El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 109

KVIA Pros Seek Top Ratings Mimiiy ,,,11 1 EL. '1 The 10 p.m. newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to 45, and both the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts now include "Probe" and the "Pro News Man In Motion." "Probe" maintains a 24-hour telephone number automatically answered by tape recorder.

Viewers who are having difficulty resolving a problem in business dealings or with the government's bureaucracy can call the Probeline and Probe editor Jim Fish will attempt to resolve the problem and inform other viewers how they can solve similar problems. The Man In Motion, Gary Moore, travels to points in KVIA's broadcast area outside El Paso and reports on news happenings there. In other public affairs programming, KVIA has eliminated its Mexican-American issues program "Conoceme," which was produced by the Committee for the Development of Mass Communications, and replaced it with "Porque? Porque" which is produced by the KVIA news staff. And last week, the station introduced "Hot Line To Politics," a show featuring interviews with politicians and political experts. Jim Pratt, news director at KVIA, said in a recent interview that the station is planning to produce occassional documentaries on issues confronting the El Paso Southwest.

The first 0 5 By ED KIMBLE Times Entertainment Writer Though it is still third ranked among El Paso's three television stations, KVIA-TV Channel 13 has shown the largest increases in viewer ratings during the past year. And if it is not the most viewed station in the city, it is probably the most closely watched, especially by local media people. KVIA-TV was sold to Marsh Media of El Paso in April. Formerly, the station was owned by John Walton Jr. and was known by the call letters KELP.

Marsh Media is owned by the Marsh family of Amarillo. The family, which amassed a fortune in the oil fields and ranches of West Texas, has in recent years turned its attention to television. In 1968, the family bought KVII-TV in Amarillo and promptly set about making the station one of the best in the state, especially in the area of news coverage. Now the family plans to do the same with KVIA. Since Marsh Media took over, the most visible changes in the station's programming have been made in afternoon shows and news.

In the time slot from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., KVIA has introduced such syndicated shows as "Gilligan's Island," "Gomer Pyles," "Petticoat Junction," "The Brady Bunch" and "Gunsmoke." As a result, A.C. Nielsen ratings have jumped from 17,000 homes in November 1975 to 22,000 homes in November 1976, Wayne Roy, general manager at KVIA reports. On the news side, KVIA has eliminated its early morning public relations and public affairs program and replaced it with two five-minute news broadcasts, at 7:25 a.m. and 8:25 a.m., and the "Pro News Magazine," a 30-minute program airing at 11 a.m.

which features 15 minutes of news reporting and 15 minutes of public affairs interviews. 1 wv vyVv WAA Looking directly Into the TV camera, newscaster Jo Moeri videotapes the stock market report. The station also purchased cars for i I mama i i mn i ill 'T 1 1 1 1 l'i Staff Photos By Lance Murray From left, Jim Pratt. Al Hinojos and Bob Nitzburg relax on the set of Pro News Just before airtime. the reporters to use on their assignments, equipped the reporters with telephone pagers and is in the process of equipping them with two-way radios so they can maintain closer communications with the newsroom, thereby reducing the chances of missing a story in the making.

Pratt said his next big push will be in equipping stringers with Super 8 cameras so the station can air more news from the region. KVIA has already established a Juarez bureau staffed by Mexican nationals, and it has equipped stringers in Carlsbad, Artesia, Alamagordo and Las Cruces. Pratt said he wants to put cameras in Silver City, Deming and Ruidoso. "What I eventually hope to have is a situation where everywhere anyone can get our signal, we will also provide a news service for them," Pratt said. Currently, the station is attempting to broaden the area where people can pick up the signal.

Roy said KVIA has applied for Federal Communications Commission approval to increase the power at the station's "slave satellite," KAVE in Carlsbad, from five kilowatts to 25 kilowatts. "We are also in the process of establishing translators to different Southern New Mexico towns," Roy said. A translator is an electronic device that picks up a station's signal and re-broadcasts it so it will be clearly received at greater distances from the station. The innovations and changes that KVIA has made so far have not yet resulted in the quality newscasts the management of the station is aiming for, but Pratt believes they have increased competition among the three stations. "I think it has already been shown that our competitors are doing a much better job than they did before we got here," Pratt said.

"We may not be number one in the market, but I think that because we are here, television will be better." such documentary will air within the month. It will deal with educational television and will focus on KCOS Channel 7, an educational television station which will begin broadcasting later this year. Nielson ratings for the 6 p.m. newscast have jumped from 9,000 homes in November 1975 to 18,000 homes in November 1976. The ratings from the 10 p.m.

newscast have risen from 13,000 homes in November 1975 to 23,000 homes in November 1976. Despite the ratings, however, the management at KVIA is not yet ready to proclaim its news the best in town. "We're still a long way from where we want to be, where we are going," Pratt said. "I'm still not completely satisfied with the placement of people and I have not nearly gotten started with state news coverage and stringers (news correspondents from the broadcast region)." However, the station has made a number of internal moves which it hopes will enable it to achieve the status it seeks. The major move has been in the way the station produces its video.

Formerly, newsmen used 16 millimeter cameras to shoot news footage. In the past year, the news department has made the switch to Super 8 cameras and videotape. "There's nothing new about using Super 8 or video," Pratt said, "But what makes this operation unique is the combination of the two." The process that KVIA uses involves shooting footage with Super 8 sound cameras, "laying it over" video tape and editing the video tape. Pratt said the advantage of this method of production is that "it takes the entire production of visuals out of the hands of the production department, a completely different department, and places it in our hands. It also cuts down on the opportunity for them to mess up, and it gives us quality control." -tt ii I it Jlt: i ii the only station he knows of using this method to produce newsfilm.

Hal Perry views Super- film on a special machine that can record the small film onto videotape, which is then used on the air. Jim Pratt says KVIA Sunday, January 16, 1977.