Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 25

today's tv interviews; 11:30 ABC: Robert S. Strauss, former Democratic Party chairman 11:30 CBS: Jimmy Carter; Sen. Gary Hart 12:30 NBC: The Rev. Jesse Jackson Complete tv updates, radio, soaps: Page 8D. Sunday, July 15, 1984 SHIRLEY EDER 2 SOUND JUDGMENT 5 MARSHA MIRO 6 I Call Entertainment: 222-6828 DETROIT FREE PRESS Dcth Konrad, t'JDIU (Channel 4) FT its Dob Talbsrt TV editorials take a stanc Soger's secret show Insider's Notebook After writing some exciting new songs while in Muscle Shoals, and Tennessee recently, Detroit rock icon Bob Seger got antsy to hear how they sounded with his band so he rented the Royal Oak Ivs Bettelou 3 Peterson Ay.

I television I 1 Music Theatre last week, closed the doors, got his troops together and ripped off "one hellacious rock 'n' roll stage show" says one of the few eyewitnesses. Hope someone recorded this ultimate garage tape! Out front, it was all smiles and back-patting at Channel 4 over launching its new 5 o'clock hour news last week. Out back, executives Where to voice your opinion Seger Here's when editorials are aired and how to reply to opinions you don't like: WJBK-TV, Channel 2: Tues. and Thurs. during the 6 p.m.

newscast (exact time varies but Barbara Ashe, WJBK (Channel 2) 1 spent part of the week frantically talking their rising star No. 1 political reporter Bob Pisor out of resigning over a disagreement with the way Pisor thinks 4's news operation is going. On top of that, some station on-air newcomers haven't seen promised raises and are grousing. Meanwhile, WDIV-TV execs are in the talking stages of doing a live local talk show as a lead-in to the 5 o'clock news. Don't look for the Detroit Pistons to lose popular Kelly Tripucka, now testing his open-market value in the NBA.

Tripucka's excited about the Pistons acquiring Dan Roundfield, who'll help Kelly's game. Bottom line: the Pistons will match whatever Tripucka is offered by any other club. Those "Dave Bing for Mayor" trial balloons being launched by local businessmen are premature, says the former Piston great, now head of his own domestic Bing Steel Co. With the steel industry as it is, "I've got enough problems!" quips Bing, without thinking about politics now. He confides he'll give city, state and national politics some thought after he finishes "a few things I want to accomplish as a business entrepreneur." Mayor Young was reportedly "less arrogant" is usually before the weather), repeated the following day at the 7:25 a.m.

break in the "CBS Morning News" and during the noon newscast. Editorial replies: Call Barbara Ashe, 557-2000, 10-5, Replies are limited to comments on actual content of WJBK-TV editorials. Letters are used during the Saturday and Sunday 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Address: WJBK-TV, Box 2000, Southfield, Mich.

48037. WDIV, Channel 4: Mon. at about 12:58 p.m. near the end of "12 O'clock Wed. at approximately 5:58 near the end of the 5 p.m.

newscast; at both times. "Just a Minute" uses two different segments a week, two airings each, at 7 p.m. adjacent to "Mort Crim's Free 4 Mon. between 6:30 and 7 a.m.; Wed. between 10:30 and 11 a.m., Fri.

just before 11 a.m. Editorial a Minute" appearances: Call Beth Konrad, 222-0678, 10-5, Address: WDIV, 550 W. Lafayette Detroit, Mich. 48231. WXYZ-TV, Channel 7: Each editorial is seen four times, at approx.

6:55 p.m. at the end of the local newscast, at the end of the And it no longer just for apple pie, Mom and stop signs Home. Mother. Apple Pie. The flag.

Good, safe issues on which to stand. And for years that's where TV editorialists stood carefully, not rocking any boats. But those days are gone, even though the image may still cling. Beth Konrad, editorial director at WDIV-TV (Channel 4), points to the deluge of letters more than 3,000, says Konrad that the station delivered to Michigan legislators last spring after WDIV editorialized that lawmakers were contemplating weakening the Michigan Rape Shield law that limits testimony in rape cases. And Barbara Ashe, editorial director at WJBK-TV (Channel 2), recalls a series of 1980 TV2 editorials that she says helped repeal a law that permitted state public health officials to inspect buildings including private homes without permission.

"It was a shocker," said Ashe. "People didn't believe it. They thought it was a joke. We told people where to get a copy of the law and we found out that most of the legislators who had voted for it didn't know what they were voting for. We told people to write their representatives, not us.

The Legislature got thousands of letters. "As far as I know, it's the first time editorials, not news stories, got a state law repealed." EDITORIALIZING IS a relatively recent addition to broadcasting, becoming common in the 1960s. Many stations were wary of the Federal Communications Commission regulations that require broadcasters, as occupiers of the publicly-owned airwaves, to give equal time to all sides of a question. The easiest way to avoid controversy was to avoid editorial positions. Today, Detroit's four major stations (and independent WKBD-TV Channel 50) all editorialize.

Ashe, who joined WJBK in 1980 after a career in social work, is the newest of current Detroit TV editorial directors and the only one without previous broadcasting experience. Lowell Newton, at WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), joined the news department in 1 967 and was appointed editorial director in 1969. He has been in broadcast news since 1961. (His editorials are delivered mostly by Jeanne Findlater, WXYZ's vice-president and general manager.) Amyre Makeupson has been WKBD's news and public affairs manager since 1977 with editorials among her responsibilities. She has been in broadcasting since 1970 and moved to Channel 50 from Detroit's WGPR-TV (Channel 62).

Beth Konrad joined WDIV in 1978 as editorial director and, since 1982, also has been WDIV's public affairs director. She started in broadcast news before she graduated from Indiana State University in 1972. KONRAD'S DUAL role gives her input unmatched by Ashe and Newton, whose stations have separate public affairs departments. In January, for instance, with the rape shield law before the state Legislature and broadcast day between 1 and 2 a.m., at sign-on, 5:55 a.m., the following day and at approximately than any time in recent memory during his two private bacon-and-egg sessions with Detroit City Council members this week when he "found out he is not going to get it all his way anymore," says an insider; but both sides "have to get over the fears and phobias they have 10:25 a.m., at the end of Kelly Company. Editorial replies: Call Lowell Newton, 827-9491, 10-5, Address: WXYZ-TV, 20777 West Ten Mile Southfield, Mich.

48037. yf about each other before they can If I even 8et to their differences." WKBD-TV, Channel 50: one editorial a week repeated 10-12 times at various times. Comments: Call Amyre Makeupson, 444- 8500, 10-5, Address: WKBD-TV, Box 50, Southfield, Mich. 48037. Bettelou Peterson WINNING: Women as Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro finally pulls them politically into the 20th Century.

LOSING: Tigers as suspect arms, anemic hitting and clnnnv fiplriino nf lata mav null Lowell Nevton Jeanne Findlater, 173IYZ (Channel 7) Lerraro 'em into second place if they aren't careful, PARTING SHOT: Comedian Ronnie Shanks says his grandmother is so morbid "she knows all the words to names 8 faces 3C ager Amy McCombs, delivers the editorials. This is a corporate policy of Post-Newsweek stations, parent of WDIV. "Some general managers don't want to do (editorials)," said Konrad. "They want to be part of the process but they feel uncomfortable or don't have on-the-air experience. Amy is important to the process and she might, at some future time, do an editorial." Konrad works with an editorial board of 14 persons.

Most are station executives, including McCombs, but civic leaders often join in to discuss problems and how editorials or programming can help. THE WKBD EDITORIAL board includes Makeupson, news producer Greg Neubacher and general manager George Williams who delivers the editorials written by Makeupson. At WJBK, Ashe works with community affairs director Tom Fox, news director Bill Vance, assistant general manager Judy Juri-sich and GM Bill Flynn. "1 take ideas to the board and we decide what's pertinent and important," said Ashe. She writes the editorials and has shared on-the-air delivery with Flynn.

Most editorials are a little over a minute long but Ashe is limited to 60 seconds, among the shortest TV editorials in the country, she says. "It's a challenge to make a comprehensive, comprehensible statement in 150 words." See EDITORIALS, Page 7C All-star music promoters THE LEADING candidates to promote the Jack-sons' Aug. 25-26 shows at the Pontiac Silverdome are all-star choices. At least the National Basketball Association thinks so. Isiah Thomas of the Pistons and former Mich-igan State star Earvin (Magic) Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers X2 BE? 4 Detroit schoolgirl rapes causing community concern, Konrad co-ordinated a package that included editorials and special programming that explored all facets of the subject.

"It's different than the way most stations operate," said Konrad, "To me, it's a plus." It's also unlike most stations that Konrad, rather than WDIV president and general man- are in the process of forming a concert pro Thomas Johnson duction com 1 Springsteen proves he's the Boss of rock pany, and insiders say several of the Jackson brothers all big basketball fans have OKd their participation in the Silverdome dates. It should be official next week. MIKE DOONESBURY and his pals from Walden Pond will return to the Free Press and newspapers across the country Sept. 30. The Pulitzer-Prize win-ning Doonesbury comic strip last ran in January 1983 after its creator, Garry Trudeau, took a break from the strip.

Trudeau wanted time for his characters "to make the journey from 'draft beer and mixers to cocaine and said John McMeel, president of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip. When Doonesbury last appeared, Uncle Duke was in the slammer; Joanie and Rick's son turned up in the middle tlnfin am1 ni-asliiatin thraaanaH fha FT CLEVELAND And now a few words from the other major concert tour on the road this summer. Gary Graff music VWVIVU VM We're talking about Bruce Springsteen and the Street Band, the group that isn't charging $30 for (at one point mailorder-only) tickets and doesn't wear single jeweled gloves or dance its way through a pyrotechnic display that outblasts anything ever launched on "Star Trek." Michael Jackson is good, but when it comes to putting on a show worth double what you pay for it, nobody can beat the 34-year-old Springsteen. HE'S PULLING in maybe $175,000 a night as opposed to the Jacksons' $1.5 million, but you'll never get the same show twice from Springsteen. And all he's doing is hitting the road for 14 months with long concerts we're talking two hours, 50 minutes of music here (beat that, Mr.

Moonwalk) of flat-out rock 'n' roll without the hoopla and razzle-dazzle showmanship of the Jacksons' outing. And because there's less, there's more of a show. Any true rock 'n' roller who witnessed Springsteen's pair of shows at Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland last week could have died after the last encore of the second night feeling fulfilled in life. In the wake of Michael Jackson and his brothers' opening weekend in Kansas City, Springsteen who has the No. 1 album in the country, after all cut loose and showed once again yho the real boss is.

HE DID IT with the kind of energy and audience rapport that would put almost any other touring act including the "Victory" bunch to shame. You won't, for instance, see Michael Jackson performing without a barricade and singing on a platform just a foot higher than the audience. And Michael may throw his precious glove and "Billie Jean" hat into the front row, but Springsteen throws himself into the crowd during "Out in the Streets" and makes it to the third or fourth row before his fans block the way. He ventures into the front rows once more during the show, to lead a woman onto the stage to turn a few spins during "Dancing in the Dark," his biggest hit single so far. SPRINGSTEEN, who comes to Joe Louis Arena July 30-31, may not be a moonwalker, but he dances with unchoreo-graphed rock roll soul, a series of knee-drops, spins, arm- AEROSMITH, the hard rockers from Boston, broke a single event attendance record at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, drawing 15,775 for its Wednesday night concert (capacity is But it also broke a record for trouble the number of incidents was still being calculated late in the week.

In the early tally: two Knob security guards were bitten by fans and had to get tetanus shots, several other guards were injured and four Oakland County Sheriff's deputies were kicked in the groin. "HEART LIKE A WHEEL," the movie biography of Mt. Clemens drag racer Shirley (Cha-Cha) Muldowney finally will get a Detroit area screening but it'll be via cable TV. HBO shows it Friday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m.

and various other times during the month. The film never made it to her home region despite widespread critical praise. Bonnie Bedelia portrayed Muldowney; Hoyt Axton and Beau Bridges co-star. Compiled by JOH SMYNTEK and GARY GRAfF If Iff Free Press Photo by GARY GRAFF Bruce Springsteen packs almost three hours of flat-out rock 'n' roll into hJ concert. See SPRINGSTEEN, page 4C.