Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 25

i TT tT v' 4 I vr- rj SI If I I i I I i If 'I I I I fc A 'w 55? suC Vv i -4k sf i1- I i i 1 rtr A t- i -5- i Vv i'' i I -W? £1 iHEMaocMmnns waa campy MNtomabv takes a as a political wife HER TURN but Barkan serious bok al Ha fc'v r-n 04 jv What you see of Bush is still what you get Barbaras book examines her life as a good soldier BY DONNIE RADCUm Los Angeles TimeWashington Post Newsservice monHon a rehearsal far WRLH-Chamal 35b 10 pm newscast which was launched tart night ON In a eonlirt room praduear Carolyn Moffatt Its ock do you know where your anchors are? BY KATHERME PHILIPS vmzwm rrrj- i 'i Times-Dispatch Staff Writer Barbara Bush is scowling which darkens the shadows cm her famously corrugated face "Somebody was going to speak to them about she says nettled by a sightseeing boat that is making a cruise-by of the Bush home on Walker's Point she explains adding ominously knows on that Four years after George Bush sent American troops to the Persian Gulf there are still threats Bush turns away from the offending craft but rite is not finished with it rude Once a first lady always a first lady Forevermore there is no such thing as privacy The curious are everywhere staring over their broiled lobsters at her table in aiming their long-lens cameras from across the inlet yelling and waving their arms when they see George Bush Some days when the wind is just right she can hear the tour guides calling attention to the 113-acre rocky promontory that is unarguably most valuable tract of residential real estate George maternal grandfather the St Louis dry goods magnate who endowed golfs Walker Cup built the sprawling stone and shingle residence in 1902 as a summer retreat Today it is a miniature fiefdom whose picturesque cottages hold house guests but also a small army of staff members and Secret Service agents some of whom move around the compound on bicycles A saltwater swimming pod is screened from the shore but Barbara Bush does not swim anymore It turns her hair "bright yellow I know she says laughing Nor does she play tennis But she does eat day I wake up and go cm a she says George Bush calls Walker's Point his "anchor to His mighty Cigarette boat Fidelity is a familiar vessel to disgruntled lobstermen and indifferent whales He remains a serious and ever-optimistic fisherman His most recent nod to nature is a pond he engineered with a circulating pump that has proved so successful in encouraging marshy grasses along the banks that a blue heron and other waterfowl moved in for the summer howtime The bold red black and white Fox-35 news logo flashed across TV screens facing the anchor desk in Stu- dio at WWBT-Channel 12 Anchors Diane Walker and Curt Autry launched into their stories Just beyond camera range meteorologist Jim Duncan and Bports anchor George Evanko waited their turns in the spotlight during a dress rehearsal for last night's launch of "Fox-35 News at I feel like those football TElEflSION players do when they do exhibition games ready for the real Evanko who gave up his spot on WWBTs weekend news for the newscast grinned and rocked on his heels In a control room about two football fields away senior producer Carolyn Moffatt sat at her state-of-the-art console and spoke quietly into a headphone Turning to speak to WWBT production manager David Miller who was running sound for the rehearsal she smiled looks good Autry the bank of looks she said nodding toward i Dtam Waiter and Curt Autry practice In a studio at WWBT-Channel 12 35 on the first newscast at 10 DETAILS AT 10 Is TV screens filling one wall of the control room "Duh on" Several images of Jim Duncan laughed down from the wall of screens as he missed cue call this Moffatt said amiling as she explained that Duncan won't have the anchor-to-weatherman chitchat he engages in during the four daily WWBT newscasts fra: which he forecasts This is to keep the pace fast the first 10 pm newscast According to that contract WWBT would staff and produce the program while WRLH would pay expenses In the intervening four months the key executives have spent an unspecified amount of money and ppnAri gallons of sweat and at least a million calones in nervous energy to launch last newscast Although the collaboration is one of fewer than a dozen among 157 affiliates they had some guidance within their own corporate families Their collaboration mirrors one in effect between Jefferson-Pilot and ACT HI stations WCSC-TV and WTAT-TV in Charleston SC That news partnership not quite 2 years old has proved a ratings and advertising success And it was at least a year before that launch that Richards and Finch began toying with the idea of mounting their own newscast Here advance advertising sales for at Ten" have so far exceeded expectations Richards said lineup of sitcoms and reality-based dramas tend to draw the younger MTV fans who traditionally watch "regular" news? "Our target audience is anyone who wants to see news at 10" Powers said flatly He seems unconcerned about the possibility of competing with his own 11 pjn newscast already proved to our satisfaction in building the 5:30 and 5 pm newscasts that people tune in to see news when they want to see news Right now at 10 pjn limited to cable news We believe plenty of room for both 10 and 11 pm newscasts in this The Richmond market ranks 54th according to AC Nielsen almost consider myself the archetypal viewer of 10 pm said Richards who at 41 is at the older end of 18-to-49-year-old viewer spectrum on my way home at 6 and Pm in bed before the 11 news comes on so the only local news Pm able to watch is early If the collaboration proceeds smoothly both partners and viewers stand to benefit WRLH will have avoided the million-dollar-plus start-up costs It Is a glariMt late-summer morning like so many she has known in the nearly 50 years she has been coming here first as George sweetheart then his young wife driving up from Texas with a carload of kids later the hostess to kings and prime ministers It is a place where the hurricane force of natural and man-made disasters and the heartbreaks of life and death have been survived and as she so readily admits a life of privilege has been lived Now she is about to start a 12-city tour to promote her autobiography Bush: A Memoir" With an initial printing of 600000 Scribner her publisher is gambling on the Barbaraphiles turning out in force published in 1990 sold a half-million But that was a curiosity a campy collectible This new book is anything but campy and lacks the formidable baseline market of dog lovers Its success Approximately halfway between the control room and Studio several WWBT and WRLH executives sat silently in the darkness of Studio A the larger of WWBTs two news studios Backs to the crew rehearsing a few dozen yards away they stared intently at a glowing TV screen Harvey Powers vice president of news for WWBT and the man charged with taking the 10 pjn weekday newscast from concept to reality nodded to himself and took notes WRLH general manager Donald Richards leaned toward Powers and spoke quietly The two men chuckled For Richards and Powers and colleagues ranging from Bin Finch WRLH program and operations manager-news director to WWBTs Moffatt this rehearsal was just one mote piece in the giant mul-tihued jigsaw puzzle they began assembling May 21 That's when WWBTs owner Jefferson-Pilot Communications Inc and WRLH's owner ACT III Inc signed a contract agreeing to collaborate on So who do the executives think will watch a 10 pm newscast on WRLH whose Fox Broadcasting PLEASE SEE NEWS PACE D3 PLEASE SEE BUSH PAGE I'lim VArn THE RETURN OF -fT fiv "HWrWJYI JMkf piMWHEWgywHtaii iV V-" I i AMl.