The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 219

DOUG NYE Columbia's WLTX wades into the fray with 11 p.m. newscast Monday night CBS affiliate WLTX-19 will launch a 35-minute weeknight newscast at 11 p.m. It will be a seven-nights-aweek program with Saturday and Sunday night newscasts running 30 minutes. The WLTX effort is another in a series of additions that has changed the landscape of television news in the Columbia market. It has been a remarkable change when you consider that just seven years ago Columbia basically a one-horse town when it was came to local television news.

Prior to that time, NBC affiliate WIS-10 had owned television news in Columbia a distinction it held from the very beginning when it first signed on in November 1953. There was a major reason that WIS was able to dominate from the outset. It was the only VHF station in the market. The other two stations at the time WCOS-25 and WNOK-67 were on the higher UHF band. In those days, being a UHF station was a distinct disadvantage.

Most television sets were equipped with DOUG NYE TV Editor the VHF band (channels 2-13). To receive the UHF stations, consumers had to purchase a converter box. Not everyone made such an investment. Even then, if you lived several miles outside of Columbia there was that you could pick up those no guarantee stations. The VHF signal was much more powerful than the UHF signal.

So during the 1950s and much of the 1960s, many Columbia viewers got in the habit of watching WIS for news because that was the only station they could receive. WIS's credit, it didn't coast because of To the advantage. The station consistently strove for quality in its newscasts. March 1956, WCOS gave up the By struggle and signed off. WNOK carried on, eventually changing its call letters to WLTX and its channel location to 19.

A new staWCCA, signed on channel 25 in 1961 tion, eventually became the current WOLO. and the ensuing years, neither 19 nor During seriously tried to challenge WIS's 25 ever dominance. That was still the case news seven years ago. While WIS had weekday at noon, 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

as newscasts well as a number of weekend newscasts, and WLTX offered only weekday 6 WOLO newscasts. The latter did have a Saturp.m. day newscast, but WOLO shunned news on the weekend. 1990, little had changed on the news By but a lot had changed in the way a front, station's signal was delivered to households. Cable had begun to level the playing MARCH 17-MARCH 23, 1996 field and, in effect, had put all local stations on a VHF band.

WOLO was the first to try to take advanof the new setup. In March 1991, the tage ABC affiliate began a full-length MondayFriday 11 p.m. newscast. Meanwhile, WIS not standing pat. Two months earlier was during the Gulf War, the station added a Monday-Friday 6 p.m.

newscast to go with its 7 p.m. effort. In September 1993, WLTX partly entered the late night competition with a fiveminute 11 p.m. news update show. WIS countered by increasing its Again, news coverage.

Its 6 a.m. "News at Sunrise" expanded to an hour and in 1994, the was NBC affiliate added a one-hour news show 9 a.m. on Saturdays. Last year, the station at also launched a news-oriented weekday 30- minute program at 5 p.m. There was still more to come.

Earlier this month, Fox affiliate WACH-57, which had signed on in the summer of 1988, began the area's first ever regular prime time newscast weeknights at 10. And now comes WLTX's full-fledged newscast at 11. It's a brave move for WLTX. For the past 20 years the station has been a solid No. 2 in that time period with reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show." Andy will remain, but in another time slot.

The number of local TV newscasts durweek has more than doubled since ing a 1990, going from 30 to 64. The number of weekly hours devoted to local newscasts also has grown from 15 to 35. Sure, WIS is still the ratings leader, but Columbia viewers have something that they had very little of seven years ago the to choose among a variety of ability newscasts. More new shows on way. They call the months the "second season," but March and April are really a time when shows that flopped are yanked from the lineup and are replaced with shows that have hopes of still WE BRING SATELLITE TELEVISION DOWN TO EARTH -VIEW RCA SATELLITE SYSTEMS Financing Available Full-Service Dealer per Payments as low as $30 month The Satellite, Stores 791-7868 TV STATE around come fall.

Those shows will being be if they do well in the ratings during these trial runs. Two shows are premiering tonight on Fox. "The Show," a sitcom about a white head writer on a black variety show, airs tonight at 8:30, and "'Local Heroes," a comedy about four blue-collar pals living in a small town outside Pittsburgh, airs at 9:30. Also coming up are: "Boston Common" A Virginia handyman takes his sister to college in Massachusetts and decides to stay. (Thursday, NBC, 8:30 p.m.) "Nash Bridges" Detective Don Johnson gives up the streets of Miami for San Francisco.

(Friday, CBS, 10 p.m.) "The Sentinel" A detective uses extrasensory powers to solve crimes. This premieres Wednesday on UPN and will air in Columbia Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on WLTX. "Kindred: The Embraced" This Aaron Spelling vampire drama is set in San Francisco. C.

Thomas Howell plays a detective. It premieres on Fox April 2 as a two-hour movie, then moves to Wednesday night at 9 p.m. starting April 3. "Profit" Adrian Pasdar plays a ruthless executive who stops at nothing to climb the corporate ladder; from producer Stephen J. Cannell.

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