) Twin Full Queen King ED A MET of bedding set Cape Coral Discount Furnituri Special Projects Advertising Manager: snapero Display advertising: 574-5777 Classified advertising: 542-4478 A i Ja siuw ALLIED VISION LTD Nt LINK HOME VIIJEO TnStar Home Video. Pierce Brosnan plays Dr. Lawrence Angelo, a brilliant scientist obsessed with perfecting a revolutionary Virtual Reality Columbia computer software. When his experiments on animals fail, he All Rights Reserved. 1992 Allied Vision Lid.

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