Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 19

The Sioux City Journal, Friday. February 3. 1984--B 1 I a me jj a Hsyll 'I I 1 1' By Bruce R.Miller Journal staff writer "I plan to stay here for the rest of my life," Bill Zortman said last week, five days after starting as KCAU's new six o'clock anchor. Four days later, the Onawa, Iowa, native was out the first victim of what some observers are calling a broadcast news war. Ever since KTIV (Channel 4) upset KCAU's (Channel 9) ratings' dominance last month, words like "aggressive," "competitive" and "game have been bandied about with amazing regularity.

Both stations pledge to continue covering the news "as responsible Journalists," but now there's a strong desire to see who can do it best, first. The battle began to heat up when the November ratings were released. No matter how the figures are interpreted (and both stations have their ways), the numbers translate into action and reaction. The market, both stations admit, is clearly up for P' EZ KCAU, the broadcast leader for more than a decade, no longer has a two-to-one advantage over its nearest competitor. In the past, the ABC affiliate was, hands-down, the ratings winner.

No one needed to talk about "TV households" or "audience shares." In all respects, KCAU led. "When I started here, eight years ago, we were an embarrassment," KTIV News Director Mike Beecher says. "We used to be located behind the cathedral on 10th Street, we had a pool hall over us, no money and only one news guy." Today, the station boasts a new broadcast facility on Floyd Boulevard, state-of-the-art equipment, a 22-person news team, and what many people say is the key element In the race Dave Nixon in the anchor seat. 1 "Joe Six-Pack perceives Dave as the market's Walter Cronkite," Beecher says. "That can't be stressed enough." -Jack Gilbert, senior vice president in charge of news at KCAU, agrees.

"Dave Nixon is very important to Channel 4's success." Ironically, the 44-year-old broadcaster began his news career at KCAU. When he left the station in 1978 to accept a similar position at WHO in Des Moines, Channel 9 was on top. When he returned to Sioux City two years later, the situation hadn't changed. KCAU was number one. KTIV, his new home, was still number two.

Through a process of "quiet change," Beecher says, KTIV was able to make inroads in the market. His station experimented with area bureaus in towns like Spencer, Iowa, and Norfolk, while other news operations only sent crews there to cover fast-breaking news like fires, murders and plane crashes. The NBC affiliate tried different approaches to its coverage and, when viewers in outlying communities began to realize that KTIV cared about them as well as Sioux City they began tuning in. 1 Specials like Jane Sewell's tour of Okoboji, "The Harvest" and live coverage of the River-Cade Parade didn't hurt in the least. By adding splashy graphics, an attractive albeit canned SEE STATIONS continued on page 4 1 Dave Nixon, above, and Teri Shell and Greg Lund, below.

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