Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 44

HJ -t li UJ If fill VTlHJi WUmj ICg ITM Network programming takes beating in city Advertising revenue calls the tune when decisions are made at local stations By SAM HODGES KUDZUI this fall look at big ratings Mg Bolton says want to continue Some of the shows not seen in Birmingham include: This ABC news program evolved from nightly 20-minute reports on the hostage crisis in Iran The riw is basted by Ted Koppel a veteran ABC correspondent known far his interviewing dulls Koppel usually hosts a report on a news subject then interviews experts on the subject makes superb use of satellite technology The show has had four-way discussions with people in New York Washington Moscow and London In just four years the show has won the Columbia Du Pont Award the George Peabody Award and the George Polk Award Koppel has won several awards on his own Of the 212 ABC affiliates 197 carry ABC officials say that means the show is broadcast to 97 percent of the country The local station often runs promotions for "Nightline" even on nights when it will not carry the show Bolton says the station doeut get a schedule of ABCs promotions in time to block them out Week With David -The Brinkley show succeeded ABCs Sunday interview program and Brinkley competes with the Nation" and NBCs the both carried in Birmingham Brinkley beats the other shows in the national ratings perhaps because he has varied the format The show begins with a news update then goes into a report on the major topic to be discussed during that program When there are guests to be questioned Brinkley gets help from columnist George Win and ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson The show includes a 10-minute roundtable discussion by Brinkley Will Donaldson and regular guests such as Jody Powell and Hodding Carter Brinkley closes the program with a commentary Of the 212 ABC affiliates 191 carry Week With David Bolton calls the show and says more viewers request it than would like to carry it but we have an agreement with these commercial religious program! It's like a hotel all the rooms are publicist Elise Adde said the' show is taped in the morning when religious programs are broadcast here but can be delayed and shown in the afternoon ABCs half-hour sports Journalism program premiered in FtAru-ary 1982 Howard Cosull is host and senior producer The show consists of Interviews on sports news issues and has won two Emmy awards ABC feeds the program to 1 1 1 1 1 1 See TEKEVEION pageS IF TELEVISION is a vast wasteland as many critics have argued then Birmingham is especially barren Some of the best commerical network television programs don't get broadcast here The local affiliates interested primarily in advertising revenues choose not to show them Take This ABC news program has won the most prestigious awards in broadcast Journalism About IS percent of ABCs affiliates carry the show Birmingham's ABC affiliate WBRC-Channel 6 is one of the dissenting 7 percent Last week instead of Channel I ran Elvis Presley movies Channel I occassionally picks up if there has been an extraordinary news event that day such as the Soviet Union shooting down the Korean Jetliner But last week when the Soviets pulled out of the Olympics Channel I decided not to run which had a special repot on that story and on that day's presidential primaries Channel I ran instead high on 'Nightline' says Nick Bolton general manager of Channel 8 "But I'm of the impression it might be too much of a good thing Too much news We've got to take a look at the If ratings matter it's curious that Channel 6 doesn't carry Week With David ABCs top-rated Sunday news show Channel 6 also omits ABCs Emmy-award winning Saturday program The station carry the last hour of Morning and with the 1 exception of Super Tuesday has not broadcast the ABC News special reports on the presidential primaries Other Birmingham stations also fail to pick up network programs Channel 13 (WVTM) does not cany Night with David a late-night talk show available almost everywhere rise in the country As for the NBC reports on the presidential primaries the station has carried some not alL Channel 10 (WBIQ) takes the basic PBS offerings but is so underfunded that it cannot afford many shows In the summer the station has to leave off morning broadcasts of Street" Channel 42 (WBMG) takes almost thing CBS offers including the after-midnight news show but is one of the few CBS affiliates that does not offer even a 30-minute local newscast What's the reason that these shows which have in common better-than-aver-age intellectual content don't get shown here? In a word: money Stations can make more with reruns and movies deny says Everett Holle administrative assistant to the vice president of Channel 13 got to pay our David Letterman is one of the faces Birmingham regularly see the advertising spots during that very lucrative 30 minutes Channel 8 could try against but Bolton thinks the station would lose to Channel 13 even more decisively than it already does with movies pretty obvious we get onr heads handed to us with a program like As great a show as is I don't think it would Bolton proudly carried "Nightline" when he was general manager of a television station in Cincinnati But he says in Birmingham the show would probably be much even an a delayed basil To compete with Channel 8 plaits to A if reruns begihning When a local station runs a network program the commercial spots are shared with the network Some spots are local advertising some are nationaL The network reimburses the affiliate according to a complicated formula for the national spots Even with the reimbursement an affiliate generally makes more money when it controls all the commerical roots as it does with movies and reruns Thus Channel I can make more money showing Elvis movies than Perhaps the hot current example is Channel M's showing of reruns The ratings on at 10:30 pm are outstanding Chirinfel IS 'eontroU.