South Florida Sun Sentinel du lieu suivant : Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 37

Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, September 13, 1988 Section BILL KELLEY Television Writer Halas moors his boat to a buoy off Key Largo. Statl photosJOHN CURRY i -r Y. I if ,1,, Emphasis on news a bold move for Ch. 7 ne year frorr. now, WSVN-Ch.

7's decision to cram its schedule with news, news and more news will be looked upon either as a great idea or a unique form of suicide. In any case, Biologist John Halas refuses to take all the credit, but the simple buoy system he devised has been so successful that he's being called a savior of the reefs. BUOY NDEM By MARGO HARAKAS Stall Writer On a bright weekday afternoon about five miles east of Key Largo, a dozen pleasure boats lie over Molasses Reef. In the glistening waters below, scuba divers slide through school after school of yellowtail, snapper, file fish, damsel, sergeant major. They move together, fish and man, under the ledges and along the ridges of the craggy reef.

Despite the number of boats in the area this day, not one is gouging or scouring the fragile reef with its anchor. Instead, each of the vessels is tethered to a sea buoy. Biologist John Halas slows the motor on his twin-engine 30-footer. The sight of the boats bobbing against the cotton candy sky pleases him. Their tie lines are witness to his own inventiveness.

Halas, a sports diver, treasure hunter and biologist for the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary, is creator of a reef buoy system that much to his surprise is catching on worldwide, sending him packing to distant waters and causing some to dub this unassuming fellow a savior of the reefs. The appellation makes the laid-back Halas squirm. After all, he tells you, others had a hand in the success of the device. Friends with the U.S. Geological Survey advised him and helped to install the first six experimental buoys.

And, had' boat captains and dive operators not embraced the concept from the start, the whole project would have been scuttled early on. Also, it seems almost too simple a construct of rope, gaiden hose, miscellaneous hardware and a plastic float to be tha stuff of high praise. Still, to many underwater photographer Michael Greenberg of Miami among them Halas is "a big-time hero." Greenberg's father, Jerry, has been writing about and photographing Florida's marine life for more than three decades, so the younger Greenberg grew up diving and witnessing the sad, accelerating devastation of our living reefs. Prior to the introduction of Halas' mooring system, he says, it was not unusual to see as many as 30 or 40 boats clawing apart the coral apart with their anchors. Now, Greenberg says, in areas equipped with Halas' device, the destruction has decreased as much as 80 percent.

Greenberg considers the mooring system "the only successful protective action SEE BUOY 4E it's a daring move by a station that hasn't been known for them recently. Channel 7 is, of course, the NBC affiliate that will become an independent, non-network station in January. That's when WTVJ-Ch. 4 inherits the NBC mantle and WCIX-Ch. 6 changes from an independent to a CBS station.

When the affiliate shake-up became front-page news a month age every media pundit in town predicted that Channel 7 owner Ed Ansin would dismantle his news operation and cut back to the spartan crew that is normally found at an "indie." After all, how many people does it take to broadcast off-network reruns and sell the commercial time in between? A skeleton crew, right? Wrong, said Ansin. He wouldn't cut back on anything. Channel 7 will batten down the hatches, regroup and use its satellite and remote facilities not to mention its large staff to concentrate on news, not eliminate it. Channel 7 will continue to deliver two hours of news in the early evening, plus a 10 p.m. newscast.

The station will its public-affairs commitment. And it will produce the first substantive newsmagazine the MiamiFort Lauderdale broadcast market has ever seen. And people will watch. WSVN scrambles for product Ansin's first move in this direction was the hiring of Vicki Gregorian, a former program director of an indie in Boston and an affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y. Gregorian starts at WSVN in two weeks.

Meanwhile, Channel 7 is grabbing whatever syndicated fare remains unclaimed in this competitive market. The station is expected to take over the commitn.ent to Fox Broadcasting The Late Show, 21 Jump Street, etc.) that will be abandoned by Channel 6 when it begins airing CBS programming. And Channel 7 will air Paramount's late-night Arsenio Hall Show when it premieres in January. But the emphasis keeps returning to news. Channel 7 promos recently began identifying WSVN as "your news station." There has even been scuttlebutt that Channel 7 could become a superstation (a la Ted Turner's WTBS-Atlanta), using costly satellite hardware that Ansin bought when Channel 7 was an NBC affiliate.

The problem: a bottomless pit All of this sounds exciting. But an all-news (or even mostly news) format at Channel 7 would be a mistake. There is little evidence that such a format has an audience in South Florida. And even if there is a horde of news junkies, Channel 7 has never been their source for news. Yes, NewsCenter 7 is better than it once was.

Nevertheless, the newscast usually drops several ratings points at 11 p.m., compared to the top-rated NBC prime-time shows that lead in to it. Part of Channel 7's solution to filling its bottomless pit or at least part of it may lie in an offhand comment made by station manager Robert Leider a few weeks ago. Leider said he was amazed to find that there were more than two dozen movie packages unclaimed in MiamiFort Lauderdale. "We'll be a movie station at 8 o'clock," Leider added. My suggestion: forget 8 o'clock.

Run movies around the clock. Sure, carry the Fox shows and Arsenio Hall and the local newscasts to retain WSVN's identity. But with South Florida's sprawling demographics viewers from all age groups there's an enormous potential audience for a non-cable movie channel. Channel 7 could cluster its commercials, the way WDZL-Ch. 39 often does at 8 p.m., so that there are only two or three interruptions (which would please VCR owners); broadcast the movies old and new intact (which would please movie buffs); and air only high-quality prints (which would please everyone).

It would mark the first time in nearly 10 years that some classics from the '40s (which people are paying to see on cable channels such as Cinemax) will have been broadcast in South Florida. The format could be kept timely with newer releases for viewers wanting the vogue. Ansin seems determined to aim high. This is a suggestion that is not incompatible with that goal. 'V fK V.I i It i i Above and left.

Halas checks his invention. The eye bolt is cemented into the sea bed. and the attached buoy eliminates the need for anchors, which often damage the fragile coral reefs. "8ft THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF BESS MYERSON Is betrayal the bitter pill of this 'slow suicide'? This past May, while en route from a prison visit to her boyfriend, Bess Myer-son was arrested in a small Pennsylvania town for shoplifting $44. 07 worth of discount nail polish, cheap earrings and a pair of sandals.

She had $160 in her purse. In the second of two excerpts from Ms. magazine, Shana Alexander examines Myerson actions in the context of the women movement and the corruption scandal of New York Mayor Ed Koch 's administration. Oh, Bess, what am I to say about you? You have worn your rhinestone tiara for 43 years now. About time, perhaps, for it to be knocked cockeyed.

A fairy princess is a fantasy built of gossamer. Even durable Cinderella only made it until midnight. ml fi "It does seem that, despite her apparent independence and aplomb, Bess Myerson has great dependency needs." To which I could only reply: Who among us, we women alone and "of a certain age," women once beautiful and plentifully "manned," women of some accomplishment, women who have "made it" in a man's world who among us does not have great dependency needs? Whether or not Bess was culpable in suborning Gabel, people hate Bess for reasons that have nothing to do with the judge. In her they have found a conduit for their hate, and as a result, random free-floating hatred for Bess now finds a respectable route. This, of course is monstrously unfair to both women Gabel behaved like a too-loving parent, and she is being punished for that Did her normal motherly emotion causp her to forget that not only justice but the appearance of justice must be nrP Perhaps not.

Early in the game INSIDE HEALTH A sleep disorder can result in the somnambulist acting out a waking drama. 3E ENTERTAINMENT Comedian Paula Poundstone has a slightly skewed view of her own life. 6E By SHANA ALEXANDER Special to the Sun-Sentinel hat does being a shoplifter denote?" I asked a noted psychoanalyst and authority are we dealing with someone who had chronic problems, or with a deteriorated person? Clearly, at present, she would appear to be a disturbed woman. Why bring pressure on Judge Hortense Gabel that her lover's alimony be reduced? It's a terrible idea; one could say, a crazy idea, because the downside is so overwhelming. Why put one's life on the line for a marginal advantage?" I had no answer, and the doctor said, in control.

It's an urge that strikes people who feel impoverished. What triggers an impulse to shoplift is any loss or threat to self-esteem, or self-image." We talked a little longer about powerful women brought down by love, and the psychuanalyst pointed out that Bess Myerson appears to have had many disappointments at one time, and that the complications of severe emotional and physical trauma are unpredictable. "So on female psychology. Most shoplifters are kids, she told me, and most kids shoplift at one time or another. Shoplifting in adults is classified as an impulse disorder.

"It's about getting something you want when you feel you have no power. It's restitution; a way of feeling I Advice 2E Best Bet 5E Health Matters 3E Movie Times 7E Body Lesson 3E Comics 8E Television 5E Horoscope 9E SEE MYERSON 4E R3H 7.