The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 20

The Sacramento Bee Saturday December 25 1 982 14 Which famous cartoon character tried to steal 8 Which of the following was not one of the three Wise Men? Test Your Yuletide IQ With This Holiday Quiz By Caryl Avery Special to The Bee a Melchior Balthasar Methuselah Gaspar a Mr Magoo Charlie Brown Black Pete The Grinch 15 The country-and-western Christmas hit sung by Elvis Presley in the was: 1 Which president first put up a Christmas tree on the White House lawn? a Teddy Roosevelt Warren Harding Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman a "Silver 16 Plum pudding a traditional Christmas dish in England contains all of the following ingredients except: a Raisins Brandy Sugar Plums 17 Which famous Christmas carol appears in book Christmas 9 On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me eight: a to the King Rest Ye Merry Little Drummer a Maids a-milking Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Lords a-leaping 10 The Sugarplum Fairy appears in what famous Christmas story? 2 The Christmas Song roasting on an open was written by Mel Torme but made famous by: a Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Nat King Cole Tony Bennett 3 Which common spice was once a Christmas plant? a The novel Christmas The poem Visit From St The ballet The movie on 34th 18 The movie on 34th takes place in which famous department store? a Parsley Sage Rosemary Thyme 4 All of the following are popular Christmas trees except: a Fir Chestnut Spruce Pine 5 Pick the celebrity whose name belong: a Sears Saks 19 Which famous Christmas song was originally written for another holiday? a Noel Coward Yul Brynner Lana Turner Judy Garland a the Snowman the 12 the Red-Nosed was first sung by: a Bing Crosby in 1943 Perry Como in 1960 Gene Autry in 1949 The Three Chipmunks in 1958 13 All of the following countries have a male Santa Claus except: 6 Why is part of the yule log always saved? a The Netherlands Italy France Brazil 20 Which little girl wrote to The New York Sun to find out if there was a Santa Claus? a To light next log For ashes for Ash Wednesday To roast chestnuts To roast marshmallows 7 The famous poem that begins the night before was written by: a Scarlett Virginia Angela Valerie Bee design and illustration by Robert McConnell a Mark Twain Hans Christian Andersen Clement Moore Dr Seuss Answers to this yule mind-teaser appear on Page B5 Illustrations do not necessarily depict correct answers Show Business TV News: Expensive High-Pressure By Herb Michelson Bee Staff Writer I HE REAL with local television news says CBS-TV news anchor Dan Rather not too much news too much chatter masquerading as An Elk Grove woman asked to assess TV news at 5 says main thing I noticed was how similar all three stations are Analysis issues than with brightly written and reported people stories If one of the four stations here could develop an enterprising engaging interviewer that interviewer could become an overnight local star and the people being interviewed ersatz celebrities But this in the news business is called creativity and creativity is much harder than sending the talent (a reporter) and shooter (cameraperson) to the scene of a cheapo murder HE SIZE of the news staffs at each station is not necessarily indicative of the quality of that newscast But a bigger staff can mean wider coverage A helicopter (Channel 3 is the only one of the four stations which owns a chopper outright) dresses up the masquerade Live units (Channel 40 has none) bring a sense of immediacy often in terms of content just showy immediacy Staff sizes here range from 67 at ratings-leader Channel 3 to 25 at Channel 40 Channel 13 has 50 Channel 10 38 full-timers At all but Channel 3 the shooters are also cutters (tape editors) KCRA can afford a large separate editing staff and thus keep its shooters out on the street shooting Yet philosophically many shooters wish to cut their own work Still if something really big were to break KCRA could put 1 1 crews in the field and still have support cutters back in the 10th Street shop to handle the tape a matter of time and money You do not go cheaply to a masquerade HE VIEWER does not understand or much care about the behind-the-scenes folks in See TV NEWS Page B5 resources the lack of major commitment to news KTXL with a mix of movies and syndicated rerurns does not pretend to be a news cent'er A profit center yes A strong independent station such as Channel 40 has no need to masquerade a masquerade IS1T FOUR Sacramento television stations within a few hours of news air time and see that all proceed along the same news-gathering track The discernible differences are in staff size working space and hardware There is only a certain number of what the news business calls each day Sacramento is not noted for an abundance of breakers except at the Capitol but not all that many viewers are interested in pure political news Only one station Channel 3 covers the Capitol on a consistent basis with a consistent beat reporter Steve Swatt whose work is of the highest form of praise for any local TV newsperson Because the hard breaking news in town is limited Channels 3 10 and 13 all tend to chase crime stories which are either ignored or given short shrift by the two daily newspapers There are major crime stories described in the news world as having and minor crime stories called TV news locally leans on the cheapos and thus magnifies them Shots of blood bodies and sobbing survivors are not uncommon on the videotape of 31013 There is of course the problem of filling all that time especially that one-hour block at 5 pm but rarely do you see it filled with lengthy (meaning 2- or 3-minute) pieces profiles of local people In the news In fairness this paucity of true people news is not limited in Sacramento to television The two newspapers here show more concern with meetings and Each has a coed anchor team Each integrates men women and minorities as reporters Each seems to cover the same stories in appproximately the same order although each threw in a different story usually at the end of the show The major difference is the hair color of the three ll ASQUERADE? Carbon copies? Yes and no Local television news is show business expensive show business KCRA-TV (Channel 3) admits to an annual news budget of between $2 million and $4 million likely closer to the latter KOVR-TV (Channel 13) says it spends $2 on news annually KXTV (Channel 10) asked twice for an approximate news budget twice did not respond and little old KTXL (Channel 40) which does not directly compete in the news race nonetheless spends some $700000 annually for its 10 pm single-anchor The is a format technique to cover the minus the lack of staff the lack of Second of three parts.