Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 57

i- f' TV 1 I he ews YO -By Dianne Conrad uir-llullehn Writer ITS TV rating time, with public imago at stake in '''a hot contest over station's newscast will attract the largest audiences vover the next 27 davs. 0 Will KHON's 6 p.m. vWeekday newscast OUtdraw KGMB? Or KGMB regain its title of No. 1 in ballings for early- evening news, a title it held for 16 years? Will KGMB's 10 p.m. weekday news 1 win.

back the top spot? Or will KUON I remain the late- evening news leader? I And what about Kfl'V? Will it do the unexpected and end up ith more viewers at 5:30 and r- 9:30 than KHON and KGMB each have JJ .51 7 rr3E i 7 -1 77 nu 1 i- 2 Ot 1 1 I AVV 7lhs'? I ir I ft I r-- The anchors: Bob Sevey Star-Bulletin cd photo by Ken Sakamoto, Bob Jones- Star-Bulletin photo by Dean Sensui, Joe Moore Star-Bulletin photo by Craig T. Kojima, and Tim Tindall Star-Bulletin photo by Terry Luke. at 6 and 10 p.m.? What makes the ratings contest 1 even more intriguing is the fact 1 rhat the four male weekday alienors at all three news- gathering stations used to be KGMB's newscast team when it reigned as No. 1 in news. Joe Moore.

KGMB's former anchors for KHON weekdays at 6 and 10 p.m. KITV Weekday co-anchor Tim Tindall left KGMB last June just short of on the-air years. Bob Sevey is about to complete his 17th year I a KGMB's anchor at 6. And Bob Jones, who joined KGMB not long after Sevey but left twice to work for NBC news, co-anchors Channel 9's 10 p.m. report as he has for years.

There's another element that this ratings period even more interesting the addition last week of Linda Coble on KGMB's weekday 10 p.m. report. Coble had been a popular reporterweekend co-anchor at KGMB until she left for the 1 Mainland in 1981. KGMB management wanted Coble back the time she quit to work as un anchor in Portland, Sevey says. The station has widely publicized her return.

Will she make a difference in tlie ratings? Jones had been the lone anchor Weekdays at 10 since the start of the May ratings period last year, when his long-time co-anchor Tindall went off the air on KHON, which had been creeping up on KGMB at 10, became tops in late-evening news last May. News is one of the three big plums in the ratings compiled by he A C. Nielsen Co. for television The other two plums are sjgn-on to sign-off and prime time. Wanting to win sign-onsign-off and prime time makes sense because that's where the money is in TV.

Large audiences attract advertisers and usually mean more can be charged for air time for commercials. The sign-on sign-off winner is, on the average, the most watched station Sunday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to ,1 a m. The prime-time winner is 1 -tops, on the average, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. the hours people watch TV the most.

But why would a station want to be number one in news? I "Image," says KITV program director Larry Cazavan, whose Station has been number one in sign-onsign-off for the past two Crating periods and was number one in prime time in the 1 February ratings. Other reasons I may be given, he notes, but 1 image is the ultimate one. "News is the only really, really local what we're giving back to the community." News, in a way, is the signature of each of the three stations because it is the only locally produced, regularly scheduled program each broadcasts live daily. Just about everything else is from the major networks or syndicated shows. The real horse race is between KGMB and KHON because, for one thing, their 6 and 10 p.m.

newscasts are head-to-head. But more than that, KHON is determined to take over as number one in news a title that solidly belonged to KGMB from the late 19ti0s. KHON has already succeeded at 10 p.m. and KGMB wants to be back on top. The spotlight, however, is on the weekday news at 0.

From November 196(3 until the last rating period in February KGMB was No. 1. During the February rating period the two stations tied each newscast had, on the average, the same-size audience Monday through Friday. When weekend ratings for early news are included in the averages, KHON comes in first. Sevey, KGMB's news director as well as 6 p.m.

anchor, disagrees with the weekday tie. He believes KGMB was No. 1 because KHON's week-long rebroadcast of "Shogun" affected viewing habits and "skewed" the ratings average. KHON topped KGMB during "Shogun" week, but "the other three weeks indicate that we are still number one," Sevey says. Figuring out where KITV ranks is difficult because it airs weekday news at 5:30 and 9:30.

At campaign message is often used: Here is someone Hawaii knows who knows Hawaii: here is someone Hawaii likes who likes Hawaii. Programming. Example: On Feb. 15, KITV's 9:30 news was preceded by "The Winds of War," part three. Thirty percent of the households in Ilawaii with a TV set watched Newscenter 4 that night.

On the other Tuesday nights of the rating period the news pulled 14. 13 and 1(5 percent of the households. "One highly-rated show as a preceding program generally assists the program that follows it," says KHON's Kellner. The same can be true if a program is followed by a popular show. In TV-land it's called lead-in, lead-out programming.

TV stations depend more on regular programming than specials to lead audiences from one show into another. Says KGMB's Jones: "For the late news the prime time (programming means a hell of a lot unless you've got somebody or some team doing it (the newsi that's just so incredibly everybody would switch their TV sets (to watch that newsi." KGMB ran third in prime time in the February ratings. KITV was tops, a position KGMB enjoyed many of the years its newscasts were No. 1. Turn to Page E-2 quick to set you straight if they get the impression you think anchors are the be-all, end-all to newscast ratings.

They tick off other necessary elements. Says KITV news director, and former anchor for 10 years, Don Rockwell: "It's watch Bob watch Joe watch Tim but why (viewers) are watching is all of the other things, too." What are the other things? The news product. People at Channel 2, for example, are convinced ratings have improved because the station's local news coverage has improved. Jack Kellner, KHON community affairs director and long-time Hawaii TV newsman, points out that the station's news department is manned 22 out of 24 hours. Kent Baker, KHON news assignment editor, says while KGMB certainly set the pace in Hawaii for professional TV-journalism, KHON now does the best job.

There's no question in the mind of Channel 9's Sevey that KGMB remains the leader in news quality. But he notes KHON's greater commitment to the newscast is one of the reasons KGMB is not predominant in the ratings. "Their hole philosophy is news. Their (parent) company (the Des Moines Register and Tribune) buys television stations and wraps them around news departments," be says. The Register and Tribune took KHON over in late 1979.

KITV tries to be the alternative news station, says anchor Tim Tindall, who also edits the national-international segment of the late-evening news as he did at KGMB. "Whereas Channel 9 has had a tendency over the years to be an institutional newscast, Channel 4 is a more people-oriented newscast," he says. Channel 2 he calls a hybrid. Technical production. This ranges from simple things, such as whether the anchor's mike is turned on, to sophisticated electronic wizardry.

KHON's Kellner and Sevey in part call it "bells and whistles," attention-getters. Sevey says in recent years production is something "Channel 2 has been leading the way in." That, he says, is because KHON technical crews have more time than KGMB crews to concentrate on the packaging of the new s. Two KITV production improvements are scheduled to be unveiled Monday: a new set and use of a gadget to enhance the quality of what viewers see. Promotion. KGMB's recent promotion blitz on Coble is a good example of how TV stations use promotions on television and in the print media to attract viewers to a newscast.

The 5:30 there usually are less people watching television than at 6 p.m., hile at 9:30 there usually are more TV viewers than at 10. On the average for the February rating period, KITV's weekday Newscenter 4 had 41,000 households watching at 5:30. KHON and KGMB had 49,000 each at p.m. KITV's late evening news drew an average of 40,000 households while KHON attracted 48,000 and KGMB 27,000. Those are the statistics.

Then there's the supposition about why the ratings line-up has changed, in particular why KGMB no longer is king. As Sevey and Tindall point out, a decade and a half is an unusually long time for any station to dominate the ratings in a market. The elements which make for a top-rated newscast are equalizing, they and others in TV say. One of those elements equalizing is the anchor. For example, the popularity of Channel's 2 Moore is one of the reasons that KGMB is not faring as well at 10, Sevey and Jones say.

That brings up the role anchors play when it comes to newscast ratings. How important is their role? Answers from people in the television business vary from "very important" to "most important." But people in television are A Slice of Waikiki Presented Hawaiian Style By Pierre Bowman, Star-Bulletin Writer K' 1 1 All of this is infinitely more easily said than done. The students at Leeward are generally theatrically inexperienced, they are perhaps too naive to realize the possible pitfalls in an undertaking like "Waikiki!" Cravath, on the other hand, is no dewy-eyed neophyte. But to him, the Leeward students are ideal for Hawaiian Style Theater. "Leeward is the most interesting of performing areas to me," he says.

"There's such a chop suey of kids. The energy seems more spontaneous and free-flowing. I wanted to work with these" people." And how has it worked? Carvath says the process of creating the play has had soaring highs and miserable lows. The worst of the latter came a couple of weeks ago when a S3.000 video camera being used in the production was stolen. Using the ohana approach, Cravath disbanded rehearsals.

He announced there'd be no play if the camera weren't returned. And he told everybody there was no point talking stink about whoever had stolen the camera. It would only make matters worse. The camera came back. Rehearsals resumed.

The genesis of "Waikiki!" came last fall. In January, the structure and content were created. "The kids started not with plot but with character," says Cravath. "I sent them to Waikiki to look, to see the bag lady, the hookers, the money people, the runaways, the punks. But only as local people in Waikiki or visiting Waikiki.

When we do touristsand almost everybody does we play them in masks. This is from the viewpoint of people who work or visit from other parts of the state." Last week at a rehearsal, Cravath noted that the day would soon come when the entire cast would be together for the first time. Then he delivered advice about the rehearsal: "Remember, we're going for pace. We've got to get rid of the gaps. When I talked about a Mack truck going through the gaps well, you're going to have to tighten it so that not even a bike will fit through.

"Now. is there any word on a chanter? What about the costumes for Ainahau?" The whole thing seemed sort of unnerving. But then the cast started walking through a production number. Then the rehearsal began in earnest. A group of students, apparently impersonating tourists, ventured into a club to see what was described as a new Waikiki nightclub act.

As they ventured, they argued about the viability of the real-estate market. Then the "nightclub act" began, as The Vapors' version of "Turning Japanese" came booming over the sound system. Young women danced behind spinning wax-paper umbrellas. A couple of guys charged at each other in kung-fu poses. Yes, it could be a slice of Waikiki.

show about the French Quarter. There were 37 students in the cast. "1 told them what I meant by Hawaiian style," says Cravath. "I told them all about aloha and about each island and ohana and they loved it. To me, Hawaiian-style theater is about the history of an area and a people and their families.

"It's enriched by pidgin (English) and a whole variety of ethnic allusions and terms. It's created by ohana (an extended family) and everybody has pretty much an equal say. And everyone sings and dances and acts. That's the premise that everybody's capable of all three. "the idea that you start from nothing is not all that common." Between nothing and starting to create a production, there has to be an idea.

In the case of "Waikiki!" the notion has been with Cravath for a number of years. Cravath has spent years working toward a doctoral degree in Asian theater. During that quest, he has also become involved in' Buddhism and lives in a temple in Manoa. He has ventured from the temple to teach drama again this year, specifically to create "Waikiki!" "I came (out of the temple) to do this show," he says. "I've known I wanted to do this show for years.

It started with the tree that was in (Princess) Kaiulani's garden in Waikiki. I heard that THE course is called Hawaiian Style Theater, and what it means is that students at Leeward Community College start with absolutely nothing and end up with a play. 3The whole thing may sound 4ubious, but consider that' just an approach in 1976 created Street," an original musical that turned into a bonafide "ideal hit. The. show was a star-'tling.

free-form celebration of the human drama and energy on Honolulu's most notorious street, aiid the student actors blurred the line between reality and illusion by playing partly themselves and partly characters they'd invented through observation of actual people. Hawaiian Style Theater is usually offered every other year at. Leeward, and on Friday, the latest creation out of the course will be unveiled with "Waikiki!" at Leeward Community College Theater, The course is usually offered -David Johnson, who has been teaching drama at Leeward since "the theater opened. Johnson is on sabbatical this year, and Paul 'X'ravath is filling in for him. "I saw every performance of "Hotel says Cravath, "and I said, 'This is a miracle.

This is Cravath took his amazement to Tulane University a couple of vears ago, where he taught drama and used the Hawaiian ktvle Theater method to create a -Star-Bulletin photo Cravath, at left, directs cast of Craig T. Kojima. she used to sit under that tree with her peacocks. And now that place is a parking lot for Food Pantry. "How amazing that is.

I thought, even with all the changes, that tree still goes on. Things rise and fall civilizations, hotels but that tree goes on." The continuity of that banyan tree gave Cravath the notion of looking at Waikiki through time, flipping back and forth from Kaiulani at the end of the last century toward the present. "One of the first scenes we did was Kaiulani in her garden," says Cravath. "To some extent, we've traced that tree, and there is a banvan tree on stage the whole time. The people come and go.

come and go. They act their scenes like the branches of the tree of life. "The scenes are in six historical periods, nd flash back.".