The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 50

KCPQ scores with sleazy tabloid shows KCPQ Continued from Page 3 1 I Continued from Page 3 commercial franchise to operate the national park at Mount -McKinley His stay away from broadcasting was to last but a fow years He had hear a Tacoma station that had through four owners (from Elroy McCaw to the Clover Park School District) and a -variety of call letters (KMO KTVW) It had potential It was for sals and so on Jan 2 1979 the Kelly Television On bought KCPQ for $025 million What drew him here KeUy says was "the challenge of a channel hud never had much luck and trying to make something out of It hi a wonderful place like the Puget Sound area without benefit of one of the old-fashioned He said "Hairy where in the hell le that 250 bucks that yoe owe To which Truman to eekl to have replied got a severe -case of the shorts bet how yoe ess get that money bach: Yoe can bet on me becaase going to win this election the odds are shoot It to 1 With $5000 in borrowed cash Ewing did bet on Truman Truman did wia the election and that says Bob Kelly is bow the family got into tdevision Ewing made enough money to pay off the bank loan for KCRA-Radio and on Sept 2 1955 he pot KCRArTV on the air Ewing died in 1000 and his two sons took ever Itqr built NBC affiliate KCRArTV Into a Sacramento news powerhouse bet Bob KeUy grew increasingly disenchanted with the Institutionalised mudforrlty of network TV By the time they had sold off ths radio station in 1975 Bob was retired from the broadcast business because he says "I had had enough of conventional affiliate television in the operations of the three okUaririom He tamed Ms attention to a number of other KeUy enterprises Including the famUy-fouaded River City Bank in Sacramento a Zeaitk distribntonMp and the Like Fox KCPQ has generated its share of criticism for airing the tabloid TV shows "A Current "Hard Copy" and "Inside Packed with sleaze tease and scandal the syndicated aeries -follow the children's lineup from pm on 11 KCPQ research director Chris Kelly the ll-year-old son of station owner Bob Kelly defends the tabloid programs as the dessert of television "After yon watch the news after youVe eaten your vegetables year dessert" he said "It may not be good for yoe bd fon to But what about the scheduling of such sensationalism at a time when children may be 1 watching? KCPQ general manager Roger Ottenbach said 1 there might he young viewers out then bd we have to Id parents guide their And what about the red of ns? a local TV station lead the community to quality rather than follow it Into the "I don't think yon can lead taste Ottenbach sakL "Yon put It on and people find That they have: Ia the May 10-year bn Asking a i derision He i filled it Although the Fox network does to answer ton parent corporation the steps were as relatively simple to take on the national leveL With juste fraction of the typical network staff to this day it employs a mere ISO people compared with several thousand each of the other networks Dlller broegM far forward-thinking TV pros to help run the show With Jamie Kellner (formerly of CBS) Installed as prrsiilniit and CEO end programming chief Peter Chernin brought over from Showtime they looked for ways to reinvent the The hows of each reinvention had to do with summer programming which they improved and standards which they destroyed With nothing to lose and everything to gain Fox launched two new series Most Wanted" and "Totally Hidden when the networks airing thrir standard i reruns in July 1919 Fox simply beat the networks at thrir game they forced the networks to change end of the 199041 TV i roughly half of what NBC CBS and ABC scored individaalty as their prime-time share dipped to 21 While the rest of fife local competitors have either slowed or slipped ia growth over the past four years KCPQ has nearly domed its i lS-tfrdO-yearolds And more importantly both Fox and Chaand have changed the television landscape What we see on TV is in many ways different from what it was just five years ago and will be that much different again by the end of the i if these twe And therein lies the unwritten ending Nobody making bold predictions for the successes of Fox and of all their leaders How they altered the landscape is answered In at lead a couple of ways Why thgy changed it is simply thk They had ta In 1900 were tuning in the three networks for their news and entertainment Halfway into the decade 10 percent of that network had defected to cable home video "The answer for Fox and for ns was original different Kelly said In a recent telephone Interview from Sacramento where he stUl spends i of Ms time overseeing a of hnafaMsses owned with his brother Jon "One of the mod significant things about Fox ia their clear focus on trying to be originaL to do fresh i and that Is ia dramatic coutrari to much of what Independent TV station continued topuy by fi the rules of its -'the Gaylord Broadcasting chain based in Dallas It found viewers with network reruns movies that had previously aired on cable and a local 10 KSTW ratings gangbusters but it did reasonably wrilonashn "The key in any business Is find the need and fill it and KSTW had already nui need The three affiliates had also filled thoee Krity said task was to find and fill a new Being a handeon owner meant that Kelly have to call together a board of directors and fleet of paper pushers to draft What's helped the Kellys succeed where previous broadcasters failed was a tower of power The Kellys moved the -broadcast tower to the summit of Gold near Bremerton making it the tallest TV antenna la the market On Nov 4 1900 KCPQ bon anew While the rest of the competition was delivering election night coverage the independent Channel IS was inaugurated with a broadcast of the movie Deer "There were plenty of choices for the public to watch election says Kelly over the ragged individualist "1 think any particular i any -a a onvN i thing at the same Department Twentieth Centwy Fox Mnmesn In host of A-ae-sj iJi mif 1MOIMQIV Cnrront ratings sweeps wi lfs tabloid Mock ranked Nbi 1 among the key advertising i the agm of IS and 49 be surprised who KeUy i explanation? "There's a little bit of lowbrow in every their strategy Thanks to Fox original swollen in the CBS and ABC for "Northern (CBS) last year and this month "HI Honey rm on ABC as wefi as "Stephen King Golden Yeart" and Rob "Morton A on CBS-' Bat we also have Fox to thank for a wave of coarse comedy began with "Married With in tusponae to tee of I The thinking was if audience is primarily the -lO-to-40-yearold crowd and the audience that Fox was after Beams who most edvertisen are after then the programming had to appeal an different level than the They had to have an edge the "Married With I sitcom derives Its laughs from the patriarch passing gas the matriarch modeling lingerie and the teenage daughter living life as (to use the favorite term) a Inf Kelly admits one of the prices to i Please see Fex Page 5 fc'CJjalet kee a nnM 70Z4-27th St West Tacoma Wa 98468 Srmbabies COUPON BEAUTY BARBER COLLEGE Snowbabies in You bed DEPARTMENT 66 INC has shipped early Ms year FINELY DETAILED BISQUE PORCELAIN COLLECTIBLES Priced (ram to $4500 SHOP NOW FOR BEST SELECTION EARLY SELL-OUT EXPECTED 3s SRQtiQDn THE MORNINQ NEW8 TnEKMC HIM MBUDIAN 1 HIT SOi TACOMA WAV PUYALLUP MS-IMS TACOMA SIMMS SWImIHSuiMi PM PmUss bail HoMKClOiainu.