Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 5

ILflfF i Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. Tuesday, July 7, 1987 5A no nn Do you know? MOT Station channels new shows to city I 1" it jS'V D(2) Local parks are splash as day-trips By MARSHA ALBRECHT Argus Leader Staff After two hours, 13-year-old John Arnold had climbed 2,600 steps to be propelled by whooshing water 52 times down the twisting, hard plastic Sioux River Waterslide. Arnold likes the sensation of freedom he gets flying down a 400-foot flume into a 3Vi-foot, room-sized pool of water. "You have no control. It's an airy feeling." He and his friends visit the Sioux Falls amusement park, located near the 1-29 exit on west 12th Street, about five times a summer.

When Leo Riley Jr. comes home to Sioux Falls from his Army base in Virginia, he heads for the sprint track at Karts West. The go-carts at the park off 41st Street five miles west of Sioux Falls are a holiday diversion for Riley, 25. "Everybody ought to ride 'em because they're exciting," he said. Riley brings along his wife and two sons and his brother David.

Six-year-old son Mark goes on the kiddie rides. "But he likes the go-carts too because he can ride with his dad," his mother, Toni Riley, said. The two summer amusement businesses on the west side of Sioux Falls offer an afternoon vacation without leaving town. Neither is on the grand scale of a Worlds of Fun or Valley Fair, but their customers don't seem to mind. Brandi Lee, 14, from Sioux Falls, treats cousin Jason Tellinghuisen, 15, from Rapid City, to an afternoon at the waterslide when he visits.

"It's a blast," she said. They each buy all-day passes for $7, which entitles them to climb the 50 blue-carpeted steps to the blue or yellow slide as many times as they can between 1 and 6 p.m. An evening pass is $5. Jim and Patty Henry of Sioux Falls take their three children, aged 4, 7 and 10, to Karts West a couple times every summer. Last time they came they bought individual tickets for each ride.

That's $1 for kiddie rides that include the pillow walk, mini bumper boats, and Jacob's ladder. The adult rides range from $2.25 for bumper boats to $3.50 for skeeter boats. This time the Henrys bought the $39.75 family fun coupon. The rides seemed expensive, Patty said. Jim said most other recreation options for his family would cost as much.

"Everything's expensive," he said. Each park offers go-cart rides, batting cages and miniature golf. The Sioux River Waterslide gives five-minute go-cart rides for $2.75. At Karts West, a 5-to-7-minute ride on the sprint track is $2.50, and four laps on the road track cost $3.00. Miniature golf is $2.75 at Karts West and $1.75 for the first round at the waterslide.

Subsequent rounds are 50 cents each. Both stress family activities and are flush with young attendants who guide customers and run the v' Amy Kelly, 12, (left) and Kara Eddy, 12, both of Sioux Falls, slide on By ANN GRAUVOGL Argus Leader Staff Sioux Falls's newest television station allows viewers to shop by phone, offers a talk-show alternative to Johnny Carson and plays the latest musical hits. KTTW-TV, at channel 17 on the UHF dial, broadcasts from 6 p.m. to midnight daily. Owned by Family Broadcasting of Des Moines, Iowa, the station is the second UHF television station in Sioux Falls and the fifth local television station.

The station should be broadcasting 24-hours a day within a month, owner Jerry Montgomery said. The new station has affiliated with the Fox Network and offers The Late Night Show at 10 p.m., an evening talk show that began with host Joan Rivers. Saturday, KTTW will offer Fox's new Saturday programming beginning with a two-hour Werewolf special. Saturday's programming also includes Down and Out In Beverly Hills. Sundays, the station begins broadcasting with Fox's 21 Jump Street at 6 p.m.

KTTW then moves into two hours of situation comedies, including Duet and Mr. President Programming begins weekdays with the Heathcliff cartoon. The Monkees begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by the Home Shopping Came. Two and a half hours of programming from American Value Network begin at 7:30 p.m. weekdays.

The show allows television viewers to shop from their homes. Montgomery also is using material from the American Christian Television Station, programming distributed by the Southern Baptist Church. USA Hit Video is on from 9 30 to 10 p.m. and 11 to midnight Saturdays. Montgomery does not plan to begin a local news show.

Cable television's success in Sioux Falls showed that the city was ready for another local station, Montgomery said. Statistics show that the superstations like WGN-Chicago are popular in Sioux Falls, he said. Although cable has a good penetration here, many residents in and outside the city cannot get cable and the extra channels. KTTW will provide more programming for those television fans, he said. Montgomery worked for several Iowa radio stations before founding Family Broadcasting.

He said he chose television because new channels continue to be available, so he could open a station instead of buying an existing operation. Similar opportunity was not available in radio, he said. He also has a permit to build a UHF station in Grand Island, Neb. The KTTW offices and transmitter are located on Western Avenue about l2 miles south of Sioux Falls. Montgomery continues to handle programming; he has hired only a skeleton staff.

The signal from a 1,000 watt transmitter should reach viewers within a 25-mile radius of the station, Montgomery said. Television owners will need a special UHF loop antenna to receive the new UHF station. The antennae are available free with a 59ent drink at local Get 'N' Go stations. Those who have trouble with reception should call the station at 336-2321. for punching a movie extra so he Germany ana New totk, lawyers denied that he client was getting WHEN WERE THE first theatrical performances presented in Sioux Falls? (See answer at bottom of column.) People Harry denies she's a pioneer NEW YORK (AP) Debbie Harry, lead singer of the disbanded rock group Blondie, says she doesn't feel she was a pioneer who paved the way for other female singers like Madonna.

"I always jm-- 1 felt that it matter of time. Because, in terms of marketing, where could they go with guys with guitars? They had rat Debbie Harry done it. Female lead singers were the only thing that hadn't been exploited yet," Harry said in an interview with Details magazine. She said female lead singers have been presented in a more aggressive light than all-women rock groups. Of Madonna, Harry said, "She's an aggressive person to achieve anything like she's achieved.

She's very timely, she's right on time." Harry said she is pursuing an acting career and currently is working on a John Walters movie, Hairspray. After the movie, Miss Harry said she plans to work on a new album with help from Chris Stein, her live-in boyfriend and former Blondie member. People. 7A Hot books Fiction 1. Misery.

Stephen King. 2. The Haunted Mesa. Louis Amour. 3.

Empire. Gore Vidal. 4. Fine Things. Danielle Steel.

5. The Timothy Files. Lawrence Sanders. 6. Heiress.

Janet Dailey. 7. Windmills of the Gods. Sidney Sheldon. 8.

Pale Kings and Princes. Robert P. Parker. 9. Presumed Innocent.

Scott Turow. 10. Red Storm Rising. Tom Clancy. Non-Fiction 1.

The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students. Allan Bloom. 2. Hammer: A Witness to History. Armand Hammer with Neil Lyndon.

3. Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life. Jimmy and Rosa-lynn Carter. 4. Communion.

Whitley Streiber. 5. Women Men Love Women Men Leave. Connell Cowan and Melvyn Kinder. 6.

Cultural Literacy. E.D Hirsch. 7. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam Webster Inc.

8. The Diet Principal Victoria Principal. 9. A Day in the Life of America. Rick Smolan and David Cohen.

10. Grace: Secret Lives of a Princess. James Spada. Briefly Christmas in July cheers woman JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) Presents, a trimmed tree and a turkey feast replaced hot dogs and fireworks at the residence of Cindy Cole this Fourth of July.

The 31-year-old Down's syndrome victim hovered near death last December in a diabetic coma coupled with pneumonia and low blood pressure. Relatives kept vigil through Christmas at Cole's bed in the Johnson City Medical Center Hospital. She eventually pulled through and was discharged Jan. 2. "We didn't think she would live," said Cole's mother, Barbara Cole.

"She started talking about Christmas two weeks ago and how much she missed it, so we decided to celebrate now." There was a Nativity scene, Christmas carols and a cedar tree decked out with lights and tinsel, along with the traditional visits from out-of-town relatives. Uovt you do THE FIRST theatrical performances in Sioux Falls were presented in 1880 in the Emerson Building at 221 N. Phillips Ave. (See question at top of column.) 1 si' I I Leader photos Dy DAVID BERGELAND the Sioux River Waterslide. 'J Leader photo by DAVID BERGELAND turns of the sprint track at Karts i Argus Argus Daring drivers challenge the twists and West 6 miles west of Sioux Falls.

watch. In the fall, families who participate in the ratings survey will use people meters, hand-held devices resembling remote controls. Each viewer punches in on an assigned button when watching television. People meters are favored by advertisers because they provide more detailed data about viewers and allow advertisers to target commercials to audiences. ABC's main concern, said Paul Sonkin, ABC vice president for audience research, is that viewers will tire of button-pushing.

NBC is worried that younger people will drop the button-pushing habit at a faster rate than older viewers, distorting the ratings, said Bill Rubens, NBC vice president for research. CBS has signed a one-year contract with a Nielsen competitor, the European-based AGB Television Research, which also plans to have people-meter ratings in the fall. I 7t equipment. Both boast of good safety records. Waterslide manager Doug Lindner said there have been minor accidents where cuts have required stitches.

"They're from people who've been drinking," he said. Both parks have signs prohibiting use of alcohol, but it's a difficult rule to regulate, he said. Both are chosen as entertainment for company. Kristi Roetzel brought her 8-year-old daughter and her visiting friends to the waterslide last week. "They love it." She comes three or four times a summer.

"Especially when we have out-of-town friends we come here." Roetzel gets all-day passes for the children and a 10-ride pass for herself for $3.50. "I don't think I could come out here without going down." Stewart Olson chose Karts West to entertain his brother's family from Kansas City, his sister's family from Madison, and his parents from southern Wisconsin. kids have a real good time out here, especially with those day passes," Olson said. Marlene Erickson, Centerville, gave in to her two sons, aged 6 and 8, who'd been asking her since summer started to return to Karts West. "It was a nice day and I though I'd bring them out," she said.

"It's just something to do on a Sunday afternoon." use in negotiating advertising rates. If one or more networks does not subscribe to Nielsen in the fall, it could complicate the negotiations. The weekly Nielsen ratings ranking television shows are provided to the news media by the networks. ABC canceled its contract with Nielsen earlier this year. All three commercial networks are negotiating with Nielsen, but none has renewed its contract for the new television season because of controversy over the people-meter system that Nielsen plans to use, beginning in September.

The networks say the people-meter sample is not sufficiently representative of the television audience and will cause their ratings to drop. The current system is made up of audiometers, devices that automatically report what station the television is tuned to, and -written diaries of what viewers Judge gives Fensi delay in jail term CBS cancels contract with Nielsen company OS ANGELES (AP) A judee agreed Monday to delay actor Sean Penn's 60-day jail term an complete a film in west said. Penn's lawver Howard Weitzman NEW YORK (AP) CBS canceled its contract with the A.C. Nielsen Co. Monday, saying the network is not satisfied with the new people-meter ratings system set to go into operation this fall.

David Poltrack, CBS vice president for research, said the network might still sign with Nielsen before the new television season starts in September, but the notification of cancellation was necessary to avoid automatic renewal of the contract "We believe there is still time to rectify the system, and we will still work with Nielsen to that end," said Poltrack. "But it is certainly possible that we will not be a client of Nielsen come the fall." Nielsen spokeswoman Jo La Verde said the company would not comment because the negotiations are continuing. The Chicago-based Nielsen company sells its detailed research statistics on audience size to both advertisers and broadcasters for special treatment, saying it was not unusual for a defendant to be given time to get his affairs in order before reporting to Jail "There has never been any suggestion that he would flee or that he would avoid doing his time," Weitzman saud. Juelann Cathey, Municipal Court commissioner, said she would give Penn until at least Aug. 1, he said.

Weitzman said he and the prosecutor would meet again with Cathey today to determine a date for Penn's surrender. Penn will not be present today, Weitzman said. Alice Hand, Deputy city attorney, agreed that the delay was not unusual. "You have to consider he really is different than the average defendant," Hand said. The 26-year-old star of Bad Boys and other films about brooding youth was sentenced to 60 days in jail two weeks ago as a probation violator for punching a movie extra on the set of Colors.

Cathey said Monday that Penn will be allowed to leave the country Saturday, Hand said. Penn probably will serve his time in two parts, the first to begin Aug. 1 and the second to be determined later, she said. Cathey also has ordered Penn to undergo psychotherapy for his violent behavior. Weitzman said last month that Penn must learn that people are going to attempt to goad him into situations where he may react inappropriately.

"He needs to and does understand that incidents like this are inescapable and he can control and will control them," he said..