The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 40

TV RADIO The Kansas City Star Thursday March 9 1989 Page 2D Thursday evening television Schedules are provided by stations and are subject to change without notice 7:00 7:30 1 800 1 8:30 I 9:00 9:30 1 0:00 I 10:30 I 11:00 Area channels Future of Channel 62 still in hands A US Bankruptcy Court in Chattanooga Tenn has begun to consider the Regional channels i future of KZKC Channel 62 and five other television stations managed by Media Central Even though the hearing started Wednesday those connected with the case said they did not know when a decision would be delivered Late last month the court accepted a plan to transfer ownership of a profitable Media Central station in Jackson Miss to Independent Television Sales Inc of New York The court rejected Media Central's plan for the station The Independent Television Sales plan will allow Media Central to sell the station to Donatel-li Klein an investment firm based in Bethesda Md Neil Thomas III the Chattanooga lawyer for Donatelli Klein said a license transfer could occur in four to six months Later the court rejected competing plans for another moneymaking Media Central station in Huntsville Ala One plan was submitted by Media Central (through Community Services Broadcasting) and one by Independent Television Sales The decision however left open the door for Independent Television Sales to supply more information to win approval for its plan If its plan is approved the Huntsville station also would be acquired by Donatelli Klein Thomas said Now the court is considering plans for the six other Media Central stations They are in Kansas City Cape Girardeau Mo Knoxville Tenn Canton Ohio Columbus Ga and Honolulu Donatelli Klein has no interest in those stations Thomas said The developments in Chattanooga will have no immediate effect on Channel 62 said Steve Engles who has been general manager of the station since November really not paying too much attention to he said Instead Engles said he is in the midst of a step-by-step campaign to attract more viewers So ffcr he said and have made Channel 62 the most popular afternoon station with Kansas City children Engles also pointed to relative Cah I premium channels ly good ratings for Veruns of at 6 pm weekdays The show draws on average 6 percent of all viewers he said Engles added college basketball to the schedule last fall He expects to bid on rights to broadcast some of the 22 first-round NCAA Basketball Tournament games that will be left after the ESPN cable channel picks 10 of them He said a transmission problem made it difficult for some viewers to watch the station in the past That has been repaired now Engles said first thing I needed to do was clean up the on-air he said got the recovery working on the momentum and then the Throughout its five-year history Channel 62 has been involved in several controversies As a result of a suit filed in 1986 by KCTV Channel 5 the station was barred from identifying itself as KZKC-TV Last year Channel 62 was fined $2000 for violating federal indecency standards but later the fine was rescinded Another page in station history is to be written in early May when Channel 62 plans to sponsor the taping of a week of shows by controversial TV host Morton Downey Jr Engles said specific dates and a location would be announced soon Meanwhile events in a Chattanooga courtroom seem far removed to him have a responsibility to program and promote this television station and serve the Kansas City Engles said my job my ry series for cable The former executive producer got into hot water two years ago when he wrote a report criticizing the management of the news division under Roone Arledge CNN in Russia international news compendium World made its debut on Soviet television as part of or TV Herald" last month The half-hour program which will have as anchor Soviet host A1 Gurnov used CNN-provided reporting on the worldwide spread of AIDS Soviet television will continue to broadcast its version of the program monthly until May when it becomes a biweekly series World is made up of reports from various broadcast news organizations around the world and many other countries make use of the reports in their newscasts TV HIGHLIGHTS (0 OLD kitchen marathon Tune in 1 9 Cable channel picks up Michael Jackson film Knlght-Ridder Newspaper series of vignettes including the 41-minute centerpiece of the film a battle against evil Mr Big who tries to destroy the world by getting kids hooked on drugs The Showtime pay cable channel has acquired Michael 1988 feature-length anthology film The entertainer stars as himself in a BILLY GRAHAM TV SPECIAL FAMIIY REVOLUTION" From The Star's press services interviews The Bob Berdella case will be the lead segment tonight on (6:30 on Channel 9) A representative of KMBC Channel 9 which supplied some film for the 10-minute segment says it will include interviews with Chris Bryson the 22-year-old man who escaped from house wearing only a dog collar the parents of some of the murdered men and others involved in the case Fat Tuesday for ABC ABC is in the throes of Nielsen ecstacy over its Tuesday-night winning numbers its highest-rated Tuesday since September 1987 'Bolstered by a lead-in from which had the highest figures since its October 4ebut (277 rating and 40 percent Rudience share) the debut of But with Jamie ee Curtis and Richard Lewis scored a 22634 the best Season opener for any ABC series this season except Hi addition Fred Wonder (22433) and (16128) both scored their highest ratings pince their debuts in January 4nd September Tony the (22834) dotched its highest Nielsens of jie season In its entirety the 7-to-10 pm Bneup had a 21333 Each rating point equals 904000 TV homes lob change at ABC Phyllis McGrady former executive producer of Barbara ABC specials Monday as named executive producer of the new ABC News prime-time series to be co-anchored by Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson It is tp make its debut in August Also Dorrance Smith a creator of Week With David and executive producer for weekend news was promoted to executive in charge of long-form programming a title that had belonged to ABC News vice president Av Westin Westin whose contract is up March 31 is in negotiations and continues to produce documenta a TONIGHT 8:00 IB 5 BILLY GRAHAM'S NEWEST BOOK TO UPS'S NOW AVAILABLE IN ALL BOOKSTORES I 1-70 at 291 North Cantor Hours: on-Sat 10-9 Sun.