The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 4

DEKALB EXTRA, JULY 23, 1987 Eclectic programming transmits Channel 69 into Atlanta homes By Chuck BeH Staff Writer 1 CHUCK BELLStaff ANTEMMA FARM: Satellite dishes point toward the sky while a microwave antenna directs signals from WVEU's hilltop tocationln DeKalb Oninty to the station's transmitter at the Peachtree Plaza Hotel in downtown Atlanta WVEU (Channel 69) is hardly a Nobody watches it in Alaska. Nobody in Alaska has probably ever even heard of it For that matter, there are people in the metropolitan Atlanta area who are only vaguely aware of its existence. But the small UHP station with headquarters at Phoenix Business Park in DeKalb County is, after two years of commercial broadcasting, starting to make its presence felt "Our ratings are as good as they've ever been," said Peter Man-dell, WVEU's creative services director. "And they're getting better." Vice president and general manager Vance Eckersley, while not giving any specific details, acknowledged that Channel 69's overall ratings are the lowest of the seven commercial TV stations in the Atlanta area. However, he said, WVEU does occasionally outdraw arch-rivals WATL (Channel 36) and WGNX (Channel 46).

The station uses an eclectic programming mix to draw viewers away from other stations. "We're tying to fill a niche and give people something that they're not getting on other stations," Eckersley said. They seem to be succeeding. Programs on Channel 69 include religious shows, movies, game shows, reruns of old network series, talk shows and wrestling. The station 'also carries CBS network programming at times when the local CBS affiliate, WAGA (Channel 5), doesn't pick up up the network feed.

WVEU, for example, carries the CBS Morning News at 7 am and the CBS Morning Program from 7: 30 am to 9 am "Some people have the impres-ision that we're just a rerun station," said program director Mary McKee. "But actually we have more first-run programming than any other independent station in the Atlanta area." One of the station's more popular shows is Black Belt Theatre which features martial-arts movies such as "Rung Fu Hellcats," "Street Gangs of Hong Kong" and "Taichi UaryUcKee Devil Dragons." Films of that genre have a loyal following, Eckersley said, and by programming Black Belt Theatre at 9. p.m. Monday through Friday and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, WVEU has a predictable audience at those hours.

Black Belt Theater always is followed by a wrestling show. "Wrestling is very popular," Eckersley said. "The ratings for our wrestling programs always are good." They're especially good on Friday night and Saturday evening when the program is Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, usually referred to as GLOW. The performers include such characters as the 285-pound Matilda the Hun, the violently anti-American Falestina, aka the Terrorist and a strutting neo-Fascist called Attache, who is sort of a female versiou of Rambo. As in all wrestling programs, there is a great deal of audience participation.

In a typical episode, the fans cheered lustily and chanted, "U-S-A, U-S-A," as California Doll bent The Terrorist into something resembling a pretzel The ringside audience is almost exclusively male and said the television audience is the rme. "It's mostly men watching that show," he said. "I don't think many women are interested in it" Locally produced talk shows are among WVEU's staples. A program called Community that airs weekdays at 11:30 am is in essence a public access show. "We allow essentially anyone who has something to say that will be of community interest to come in and go on the air," said Eckersley.

"Of course, we have to be careful about that because of the Fairness Doctrine. If someone presents a particular viewpoint we have to invite people who hold different views to appear on the program later." On Sunday's WVEU presents Alley Pat's Place, a half-hour interview show the host of which is sharp-tongued WYZE radio disc jockey Alley Pat (James Patrick). "Alley Pat is a remarkable man," said Eckersley. "He has the ability to call almost anyone -say, I want you on my and they come; And he's never very nice to them." WVEU also offers specialized programming such as the Hope Report, which is devoted to discussion of the needs and problems of senior citizens, and Jazz Beat which Man-dell said is the only jazz video show on commercial television anywhere in the United States. The theory behind the station's trogramming was explained by Ms.

IcKee. "There's one rule in programming," she said. "You don't concede any time slot And if you can't give the audience something better, give them something different" For example, weekdays at 7:30 p.m. is a time slot that is owned by Wheel of Fortune. But not everybody likes Vanna White.

For that matter, not everybody likes game shows. So to appeal to that segment of the audience, WVEU offers reruns of "The Six Million Dollar Man." During football season, putting another sports show on the air at 9 p.m. Monday night where it would compete head.to-head with Monday Night Football, probably would not be very wise. Instead, for those who'd prefer not to watch any sports, WVEU runs a movie. Ms.

McKee said the station intends to be aggressive in counter-programming as it attempts to carve out an audience for itself. Channel 69 hasn't always been this way. When the station went on the air in 1981, it was acting as a conduit for a subscription television service. When that business failed, the station formed a similar partnership with a music video service. That operation also was unsuccessful, so WVEU's owners decided two years ago to take the station into the commercial broadcast business, Every other commercial TV station in the Atlanta area is owned by a publicly traded corporation, most of them based in other Eckersley is proud of the fact that WVEU is a locally owned partnership of six Atlanta businessmen.

Without corporate backing, the station has to operate on what is, by television standards, a shoestring. "We have a very small staff," Eckersley said. "There are only 40 of us. That means we all have to work harder." "Being small means extra work but it also gives us flexibility," Mandell said. "We don't have memos and meetings and baloney by the yard.

We can make decisions more quickly than we could if we had to send an idea to corporate headquarters in New York and wait for three vice presidents to approve It" The effort appears to be paying off. "Our ratings are steadily improving," Eckersley said. County wide junior highs set for 1992; bond referendum likely DeKalb mm By Pty White Stiff fetor Rob Johnson Editor 8 portt Editor Jim Satterty Staff Writf Chuck Be Sarah Cash Betsy White Candace A. Williams coming years. Establishing junior highs and accommodating booming enrollments in southeast DeKalb will "require the construction of two, possibly three junior high schools," be said.

The junior highs likely would be located near Columbia and Southwest DeKalb high schools and on Stephenson Road on the northern frontier of the Lithonia High School district. They would each cost about $6 million, Freeman said. He said those expenses likely will force the school board to ask voters to approve a bond is--sue for school construction. School officials have not vet calculated bow much money they would need to raise, Freeman said. Ideally, he said, school officials will have the bond payments go Into effect the same year that DeKalb taxpayers are released from their obliga-Uon to pay a 1-mill tax to support DeKalb College, which the school system last year turned over to the state.

openings "at least a year hi advance." The reason Freeman has not announced more about how he hopes to go about creating junior highs, he said, is that be doesn't yet have such a plan. Indeed, be now says one facet of his plans for junior highs that be announced this spring is no longer true. In March, he told business leaders that Columbia, Clarkston, Lithonia and Lakeside high schools would not be merged as part of the junior high plan. Last month, he said that's not so anymore. "I've had some additional thinking since then," be said.

Even when Freeman does present a plan to the school board in October, as board member Paul Womack requested in June, his proposal not be a firm one, be said. But Freeman has revealed some details of how DeRalb's school system will, change in the Ad Mwgoft Within the next few years, DeKalb County school will undergo a flurry of mergers and new school construction as school officials work tit establish junior high schools countywide by 199J. And DeKalb County taxpayers likely will be asked to foot the bill for some of that construction through a bond referendum that if passed, would take effect in 1989, said DeKalb County School Superintendent Robert Freeman. Aside from the merger of Walker and Gordon high schools and the opening of Panola Way Elementary School this fall and the merger of Peachtree and Dunwoody high schools next fall, none of the upcoming changes in attendance lines has been announced. Freeman has said he and the school, board will announce any school mergers, closings or' Beth Rosser Sharmen Gowens Inquiries should be addressed to DeKalb Extra, Box 4689, Atlanta, 30302, or phone 526-8881 for news or 263-3900 for advertising;.