Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 89

City TV Stations Discovering LI 5 NEWS from Preceding fage MMndar Jim npptor Soma of reporters covering Long blind for CablevisJon'i Newt 12 from left: Mike Zbnst Grog Cergol Doug Good and Mitt Jib low Reporters Grog Cergol Age: 36 Howe: Huntington Experience: 10 years local and network radio news director at WGSM Beit Suffolk politics NewsIZ: Since 1990 Doug Good Age: 37 Hobm: Dix Hills Experience: WALK radio But East End bureau chief At News12: Since 1986 Keu Grimball Age: 60 Hoars: East Setauket Experience: WCBS radio and PBS-TV in Syracuse and Binghamton But Features At NewsIZ: Since 1986 Nicole Nogid Age: 28 Hem: Roslyn Experience: none Beit Education At News12: Since 1991 Matt Jablow Age: 32 Home: Manhattan Experience: TV station in Victoria Texas Beit Crime and courts At NewsIZ: Since 1992 Mike Zimet Age: 41 Horse: Manhattan Experience: WCBS radio WPIX-TV play by play for NJ Nets and Hartford Whalen Beit Local sports At NewsIZ: Since 1986 Mark Lagerkvist Age: 42 Horn: Woodbury Experience: TV investigative units in Tampa and Grand Rapids Mich Newspapers in NJ and Michigan But Investigations At NewsIZ: Since 1993 Scott Feldman and Trish Bergin each share reporting and anchor desk duties: Scott Feldman Age: 46 Neem: Not available Experience: TV reporter in Cleveland Minneapolis Phoenix and Kansas City Beat Local politics At NewsIZ: Since 1988 Trish Bergin Age: 24 Home: Ronkonkoma Experience: Hosted LI magazine for NY1 anchor for TV55 Beit General assignment At News 12: One month fails to pass that test the reporters say have to think things through more carefully to make sure there is universal emotional reaction or that it has a wide economic said Kwon Kwon said Fox News editors in the city decided not to use her story when a tentative deal was reached to build low- and moderate-income housing in East North port The compromise ended a 16-year dispute that had gone all the way to the US Supreme Court is the kind of not-in-my-backyard issue that can happen anywhere I thought it had universal appeal They thought it was too local" said Kwon GuaofT who was reared in the Five Towns said more scrutiny of institutions and elected officials improves public life especially politicians is much more responsive when they see a camera They know that people have very public avenues for complaining It used to be that only Newsday was on their back door Now there are ten camera crews In February Jennifer McLogan did a report using undercover videotape of a Roelyn couple who were allegedly running a fraudulent nanny agency fabricating background information and references for newly arrived immigrants As a result the Nassau County District office is conducting a criminal investigation Ed Grilli a spokesman for the DA said his office had received a complaint about the couple but the WCBS report had out more witnesses and that is moving the probe along Grilli a longtime player in media coverage of Long Island said the television stations still rely heavily on police and crime news I can give them undercover or surveillance videotape our story can lead the newscast or be pretty high up Even at WCBS2 which advertises itself as York to the the suburbs especially the Island are getting a new emphasis Why? the ugly commercial reason" of ratings said Jerry Nachman vice president of the station Nachman former editor of the New York Post also argues there is an equally important journalistic reason Long Island stories have more and more he said Years ago they all about sewer an apparent reference to the criminal investigation of the Southwest Sewer District and the related human-interest stories about neighborhoods pockmarked by excavated streets Nachman is the only top-level station executive who would actually mention Amy Fisher those other only-on-Long-Island juicy crime in the same conversation about improved coverage However he makes the point that the soap opera-style attention to Fisher and other stories that garnered national attention such as the LIRR massacre drove home the lesson that Long Island is not to be ignored stories really reinforced the understanding that big stories can break here and it is better to maintain a presence" said Mike Graham LI bureau chief for WPIX Nachman said the coverage is very different from the city-centric style of the 1970s when he was a reporter for both WCBS radio and television think we are playing close attention now I think we tended to look at suburban coverage as a necessary evil and viewed it in the most banal suburban He admits suburban coverage still is not comprehensive only that it has improved of us are covering it thoroughly but we do it better Nobody rolls their eyes anymore when someone suggests a Long Island The time of a news report seems to shape its view of Long Island either as a separate eco-system or as one mostly dependent on the city News directors for the 10 pm shows tend to see their suburban viewers as those who go to sleep earlier because they commute to the city or are still focused on city news is a big story for us the schlep" said Lisa Gregorisch news director of WNYWFox5 Long Island is the only suburb where the station has based a reporter and crew with the ability to provide instantaneous coverage spent a lot of days covering traffic and said Pauline Uu of WPIX from here to there is a very important John Corporon WPIX news director for 23 years said that although covering the Island wu important he felt viewers here still wanted city news These viewers he said have in Queens and Brooklyn An aunt or papa came from there or a cousin still lives there That is why Long Island still longs for city news they grew up with it" The move toward fuller suburban coverage has been evolutionary Long Island like northern New Jersey Westchester and southern Connecticut wu never given more than perfunctory coverage from city broadcast star tions years ago Today 59 percent of viewers in the market reside in the suburbs Eighteen percent of the overall audience is from Long Island 35 percent is in northern New Jersey and the remaining 6 percent is from the leu densely populated suburbs As business and political leaders began in the late to press for more coverage the stations began to designate a reporter in Manhattan the official LI correspondent were very junior people and they want to be said Kenigsberg founder of the coalition which pressed the city stations for more coverage Then a decade ago Cablevision pioneer Charles Dolan started Newsl2 Long Island the first allnews cable show Now there are clones on Cablevision systems in Fairfield and Westchester NewsIZ New Jersey debuts Sunday we have the ring completed seven out of the ten top spending markets in the country will be in said Norm Fein vice president of news development for Rainbow Programing and the original director of NewsIZ we just take five percent of those city ad revenues twenty million dollars" And Cablevision is not alone in mining the suburbs WLIG55 an independent UHF station had a reversal of fortune when a 199Z federal cable law required that the money-losing station be carried on cable systems in the metro area As a consequence its audience tripled Two years ago the station wu able to resume its hour-long 10 pm newscast and decided to expand its reach beyond Nassau and Suffolk news focus is still Long Island but we are now in the unusual position of reaching into the city and the other said Drew Scott news director Scott said WL1G has recently opened news bureaus in Wayne NJ and Fairfield Conn and hu just gotten New York City press credentials for its staff The station is considering a substantial investment in equipment so it can transmit live reports from the field according to Marvin Chauvin the chief executive officer Another contender for LI viewers is WRNN a low-power UHF station in upstate Kingston that is also trying to use the 199Z cable law to become a regional all-news cable station will be a niche channel of regional news and said David Earle executive vice president of SGI the organization that owns WRNN WRNN is already on half of the cable systems in the region spanning the Hudson Valley to New Ocean County It is trying to muscle its way onto Long Cablevision and Time network in the city However berth thou operators are opposing the WRNN petition to the Federal Communications Commission And the U3 Supreme Court has just agreed in another case to review the constitutionality of the 199Z rule Meanwhile WRNN is already producing regional television news in conjunction with other suburban newspapers such as Westchester-Rockland group and The Record in Hackensack Likewise WRNN will join forces with Newsday for a televised news operation if it is successful in getting Cablevi-sion tq carry its signal Patrick Dolan Bays Cablevision 's plan is to be with each NewsIZ focusing exclusively on its geographic area In contrast Earle says WRNN will try to unite the suburbs and provide the same news report to the entire donghmi Whether or not WRNN becomes a regional network news executives from both broadcast andcabld' stations say that for now there are enough news sto-ries and advertising dollars to keep everyone happy What does this broadcast picture mean far viewers concerned about Long Island news? Former Suffolk County Executive Klein responds that the coverage from the city stations be expected to keep growing: is just a limitad amount pf interest in Bayonne Jt about what hap-senq in 8 1 i 1 I Jij.