December 31st, 2001

IT'S OFFICIAL! NBC is moving from longtime San Francisco affiliate KRON to KNTV/San Jose January first, as planned. What wasn't planned originally was NBC's purchase of the former ABC affiliate for $230 million dollars. The move gives NBC its third owned station in California, with KNBC/Los Angeles and KNSD/San Diego already in the net's portfolio. It also gives Granite a tidy profit, because it paid less than a quarter of that for the station when it bought it from Landmark Communications. Now that the deals are done...it means not much of a holiday season for the staffs at KNTV and KRON. KNTV has to shift some of its news around, to accommodate the move from being a semi-independent for the last year to part of the NBC family. And KRON has to really gear up, with plans to do nine hours of local news daily. That includes filling the big void created by the loss of the "Today" show...but a local 7-9 morning show would have to contend with the popular "Mornings on 2" show on KTVU/Oakland. Do you keep your 11 p.m. newscast? Do you add a 10, and challenge KTVU? Do you add a 9 p.m. show, the first in the market at the timeslot? While the loss of NBC programming will certainly hurt, there's also the potential for the station to follow in the footsteps of sister Young Broadcasting outlet KCAL/Los Angeles, and do lots of prime time news. The station's loss could be the news department's gain, if Young is ready to open up its wallet.

LANCE'S TWO CENTS ON YOUNG'S SITUATION: With both KRON and KCAL in the same boat with prime-time, maybe it's time for them to link up on state news, with a real Sacramento bureau. In fact, throw in a San Diego station, and maybe you create a nightly statewide newsmagazine or newscast!

JOINING THE BAY FRAY: Mark Levenson joins the Bay Area based cable network Tech TV, from KTVT/Dallas.

FAA REOPENS AIRSPACE: The Federal Aviation Administration finally lifted remaining airspace restrictions over 30 cities on December 19th, including Los Angeles. The restrictions limited flight paths, and had been in effect since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The restrictions limited the use of television and radio news and traffic reporting aircraft, by closing some areas to flights. Restrictions will still remain in effect for the airspace above sports stadiums, and other large public gatherings. Law enforcement chases had already returned to television newscasts, as the restrictions loosened in recent weeks, and now helicopters can fly in most areas they were allowed pre-September 11th.

VINNY MOVING TO KFWB: A HUGE move in the Southern California radio world. KFWB will have to rethink the use of its "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world" slogan, because in 2003...the Infinity station will be the home of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball broadcasts. Legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully is a part of the deal. The Dodgers are on Clear Channel's sports talk KXTA/Los Angeles for another season. The deal calls for KFWB to carry the Dodgers for five years. A key ingredient of the plan will be KFWB's longtime plans to improve its signal, which is solid into Orange County, but is weak once you head north out of the San Fernando Valley. The station wants to upgrade its signal from 5000 to 50,000 watts.


December 17th, 2001
BAY AREA AGONY CONTINUES: The chess game involving KRON, KNTV, and the future of NBC programming in the San Francisco remains a question mark (at press time) two weeks from when a big affilation swap is set to take place. To bring you up to speed, Granite's KNTV/San Jose has a deal to become the Bay Area's NBC affiliate on 1/2/02. Granite agreed to pay NBC for the rights for the affiliation, in a deal that stripped longtime affiliate KRON of NBC programming. But in recent weeks, KRON owner Young Broadcasting and NBC have been talking about the network's potential purchase of the station. At the same time, NBC has been talking to Granite about buying KNTV. So, it could be a long holiday season for employees of both stations, as they wait to see if KNTV carries NBC, with Granite still owning it; NBC buys KRON, and buys its way out of the deal with KNTV; or NBC buys both KRON and KNTV, setting up a duopoly.

FISCHER NOW IN SALT LAKE CITY: Jon Fischer, who headed the successful start-up of news at WFTC/Fox 29 in Minneapolis, has been moved by owner Clear Channel Communications to one of the company's newest stations. He's now the Director of Local Programming and News for KTVX/Salt Lake City. Fischer's career includes positions at KTLA, KCOP, and KTTV in Los Angeles.

LIVE, FROM UPN TELEVISION CITY IN HOLLYWOOD? You think I made a mistake, right? Well, not really. CBS Television City will also become home to co-owned UPN, as CBS President Leslie Moonves will take over control of the network. Viacom is expected to save several million dollars a year by combining functions like advertising, promotion, and programming. Ironically, UPN has been having one of the best seasons ratings-wise in its history.

CNN SHAKES, RATTLES, AND ROLLS: Former KCBS/Los Angeles producer Casey Bauer has been promoted to supervisor of CNN/Newssource's Denver Bureau. Lindy Hall received a similar promotion in CNN's Los Angeles Bureau. Meanwhile, about 30 CNN employees on both sides of the camera are leaving at the end of t he year. Among those going: Roger Cossack, Joie Chen, Bill Tush, and a couple of CNN weathercasters. "Burden Of Proof", "Showbiz This Week", and "NewsSite" are being cancelled.

December 10th, 2001
BELL LEAVING: Princell Hair is headed to KCBS-TV/Los Angeles as the station's new n.d. at the end of the year, replacing Roger Bell. He was a news manager at the corporate level for CBS, and will still oversee news directors at several other Viacom-owned television stations.

MEL WANTS MORE: Viacom President and CEO Mel Karmazin is pushing the FCC to drop the current ownership cap on television stations, limiting companies to an owned station "reach" of 35 percent of the nation. As things now stand, Viacom will have to sell or trade some stations to get under the cap, if it isn't relaxed. He's also promising a double-digit gain in revenue for next year...good news for stockholders (like my 401 (k) plan!) but another rough year for news managers.

A FIGHT IN THE FAMILY: PAX Television is the family-friendly network...but there's a big fight in the family. Paxson is accusing GE of breach of contract, because of its purchase of the Telemundo Network. Paxson claims the $2.7 billion dollar deal means NBC won't be able to follow through with
its alleged promise to eventually buy the rest of the network it doesn't own
(NBC already owns 32% of PAX, and has sales and operations agreements with
some of its major-market stations). PAX wants the FCC to reject the
Telemundo deal, and wants the situation to go to arbitration. PAX stations
in several markets, like Los Angeles, rebroadcast NBC owned station newscasts.