Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 62

lions get a little help in race for playoffs Sports, ic BREAKING For these footwear fanatics, heaven is a sole sale FASHION, ID THE U-M's business program goes back to school BUSINESS MONDAY, IF MOLD Monday Metro Final Snow showers developing. High 27. Low 20. Tuesday: Chance of snow. 35 cents (50 Home delivery 25 On Guard For 163 Years OB switch fratatte Some viewers can find programs or don like the picture they get By Marc Gunther Free Press TV Writer Ellen Kanaby hoped to relax on Sunday by watching a CBS figure skating special.

Instead, she spent the afternoon fiddling with her TV sets in a desperate search for Channel 62, Detroit's new CBS station. The 57-year-old Southfield woman called her cable company, an electronics store, friends and neighbors before pulling in a barely tolerable picture on an old five-inch, black-and-white set. "We've tried it on three of the sets in this house. We can't get a decent picture on any one," Kanaby said. "They're going to lose an awful lot of viewers." That's probably so.

What's certain is that the first day of an unprecedented shuffle of TV stations and networks in Detroit left thousands of viewers frustrated, dazed or confused. Some live in distant suburbs, where STEVEN R. NICKERSONPetrolt Free Press CBS exec Jay Newman, second from right, and others toast the network's switch from WJBK-TV (Channel 2) to WGPR-TV (Channel 62) on Sunday. Clinton Hails New Era For The Americas many them: viewers who went looking for "60 Minutes" in its old home and stumbled upon "New York Undercover," a slick Fox cop show. "This is going to take months for people to figure out," said Jay Newman, the CBS executive in charge of WGPR-TV (Channel 62), who spent the day in his office fielding viewer calls.

The Detroit TV shuffle was set into motion in May when the owners of WJBK-TV (Channel 2), a longtime CBS affiliate, decided to switch all their See TV, Page 6A J.I Channel 62's signal remains weak. Others, like Kanaby, rely on a South-field cable system that failed to deliver a strong Channel 62 picture to its viewers. Others struggled to repro-gram the channel selectors on their, high-tech TV sets. Several thousand people called hot lines set up to assist viewers. Among (, December 12, 1994 cents outside 6-county metropolitan area) cents in metro area (call 1-313-222-6500) leaves with no regrets ten nature was her undoing BY VANESSA GALLMAN AND MARY OTTO Free Press Washington Staff WASHINGTON Back when she was attending the games of the Little Rock high school basketball team her husband coached, Joycelyn Elders would harangue the referees to the point they would give the team techni cal fouls.

With that same tongue, during her 16 months as surgeon general, she shocked and intrigued a nation. But then as now, telling the truth as she saw it carried a heavy penalty. "I don't real Joycelyn Elders ly have any regrets," Elders said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," commenting on her dismissal Friday. She was asked to submit her resignation for suggesting, in response to a question at a UN conference, that students might be taught about masturbation "as part of human sexuality." Elders said she still remains a friend of Clinton's and will support his reelection. See ELDERS, Page 10A Ann Landers 2E Bridge 9D Business Monday IF Classified Index 8C Comics 8D Crossword Puzzle 8D Death Notices 2B Editorials 8A Entertainment 3E Fashion ID Feature Page 6E Horoscope 6E Jumble 7C Lottery 2A Michigan Dateline 2B Movie Guide 2E Names Faces 100 Obituaries 2B Soap Operas 2E Sports 1C Television 4E The Way We Live IE Weather 9D Volume 164, Number 221 1994 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Printed in the United States Elders III It J. SCOTT APPLEWHITEAssociated Press it President Bill Clinton generations will look Santa gets more real for black shoppers addresses the Summit of the Americas on Sunday in Miami after 34 nations agreed to establish a free-trade zone. He said "future back on the Miami summit as a moment when the course of history in the Americas changed for the better." Story, Page 5A. i Hi. poles Drink up As they try to cope with troubling times, alcohol more often becomes the solution PATRICIA BECKDetrott Free Press Wilda Searcy, 75, in front of her Detroit home with a Santa face she painted to appear black years ago.

Now many malls have black Santas. BY NEELY TUCKER Free Press Europe Bureau KATOWICE, Poland Vodka is a fond term for water in the Slavic languages, and for centuries people on the northern plains of central and eastern Europe have knocked back the clear alcohol like it was just that water. But while Slavic affection for vodka dates back at least to the Middle Ages, its pervasiveness has grown rapidly of late. Alcohol consumption in Poland has nearly doubled since the overthrow of communism in 1989, and it's on the rise. With the price of drink often dropping, similar increases are jolting the former communist bloc nations of central and eastern Europe, a telling barometer of social anxiety as nations adjust to free-market economies.

In Poland, the World Health Orga- nization estimates the annual rate of alcohol consumption to be 11.6 liters (slightly more than three gallons) for every man, woman and child. It was only about six liters in 1989. It's the sharpest increase in the world. On Friday and Saturday nights, lines of 30 or more men crowd Poland's few late-night shops, waiting to stock up on vodka, whiskey or beer. "We sell all we can get in the store over the weekend," says Jolanta Chmielewska, a store manager in downtown Warsaw.

"Nobody is buying anything but alcohol and juices to mix with it." Poland, it seems, is literally drinking itself into disaster. "The post-communist countries are drinking more, much more, while' western Europe is drinking less," says See VODKA, Page 6A BY Marian dozier Free Press Staff Writer For 35 years, Wilda Searcy searched in vain for black Santa Claus decorations at first as props to help explain to her only child that the family gift-giver looked like the family, then, later, out of principle. Instead, she was always forced to buy traditional, white male Santas and tint them with brown paint. "We wanted to teach her Santa Claus is in your home, we didn't want her to think a white man was bringing her a bunch of gifts," Searcy, 75, of Detroit, said. "And it made me madder than hell that there weren't anything but white Santa Clauses out there.

dren Patrick, 6, and Eboni, 4. They were waiting to sit on the knee of jolly old St. Nick. A black man. "I brought them here on purpose, I wanted them to see this man," Said Russell, flicking her fingers at the black man in the flowing white beard.

"Sometimes, you have to show kids SANTA, Page 10A a How was I going to let the child know Santa Claus is a mother, a father, sisters and brothers? In our house, these people are all black people." Other black parents continue that search for identity today, but with much more success. In line at Santa's Northland Mall castle in Southfield last week, Carolyn Russell of Detroit stood with her chil- i 0.