February 25th, 2002

FEDERAL COURT REJECTS FCC LIMITS: Tuesday's ruling by a federal appeals court could potentially turn the broadcasting world upside down, and the station you work for could be sold. The meat of the ruling: The court threw out FCC
regulations which limited television networks from owning stations which
"reach" more than 35% of the nation's television viewers. The concept was to
prevent a few major companies from owning so many stations that Americans
wouldn't get a diversity of programming. The U.S. Court of Appeals called the
cap "arbitrary and capricious." It also ruled against FCC regulations from owning cable TV systems in the same markets it owned broadcast stations.
Again, that regulation was intended to promote a diversity in ownership, and
programming. The court has given the FCC two choices: Justify the rules, or
change them.

SO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
If the changes in the rules going back to the 1940's are upheld, it means that
companies like Viacom, with 30 plus television stations already, could go on
buying sprees. Smaller groups, like Granite and Sinclair, could become
endangered species...with the big guys buying them up. Radio people all too
well know what deregulation means...with some companies, like Clear Channel
literally buying up hundreds of stations across America. And, if the cable
restrictions fall...you could see deals like Viacom owning KCBS, KCAL, and
dozens of cable systems serving Southern California. On one hand, it would
make things like 24-hour cable channels more feasible in markets like L.A.,
but on the other hand, it could make it tougher for smaller broadcasters in
some markets to compete.

WHAT'S NEXT:
FCC Chairman Michael Powell (yes, he's Colin's son!) already went on the
record as saying he thinks it will be tough to defend its current caps.

WHO'S HAPPY, AND WHO'S NOT:
Viacom (Owner of CBS and UPN), News Corp. (Parent of Fox), and GE (NBC's
parent) challenged the 35% cap, so they are certainly pleased with the
ruling. On the other side of the fence is the National Association of
Broadcasters, which represents smaller broadcast groups and independent
owners, as well as a number of public interest groups, which say this isn't
in the public's best interest.

HEADING NORTH: Rob Mayada is now a part of the weather team at
KIRO-TV/Seattle. He had been at KCRA /Sacramento.

ANGELLIC ANCHORS: Rory Marcus and Terry Smith are the new radio broadcast
team for the Anaheim Angels. Rory's credits include KNX-AM/Los Angeles,
KCBS-TV/Los Angeles, and play-by-play work on USC sports. Terry has been an
announcer for the Columbus Clippers, the Triple A farm club of the New York
Yankees, for the past 19 years.

RACKING UP THE FREQUENT FLYER MILES: Fox Television Network baseball
Announcer Tim McCarver is going to be very busy this coming season. He'll
continue his work with Fox, but also handle TV duties for the San Francisco
Giants.

MULTI-CHANGES FOR UNI-VISION: Jorge Delgado is the new President & General
Manager of KMEX/Los Angeles, as well as Univision's co-owned (and new)
TeleFutura affiliate KFTR-TV. Delgado had been with Univision as president
of the TeleFutura group, which launched its new network earlier this year.
Former KMEX President/General manager Augustine Martinez has been named a VP
with the network, overseeing stations in a half-dozen major markets.

THE KINGER RETURNS TO TV: King Harris has returned to television, after a
stint as a broadcast instructor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and n.d. at
KVEC-AM/San Luis Obispo. Harris was the long time n.d., and anchor at
KEYT-TV/Santa Barbara.
Earlier in his career, Harris was at KMST (now KION) Monterey/Salinas.

SPEAKING OF SALINAS/MONTEREY: Mike Wesley is the new news director KION and
KCBA. He had been n.d. at KMTR-TV in Eugene, Oregon. Wesley's career
included work on assignment desks in the Bay Area at KGO, KPIX, and KRON

KCAL ADD ONE: Station employees won't have to go far to rub elbows with
fellow Viacom employees. The station is already located on the Paramount
Studios lot in Hollywood, with the newsroom in a converted sound stage.
Paramount is part of the Viacom family. While the news that KCAL will
continue on with the same type of programming is good news for workers,
station employees are wondering about potential "synergy" savings like
combining front office functions. One major asset for KCAL: Viacom's
half-dozen Los Angeles radio stations could provide an important promotion
link for the stations programming.

DODGER CHANGES: Veteran sportscaster Stu Nahan won't be in the starting
lineup when the Los Angeles Dodgers take the field this spring. A. Martinez
and Ross Porter will handle the pregame show duties for 2002, the last season
the team will be on KXTA. Next year, the Dodgers will air on Infinity's
KFWB/Los Angeles.

COLE OUT: KMPC-AM/Los Angeles general manager Nancy Cole is gone. KMPC is
owned by the Sporting News Radio Network, and the all-sports station airs USC
sports, Raiders football, and has added a number of local sports talk shows
in recent years.

RUNNERS, GET READY: The Los Angeles Marathon has aired live on KCOP/Los
Angeles since its inception...but this year, there's a big change.
KCAL-TV/Los Angeles will do the "marathon" live coverage of the March event.

OUT OF THE DESERT: Eric Hulnick has left his n.d. post at KVVU, Las Vegas.
Eric's has also been a news director at KNTV/San Jose and KSEE/Fresno.
He's the third Meredith Group news director to leave since Kevin O'Brien took
over as the chain's president.

February 11th, 2002

PHIL GOES UPN: Phil Shuman is now at KCOP/UPN 13 Los Angeles as an anchor and reporter. He's now a part of the "Unit 13" investigative team, and will
anchor the "Best of Unit 13" on Saturdays and Sundays. Before joining KCOP, Shuman was a correspondent for the nationally syndicated news magazine "EXTRA". He was a fixture in Southern California news as a reporter for
KNBC/Los Angeles.

UP FOR SALE? "Broadcasting" magazine reports Young Broadcasting is suggesting its KRON-TV/San Francisco is a top candidate to become part of a
duopoly. KRON lost its NBC affiliation to KNTV/San Jose on January first,
and has taken a big ratings hit since becoming an independent station. Young
outbid NBC for KRON-TV, and it was in talks with NBC about a sale late last
year before NBC agreed to buy KNTV. Since CBS and Cox have, or are putting
together duopolies in the Bay Area, ABC and NBC would be the likely
candidates for a deal.

WHAT'S THE "WORST CASE"? Getting not enough sleep, because of two jobs.
KPIX/San Francisco "Evening Magazine" host Mike Rowe adds duties as the host
of the new TBS show "Worst Case".

HARVEY INVESTIGATES A NEW DEAL: Former KCBS-TV/Los Angeles investigative
reporter Harvey Levin continues to add to his syndication credits. You know
him from his "People's Court" interviews...but now, his syndicated show
"Celebrity Justice" has been picked up by Warner Brothers/Telepictures.

CALL ME OLD, BUT I REMEMBER HIM: If you grew up in Southern California
during the 1960's or even 70's...the name Baxter Ward is a familiar one.
Ward was news director and anchor at KCOP during the late 1950 and early
60's. In 1962...he started a seven year run as news director, and anchor at
KABC. In 1969, he ran for mayor of Los Angeles, and lost. Following a stint
at KHJ-TV (now KCAL), in 1972, he ran for the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors, where he ultimately served two terms. He spent another three
years as a television commentator in the early 1980's before retiring. Ward
died February 4th in a Washington State Hospital, shortly after he was
diagnosed with lung cancer.

February 4th, 2002

MOVING NORTH FROM THE SOUTH BAY: Kristen Dahlgren is now freelancing from KGO-TV/San Francisco. She had been a host for the cable network "Tech TV."

FROM L.A. TO THE BAY: Tracy Martinez joins KNTV/San Jose as a freelance
reporter. Tracy had been freelancing for KCOP/UPN13 Los Angeles.

COVERING THE INLAND EMPIRE: Angela Chee is the new San Bernardino/Riverside
County bureau reporter for KCBS-TV. She had been at KBAK/Bakersfield.

MR. NEWS TIP: Former Bay Area news executive AL HOLZER
is now with SmithGeiger Research-Consulting, as an executive vice-president.

EATON TO RETIRE: The VP/GM of Viacom's KPIX-TV/San Francisco says he'll
retire this spring. Jerry Eaton told the San Francisco Chronicle that he'd
been planning the move for some time. His career includes a stint overseeing
KPIX and KCBS-TV/Los Angeles, and the GM's post at KYW/Philadelphia.

STAFFERS SUE: The San Francisco Chronicle reports KPIX-TV/San Francisco is
being sued by three African-American news department members, who allege they
were victims of racial discrimination. Among the claims: allegations a
reporter was passed over for anchoring duty and promotions, they didn't get
choice travel assignments, and weren't paid the equivalent salaries as other
employees. The newspaper reports the station had no comment on the charges.

HENRY GONE, JACOB IN: Meredith Broadcasting's KPHO/Phoenix
has replaced News Director Bob Henry with Mitch Jacob, the n.d. at
KWCH/Wichita. New station group President Kevin O'Brien (longtime
KTVU/Oakland GM) is shaking things up at many of the Meredith stations.
Henry was longtime News Director of KCAL-TV/Los Angeles.

MEREDITH ADD: Meredith named former KRON-TV/San Francisco VP of News Mark
Berryhill VP of News for the entire company's chain of stations. Berryhill
was (earlier in his career) n.d. at KYMA Yuma, Arizona/El Centro, California

CLEAR CHANNEL CHANGES: David Hall is upped from head of programming for
Clear Channel's Los Angeles AM news-talk cluster
(KFI, KLAC, KXTA) to VP, Talk Programming for the Premiere Radio Networks.
Taking his place in L.A....Robin Bertolucci, formerly with Clear Channel's
Denver stations.

QUIET NEWS DAY? AP STEPS IN: KMPH-FM Fresno is adding to its news format
with AP Radio's 24 hour all-news audio service.