Daily News from New York, New York • 233

29 Li Uu LJ CzJ czlJ Li Lb Ln By DINAH PRINCE Cuban-bom Nety Galan is changing the face of Hispanic TV. Dk 13 ELY GALAN breezes into the I newsroom at Channel 47 on mi purple high heels. "Where's Norma?" the 23-year-old station manager demands. "The news director isn't in the newsroom?" Seconds later, Norma Moratto appears. Galan asks to see a particular tape of the news.

Waiting, her eyes fall on a magazine featuring the stars of "Miami Vice" on the cover. Galan hugs it to her chest and gushes. "I love Don Johnson," Galan says thumbing through the glossy pages. "Can I borrow this?" "No," Moratto tells her boss. "Because I'll never see it again." Moratto pops the tape into one of the video cassette players, and Galan, all business again, switches her full attention to the monitor.

As the tape rolls, two male news anchors rattle off the day's events in Spanish. Galan clarifies that this is an old news tape. "We're revamping the news," Galan explains. "It's going to be one anchor and all the other people are going to be out on stories." Revamping the news is only the beginning. Nely Galan is the young, spirited Cuban woman changing the face of Hispanic TV at WNJU.

From her newly decorated pink, peach, and lavender office in Teterboro, N.J., Galan in less than a year has brought NetSpan network a consortium of four Spanish-language stations in the United States and 20 others in Latin America she controls a $15 million programing budget, manages a staff of 100 and earns three times her age. Her plan of attack is to draw in the young audience, which, she says, consists of first and second-generation immigrants, whose first language is no longer Spanish. "To do it, you've got to be as slick as network TV," she says. And, she is succeeding with hot productions like the Spanish version of the "We Are the World" video, with 45 top Hispanic artists including the new hunk El Puma. Also to her credit are a spicey interview with Julio Iglesius' ex-wife, an avant garde fashion video shot in Paris, and controversial music videos of Iris Chacon and Maria Conchita Alonzo.

"I was born in Cuba and my mother speaks English, but she always used to watch Channel 47," Galan says. "I always wanted to watch Three's Company' but, I used to watch the novellas. I used to go, 'Oh God. Spanish TV was the pits." Settling on the pink leather couch in her office, Galan shows she is the consummate businesswoman. She handles a delicate union situation involving an unmanned news set camera.

Next, she emphasizes the need to fly coach instead of first class if she expects her staff to travel coach. "I want to be the best at everything," she says. "My biggest fear is, when I'm 50, 111 turn around and say, 'Oh my God, I didn't accomplish Galan moved to New Jersey at 3. Raised in a strict Latin home, she attended Catholic schools. At 15, her first article ran in Seventeen and the magazine hired her as an editorial assistant At 17, the Elite Model agency lured her away.

As the youngest booking Galan's influence on the news. Canning the "very staid dual anchor approach, Galan has installed a single news anchor to project an intimate presence "like Walter give the show more action. And. the format is faster, slicker, and packed with information. "We don't want to become lightweight" she says.

Viewers have already seen Galan's influence on the Channel 47 specials. Perhaps the most sensational to date was the Maria Cochita Alonzo show. The WNJU team shot the wild and crazy Latin performer at 11 locations in three days. With each song, she revealed a spicy tale of her life. "For the Spanish market it was a shock," Galan says.

"This show was risque." Putting a tape of the special on her office VCR, Galan fast forwards to her favorite segments: The woman touring Manhattan in a convertible. A clip from "Moscow on the Hudson." And, a steamy scene in which she suggestively blows out a candle. "What she's saying is so intense," Galan says. 'Dominate me like a lover should, constantly, intensely, take me." Madonna is the only one who comes close, but she's still far off." Then, Galan gets to the long kissing scene in which Maria Conchita Alonzo is devoured by her lover. "Isn't that the best kiss you've ever seen on television?" Galan says.

agent in the business, she handled Christie Brinkley, Phoebe Cates and Iman. Then, a new PBS show called "Checking It Out" snatched her up as correspondentco-host Galan came in with hard stories on Cuban refugees, "throwaway" kids and incest as well as flashy segments on Oscar de la Renta, Rita Moreno," Geraldo Rivera and Reggie Jackson. Never missing a beat Galan went on to produce a widely acclaimed 1983 documentary, "Since JFK: The Last 20 Years," for WNEW-TV. Then, she was New York correspondent and producer of the weekly syndicated NBC-TV show "Latin Tempo," covering the Latin community. QN THE SUMMER of 1984, Carlos Barba, president and general manager at WNJU-TV and NetSpan, hired her.

"I found her," Barba says. "She came to interview me for "Latin Tempo" and I said. 'What are you doing in Anglo media? you have to be with our community we're developing the Spanish media throughout the U.S.A. and Latin America. Today, as Galan strides though the station's corridors, she wears the sort of cream lace blouse, cream pleated skirt champagne linen jacket and pearls seen on the fashion pages of Savvy.

Only her purple pumps betray her Cuban passion for fun and flair. "Image is very important" she says about the station. "If you project success, if you look successful, people will want to be a part of it" This month, viewers can see a fresh, more up-to-the-minute style to the country's number one Spanish- language station, which serves 2 mil lion Hispanics in the metropolitan area daily. "On Spanish TV, traditionally. tacky things have been on the air," Galan says.

"We're trying to change all that" Galan is one of America's youngest and hottest media professionals. As station manager of WNJU-TV and special projects director of iSeli 3 ft By JERRY SHARPE IGHTEEN years after leaving 31 the priesthood over the issue. James Kavanaugh is still cam At times," the incidents and the language in the book are rough and obscene. "But it was the real world that I knew as a priest" says Kavanaugh. "I'm aiming at mass readership to tell the important story of the pain and tragedy of the church's demand for sexual abstinence." Kavanaugh, who is now getting a second divorce, believes many of his marital difficulties are due to years in the priesthood that left him ill-equipped to cope with marriage.

Scrtpet-Hcmanl Mews Service He says the novel is based on the experiences of a number of priests he knew as well as his own. "Some priests are asexual, others find outlets in seeking power. But for the guys who had overwhelming normal sexual feelings like me, celibacy consistently became an issue. "I like the priesthood and love the Catholic Church. I want to influence people in favor of a married clergy." Kavanaugh contends celibacy is impractical for priests working at parishes and living in the real world.

"It might be okay for monastics." cratic and not rooted in Scripture. After 11 years in the cloth, Kavanaugh wrote "A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church," a book which sold 1 million copies. He. now uses his training in psychology and his theological background to work as a clinical psychologist at a holistic institute he operates in Laguna Beach, Calif. "But I haven't given up on trying to get some reforms in the Catholic Church," he says.

His latest effort is a novel called "The Celibates," released this month by Harper Row. paigning to have celibacy declared an option for Roman Catholic priests. "I haven't given up hope," says Kavanaugh, 50, who married twice, divorced once and wrote 18 books since he left his ministry in 1967. Kavanaugh says rules that impose celibacy and bar women from the priesthood are man-made, bureau- i.