FOCUS: Who's Hot At NATPE

the 1101) I j Each tme he buys a company, Larry Tiscll pares perks, people and whole divisions. Then he steps aside and lets someone else run the show. Now that he's the new power at CBS, will he change the pattern?

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c 1987 Cocci ColaTelecommumcotlons, Inc. All Rc9hrs Reserved. www.americanradiohistory.com CI-IANNEI.S THE BUSINESS OF COMMUNICATIONS

VOL. 7, NO. 2 FEBRUARY 1987

COMPANIES A TISCH IS STILL A TISCH 28 A buy is just a buy. Larry Tisch's customary approach to running an acquired company is not likely to change just because he's doing it in an unaccustomed spotlight. A close look at his past performance provides convincing clues to the way he'll manage CBS. BY FREDRIC DANNEN CRITICS WHO'S AFRAID OF TOM SHALES? 36 46 you sure this is how "Are 's TV critic doesn't just Mery got started?" review programs. He reports. He analyzes. He second-guesses. No broadcast decision is safe 4 from his probe. And the targets of what is more EDITOR'S NOTE often wrath than roses regard him with fear and trembling. Don't they know he's such a 9 sweetheart? REPORTS BY JAMES TRAUB New and noteworthy in the electronic FOCUS: WHO'S HOT AT NATPE environment 45 Programming in the New TV Marketplace 46 Making a New Merv, BY BEN YAGODA 45 15 51 Syndies' Title Bout, BY ZINA KLAPPER TALK SHOW 54 Hey Big Spender, BY JEAN BERGANTINI Goings-on behind GRILLO the screens 58 Checkerboard Gamble, BY STEVE BEHRENS 20 THE PUBLIC EYE 60 What's Hot at NATPE, COMPILED BY Midnight in London MORRISON JOSEPH VITALE AND HALL is 4 P.M. in L.A. FINANCE BY LES BROWN

THE SCHIZOID LIFE OF THE 24 MEDIA ANALYST 62 THE BUSINESS SIDE librarians of the industry, media Cable's Strange Once the Bedfellows analysts have bailed out of the quiet world of BY MERRILL BROWN research for the rough-and-tumble of wheeling and dealing. As the pace accelerates, they often 75 find themselves at the center of the conflict PRIVATE EYE between research clients and raider clients, How ABC Dropped between what's objective data -gathering and the Ball what's inside information. BY WILLIAM A. HENRY III BY JOHN F. BERRY 76 LOCAL NEWS WASHINGTON NEWS MELTDOWN HITS L.A. What Every Lobbyist 70 Should Know KCBS-TV's solid, straightforward local news BY JOEL SWERDLOW show looked a little old-fashioned to the boys from headquarters. With vast ambition and expense, 78 they set out to "expand the form." The ratings SOUND BITES tumbled, New York grumbled, heads rolled. From an interview BY DICK ADLER with Dick Robertson, syndication chief at THE STATE OF SYNDICATION Lorimar-Telepictures Excerpts from the Museum of Broadcasting 80 seminar, a two-day session on new directions in 72 RUNNING THE Cover photograph: Joyce Ravid the business, as seen by seven at the top. NUMBERS

2 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com HOLLYWOOD HIGH ROLLERS CAGNEY & LACEY ORION II STARVIEW I

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www.americanradiohistory.com Where the Action Is

Tt was by sheer chance that I happened upon NATPE in the spring of 1968 and became the first reporter to cover that annual convention of television program executives. The organization was several years old at the time, but quite obscure in the industry. No one paid it much heed. Its membership was small and made up Channels mainly of program directors from stations in middle-sized markets. I had gone to New Orleans to report on another kind of meeting, the first Subscribers: (and, as it proved, last) gathering of humanists, scientists, artists and other notables who made up a national advisory committee for one of the prize crea- Shoulid you tions of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society-public broadcasting. But checking in a day early to load up at the city's oyster bars, I was aston- ished to find a number of TV syndication salesmen milling about the hotel at any lobby. Had they actually come for the highbrow public -broadcasting event? You gotta be kidding, the fellows said. They had come to buttonhole commer- time have cial station executives who were there for something called NATPE. Syndicators were not allowed into the meeting. They were considered lowly a question peddlers of television filler, the stuff shoved into the airtime around the net- work feeds and local shows-mostly old movies and network reruns. If the about your salesmen were lucky when the session broke, they might snare a programmer or two for a drink, and flog their wares. subscription, As a member of the press, I was welcomed to the meeting and, to my great surprise, stayed to the end. For a reporter it was a picnic. People told about the programs that worked or failed in their communities, about competitive you can call practices and about the condescending treatment they received from their net- works. The gripe session on the networks was absolutely wonderful. What I our customer gained from being there, besides six or seven good stories for my paper, was a sense of America through television at the station level. After that, for the service de- next 15 years, I never missed a NATPE. In that span of time the organization experienced spectacular growth, partly partment because it had acquired a first-rate publicist in Bob Bernstein, who got the trade press to take notice finally and saw to it that the workshops addressed directly for a the gut issues of the day. But the great surge came in 1970, when the Federal Communications Commission adopted the , whose dic- tates made syndication an important force in the industry. Soon after, NATPE quick answer. accepted syndicators as associate members of the group, recognizing the fel- lowship and interdependency of buyer and seller in this quite specialized field. The number The great networks, which used to snub the annual event, now wheel in their top brass for extended presentations in what amount to small-scale affiliate to call is meetings. (It's regrettable that their presence has put an end to the old candid gripe sessions.) Meanwhile, on the exhibit floor at the NATPE conventions, (914) 628-1154. syndicators stage what has become the world's largest and most important program market of the year. I upon NATPE in If you would like to no- There were fewer than 200 in attendance when stumbled New Orleans 19 years ago. This year, in the same city, the attendance will tify us of a change of ad- exceed 4,000. For significance in television, NATPE has clearly overtaken the dress, please write to us industry's biggest convention, that of the National Association of Broadcast- ers. This is because the NAB remains preoccupied with government relations PO 2001, Maho- at Box and technical equipment while NATPE homes in on the main stuff of televi- pac, New York, 10541, sion, its programs. enclosing the address label from your most re- cent issue of Channels.

4 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com CHANNELS

Editor in Chief LES BROWN Publisher GEORGE M. DILLEHAY

Executive Editor MERRILL BROWN Managing Editor PETER AINSLIE Art Director TRACI CHURCHILL Senior Editors STEVE BEHRENS. RINKER BUCK, JERI BAKER Associate Editors JOSEPH VITALE, CECILIA CAPUZZI West Coast Editor PATRICIA E. BAUER Washington Editor JOEL SWERDLOW John McLaughlin fuels the fire while respected journal- Assistant Art Director ists Jack Germond, Morton Kondracke, and Robert CAROLYN ZJAWIN Novak provide informative and often explosive opinions. Editorial Assistant CARYN R. SINGER Join them all on the McLaughlin Group. It just might be the Photo Researcher freshest, boldest, most incisive political show on the air. CHERYL SHUGARS Contributing Editors Don't miss it. The people who run this country never do. JOHN F. BERRY, DAVID BOLLIER, L.J. DAVIS MARK FRANKEL, MERYL GORDON WILLIAM A. HENRY III The McLaughlin Group WALTER KARP, MARTIN KOUGHAN DAVID LACHENBRUCH, MICHAEL POLLAN Made possible by a grant from GE. JAY ROSEN, JAMES TRAUB, RICHARD ZACKS Interns MATI LASZLO, FRANCESCA LAPRELLE HALL MORRISON, FLORENCE CESARI MATTHEW MURABITO Check local listings for station and time. A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Editorial Consultant JACK NESSEL

Associate Publisher BRONNA A. BUTLER Production Manager "YES, THERE IS LIFE AFTER SUSAN C. TURK Circulation Manager LAWRENCE M. MCKENNA BREAST CANCER. Assistant Controller CATHERINE PAONE Office Manager AND THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT." CARLTON HILL Administrative Assistants -Ann Jillian DEBORAH GERMAN, BRIAN FUORRY A lot of women are so afraid of Associate Publisher -Sales breast cancer they don't want to hear JOEL A. BERGER Account Manager about it. DEENA HOLLIDAY And that's what frightens me. Research Associate Because those women won't prac- JOSEPH E. EDELMAN tice breast self-examination regularly. Advertising Sales Offices Those women, particularly those New York: 19 West 44th St., New York, NY 101)30, 212-302-2680 over 35, won't ask their doctor about a West Coast: Bishop & Abel mammogram. 6446 Orion Avenue what's required for breast Van Nuys, CA 91406, 818-989-0994 Yet that's England: Jack Durkin & Co. cancer to be detected early. When the 55 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HP England cure rate is 90%. And when there's a Tel: 011-441-831-1131 good chance it won't involve the loss C.C. Publishing Inc. of a breast. President But no matter what it involves, take PAUL DAVID SCHAEFFER it from someone who's been through CHANNELS The Business of Communications (ISSN 0270-1572) is published eleven times a year by C.0 Publishing it all. Inc.. 19 West 44th Street, New York, NY 1181:36. Application Life is just too wonderful to give up to mail at second class postage rates is pending at New York, as I out, you don't have NY and additional mailing offices. Volume 7, Number 2, Feb- on. And, found ruary, 1987. Copyright ' 1987 by C.C. Publishing Inc. All to give up on any of it. Not work, not play, not even romance. rights reserved. Subscriptions: $39.50 per year; all foreign countries add $8. Please address all subscription mail to Oh, there is one thing, though. CHANNELS The Business of Communications, Subscrip- You do have to give up being afraid to take care of yourself. tion Service Dept., Box 2001, Mahopac, NY 10541, or call 914-628-1154. Postmaster: Send address changes to CHAN- NEI.S The Business of Communications, Subscription Ser- vice Dept., Box 2001. Mahopac, NY 10541. Editorial and busi- ness offices: 19 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036; 212- :302-21;80. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be considered or NCNLifÇiER SOCIETY returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed f>/aMERIÇkU envelope. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent.

CHANNELS

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www.americanradiohistory.com WHAT'S NEW AND NOTEWORTHY IN THE ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT REPORTS

RADIO From Motor City to VICTIMS TO DATE._ Murder City For years billboards around have clocked the 559-1270 nation's auto production, yet today the Motor City is also known as the Murder Capital of the U.S. Now a local radio station has caused a furor by renting billboard space to tally those grimmer statistics: the number of people shot to death in metropolitan Detroit. The billboard ad, featuring a 24 -foot image of a revolver shooting a The talk of Detroit TV NEWS bullet through a counter, was the work is the 24 -foot sign of radio station WXYT-AM. The station clocking the deaths GE Defense Ties has been conducting an intensive anti - by haidguns in the crime campaign since last spring and Murder Capital of Worry NBC Staffers the billboard was a way of "getting peo- America. For WXYT, ple talking about a serious problem," an AM tank station, The fact that NBC's owner, General according to Martin Raab, WXYT's the billboard is a Electric, is the nation's third -largest director of promotion and advertising. promotional bullseye. defense contractor has been a ticklish Detroit has the highest homicide rate subject at the network's Nightly News in the country (58 deaths per 100,000 ever since GE acquired the company population) and Mayor Coleman Young last year. Anchor Tom Brokaw has pri- has been embroiled in controversy over vately expressed his worry about the his opposition to handgun control. appearance of a conflict of interest in WXYT's management, however, was the network's defense coverage. New Brokaw is worried: undeniably interested in more than just fears surfaced last fall after NBC presi- Will GE, network the homicide rate. The station, pur- dent Robert Wright circulated a memo chased from ABC in 1984 by general owner, be able to advocating employee contributions to a distance itself from manager Charles Fritz and converted network political action committee. Can GE, manufacturer of from a Top 40 to a talk format, is in the GE, the network owner, itself distance fighter engines and midst of a promotion drive-and noth- from the manufacturer GE, of fighter antitank devices? ing, of course, generates more talk than engines and antitank gear? crime. NBC News executive producer Bill Mayor Young has condemned the bill- Wheatley denies there will be any tight- board as a "disgrace," saying it was "a rope walking. "I always have concerns shame to sensationalize tragedy." But about my work environment, but I have the publicity it has generated hasn't dis- no reason to believe there's going to be pleased WXYT. any interference. If any investigation "Before you solve a problem," says takes us to General Electric, we're Raab, "you need a dialogue. And to going to report it." have a dialogue you need numbers. Our NBC had already increased its phone lines lit up over this like they defense coverage a few months before hadn't done since the U.S. bombing of the GE takeover, when correspondent Libya last spring." Jim Miklaszewski joined Fred Francis RUTH BAYARD SMITH at the Pentagon. A few months after the

CHANNELS 9

www.americanradiohistory.com REPORTS

GE announcement, the Nightly News PRODUCTION created a national security beat, and correspondent Art Kent's intelligence - F/X on agency reporting occasionally spills over into defense. $5 a Day One particular aspect of the GE -NBC merger, however, troubles news staff- Pressed by networks to keep quality up ers and outsiders alike. When it and expenses down, production compa- acquired RCA, GE gained a strategic nies are searching for innovative ways foothold in military electronics and sat- to maintain Cadillac looks on a ellites. This has positioned the company Yugo budget. Nowhere is the to compete for one of the most lucrative pinch felt more than in special military projects to come along in dec- effects, where the cost of ades, and in the middle of a great news breathtaking results often story: Star Wars. leaves a producer gasping. MICHAEL HOYT For years, TV has created its effects the same way the mov- CABLE TV ies do-with optical printers, which press exposed layers of film Cadillac special together into one grand design. The effects on a Yugo Travel Channels results can be spectacular but the pro- budget: Twilight Hit the Road cess was always too slow and expensive Zone was the major for most TV series. Each laser blast in user of a computer Those glutted cable channels will soon the sci-fi series V, for example, is said to technique developed have still another genre: travel. TWA have cost $5,000. by The Post Group and a competitor, the World Travel Now The Post Group, a Hollywood that creates high Network, will be launching all -travel production house, is pioneering a quality F/X on tape cable networks this winter featuring method of creating quality effects on instead of film, at travelogues, package deals and mer- videotape. Using powerful computer - savings that range chandise that viewers can purchase driven generators such as the Mirage up to 50 percent. home -shopping style. and the Quantel Paintbox, Post's tech- TWA, which plans to get its 24 -hour nicians conjure up images, service, The Travel Channel, under way rotate them for three-dimen- this month, has purchased the name and sional effects, recolor frames satellite transponder time from Group and even produce background W, which ran a travel service of its own mattes electronically. until last year. Veteran traveler Gun- "The editor sees the results ther Less, whose Journey to Adventure immediately instead of waiting series has been in syndication for years, three days or a week for film will move his road show to TWA's chan- processing," says Rich Thorne, nel. The airline A new genre comes Post's senior vice president. says its travel WORLD to cable: the travel The biggest user of the process had channel will not be TRAVEL channel. But will been CBS' just canceled The Twilight a promotional out- NETWORK it fly? The World Zone. Post created all its effects (exclu- let but will accept Travel Network and sive of the opening titles) on video. advertising from all travel -related com- competitor TWA say "We bid $45,000 on the opening 40 - panies, even its competitors. "We want it's a definite go. minute episode and got the job," says British Airways and Pan Am," says Thorne. "An optical printing house bid company spokesman Sally McElwreath. $250,000 for the same work." Since the The World Travel Network has taken video effects had to be inserted into a different approach. It wants three -to filmed episodes, Post also added a "film four-hour blocks on an existing net- look" to the tape electronically. work. This strategy requires a lower Bruno George, special effects coordi- up -front investment but may leave it nator of The Twilight Zone, estimates with only the least desirable time slots. that his costs would have been 50 per- But can the wire really sustain cent higher if he had used conventional another service? "Maybe not," says film effects. Jack Pottle, an analyst with Browne, This season, Post is also producing the Bortz and Coddington in Denver. "But opening titles on all of Lorimar's pro- then I never would have thought that grams (including and Falcon cable could sustain five home -shopping Crest) for $12,500 a show instead of the networks." usual $50,000. JOSEPH VITALE ANDY MEISLER

10 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com STRONG STORIES, TIMELESS CHARACTERS

PREMIERING FALL '87

That's the secret of every Disney success, from the first coloration shine above all others. The reason is really animated short through the feature-length classics to the quite basic -and expensive. We use 40% more cels per sixty-five brand new episodes of DUCKTALES. minute-and with more multiple action frames-than the usual simply animated show. All story concepts, and HIGH ADVENTURE WITH A DASH scripts are done in Burbank, as is all post production. OF COMEDY AND A TOUCH OF Only the cel painting is done overseas, under the watch- WHIMSY. ful eyes of our own on -site inspectors. This unique com- DUCKTALES begins with long-time favo -ite Disney char- bination of at-home and off-shore production ensures acters, Scrooge McDuck-the original billion dollar maximum production value. bird-and the nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, all pit- ted against their traditional arch -rivals, the Beagle Boys. PROMOTION AND Added to this long-time appeal is a brard-new char- MERCHANDISING: acter-Launchpad McQuack-a "retired" test pilot THE DISNEY ADVANTAGE. designed to give the Disney tradition some very up-to- Already DUCKTALES has the full attention of Disney's the-minute company. Licensing and Merchandising divisions. Larger -than -life Launchpad McQuack characters are being designed for lines Story take DUCKTALES around the world in truly Disneyland and DisneyWorld, as are new lines of DUCK - international escapades. From earthquckes in subterra- TALES promotional garments for sole by our licensees. nean caverns to temple ruins in steaming jungles, from supersonic airborne pursuits to romance in an Alaskan RATINGS AS SPECTACULAR AS goldrush, DUCKTALES is an all -family ac-venture. THE PRODUCTION. DUCKTALES has the clearances that build major QUALITY: audiences. On more than 130 stations covering THE DISNEY PASSION. over 90% of the country, DUCKTALES is In a day of slap -dash animation, when it's dif- already cleared in 10 of the top 10 markets, ficult to tell whether you're watching robots 48 of the top 50 and 90 of the top 100. No that move like people or people who move other syndicated series has, or ever had, like robots, Disney's lifelike motion and brilliant Buena Vista clearances so strong. Television

www.americanradiohistory.com ,44= er,º

Buena Vista

© 1986 Buena Vista Televis îoìi

www.americanradiohistory.com SUCCESS. IT'S THE ONLY GAME NE PLAYS

Executive Producer Burt Reynolds brings and Batty White, Of course, Butt Reynolds wit the seasons most exciting game/entertain appear as well, ment thaw to television-and he's playing Ratings go up when cetebridies let their hair to win. down playing the sketch pad version of cha- WIN, LOSE OR DRAW combines the high- rades, America's favorite parlor game, With its energy competition of a with the comedy and star power, WIN, LOSE OR DRAW entertainment of improvisational comedy, then has two compelling attractions tar a younger tops it off with celebrity star power that only a and more male audience along with a tremen- producer like Burt Reynolds can command, dous draw for the core female dem©s essential Already signed to appear, more than 9 to any show's success, months in advance of production, are Lon WIN, LOSE OR DRAW W. fart, fun and Anderson, Bert Convy, Tony Danza, Dom packed with star pow comedy end uni. versa) demographic appeal, Only WIN, DeLuïse, Jamie Farr, Norman Fell, Marilyn ElexilIiíty MFCoo, Ricardo Montalban, Martin Mull, Tom LOSE OR DRAW km the unique &eV'leart,

WM 4 WU Oil GIAw R A WRr AND DWI r110WCilON IN ASSACtAtltFi %Jtt g ru trvt st F ttt(td7) § tco:at ttD desu=t4t w at

www.americanradiohistory.com DANGEROUS WHEN FUNNY.

ALREADY Starring Teri Copley and Tom Villard. SOLD IN... Have the last laugh on your competition when WNBC, New York your ratings take off. KNBC, Follow the NBC O & O's lead. They chose the WMAQ, WCAU, all new episodes of WCVB, for access checkerboard. WFAA, Dallas AVAILABLE FALL 1987 FROM WRC, Washington, D. C. WKYC, WRTV, KPRC, WTNH, Hartford TM WDZL, KGTV, VISIT US AT NATPE MGM/UA Television Syndication KSTP, Minneapolis WOKR, Rochester BOOTH # 358 KCRA, Sacramento KVVU, e 1987 MGM/UA COMMUNICATIONS CO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

www.americanradiohistory.com GOINGS-ON BEHIND THE SCREENS: TOPICAL MONOLOGUES AND SKETCHES TALK SHOW

MILT GRANT'S FALL: THE MORAL

When Grant Broadcasting can't work something out.' " all program licensees, solvent or not. System filed for bank- That is what was done in the few pre- And there's the rub. While suppliers ruptcy in December, citing vious experiences that distributors had quietly entertained station pleas onerous programming debts, it have had with station bankruptcies. for renegotiation before Grant, the shocked syndicators into reassessing "No distributor ever lost money," flood of requests that came after Grant collection problems with independ- Grieve insists. has made givebacks a public, and ent stations. This was not just Until Grant, suppliers' woes came potentially very expensive, decision. another shaky entrepreneur. Nor was largely from a handful of opportunists The dimensions of the shakeout sup- it another failing station selling out to a who had intended a brief stint in broad- pliers provoke will reveal whether new owner who refused to accept liabil- casting but got caught in the downturn there is any fraternity in the closed ity for program contracts. Milton Grant that blocked the exit. market of station and syndicator. was a veteran broadcaster and onetime Ironically, Grant, a broadcast profes- Because and others delivered darling of investors. And now he was sional, was the prototype of the fast -in - cease and desist orders to Grant the center of the industry's biggest and -out owner. Though it failed this Broadcasting before it declared bank- bankruptcy, in arrears on $24 million time, his customary tack has been to ruptcy, they believe they can pull pro- worth of programming, with long-term pay huge sums for programming, win gramming even though legal proceed- program debt of over $100 million. quick ratings successes and get out. ings preserve the status quo. What if Most aghast was Grant's creditors' (His KTXH-TV, Houston, went they make an example of Grant to dis- group: suppliers who were in the proc- through two more owners before Taft suade others from seeking givebacks? ess of considering discounts and pay- Broadcasting, the second of those, What looms is a sobering moment, ment extensions for his stations in Chi- faced the reckoning that Grant's spend- much like the one that clarified rela- cago, Miami and Philadelphia. ing made inevitable once ad revenues tions between cable operators and the "This is a screaming, club -waving in the marketplace withered.) cities. After months of battles over ser- band yelling Pay me or I'll kill you,' " Grant is also singular for the animos- vices promised in an era of giddy opti- said Marvin Grieve, president of syndi- ity he provokes in competitors. "Syndi- mism and withdrawn when financial cator MG/Perin and of the Association cators used to say to me, `It's a whole reality struck, the two admitted they of Program Distributors. "But they new game now that Milt's here.' Now were accomplices. Compromise was don't really mean it." we're competing with what he bought, the only way out. Milton Grant, however, a broad- knowing he hasn't paid a dime on it," Syndicators and station owners face caster for over 30 years, apparently said an "angry, frustrated" program- compromise, too. And just how they do believed they did, and would force him ming vice president in one Grant mar- it will turn a searchlight on how well into involuntary bankruptcy, as suppli- ket. "We're not dancing on his grave, each understands its community of ers had with WCLQ-TV, Cleveland, in but there's very little empathy here." interest. October. So he co-opted them, filing That animosity translated into "If we kill [the stations]," says Chapter 11. "Now," says Grieve, demands that any mercy Grant Grieve, "we die." "they're saying, `Wait. Let's see if we received from suppliers be provided to JERI BAKER

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which constitute one long pep rally for the joys of consumption. Surely the images produced by business succeed well enough in their aim-to make con- sumption the nearest thing to religion for most Americans-that businessmen can afford their unflattering image on prime time. Perhaps this is why General Electric declined to fund Hollywood's Favorite Heavy. According to coproducer Michael Pack, GE preferred to rely on its "We bring good things to life" TV ads, which feature happy families in warm, brightly lit homes, enjoying their lives because General Electric appliances have made them easier. GE seems to understand that in the battle of images, the magic products outdo the evil characters every time. GIVING THEM THE BUSINESS So the captains of industry can sleep soundly. On TV, J.R. and Blake Car- Add big business, or at least the forthcoming. rington will continue to lie, cheat and Mobil Corp., to the list of Whether all this proves an antibusi- steal. But in the real world, no mobs groups upset about their ness bias among television producers is will be storming the malls. Unless, of image on TV. Mobil put up 80 percent open to doubt, but let us grant that tel- course, there's a sale. of the money for a PBS documentary evision puts businessmen in a bad JAY ROSEN to be broadcast next month that light-for whatever reasons. So what? attempts to show that businessmen Are mobs surrounding the homes of CONGRESS AND TV: are portrayed negatively on television. leading executives, demanding justice? This negative image has its effects, the Are college graduates refusing to lend HURRY UP AND WAIT program claims, on young people in their talents to major corporations? particular. Are politicians declining contributions The day the Communications Act Hollywood's Favorite Heavy: Busi- from business lobbies, afraid of being of 1934 was passed, Sam Ray- nessmen on Prime Time TV is a slick tainted? Does Lee Iacocca have trouble burn, then a Democratic leader piece of propaganda. It is well shot, getting speaking engagements? In in the House, said, "Nothing impor- moves crisply and manages to be quite short, is capitalism in trouble? tant happened today." In a sense, convincing at times. Using clips from No, there are only two possible that has been Congress' attitude such prime time soaps as Dallas, explanations for Mobil's attempt to toward telecommunications ever Dynasty and Falcon Crest, all of which right the wrongs TV commits against since. Indeed, the basic structure of the have businessmen as leading charac- business. One is an almost mystical Communications Act has remained ters, the program builds a decent case belief that images invade minds the unchanged for 50 years. And though that people in business are usually por- way pins in a voodoo doll invade the Congress amends it about once every trayed as liars, cheats and murderers body. The other is vanity-the desire to two months, the changes have been who make their money not through see a pretty reflection of one's self, polite nibbles around the edges. Politi- hard work but by being ruthless. which Mobil executives can afford to cians are just plain scared of tinkering Less impressive are a series of con- indulge by putting up $300,000 for a with TV. versations conservative author and tel- documentary. Fear of a popular revolt Now there's a new Congress. The evision writer Ben Stein has with TV against business cannot be the explana- Democrats are back in control of the producers and writers. They defend tion, for America is the most pro -busi- Senate, there's new leadership in the themselves in the usual way: "We're ness nation on earth. Executives who House and the end of the Reagan era is under deadline pressure"; "Look, you don't like the images they see on Dal- in sight. But anyone who thinks this have to have a heavy"; "TV just las and Dynasty should look at televi- augurs great changes for the industry reflects what people believe." But sion in France or West Germany, can think again. If this group behaves their hearts aren't in it. They know where real live socialists-people who like its predecessors, not much is going they use the evil businessman as a despise capitalism and say so-are rou- to happen. stock character, just as they use the tinely interviewed, often by socialist Not only does Congress rarely do handgun in the desk drawer as a handy hosts. anything substantive on telecommuni- plot device. American business has nothing to cations issues, but this spring its atten- It might have been interesting to fear from television, which, after all, is tion will be elsewhere, namely on the hear a few theories-perhaps Freud- a business. Everyone knows that the Iran arms scandal. The other commit- ian-of why this is so, but none are best things on TV are the commercials, tee rooms will echo with talk of insider

16 FEBRUARY '87

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trading, takeovers and foreign trade game differently even if the results are shells out for a miniseries, it can count wars, not cable regulations and passive the same. on about $750,000 from foreign syndica- carriers. Still, most of the rules for broadcast- tion. Television issues involve questions of ers remain valid: Give lawmakers lots Thus, for the reported $35 million to technology and content. On the techni- of personal, hands-on attention; prom- $50 million it spent to make Amerika, cal side, which includes such all-impor- ise to serve the public interest (Con- ABC (whose in-house production arm, tant issues as spectrum allocation, Con- gress has a short memory about prom- Circle Films, created it) could theoreti- gress has traditionally waited for the ises); make no overt threats (TV is cally realize from $9 million to $12 mil- industries involved to devise a compro- perceived to have so much power that lion in foreign sales. That is, unless the mise, then endorsed it. For intellec- what seems like innocent saber -rattling U.N. can convince foreign television tual -content issues such as copyright can stimulate impassioned opposition); buyers to boycott the movie. and piracy, it is hard to exaggerate the if necessary, wrap yourself in the First But would that venerable congrega- confusion on the Hill. A recent report Amendment; and remember: It's eas- tion of nations go that far? from the Congressional Office of Tech- ier to stop Congress than to get it to do "We have alerted the member states nology Assessment comes to the stun- anything. about this film and made our feelings ning conclusion that "technological If all this sounds simple and confus- clear," says François Giuliani, spokes- change is outpacing the legal system," ing at the same time, accept it as the man for U.N. General Secretary Javier then explains that it is difficult to rules of the territory: Welcome to Perez de Cuellar. "We cannot ask define goals-let alone say what is right Washington. member states to interfere in the mak- or wrong. JOEL SWERDLOW ing of the film but we want them to be The way to handle Congress on such on notice and to understand our posi- matters is to convince its members that tion." whatever the industry wants is what MADE IN AMERIKA What Giuliani may not realize is that the technology dictates. when it comes to sales, foreign TV There is, however, a growing aware- s if the United Nations executives act very much like their ness of television's overall impact, doesn't have enough prob- American counterparts: The ratings which may result in more content - A lems already-what with speak a universal language. related hearings this year-on chil- member states not paying their bills "There's an old American saying," dren's TV, for example. Arguments and terrorists taking pot shots at its says Mike Perez, NBC's vice president that television itself is unworthy of peace-keeping forces-mankind's of foreign sales. " `There is no such public discussion will not work as well "last, best hope" now has an image thing as bad publicity.' That statement as they once did. problem on American TV. translates well into all languages." But neither deregulation, changes in In this month's controversial minise- Perez recalls another ABC produc- the television industry nor the recent ries Amerika-ABC's multinight saga tion that stirred controversy. "The election has altered the basic Con- about life in the U.S. under Soviet Day After got its share of bad press," gress -FCC dynamic: About a dozen occupation-U.N. troops (called Perez recalls. "There was talk about members from each chamber pay U.N.S.S.U., for United Nations Special sponsors pulling out; pressure groups attention to the commission; the rest Services Unit) are portrayed as mur- in the U.S. wanted the show killed. are largely indifferent. In this, the derers, rapists and Soviet goons. Not And do you know what? The interna- boredom factor cannot be underesti- even Jeane Kirkpatrick went that far. tional television networks were lining mated. Rate deregulation, ownership Since last fall, the U.N. has been con- up to buy it." The Day After eventually restrictions and network financial templating a counterattack. For a time, went into theatrical release overseas. interest put most legislators to sleep its legal affairs department considered "The net result of everything the faster than you can whisper must - a lawsuit to try to prevent ABC from U.N. is doing is to create worldwide carry. displaying U.N. flags and insignia in publicity. If ABC's experience is any- So even if President Reagan's Iran the miniseries, arguing that their unau- thing like our own, foreign viewers will troubles embolden the members, the thorized use constituted a kind of demand to know what all the contro- most one can expect from Congress is a trademark violation. "We were suc- versy is about." fight over something peripheral, such cessful with such a suit before," says a Joseph Di Certo, director of commun- as the Fairness Doctrine. This Con- source in the legal department. "We ications for CBS Broadcast Interna- gress won't try to shape TV's future were able to stop a promoter from tional agrees: "No one has been able to because no Congress has ever tried. starting something called The Miss get countries to agree on terrorism. I One thing, however, is different. United Nations contest." This time, doubt they can be made to agree to Telecommunications subcommittees though, the legal road led nowhere. boycott a TV show." are no longer the last stop for careers. But many believe the U.N. may still be So if the U.N. really wants to scuttle Some younger members-those raised able to hit the network where it hurts: Amerika, it might be better advised to on TV and who have a strong intuitive in the pocketbook. Take that, comrade. drop the litigation, cancel the foreign - feel for it-see these subcommittees as Because miniseries traditionally do sales strategies and come up with some springboards to national acclaim. At not perform well in domestic repeats, blockbuster counter -programming of the same time, weakening of both the networks count heavily on foreign and its own. And sell it to the other net- seniority system and the party struc- ancillary sales to help defray costs. For works, fast. ture means that Congress will play its every $3 million a production company JOSEPH VITALE

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www.americanradiohistory.com THE PUBLIC EYE

majors, Cunliffe will oversee the production of at least MIDNIGHT IN LONDON six movies this year, including two adaptations from IS 4 P.M. IN L.A. the Harlequin line of romance novels. Those are to air first on Showtime, then late night on CBS and later As head of drama for Yorkshire TV, David Cunliffe will go into syndication. They'll also air on Britain's used to keep fairly normal office hours. But these commercial network, with their costs covered by the days, like many another British television execu- American sale. tive, he does much of his phone calling from home, Most of the made -for -TV movies are budgeted at $2 often as late as midnight. Midnight in London is 4 P.M. million to $4 million. British executives say the net- in Los Angeles. This is the price paid-part of the works typically license them for about $2.5 million; price-for finally breaking the barrier to American HBO, for around $750,000, and Showtime, for about commercial television. $600,000. When the proper deals are struck, the Long snubbed by the lush Yankee market, British profits from the back end can be gorgeous. by Les Brown television companies recently have found their way in "A network sale in the U.S. is bigger than selling all through a form that's actually foreign to them-the the rest of the world," Cunliffe says. "It's difficult to made -for -TV movie. With the U.S. networks cutting raise money from European markets." back hard on their use of Some might expect the theatrical films and the pay- Brits would be jubilant cable services, HBO and over this turn of events, but Showtime, countering the in fact many of the old pros competition from videocas- are gloomy, believing the settes by making more orig- American connection inevi- inal movies, the English tably will destroy their dis- England's have been enlisted to meet tinctive, highly respected of television. The movie the demand here for low - brand budget quality features. Americans who write the industry is When American pro- checks typically demand ducers get a network con- casting, script and director rebounding, tract for a movie or minise- approval and usually thanks to ries, they often shop abroad require at least one Ameri- for coproduction. The Brit- can star. television and ish are especially adept at Moreover, the 97 -minute the Yankee producing dramatic pro- made -for -TV movie, a dis- grams and find the deals tinctly American program dollar. But hard to resist: They're form, is driving Britain's traditional dramatic form- that has some almost immediately profit- able and provide larger pro- The colonizing of Britain: Films like Kennedy, with Martin the one -hour play-from Brits gloomy. duction budgets than Sheen and Blair Brown, are made to order for Yank TV. the nation's screens. The native television normally British networks had pro- allows. "In some ways, this is the biggest thing to hap- duced about 150 such plays each year; today few slots pen to British television," says Cunliffe. "We're rid- remain. Dramatists who built their careers in televi- ing a tiger, and I doubt we'll ever be able to get off." sion have taken to writing for the stage. The coproduction ventures have been coming so Many in the United Kingdom fear that, through the thick and fast that today all the major British broad- lucrative film deals, the television companies will casters have motion picture subsidiaries: Central Tel- allow American popular tastes to debase the British evision has Zenith Productions; Thames, Euston literary tradition. Others are wary of dealing with Films; London Weekend; ITC; and TVS, Southern Americans, recalling the unhappy experience of the Films. Granada had been the sole holdout but last fall British film industry after World War II. The indus- hired Mike Wooller from Goldcrest, producer of Char- try had boomed with the infusion of American money, iots of Fire, to establish Granada Films. but when the dollar rate changed in the 1950s, the Britain's moribund movie industry has been Yanks pulled out and the business collapsed. "At the brought back to life by television and financed, in moment the American deals are attractive," says a effect, by the Yankee dollar. In turn, the Brits have British TV executive, "but if the tide goes out again, been making films on distinctly American subjects- we're stuck." Kennedy, with Martin Sheen, for example; Murrow, While these concerns are not to be denied, the fact is with Daniel J. Travanti; On Trial: Lee Harvey that England and America have had a healthy reci- Oswald; and the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's procity in popular music over the last quarter cen- Tender Is the Night. An English company reportedly tury. American television can only benefit from a simi- is even mulling a film about Abraham Lincoln. lar interchange with Britain, where some of the best Recent made -in -England features include A ideas for series and miniseries are born and where the Woman of Substance with Deborah Kerr, Romance public-service tradition in broadcasting still flour- on the Orient Express, Jenny's War with Dyan Can- ishes. There's a chance that the benefits will be recip- non and the miniseries Lace. rocal, but only if the Yanks don't get carried away and At Yorkshire, smallest of the British television try colonizing the Brits. s

20 FEBRUARY '87

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www.americanradiohistory.com THE BUSINESS SIDE value of what theythey have. CABLE'S STRANGE For one thing, partnerships rarely work, especially BEDFELLOWS in the ego -driven media and entertainment world. "USA Network is one of the best candidates for a Since the cable television business has never been super-channel," says an industry source, "but the healthier, don't be surprised to see the big players problem is that the three owners can't agree on any- who control its programming services pump large thing." Secondly, it is axiomatic in television that only amounts of money this year into the nation's most private companies or public ones dominated by vision- underutilized program -distribution vehicle. aries are successful in launching innovative ventures. It's a rarely discussed fact that the basic services Bold decisions rarely come out of cautious manage- are controlled by major companies who for the most ment committees. and Home Shopping part have been reluctant so far to invest heavily in Network founders Bud Paxson and Roy Speer are cable -network operations. But when you look at the examples of entrepreneurs with the guts and freedom by Merrill basic program -ownership lineup it's easy to see the to promote new ideas in cable. opportunity. Yet some group efforts have worked. C -SPAN, the Brown USA Network, for example, is owned by Gulf & public -affairs service, has succeeded because the Western's Paramount Stu- industry's political incen- dios, Time Inc. and MCA. tive to telecast federal gov- Arts & Entertainment ernment activities is obvi- belongs to Hearst, Capital ous and because it has been Cities/ABC and General an effective tool in helping Electric through RCA. convince municipalities of Lifetime's owners are cable's public affairs value. Partnerships Hearst, Cap Cities and And there are other signs rarely work, Viacom. In addition, there that cable operators are are the program networks ready to help fund poten- especially owned by cable giant Tele - tially successful program- Communications Inc. (TCI) ming ventures. The Discov- in the and other cable companies: ery Channel (the science ego -driven American Movie Classics, and adventure service) lan- The Discovery Channel and guished until TCI, United media and Black Entertainment Tele- Cable, Cox Cable and oth- entertainment vision. And then there's ers joined to get it moving Ted Turner with his vast last year. Another impor- world. Will reach and clout, now oper- tant consortium model is ating with the resources of Cable Value Network, the that change? a major film library. shopping service. Launched What it comes down to in September by TCI, are national program ser- American Television & vices with growing audience reach and vast resources Communications, United, Warner Cable and others, that match anybody's in national networking. Fur- it took the entrepreneurial foresight of its owners- thermore, in a difficult advertising environment, the C.O.M.B. Co., the merchandisers-to get the venture growth of the basic networks has been impressive. off the ground. Estimates by Larry Gerbrandt of Paul Kagan Associ- If these efforts overcome the structural difficulties ates show basic network revenues, including adver- inherent in multiple ownership, and if a handful of tising and license fees, reaching as much as $1 billion industry powers can pull off a joint effort to win rights this year-double their total of just three years ago. to a package of NFL games, then a model for the Moreover, three quarters of the 16 basic cable net- industry will exist. Of course, the prospect of launch- works are expected either to operate profitably or to ing a major new service or feeding NFL games to break even this year, and that, too, is twice the num- cable outlets over an ad -hoc hookup (as Turner's ber of three years ago. troops seem to be proposing) is daunting, unless the At the same time that the basic network business is incentives of considerable local advertising avails are taking off, there continues to be talk of a cable "super - irresistible. network" by TCI and the Turner organization to bid It's important to remember that cable networks for such nationally attractive programs as National have demographics and viewer habits on their side. Football League games and first -run Hollywood For today's teenagers-the choice advertising targets films. In a business that loves risk spreading joint of the future-MTV and USA are just notches on the ventures, it's easy to see why such amalgamations of tuner alongside ABC, CBS and NBC. The stepped -up companies make sense as vehicles to take on the big effort to successfully program and market those net- three networks. It is also a sensible strategy at a time works would seem inevitable as cable continues to when cable's reach, now at about half the country, is blanket the country. But that will happen only if com- still far short of the big three. panies with disparate interests and styles can learn to But there are reasons why the owners of the basic work together-or to leave the networks in the hands networks may not yet be in a position to maximize the of the lone eagles.

24 FEBRUARY '87

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www.americanradiohistory.com COMPANIES A Tisch Is Still a Tisch

boss says he took of CBS to There's nothing wrong with the story's essen- Loews' charge tials; they're all perfectly true. The problem is protect an American institution. Does that in the conclusion so many have drawn: that some strange transformation has taken hold of mean he'll run it differently from his other Larry Tisch. People shake their heads over his holdings? Don't kid yourself. by Fredric Dannen sudden high profile, as if the boss of Dan Rather, Angela Lansbury and Brent Mus - burger had any choice in the matter. They assume that because Tisch has begun to throw his weight around, he wants to con- Larry Tisch Goes Hollywood: It's a plot worthy of Tinseltown tinue to make all the decisions, including what goes on the air. itself prime fare for a made -for -TV movie. Here's the scenario: One concerned media analyst puts it this way: "Tisch is not a Laurence Alan Tisch, a middle-class law school dropout from show-business personality. But now he's having the greatest Flatbush, Brooklyn, toils for 40-odd years in relative obscurity time of his life. Can he handle it? He might decide this is the one and amasses one of America's great fortunes. With his brother investment to keep his hands on. That's what worries people." Preston Robert (whom everybody calls Bob), he turns family - Admittedly, the billionaire investor hasn't come off like an run Loews Corporation into a vast holding company with interim anything. (CBS founder William Paley, who swept back stakes in real estate, tobacco, insurance and countless short- in as chairman on Tisch's coattails, is the real figurehead.) Tisch term investments. He gives millions to charity but shuns the had barely moved into his new digs on the 35th floor of Black limelight. He's so unimpressed with his wealth that he drives an Rock last September when consultants from Coopers & old station wagon and makes self-deprecating remarks such as, Lybrand, at his behest, went on a bounty hunt for redundant "IfI had a nickel for every time I was wrong, I'd be a rich man." scalps. By the time they were through a few months later, Tisch Suddenly, he's a national celebrity. By hoarding one quarter had axed about 400 employees-not counting the 700 jobs elimi- of the common stock of CBS, he saved a troubled American nated by Wyman to help retire the heavy debt CBS ran up fight- institution from such would-be predators as Ted Turner, Ivan ing Ted Turner's 1985 takeover attempt. Tisch swiftly sold the Boesky-or worse. In a dramatic boardroom scene, CBS chief company's book division, shut the technology center where the executive Thomas Wyman, a Tisch adversary, is ejected and LP was invented, shrank the legal, finance and public relations replaced with the financier. Tisch's smiling face is splashed all staffs and even let go most of the company's young, blue -jack- over Newsweek and Time and the major dailies. Once so reclu- eted pages. sive that brother Bob had to point him out to Loews employees, Happy, serene, entirely self-possessed and almost completely Larry is now seen mingling with cameramen, visiting CBS bald, the 63 -year -old Tisch offers no apologies for the shakeup. affiliates and chatting up TV stars. He foresakes his drab little "Whatever is being cut is redundant," he shrugs. "The press bunker at Loews for Wyman's plush executive suite. He trades distorts these things. They say all the pages are gone. When- in his Quotron terminal for a row of TV monitors. The prestige ever we need pages, we're going to have pages. We may have of running a premier broadcasting network proves a heady experience. Though hired as acting CEO, Tisch hints that he Fredric Dannen is a contributing editor of Institutional Inves- might like to keep the job for a while-maybe indefinitely. tor and is working on a book about the record industry.

28 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com HISTORIC PRECEDENT? Larry Tisch clutches the microphone FDR used for the fireside chats that calmed an anxious nation. Tisch must calm an anxious network.

CHANNELS 29

www.americanradiohistory.com BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: Larry and brother Preston Robert (Bob) at the Loews Regency, flagship of their hotel chain, where Bob invented the power breakfast

had too many. That's the way it is in any business: You don't cut insurance analysts agree with him. muscle; you cut fat. So far we haven't lost any good people." Or consider Lorillard. Loews bought the tobacco company Period. "Larry comes at most businesses with the presumption (name brands: Kent, Newport, True) in a friendly 1968 deal. It that it's inefficient and that there's waste-and he's usually was another contrarian move. Most investors thought the sur- right," says Lazard Frères investment banker Felix Rohatyn. geon general's report spelled doom for cigarette makers. Loril- Looking back on Tisch's career as a manager, his performance lard has proven a dream cash cow, throwing off much of the capi- at CBS doesn't seem like a departure at all; it's more of a rerun. tal that Loews has used to make subsequent investments. Early Though Tisch maintains that "no two businesses are alike," his on, Loews sold Lorillard's cat food and candy businesses. Then record as an active investor is consistent. He likes to buy compa- it forced the company's incumbent management into early nies that are trading below asset value for whatever reason, retirement and brought in R.J. Reynolds' Curtis Judge as CEO. including inept management. When Tisch takes over, he moves (Judge recently retired and was replaced by his own hand- rapidly to cut overhead, doing away with excess people and picked successor, J. Robert Ave.) perks, and focuses the company by disposing of units outside the What's important to note is that Larry Tisch does not step core business. Finally, he appoints someone else (usually an aside until he's good and ready. It took four months to appoint industry maven) to run the operation. Then he gets out of the Noha at CNA and fifteen months to install Judge at Lorillard. way. But once he selects a person to manage operations, he has CNA Financial, which represents 71 percent of Loews' $6 bil- always delegated himself out of a job. In fact, whether Tisch lion in revenues, is a classic example of the Tisch approach. The keeps his title of chief executive of CBS is irrelevant. He is, for nation's 13th -biggest property -and -casualty insurer, CNA was example, still chairman and CEO of CNA Financial. Yet, says acquired by Loews in 1974 for about $200 million. Today its mar- Noha, echoing the heads of other Loews divisions, "I have ket value is estimated at more than $3 billion-a 1,400 percent never-never-been second-guessed or interfered with by gain. It's inconceivable that Loews' investment in CBS will ever Larry Tisch." perform that well, but then, the risk was nowhere as great: While the broadcaster has a strong balance sheet (its debt -to - n many ways, in fact, Tisch sounds like a dream boss. equity ratio is a comfortable 15 percent), CNA was probably He allows people to fail. "If I introduced a new prod- insolvent when Loews bought it. Like CBS, however, CNA had uct and lost $50 million," Judge relates, "I never run into trouble after management went on an ill-conceived knew either Larry or Bob to point and say, 'You diversification binge (the insurer had moved into mutual funds, talked us into that.' " No division head can ever real estate, nursing homes-even cable television). recall getting a memo from Larry Tisch. And he Within months of the Loews takeover, the marbled top floors seems to believe that a meeting should run no more of CNA's new $85 million Chicago skyscraper were cleaned out than 15 minutes. "Larry's so quick, if I give him two good sen- of personnel and used for storage. Tisch not only had fired tences, he's got it," says Lorillard's Bob Ave. "He's really not CNA's top management, but let go all 400 -odd people who ran interested in day-to-day operations." the insurer's holding company. They were replaced by Tisch and History shows, in fact, that there's no job Tisch is unwilling to Loews' executive vice president at the time, Lester Pollack, delegate to someone he trusts. Consider Loews' kingly invest- who disposed of all the noninsurance units, one by one. When ment portfolio (over $10 billion, counting the assets of CNA and Allstate veteran Edward Noha stepped in as the new head of other subsidiaries). While Tisch has kept a hand in running the CNA Insurance Companies, he eliminated another 1,400 jobs, fund, he has placed it under money manager Joseph Rosenberg mostly through attrition. A decade later, Noha gloats that he and allowed the Loews employee to call his own shots. "If any- has presided over "the turnaround of the century." Lots of one should never have had a free hand, it's me," Rosenberg

30 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com 'TISCH IS NOT a show-business personality, but he's having the time of his life. Can he handle it? He might decide this is the one investment to keep his hands on. That's what worries people.'

says. "I'll tell you why. There's nothing that Larry loves more were lousy and that morale was suffering. Those things were than investing. So if he is willing to let someone else run his bad enough, but Wyman had done the unthinkable: He had investment portfolio, why shouldn't I believe he'd let someone invited Tisch to join the board as a friend and then turned on else run CBS?" him, asking him to sign an agreement not to buy any more stock. "If past is prologue-if Lorillard and CNA have set an exam- "I was upset about that," Tisch admits. ple-Larry will appoint someone, conceivably a programmer" to Recalls a Tisch ally: "Larry could have lived with Wyman if manage CBS, adds Loews board member Lester Pollack. Wyman had said, 'Can you help me?' Wyman would be chairman "What Loews did [at CNA and Lorillard] was look at the finan- of CBS today if he had been straight with him. Larry's fear was cial structure, streamline management and do divestiture work. that the board would turn against him." The same thing seems to be happening at CBS. I don't think "Early on, Larry had no disenchantment with Wyman," adds Larry Tisch anticipates sitting around and developing program- one of Tisch's closest advisers, takeover lawyer Martin Lipton ming." of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. "The disenchantment came Granted, the business of CBS is a bit sexier than insurance or later-and the essence of it was that Wyman wanted a standstill tobacco. As Rohatyn points out, "CBS is a legend. It is a part of agreement. All of a sudden, Wyman was saying, 'I don't trust the intellect and power of the country." Tisch himself has left no you.' At the same time, it was very clear that this was not a well - doubt that CBS was a highly uncharacteristic purchase, which managed company. There were serious problems to be carried the challenge of restoring a tarnished "national trea- addressed." sure." "Certainly profit alone is not my interest," he admits. "I think profit comes with doing the right thing by the institution. Tisch had a lot of time to acquaint himself with I'm sure it's a good investment; the question is how long it takes those problems. He served on the company's to make it a good investment. But, in the process, I think you board for almost a year before Wyman was have to do the right thing by the franchise." fired. At the outset, Tisch was scanning corpo- Perhaps the best analogy to Tisch's stewardship at CBS is the rate flowcharts and wondering aloud about all role he has played as chairman of the board of trustees of New the layers of management. The excess was York University. (Tisch enrolled in NYU at age 15 as a banking offensive to Tisch, no matter how the business and finance major.) There are few things that gave Tisch more was doing. But under Wyman, earnings had gone nowhere for pride than the revived reputation of NYU as one of the nation's five years, and weren't likely to improve anytime soon, which top colleges, after several years of decline. One reason is the made the bloat looked even worse. Meanwhile, return on assets much -acclaimed Tisch School of Arts, funded by a $7.5 million has averaged less than 6 percent over the past half decade. gift from Larry and his brother. It was Tisch who hired ex -con- "We're certainly not earning enough money based on the value gressman John Brademas as NYU president in 1981. The school of the company," Tisch agrees. has financials that would do a large corporation proud: a $767 The networks' dilemma has been brought on by softening ad million operating budget and a $515 million endowment fund. As revenues in the face of increased competition and a sluggish chairman of NYU's finance committee, Tisch has applied the economy. But for CBS, the problem is compounded by low rat- same hardnosed principles he brings to every business. ings. Wyman not only failed to boost earnings, but allowed CBS Had Tom Wyman taken the trouble to study Larry Tisch's to slip from the number-one spot behind NBC. And the down - career, he would have discovered another pattern: It's usually a bad idea to have Tisch for an enemy. Again, take the case of CNA, which is often cited as Loews' only hostile takeover. CNA battled Loews' tender offer for almost nine months, seeking protection from two state insurance departments and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tisch had to testify at hearing after hearing, but refused to give up. In the end, CNA's defiance of Tisch proved an expensive blunder: Testimony at hear- ings disclosed that the company's own actuaries had found a $60 million shortfall in its reserve fund. By the time Loews took over CNA, the company's stock price had plummeted about 16 percent. It must have given Tisch a feeling of déjà vu, then, to see Wyman shoot himself in the foot at last Sep- tember's board meeting by mentioning that he'd approached Coca-Cola as a possible suitor. Tisch made it clear that he had no intention of selling his shares to Coca-Cola-or anyone else. Wyman had underestimated Tisch just as he had probably over- estimated Turner; his gambit for survival turned out to be the most embarrassing flop since "new" Coke was launched. By the time the board meeting took place, there can be little doubt that Tisch wanted Wyman gone. It wasn't just that the network's earnings prospects In pre -CBS days, the functional Loews offices reflected Tisch's tastes.

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www.americanradiohistory.com ward slide continues. Indeed, it was Wyman's alleged lack of creative leadership, more than his shortcomings in controlling costs, that reportedly worried Tisch the most. The ratings dip is Cease -Fire Line one reason that Martin Sosnoff, president of the money -manage- ment firm Atalanta/Sosnoff, has sold all his CBS shares. Sosnoff, aurence Tisch has passionate causes other than a large stockholder in Loews, had bought 5 percent of CBS when the restoration of CBS-and chief among them is Tisch became involved with the network. Jthe survival of the state of Israel. He has served as "I see very poor fundamentals for CBS over the next couple of president of the Greater New York Jewish Appeal; his years," Sosnoff says. "CBS has lost so many rating points, and wife Wilma was the first woman president of the Federa- that's a lagging indicator. Revenues hold up while ratings are tion of Jewish Philanthropies. Since he is otherwise a polit- going down, and vice versa. Earnings will be down substantially ical centrist, it was Tisch's militantly pro -Israel stance the next two years. All Larry can do is cut unnecessary costs." that Tom Wyman seized on in an effort to drive a wedge And, Sosnoff hastens to add, Tisch can only trim corporate over- between the financier and the CBS news department. head; the costs of competing for programming cannot be Wyman implied that Tisch would try to influence report- reduced without impairing quality. ing on the Middle East. The ploy backfired. The news divi- sion disliked Wyman intensely, and Tisch was seen as the rilisch does not dispute Sosnoffs appraisal; it's best hope for getting rid of him. just that, unlike the money manager, he has the But the issue is not necessarily the red herring that luxury of a longer time horizon. He certainly has Tisch loyalists are calling it. In the past, Tisch has been no plans to shore up earnings this year or next openly critical of the news media's coverage of the Arab- by skimping on the production budget. "We Israeli conflict. During a 1983 dinner party at the home of have no interest in cutting programming costs, journalist Elizabeth Drew, cousin to the Tisches, he and we're not touching news," Tisch says. argued vehemently with ABC News anchor Peter Jen- "Nothing that goes on the air is being cut." Once fixed costs are nings over the role that Washington should play in Middle under control, Tisch's strategy for improving returns is "very East negotiations. Jennings, who had once run the Beirut simple. You get better programming, you get bigger audiences, bureau of ABC News, was apparently seen by Tisch as you get bigger revenues. We'll pay whatever is necessary to pro-Arab, though the newsman is considered balanced by make sure we have the best programs on the air." his peers. "They had a very, very spirited discussion," When Tisch says he's willing to spend for quality, he should be recalls Felix Rohatyn, who was present that night. "But taken at his word. History bears him out. As soon as Curtis so what? Larry is not driven by ego. He's extremely Judge became head of Lorillard, he told Tisch that the cigarette bright, and he knows there is a line between executive company was turning out shoddy products. He said he'd need authority and news." from $100 to $150 million to modernize the company's plants-a "I don't think it was a heated argument," Tisch says huge sum considering that it was 1970 and that Loews had spent when reminded of the incident. "Peter and I are good about $400 million in debt and warrants to buy Lorillard in the friends; we've had dinner a number of times. And I can first place. Judge got the money. guarantee you that the one area I will never interfere with Even more dramatic evidence that Tisch is no piker comes is the delivery of the news." Tisch then goes on to contra- from CNA. Ed Noha says that on becoming president in 1975, he dict himself. "In my role at CBS," he says, "my obligation found that the insurer's financial condition was far more parlous than Tisch had imagined. "I told Tisch I needed $50 million cash," Noha recalls. "He didn't blink." Of course, in those other businesses, it's a lot easier to figure out what you need to spend to get a desired result. In a creative field like broadcasting, there's no direct connection between cost and quality. Tisch himself notes that "sometimes you pay a lot for a bad program and very little for a good program." When asked how he will get CBS to do a better job of programming, Tisch, for once, has no pat answers. "Our people are working harder out in Hollywood," he says a bit uncertainly. "We have very good people out there. I think they're going to succeed." Tisch is well aware that whatever it costs to improve ratings will be money well spent. In good times, a franchise such as network television can be a money -spinning machine. What's more, Tisch worries about renewed inflation and thinks that "broadcasting is a good investment in inflationary times." He believes ad revenues will tend to go up faster than production costs. "But even if it didn't, at least you would maintain revenue growth in line with the inflation, which is the important thing." Tisch's view of news operations has given some observers pause. It was not lost on Tisch that fabled Omaha investor Warren Buffett has also made big investments in media stocks, including is to make sure the news is unbiased. You'll never find me an 18 percent stake in Cap Cities/ABC (Channels, November in any way interfering with the presentation of the news as 1986). "We're good friends," Tisch says of Buffett. "We've dis- long as the news is presented fairly. But if I were sitting cussed broadcasting over the years. Maybe he's influenced me. I home, and I heard a commentary on CBS on any subject think he has." Tisch is also friends with Cap Cities/ABC chair- that was biased, I think it's my obligation the next day to man Tom Murphy, who happens to be chairman of NYU Medical speak to the head of the news division and say, look, you School and who serves on the university's board of trustees. put on a biased commentary. But it has nothing to do with And, for years, Tisch played tennis with , Israel." the former head of ABC. "I think Larry was always intrigued -F.D. with this business, listening to Leonard," says another tennis partner, Bernard Stein of the Wall Street brokerage firm, Neuberger & Berman.

32 FEBRUARY '87

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TUBES CORPORATION ALL RIGHTS HE ^

www.americanradiohistory.com EXECUTIVE DYNASTY: The Tisch brothers have always worked together closely, and now they've both brought their sons into the corporate fold. From the left, Bob's son John, the president of the Loews hotel chain; and Larry's sons Andrew, the president of Bulova Watch; and James, vice president of parent Loews Corp. Tisch clearly has been thinking for years about the fundamen- Though he admits he could have found a more lucrative use for tals of broadcasting. His initial stake in CBS-some 7 percent in Loews' money-the holding company paid a total of $951 million July 1985-was not his first investment in the business. In 1981 for its CBS stock at an average share price of $127-Tisch scoffs Tisch bought 5 percent of ABC for about $43.5 million, but took at the idea that the investment was somehow a betrayal of his profits a short time later. Two years later, he picked up 4.8 per- value -oriented discipline. "I've never made a typical invest- cent of Storer Communications, again selling at a profit. Just ment," Tisch says, adding that his investment style has been how much money Loews made off of those holdings is unknown, described so many different ways that "if you lined them all up, but Tisch clearly missed windfalls by selling out before Capital they're all a contradiction." Cities' 1985 tender offer for ABC and last year's leveraged buy- What people often forget in trying to describe Tisch is that he out of Storer. What's more, says Joe Rosenberg, the man who is, above all, a pragmatic man-sometimes almost ruthlessly so. runs Loews' portfolio, "in 1974 we had a major investment in On Tisch's first day as CBS chief, he wrote a rare memo express- . If we had held, it would have been our biggest win- ing his "complete confidence" in publishing head Peter Derow- ner of all. As Larry would say, `If we'd kept that, we'd be rich.' " whom he fired a month later. Reportedly, Derow was bluntly informed of his dismissal by Tisch in the middle of a budget Actually, Tisch's involvement in CBS began as meeting. "I agonize for weeks if I have to let someone go," says an arbitrage move. His son Daniel, the head CNA's Ed Noha. "Larry has a lot of heart, but he also has a very of risk arbitrage at Salomon Brothers, called tough exterior. He will move on things." him with the news that Wyman had just Noha believes that the same pragmatism will lead Tisch to offered to buy back 20 percent of CBS' stock phase himself out of operations at CBS. He tells a revealing at $150 a share in an effort to thwart Ted anecdote about a recent CNA board meeting that turned into Turner. Danny figured that, using Salomon's more of a celebration. The once -foundering insurer was enjoying trading capability, he could buy CBS stock on behalf of Loews at the best earnings in its history, and a director stood up to praise an average price far below $150. Further, the profit would be Larry Tisch, Ed Noha and CNA's other officers. taxed at the dividend rate rather than the higher capital -gains Tisch, as usual, refused to accept praise for his own achieve- rate. It was exactly the type of investment dear to Larry ments. "I couldn't agree more about Ed and the other people," Tisch-one with no apparent downside. Tisch is recalled to have said. "But, you know, when I took over But somewhere along the line, Tisch clearly changed his think- CNA, I really thought any smart Wharton MBA could learn it ing. After all, the whole point of risk arbitrage is to sell-and and run it." Tisch didn't. Perhaps the real moment of truth came last April Yet it would have been a grave mistake, Tisch allowed, not to when real estate moguls Lawrence and Zachary Fischer put 1 have given the job to an expert like Noha. "This is the most million CBS shares up for sale at an average price of $143. Tisch complicated business I've ever been involved in," he con- decided instantly to buy them, but it was probably a move that cluded. he had contemplated in advance. "He really wanted that block, It doesn't matter at all that Tisch, himself a Wharton MBA, even though he knew in the short term he might be overpay- made the remark. What matters is that Tisch did not make the ing," says Bernie Stein. mistake.

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www.americanradiohistory.com COMPANIES The Last Tycoon William Paley ran his network like the court at Versailles, and his pampered elite lacked for nothing-except power. by John Cooney and George Winslow

acquisitions, and committees such as No longer is CBS the gracious preserve William departments, including Paley ran like Louis Quatorze; he was given to planning, policy and management have been disbanded. lavishly on art treasures and insisted on CBS' Technology Center, an influential, 50 -year-old labora- spending TV elegance and style, whether in the decor of offices tory where the 33 rpm record and a prototype of color second -place or the fixtures in executive washrooms. Black Rock, the cor- were developed, was shut down. Meanwhile, that Paley built, is going through austere CBS shows no signs of catching NBC in the ratings. porate Versailles Paley times. How did things go so wrong with Bill Paley's dream? company pub- The gilt-edged perks of the Paley era-the limos, the first- complains that he should never have taken the became obvious, class travel, the executive dining rooms and much more-are lic. When he did, his management -by -whim over one day. all taboo. Accountants who could squeeze eleven pennies out paving the way for someone like Tisch to take of a dime are firing employees and demolishing departments. upheaval, when chairman Thomas H. The most telling example of his caprice was his cava- In last September's His canning of Wyman was ousted and CBS' biggest shareholder, Laurence lier attempts at finding successors. nature moved Tisch, seized control, Paley temporarily regained the title of heir apparents-when his mercurial Wall Street chairman. Although happy as a clam to be in the thick of him-undermined management with Paley by now must realize that his Last Hurrah and the CBS board. For instance, he repeatedly promised things again, respected isn't something to be ecstatic about. The new CBS is a denial that he would step down in 1966 at age 65 so highly minutes before of what Paley himself stood for. president Frank Stanton could take over. But as he should be praised for creating CBS, he must the press release was to go out, Paley changed his mind and As much rule. be held responsible for many of the problems CBS faces exempted himself from the company's retirement today. Paley's attitude toward quality-damn-the-expense- When Stanton turned 65 in 1973, Paley gave him no such filled was fine for its era. For decades, CBS was such a cash cow exemption and turned him out. After Stanton, Paley own that he not only tolerated management inefficiencies but the job with corporate caretakers who lacked Paley's added staffers who did everything from speech polishing to fire and dynamism as well as his sense of the public's love economic analyses that were barely used. In tough times, affair with the medium. Of Stanton's five successors, all were that culture helped bring about CBS' undoing. Paley's flaw fired but one: Chick Ireland, who died after nine months in was that, as the classic entrepreneur, he treated CBS as his office. "Paley rears his presidents as disposable lighters," personal fiefdom long after it went public. Going public gave media analyst Anthony Hoffman joked as Paley fired yet him a new set of obligations that he largely disregarded. another one. What may have been worse was the fact that he made no real Among the worst of his picks was Wyman, the last presi- provision for succession. dent Paley brought into CBS. Wyman had no entertainment - Though Paley occupies the corporate throne from which he industry experience, but was willing to be president at a time once ruled with regal authority, he is participating, albeit when Paley had made many qualified executives gun-shy tangentially, in turning a paragon of broadcasting into a about the job. By 1981, the job had become so unattractive lesser company. "Everyone always looked to CBS as the that the board had to offer a $1 million signing bonus. standard-bearer of the broad- Wyman also fit Paley's ideal casting industry," says Rob- successor, or a "corporate ert Smith, dean of Temple son," as he once put it. Paley University's School of Com- was looking for an establish- munications and Theater ment type, and here was "Now, they're looking at the Wyman: tall, distinguished, company to see the way all pipe smoking and a product of broadcasters may go in a new Phillips Academy and era." Amherst and large companies, Indeed, CBS was a great including Pillsbury and Nes- company for good times. But tlé. But Wyman rarely demon- nowhere is the downsizing of strated financial or manage- network television more ment skills, although during shocking than at CBS. Hun- his regime CBS led prime time dreds of employees, from ratings for all but his last year. pages and security guards to His cleverest feat, other than of top management, landing his job, was convincing layers Paley aside have been fired. Entire Wyman (left) was the latest of Paley's "disposable" presidents. the board to elbow

34 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com were given a profit mandate and they slashed the budgets of journalists, who didn't view their work as a business. Hundreds were fired from the news division. Washington stories were deemphasized and replaced with human interest features, trend sto- ries and softer pieces believed to have broader appeal. Just last summer, CBS News presi- dent Van Gordon Sauter boasted, "I brought CBS on line financially for the first time in history." In the pro- cess, morale plummeted and problems mounted as the news staff became factionalized. The public spectacle, which could never have happened in Paley's day, was meant to humiliate the Wyman manage- ment, and it did. Paley himself was said to be mortified. But today Paley finds that his position as temporary White knight Laurence Tisch (right) has assumed full command at CBS as chairman Paley's influence wanes. chairman doesn't mean much. For the most part, he sits on so he himself could become chairman. His deal record was the sidelines while Tisch does as he wants with CBS. mixed and he panicked when faced with Ted Turner's junk At least temporarily, Tisch has soothed the news division bond takeover bid, buying back stock and leaving a once rich and says the quality of the news is far more important than company laden with debt. His next move, attracting Tisch as profit. Some lost jobs were restored and CBS provided wall- a white knight, was his undoing. to-wall election coverage last November while ABC and But Wyman was merely a symptom of what had gone NBC didn't. But producer , a Tisch friend, says: wrong at CBS. Paley's arrogance resulted in Wyman's ascen- "When CBS was a mom and pop shop, the entertainment side sion, and the same trait was responsible for Paley's poor could support the news. That's no longer the case. We have to acquisition history. Mistakes included Hytron, a TV -set man- pay our own way. We have to come up with ideas to convince ufacturer that made TV picture tubes by a process that men like Tisch that we deserve more airtime." became obsolete when the vacuum picture tube was All the while, some news professionals continue to com- invented. In 1964, CBS bought the New York Yankees, plain about CBS' coverage. Former news president Richard which plunged from first place to last before being sold. Salant calls CBS' failure to air a special on the Soviet -Ameri- can Iceland summit "outrageous," and says he is heartbro- ventually CBS came to own a jumble of companies, ken that the special aired instead on ABC. He also notes that many of which were barely profitable-and some it was NBC, not CBS, that jumped on the Iran -Reagan mess. not at all. CBS was making guitars and pianos, Then, of course, there's entertainment programming, retailing stereo components, manufacturing toys, which is the money -making heart of any network and also the Fproducing motion pictures and publishing trade books, school business that ties up most network costs. Under Paley, that books, paperbacks and magazines as diverse as Women's was never much of a worry because the network was usually Day and Field & Stream. The businesses shared an enter- at the top of the ratings. Now, however, it's number two, tainment -industry link. The need was for shirtsleeve man- battling with a resurgent ABC, and desperately looking for agers, not network executives used to overseeing ad order hits. As NBC's entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, takers. A CBS management that could sell The Beverly Hill- says, "Hits drive this business, not accountants." No one billies to the public thought it could market anything. knew this better than Bill Paley, who built his network on Although some staffers issued warnings, nobody listened stars and worked at keeping them happy as long as they because Paley was committed to reducing CBS' dependence delivered high ratings. on broadcasting for growth. The expansion strategy The programming gamble is the one that Paley always proved costly as CBS dropped $30 million on movie ventures, understood. If you win big, it can hide a lot of problems. If you for instance, and at least that much on cable programming. lose, no matter how much cost cutting you do internally, you Yet, when Paley was outmaneuvered by Wyman and lost still lose very big. If Paley's programming judgment and the chairmanship, things only got worse. For all his fail- good fortune do not rub off on Tisch, no amount of financial ings, Paley really was CBS. Nowhere was that more notice- wizardry and cost cutting will renew CBS' luster. But if it able than in the news division, where Paley always had spe- should happen, it could be the founder's greatest triumph. cial relationships. Under his aegis, news wasn't a profit cen- ter as much as a prestigious, quasi -public trust. But as in the corporate environment, Paley's continuing failure to address John Cooney and George Winslow are free-lancers currently succession issues again haunted CBS. The new heads of news writing a business almanac with Louis Rukeyser.

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www.americanradiohistory.com CRITICS Who's Afraid of Tom Shales

by James Traub

if rilhe morning after the ter- of the event had caught his attention. confidence of, say, IBM, not the College rible Sunday afternoon "Even as Secretary of State George P. of Cardinals. Dan Rather might be last fall, when Ronald Shultz was virtually throwing in the expected to pay no more heed to a news- Reagan and Mikhail Gor- towel and proclaiming the summit a paper critic than to a spot of lint on one of bachev scuttled to their bust," he wrote, "anchor Dan Rather was his designer sweaters. In fact, Rather opposite corners in Rey- still looking on a very elusive bright denies the tale, though he concedes that kjavik, Tom Shales, tele- side." And so, Shales pointed out, Rather the Shales piece moved him "to review vision critic of The Washington Post, continued to report even as his fellow what we did" at Reykjavik. But another popped up on the front page of the anchors were ringing down the curtain. source, a CBS News producer, confirms paper's Style section with about 800 well- "That," says a former CBS insider, the account. "Make no mistake about it," chosen words. Something in the coverage "sent the management of CBS Evening says the producer, "Tom Shales is a News into a black hole for eight to 12 major power in this business." Contributing editor James Traub last hours. Dan Rather was very depressed In the world of television, power is wrote for Channels about the David Let- Even in these parlous days, CBS News associated either with immense quanti- terman show. would seem to have the institutional self- ties of money, or beautiful hair and per -

36 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com feet teeth. Shales pulls down a good Today show, calls Shales the Willard income, and his hair and teeth look okay Scott of television criticism. The special power from across his desk. Then how does he Who is this critic whose column makes do it? Talent. Tom Shales is too good to be strong men lie down and put cool wash- of The Washington Post's ignored and, in the world of daily televi- cloths on their forehead? About the sion criticism, he's all alone at the top. sweetest guy you ever met, actually. Tom television critic lies in M.S. Rukeyser Jr., NBC vice president Shales is a softie who doesn't mind admit- and close student of the television ting that he watched the rediscovered his ability to shake up the review, calls Shales "the Taj Mahal of tel- episodes of The Honeymooners, "rough - evision critics." CBS media critic and edged and frenzied and passionately people who make former television reviewer Ron Powers funny," in a trance. He laughs-giggles, programs, not merely the has called Shales "the definitive newspa- to be exact-at other people's jokes and per TV critic today." Bill Moyers con- ridicules himself with slightly disturbing people who watch. siders him "almost a genius." And Steve sincerity. With his blond mop and round, Friedman, executive producer of the unmarked face, Shales bears a passing

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www.americanradiohistory.com At CBS news, Shales is the first thing people read The X1150 -Wrotes each day. `There's f television is popular culture writ large, sur- nothing people are prisingly few newspaper critics seem com- fortable with it. Most critics review pro- more afraid of grams the way restaurant critics appraise entrees-the sauce was too thin, the carrots over- here than a bad cooked-ignoring the medium's broader social con- Shales review.' text. Indeed, the reviewers for three of the coun- try's most powerful dailies seem particularly maladjusted to the great black hole of TV. resemblance to Dennis the Menace, Television and The New York Times do not seem though given his 200 -pound -plus -plus to like each other. The Times thinks of itself as a of and television frame you might say he resembles some- John O'Connor of bastion integrity, generally treats the of print. Times critic one who swallowed Dennis the Menace. The New York Times as a barbarian at gates He's friendly and shy and hermitic, and John O'Connor can be a model of subtle erudition he's unworldly enough to inspire a sense when he writes about highbrow British productions of protectiveness among his friends. shown on PBS, but when he turns his well-polished "You be nice to him," said Jack Carmody, artillery on the drunken carnival of commercial tel- the other half of the Post's television evision, the effect can be faintly comic. The number team. Tom Shales is very easy to be nice two Times critic, John Corry, is a bellicose conserv- to, unless you happen to be one of his ative when it comes to documentaries and news, almost innumerable victims-ABC News but he can be amusing and sympathetic when president , NBC anchor reviewing entertainment shows. Tom Brokaw, or producer Aaron Spell- As the most circulated daily in Hollywood, The ing. Those people may not like him so might be expected to toe the much. An ABC News executive, who line of Fantasyland, but Pulitzer Prize winner retribu- John Corry, also of Howard Rosenberg isn't very happy in front of a demanded anonymity for fear of the Times tion, called the Taj Mahal's writing television set. He seems to be asking television to "incredibly heavy-handed," "gratui- stop acting like an adolescent and is freshly disap- tous" and "unfair." Shales is the impossible force of televi- sion criticism. He writes tender elegies, he reports on network brouhahas, he reviews every program and races into "Here we have reached the nadir, the were Shales' last words about Brides - print every time a major news event is bottom, the subterranean depths that lie head Revisited: "Farewell to Brideshead, played out on television. Shales is not below the dregs ... Growing Pains farewell to the chapel, farewell to Oxford, only influential, but omnipresent. He leaves behind it the entertainment equiv- and Cointreau, and Venice, and Aloysius, appears in the Post three and occasion- alent of soap scum." and Mr. Samgrass, and the mono- ally four times a week, writes two more But if Shales simply scored more points grammed turtle, and such a lot of non- pieces for syndication to 166 papers, off television than the next critic, he sense, and wine and strawberries under a reviews films each week for National wouldn't be read so raptly either inside or tree, and innocence and youth and duty Public Radio and contributes lengthy col- outside the industry. Over the years, the and honor, and to all we hoped we one day umns to Esquire. And he has just begun route of television abuse has been plowed would become, farewell." reviewing movies that appear on video- into a mighty highway. Hating television, Anyone, of course, can love Brides - tape for a monthly magazine -on -cassette even for good reasons, has become banal. head, but only Tom Shales can love both called Overview. But Shales only hates television when it's Brideshead and The Honeymooners. He hateful, and he doles out his rants grudg- doesn't love them in the same way-no rilom Shales does not like ingly, because he understands the mature adult could. But Tom Shales loves very much of what he medium. "If Joan Collins does a six -hour television. In the introduction to his col- sees on television, and he miniseries that's worthless," he says, lection of reviews, On The Air!, Shales has become notorious for "and I come out and rant, it's gratuitous recalls "a terrible interviewer" who the mark he leaves on his because it wasn't meant to be worth any- asked him what he watched for fun. When victims. Dan Rather thing." he said, Family Feud, the reporter shall forever remain In fact, Shales is a romantic. He wants assumed he was being ironic. Quite the "Gunga Dan," the nickname Shales to be in love, even if hardly anything contrary, Shales writes: "I enjoyed dreamed up after watching the anchor seems to deserve his affection. When responding as I was intended to skulk across Afghanistan in native garb. Cary Grant died in mid -November Shales respond." Shales is also a big fan of After first seeing Farrah Fawcett he was wrote a tender appreciation in the next Entertainment Tonight's , moved to write, "Maybe it's the hair. day's paper; Ron Powers and Bill Moyers and not only because of her calves and her Maybe it's the teeth. Maybe it's the intel- both said they were so moved that they gossip. "I find the sight of her cheering," lect. No, it's the hair." Particularly dis- sent Shales notes about the piece. And he says. Very few people as literate, as mal spectacles provoke from Shales the much though he enjoys ridiculing PBS mentally active, as Shales can watch prose equivalent of carpet -bombing. Of and the snobbism that it depends on in much television without the feeling that ABC's Growing Pains he reflected, order to make its way in the world, these moss is growing on their soul.

38 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com tion of Television, published in 1978. To practically anyone born after 1945, though, television was entwined with childhood itself. Shales has written lov- ingly of the unbridled, all -too -human tele- vision of Chicago-he grew up in nearby Elgin-in the early 1950s. It's just not in him to hate the medium he grew up with, pointed every time the medium fails. His only even when it seems to him like a vacuum favorites are shows and personalities that face the cleaner poised at the frontier of decent tough social issues squarely, like CBS' Cagney & human values. Lacey and newsmen such as Charles Kuralt, whose At some point in the mid -60s, he won't sensibilities are rooted in print. say when, Shales entered American Uni- USA Today is Everypaper; it doesn't have origi- versity in Washington. He left without nal opinions so much as national, consensual ones. graduating, since he couldn't put Naturally USA Today's principal critics, Brian together enough chemistry credits. Only Donlon and Monica Collins, like most of what they in 1973, when the requirements were see-they share the aesthetic of the lowest common reduced, was Shales graduated. By 1971 denominator. he had joined the staff of the Post as a Donlon is a bit of a throwback of sorts, an ach- Howard Rosenberg of general assignment reporter. The first ingly serious critic who likes his television on the The Los Angeles Times time he took over the standard rookie mawkish side. Collins writes in a distinctly more assignment of covering The Ice Capades modern vein, preferring, for example, sensitive he led off the article with, "Something male characters who are "allowed to be vulnera- there is that loves a Capade." That ble." caught people's attention. Elsewhere in the country, there are a few notable Shales was a young phenom. "Many critics who stand out. Novelist George V. Higgins people, including me, have said that they frequently writes urbane, witty reviews for The discovered Tom Shales," says Christian Wall Street Journal and Steve Daley punches out Williams, his former editor. "But many Roykoesque criticism for The Chicago Tribune. Bill people did discover Shales, because he Carter of the Baltimore Sun, Steve Sonsky of the was so good." Ere long Shales was slip- Miami Herald and Eric Mink of The St. Louis Post - ping out of reportage, which he didn't Dispatch are younger reviewers with distinct like, and into television criticism, which Monica Collins of voices and original ideas, and their rise is an suited him down to the ground and onto Gannett's USA TODAY encouraging development for television criticism. the couch. -J.T. Watching five hours of television a day may look like cushy work to the average citizen, but go ahead and try it sometime. Except for the writing part, which is slightly less fun than pushing boulders Tom Shales may very well have been creative breakdown, which is every 12 uphill, the job appeals to Shales' sloth. born to be a television critic. He is, for one minutes or so." What does Tom Shales Yet there's something mock-heroic about thing, an indoor kind of guy. He doesn't eat? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups-ever the intensity with which Shales engages go to parties; he doesn't stalk the streets since Mary Hart told him that she loved the medium. "To me," he says, lounging with a press pass stuck in his hatband. them. back in his arm chair so that his tie hikes His colleagues at the Post have noticed One of Shales' pet eccentricities is lying halfway up his chest, "it's like the critic's that his sociability varies in inverse pro- about his age. He calls himself 35, though version of being macho. I love to get, like, portion to his weight, which makes him, he will admit to being "as high as 38." eight of these tapes in a stack and I put at just this moment, rather reclusive. Shales' rationale, which is not intended to the damn thing down and I say, 'All right, Shales sighs about his weight a lot, and he be credible, is that "I wasted a few years I'm just going to sit down and watch. All has the self -deprecating humor of the and they don't count. I didn't age during eight hours of it right now.' And I do it. long-distance sufferer. "I don't know that period." But even fixing his age All I want is pity. I don't want respect." what keeps me going," he says. "I don't around 40, Shales would be of the genera- It's hard to imagine this character, half know what else to do for a living." tion that grew up with television-as -a -sec- porcupine and half lambskin, being quite ond -language, a fact of which he is acutely Shales has the sort of office conscious. In an essay about his earliest which bespeaks monastic memories of the medium, written in 1975, 'You chastise devotion. It contains three Shales wondered whether "the TV gen- televisions, four VCRs, tot- eration" was not, as is normally sup- people, you try tering piles of cassettes, posed, those who were born after the funny rubber animals and medium began to thrive but the slightly to humiliate learned volumes like A His- earlier cohort-"those of us who are the them.Aaron tory of American Bandstand-an entire last generation with a conscious memory life-support system. Home is apparently of television's entrance into our lives and Spelling cannot about the same, except with a bed. Here's our living rooms, neither of which, as the a day in the life of Tom Shales: "I get up saying goes, would ever be the same." be shamed but and eat some junk food, and watch some To an earlier generation, raised during TV, and whine, and think about going the Golden Age of radio, it would be grati- can back to bed, and imagine that I'm quite ill fying to imagine a world without televi- be,' says and can't come in and ... then it's 8:30 sion as, for example, Jerry Mander did Shales. and I go home. I eat whenever I have a with Four Arguments for the Elimina-

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www.americanradiohistory.com "The first piece of newsprint read in this but that, Shales says, was about it. building every day by practically every- What Shales writes about, above all, is A Post ombusman one is the Style section of the Post," says politics, or rather national events as they once suggested a source at CBS News. "There's nothing are played out on television. Shales people are more afraid of here than a absorbs a good deal of criticism for the that Shales keep really bad Shales review." Sources cite presumption that a television critic has Shales' critique of CBS' second minidocu- the right to opinions about the news, as if his political mentary, AIDS Hits Home, broadcast he were aspiring above his lowly caste last October. Shales complained of the origin. A Post ombudsman once sug- views to himself. "tearful sound bites," and the "dubious gested that he keep his political opinions propriety" of showing the administration to himself. "What are you going to do 'What are you of last rites. At the time a third minidoc with a jerk like that?" asks Shales. "I just going to do with a was scheduled, but since then none has ignored him." Post managing editor been announced, which both sources Leonard Downie complains that "Shales jerk like that?' attribute to the Shales critique. "I dis- is at his weakest when dealing with poli- agree with that," says CBS News presi- tics," but he doesn't complain to Shales. dent Howard Stringer-not a very defini- as at home anywhere as at the Post. More tive demurral. At his best, Shales is a than any major newspaper in the coun- Stringer does admit that a certain niche critic not only of tele- try, the Post encourages individuality; of his mind is reserved for Shales' opin- vision but of the cul- even its news articles sometimes read ions. The Post's critic, he says, is "one of ture itself. A public like magazine features. The Style section, the few people who prompts me to self- too immersed in tele- especially, reads something like The New examination." Even the Bigfoot himself vision to understand Yorker's Talk of the Town. Its authors says as much. "When Shales writes criti- its effects needs to have a remarkably sure grasp of such cally," says Dan Rather, "I take it seri- have the medium held up at a distance for ephemera as the jockeying at last night's ously. His batting average is incredibly inspection. This process runs through highly political benefit dinner. They are, high." Stringer, it is believed, not only lis- every Shales piece, but his first Esquire collectively, just about the coolest thing tens to Shales but actively cultivates him. column, titled "The Re Decade," at- going in American newspapers; and He talks to Shales more often than to any tempted it in a more daring form. The piece among these Tom Shales is regarded with other critic, and Shales received a review described the '80s as "the decade of something of the detached awe accorded copy of the controversial West 57th a day replay, recycle, recall, retrieve, repro- a natural phenomenon. "He's the crown earlier than The New York Times' John cess and rerun. Where everybody is hav- jewel," says Style editor Mary Hadar. Corry, though Stringer denies that this ing déjà vu, nobody is having déjà vu. Shales' preeminence virtually exempts represents an effort to beat a negative Déjà is the prevailing vu." Shales was him from the rules governing other with a positive review. In fact Shales writing about something almost ineffa- reporters. "He's not really edited," says raved about West 57th, even as it was ble-not TV programs but the medium's a Style reporter. "He does the story that being battered to a pulp elsewhere in the radioactive fallout, its insidious tamper- he wants to do. And he normally writes press. He also repeatedly praised the con- ing with our mental connections. Even its late in the afternoon, close to deadline." troversial 1982 CBS documentary The style, which put one in mind of R.D. Stupefied colleagues tell stories of Shales Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Decep- Laing, reenacted the theme of scrambled writing a 2,000-word story in an hour- tion, even as an authority on Southeast logic and twisted time sense. that's more than 30 words per minute. Asia was discounting it in the news pages When the rest of the world is feeling Despite all his whining about creative of the Post. good, Tom Shales asks us to swallow a breakdowns, Shales seems to toss off arti- There is a widespread belief that, as cup of dread. When even the saintly New cles the way Picasso tossed off sketches, Jeff Greenfield, formerly a commentator York Times was applauding the sonic as if all were known beforehand. with CBS and now with ABC, puts it, boom of Liberty Weekend, Shales poured "Shales seems to have an institutional out a mighty cataract of outrage, a splen- Critics crave influence, but crush on CBS." Whatever method CBS did binge of immoderation. This was the normally they must use used, NBC must have recently discov- event that launched ten thousand words. the instrument of the pub- ered, since nowadays Shales flings most "Liberty Weekend wasn't just a patri- lic to affect the medium of of his bouquets at the network he once otic -commercial spectacular, it was a con- expression they write ridiculed for suffering "dementia pea- vening of the nation, by the powers that about. New York Times cocks." Maybe it's a coincidence, but be: IBM, the Prudential, Chrysler Corp. theater critic Frank Rich Shales seems to fall in love with networks and Wendy's Crispy Nuggets." can virtually change the currents of in direct proportion to the quality of their Poor Tom's a -cold; but he plans on stay- Broadway by influencing the tastes of his programming. But even his abuse, says ing out in the storm. Sometimes he won- readers. But television critics have Shales, is for the subject's own good. ders why. Perhaps he thinks the medium almost no effect at all on viewers-"about "You chastise people, you try to humili- will improve if he keeps criticizing it. "I as much effect as the phases of the ate them. cannot be think," he provisionally concludes, moon," says Rukeyser. Network execu- shamed, but Grant Tinker can be." "that's one of the delusions under which I tives concede that critics, collectively, Shales doesn't really expect television need to operate in order to preserve my can help sustain a good program with bad to get much better. His sense of optimism sanity." Shales knows that television is ratings, especially now that the networks probably reached its high water mark at absurd not by accident but by design. But are aiming for a smaller, "quality" slice of the outset of the 1985-86 season, when he he is not himself an absurdist; television the audience, but that's nothing more wrote, "there does seem to be a smaller has not infected him so deeply. He than working the margins. If a critic amount of deplorably execrable swill believes in certain values, and he believes wants to change the medium, he can only than usual. This year's mediocrity is in chivying television along in their gen- do so by shaping the opinions of those more competent than last year's." This eral direction. Television's funniest critic who make the shows. fall he liked NBC's L.A. Law and ALF, is also its most serious critic. Somehow Shales' effect on CBS News is probably and mustered an adequate display of Tom Shales manages to write television a unique instance of this kind of influence. enthusiasm for ABC's Sledge Hammer!, criticism as if it were a criticism of life.

42 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com THE UNIVERSITY The William Benton Fellowship Program at The University of Chica- OF CHICAGO go, now entering its fifth year, provides a unique opportunity for professionals-television and radio reporters, news executives, ANNOUNCES THE producers, writers-to expand their expertise on essential issues, free from deadline pressure. The Program is sponsored by the William Ben- illiam ton Foundation. enton Each Fellow works with a faculty adviser to develop an individual- ized academic program of course work in such fields as law, econom- ellowships in ics, religion, and public policy. The Fellows participate in a weekly seminar dealing with such fundamentals as First Amendment issues. roadcast They also meet and exchange ideas with national and international lead- ers in media, government, business, education, and other fields of public ournalism policy. 1987-88 Stipends are normally equivalent to full-time salary for the six-month period of the Fellowship. The Foundation covers tuition and travel costs. University personnel assist with local arrangements for Fellows and their families. The application deadline is March 2. Fellows will be notified by June 1. The 1987-88 Program begins September 21, 1987.

To receive a brochure and application PLEASE PRINT form, mail this coupon to: Director, William Benton Fellowships, NAME TOTAL YEARS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE The University of Chicago, TITLE STATION/NETWORK 5737 University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. ADDRESS TELEPHONE

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www.americanradiohistory.com Wil Shriner's got it. Now you can have it. It's the power to brighten your day with warmth and wit, stars and surprises. The happy new alternative for daytime television premiering September 19.37.

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Programming in the New TV Marketplace The mood this year should be more subdued than can't afford to keep them on the tab much longer. The Home before. A prevailing sense of uncertainty will Shopping Network's recent assets -only purchase of ten haunt the proceedings of NATPE '87 in New UHF stations-HSN will not pay distributors for previ- Orleans, muting the carnival atmosphere on the ously sold shows-has exacerbated syndicators' problems. convention floor. In the wake of a year of Thus, the industry finds itself in the midst of a curious unprecedented change in the broadcast indus- distortion of supply and demand. While the need for new try, program buyers and sellers alike are programming has never seemed greater, the costs of obtain- caught in a classic economic squeeze, one that threatens to ing it have grown increasingly out of reach. Syndicators alter the shape of the marketplace. have good reason to worry about the long-range effects of The changes have rocked the industry from top to bottom. this trend. If they exact better terms from stations, weaker Each of the three major networks, whose owned -and -oper- independents will be forced out of business, which will have ated stations have traditionally been important buyers of the effect of driving program prices down. syndicated shows, have been taken over by new, cost-con- This Channels Focus section examines syndication today scious managers determined to reduce program costs in the from the perspective of several different sectors of the coming year. Independent stations, whose spectacular industry. Ben Yagoda describes Group W's attempt to boom over the past five years has provided a bonanza for bring so-called light talk shows back to television with its syndicators, are now in the throes of a shakeout, with sta- new Wil Shriner Show, and Zina Klapper chronicles a novel tion sale prices plummeting and escalating programming attempt to bring first -run movies to independent stations. costs driving many stations to the brink. Some 45 of them The section also ranks the top buyers at NATPE, charts the are now several months delinquent in their payments for 15 hottest shows and analyzes the revived interest in early - shows, putting syndicators in the position of anxious credi- evening checkerboarding of first -run sitcoms. tors who don't want to shut down their customers but also RINKER BUCK

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Making a New Merv

How those wonderful folks who brought us Mike and Mery and John Davidson are

grooming Wil Shriner for the return of the light talk show. BY BEN YAGODA

penile implants. Somehow, fresh face, and thought he had one. that summed it up. Every The face belonged to Wil Shriner. time Charlie Colarusso Shriner, a friend of his since they bad turned on the TV set, there met at a pool party given by director was Phil or Oprah or Gary or Barry Glaser several years before, was Sally Jessy, talking about a stand-up comic, the son of the late husbands who abuse wives, Hoosier humorist and game -show host or latchkey children, or lesbian nuns, or Herb Shriner. (Wil was named after ... penile implants. Colarusso figured a Will Rogers; his twin brother, Kin, had sure way to make a mint, in this new a role on General Hospital for years.) world of topical talk television, was to Only 30, he already had been an open- open a deviant talent agency. "Hello ... ing comedy act for Tony Orlando, Crys- no, you can't have bisexuals on death tal Gayle and others, a regular on row today.... No, not children who David Letterman's daytime show and abuse grandparents, either. They're TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, a fre- doing Donahue.... How about penile Show time: Shriner (left) in Philly quent guest on The Tonight Show implants?" (where he was known for his short Of course, Colarusso looked at all this celebrities, comics, singers, authors comic films featuring Petey the Dog) from a special perspective. He is a vet- with new advice books. For the last and a featured actor in the Francis eran producer, game/talk division, who few years, Charlie had been developing Coppola film Peggy Sue Got Married. had started out 25 years ago as a new programs for Group W Produc- graphic artist for ABC's short-lived tions, and if anybody could bring back Shriner had a certain some- game show Make a Face, moved into light talk, it was Group W. It had been thing that said "talk show." producing other games and gone on to behind Merv, behind David Frost, for a Like Johnny, Dick Cavett the Dinah Shore, Jim Nabors and John time behind Steve Allen, behind the and Letterman, he was born Davidson talk shows. When it came to king of daytime talk, Mike Douglas, in the Midwest (though he the talks, he had seen it all-the time and behind John Davidson, who was had grown up in Florida and Debbie Boone fell asleep on camera and given Douglas' chair in 1980. gone to college at UCLA) the day Dinah assured her place (tem- That year represented, it could be and had a wholesome, unthreatening porarily) in the book of love by bringing argued, the supernova stage of light quality. He was likable, good-looking, together Andy Gibb and Victoria Prin- talk-the moment when it burned itself but not slick or aggressively sexy. He cipal. into temporary extinction. Dinah, was even short. When Shriner came in But, alas, all of the remaining day- Davidson, Merv, Mike and lesser hosts to meet with Ed Vane at Group W, it time talk shows were of the penile - all had their own shows. For several struck Vane that Wil was cool in the implant school, dedicated to the Vital years Multimedia's syndicated Phil way is cool-in Marshall Issues of the Day. Their topics had got- Donahue Show had been picking up McLuhan's sense of the word, which is ten to be self -parodies, and so had the outlets. And with the debut of Group precisely what is needed in a talk -show hosts: They were so sincere as they W's Hour Magazine, there was a new host. And since his days on Letter- gazed into their suffering guests' eyes era, the era of heavy talk. man's daytime show, Shriner had actu- and nodded. If he heard one of them Colarusso knew that Ed Vane, the ally aspired to host a talk show some- say "I feel your pain" again, he didn't president of Group W Productions, had day. In fact, he and his managers had know what he'd do. been looking for someone in the Mike/ been discussing with Taft the possibil- What was missing from daytime, Merv vein ever since Davidson bit the ity of doing a late -night talk show. But obviously, was the kind of talk Dinah, dust back in 1982. At every convention nighttime was overstocked with talk, Mike and Mery had done-"light of the National Association of Televi- and Shriner signed with Group W to talk"-a parade of second -echelon sion Program Executives (NATPE) the develop The Wil Shriner Show, a light same names were touted as possible talk show for fall '87. Ben Yagoda is the film critic of the hosts-Chuck Woolery, , KYW-TV, Philadelphia, September Philadelphia Daily News. Bert Convy-but Colarusso wanted a 29, 1986, 10:17 A.M.: It's the first day of

46 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com WHO'S HUT AT NATPE

Pretested product: Viewers of his tryüc.t tapes found Shriner friendly (97 percent), likable (93 percent) and not too sexy.

Wil Shriner's second separate week as broadcast. What's more, NBC News mercial break, Shriner and his writer, guest host of the live local show People keeps breaking in with updates on the Eugene Lebowitz, huddle together, Are Talking, and things aren't going Nick Daniloff story, destroying any and Shriner emerges with an well. The day's celebrity guest- pretense of continuity the show might announcement: "And now, here she is, Jackee Harry, who plays the lovable have had. direct from the comedy hit 227, Jackee vamp on the sitcom 227-hasn't shown Word comes in that Jackee indeed Harry!" In walks Eugene, who bears a up yet and may completely miss the won't be able to make it. During a com- resemblance to Peter Lorre, only

CHANNELS 47

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balder. He sits next to Wil, and the two of them start an interview, with Eugene, probably the most un-Jackee person imaginable, playing her part. It's a clever idea. Unfortunately, the studio audience doesn't get it. In the control room, Charlie Col- arusso is grimacing. But this is exactly the kind of learning experience Shriner is supposed to be having. He had taken his act on the road to learn to deal with such quandaries. Shriner had never asked questions from behind a host's desk. And Group W didn't want to make the John Davidson mistake twice.

Davidson succeeded Mike Douglas when Douglas and the company had come to a bitter parting in 1980. Says Bill Carroll, director of programming for Katz Broadcasting: "The problem with Davidson was that they immediately tried to slip him into the Douglas show. But Douglas had started as a local talk-show host and had gone national. Davidson was a singer. He had substituted for Douglas and Carson, but it was usually at Christmas time, and he had his friends on. He never had to carry a show before." It turned out that he couldn't. "John was a nice guy, but... ," says one Group W veteran, pointing to his head and shaking it. To avoid that fate, and that of the more recent daytime talk debacle Comic exercise: Shriner's wisecracks worried producers but pleased audiences. America, Vane decided to try a varia- tion of the procedure the company fol- lowed in introducing Hour Magazine seven years ago. Group W had sent Gary Collins on the road, giving him a chance to practice hosting talk shows at various Group W stations, seeing how people reacted. As Vane says, "There's no mystery to producing talk -variety shows. Ninety-nine percent of the battle is the host, and 99 percent of our energies go toward getting him to improve at that function." And so Group W spent a quarter of a million dollars last summer sending Shriner to cohost or guest -host shows in Baltimore, and San Diego (at Midwest Television's KFMB) as well as Philadelphia. For Shriner's second week in Phila- delphia, he's wearing the same blue Shriner's convention: He proved to be particularly adept at audience interaction.

48 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com r- WHO'S HOT AT NATPE

Meet the salesmen: Shriner with Group W's sa=es exec Peter Mapping the day's show: Shriner with writer Eugene Lebowitz Gim!er (left) and creative services director Owen Simon. (left) and Lloyd Burkley, Philadelphia tryout director.

On the road: Producer Colaretsso (right) spent $2.'40, 000 trying Shriner out in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Philly. blazer and red tie every day so that dif- looking and make perfect foils for The material isn't brilliant but the ferent days' bits can be spliced into the Shriner's Wonder Bread looks. Chat- audience roars. The crowd is respond- tape Group W plans to show to stations ting them up one by one, he's in perfect ing to a quality of Shriner's that may around the country. Things are looking comic command. Speaking to one distinguish him most clearly from the up after the Jackee Harry miscalcula- dressed in spikes, he asks: "Do you Bert Convys of the world, and may tion. Today's next feature is a punk ever wonder when you kiss a girl, that give his show its best shot at survival: fashion show, with models from a local you'll put her eyes out with that his ability to gently mock people with- boutique. They are suitably bizarre thing?" out being threatening or cruel. In a

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way, Shriner is a melding of the hip - but -heartless David Letterman and the everyman Johnny Carson. "Wil has the unique quality of letting people in on the fun," says KYW programming director Bob Jones, "and that's why he can get away with anything." With few exceptions, the week goes superbly. Especially refreshing are Shriner's variations on a tired but nec- essary feature, the celebrity interview. Before a satellite interview with Linda Evans, for example, Shriner confides that he and Linda were once romanti- cally involved (a faked composite photo of the couple flashes on the screen), and now he wants to get back together. So he goes through the audience, spraying !Crystal perfume on the wrist of every willing woman, and seats himself at an elegantly set table with a glass of champagne. The bit works-even Linda Evans seems amused. Warm but cool: His Maybe the high point handlers are betting of the week is a Shriner's touch, segment with the both with stars like Today show's Dr. Kenny Rogers and Art Ulene ("Can I with autograph call you Doc?" asks seekers, will have Shriner), a the warmth of a leotarded exercise instructress named Dinah Shore and Tammy and a peculiar exercise device the "cool" that that resembles a giant rubber band. As McLuhan said was Tammy demonstrates a certain move characteristic of the that must be executed on the floor, she video medium. assures Wil, "I'm not going to make you go down." He proceeds to execute a display of mugging so lengthy, varied and skilled that it could be called sym- phonic. Shriner himself. Given a list of 29 out weekly: Tribune was pushing When Shriner finished his road show, adjectives, they nearly unanimously Geraldo Rivera; Multimedia had Rita Group W's researchers began testing agreed he was friendly, likable and Moreno; King World was trying out audience response. They showed try- believable-and neither phony, boring Tony Orlando in Detroit and syndica- out tapes to focus groups in person, to nor cold. tors were talldng up other projects in people who took cassettes home and Shriner's show also had a head start development. watched Shriner's blue -blazer week on in lining up stations. It can expect to With so much competition, it was their VCRs, and even, using available receive favorable consideration from obviously too soon to know whether cable channels, to 300 selected families the six Group W stations. And Wes Shriner would keep his light touch or in Canton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Harris, programming vice president even a chance at hosthood. But there's Riverside, Calif. for the NBC -owned stations, was so one way to tell whether or not Charlie The results were heartening, no impressed with the idea that he sunk Colarusso or his bosses at Group W doubt about it. The producers had some money in the program in return Productions are losing faith in the feared people would be put off by his for the first crack at it in his markets. show's concept. If you're at NATPE in wisecracks, but they weren't. And in But no one at Group W was naive New Orleans, walk over to the Group the cable test, viewers enjoyed Shrin- enough to think these favors guarantee W booth and look at the Shriner promo- er's audience interaction so much that, success. Though the programming tional literature. Turn to the page for the pilot show, Group W built the gurus believe there is probably room where sample talk topics are listed. If main interview stage in the middle of enough for just one new talk show, one of them is penile implants, you'll the crowd. Best of all, the people loved word of new competitors was coming know things aren't looking up.

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Syndies' Title Bout

From first -run movies like Godzilla '85 to home-shopping shows, an explosion

of program services is now available to independents. by ZINA KLAPPER

n 1984 Tom Hughes was a relatively unknown Hollywood personal man- ager with visions of becoming a pro- gram supplier for independent TV. Hughes wanted to find an inexpen- sive way to bring new feature films to independent television stations, which normally air movies only after they have been heavily exposed for about six years in theaters, pay TV, the networks and home video. Hughes realized that dream last May when his company, Alternative Net- work Television (ANTV), pieced together an ad hoc network of stations for the television premiere of ' Godzilla '85, before the film appeared on pay TV or the net- works. Although the celluloid lizard was scheduled against some tough com- petition-the Celtics in Boston and Bobby's return to Dallas-it still pulled down a respectable six points in Godzilla and costar Raymond Burr (right) pulled down decent national ratings. the national Nielsens, and in some major markets it did better. 14 minutes of ad time to ANTV during ANTV offered an ambitious, 13 -title Godzilla '85 was far from independ- the film's prime time run in May, while broadcast schedule, including Godzilla ent TV's only iconoclastic program- the station kept 12 minutes. '85 and several other New World films ming venture last season. In addition "We're always looking for fresh it was still negotiating for, which to Fox Broadcasting, there are new product, and with questionable movies seemed to indicate that the studio broadcast shopping channels sprouting like Godzilla '85, limited previous would be bypassing the usual pay-TV up, first -run sitcoms such as The New exposure is particularly important," window for its films in the future. But Gidget and Charles in Charge. Inde- says KTVU station manager Brooke shortly after Godzilla '85's television pendents were also the first to air the Spectorsky. "If a film aired first on appearance in May, HBO stepped in popular colorized version of Miracle on pay, we'd be stuck with viewers who'd and bought exclusive first -run televi- 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. seen it and didn't like it." sion rights to New World's lineup, The fuel for this programming explo- There is already some indication that leaving ANTV scrounging for product. sion has been the phenomenal growth the major Hollywood studios and the When today's soft advertising mar- of barter syndication and the increas- pay services consider ad hoc program- ket improves, ANTV may be in a bet- ing willingness of advertisers to sup- mers like ANTV an important new ter position to bid for features. The port independents. competitor. Several years ago, after company is now negotiating for such Godzilla '85 was offered to stations the networks radically cut the number titles as Wacko and KGB: The Secret with a barter split heavily weighted of feature films they aired, the studios War, from smaller distributors who toward ANTV. Like most stations in set up their own ad hoc networks for have less to lose by alienating the pay the ad hoc network, 's independents (MCA/Universal's Debut services. ANTV and companies like it leading independent, KTVU-TV, gave and Embassy Night at the Movies), but may eventually help the independents usually their films were offered first to lure titles away from pay TV, but for Zina Klapper is a Los Angeles -based the pay services. the moment the competition shows no writer and film critic. At the 1986 NATPE convention, signs of easing.

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www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com Issues of the Information Age: PROMISES PROMISES TOKEER

Athe beginning of this had universal telephone capable, they will To bringing the best century, Theodore service. bend to the will of of the Information Age N. Vail, president of Today, as the Infor- human beings, rather to the world. AT&T, understood his mation Age has begun, than forcing humans Our vision has its competition not just as there is a new kind to bend to theirs. roots in AT&T's heritage other telephone compa- of isolation. People are Obviously, no one of service. Just as the nies, but as distance, awash in a mounting company, no one nation, telephone extended the loneliness, separation. sea of information, yet can universalize the reach of the human He foresaw that the unable to connect or Information Age. It will voice, Telecommunity success of his company work with information take the best minds will extend the reach could end the geo- in an orderly, useful of many companies and and capability of minds graphic isolation of man. form; that is, with many nations. The and talents. And, in ending that the world's knowledge. needs of our customers Telecommunity is isolation, the company's Often, information are creating impera- our goal. Technology is success would be machines do little to tives for our industry. our means?'" assured. The vision help. They are difficult We need common We're committed to became reality: by the to use, rigid in their standards and compati- leading the way. mid -'70s, America demands, generally un- bility. We need national able to work with any and international but their own kind. policies that are open To overcome this and encouraging. new kind of isolation, And we need to make we have a new vision: information machines to make the Information far easier to use. Age universal, to help We have the science build a worldwide Tele - to construct the systems community, not just now. The technology open to all, but inviting. is rapidly taking shape. At AT&T, we are We are dedicating now working toward the our minds, our energy, day when people our resources-our around the world will be future -to making Tel e - able to handle infor- community a reality. mation in any form- conversation, data, images, text-as easily as they make a phone call today. And they will be able to get informa- tion in a form they can use, whenever they need it, from wher- ever it is. We envision a vast global network of net- works, the merging of communications and computers, linking devices so incredibly AT&T ©AT&T 1986

www.americanradiohistory.com Hey, Big Spender LF Who are the program buyers courted most ardently at NATPE? What makes them so

attractive to syndicators? What are they looking for? BY JEAN B E RGANT I N I G R I L LO

To understand the challenge program sellers face, con- sider this: At any moment, every moment of buyable airtime is filled with some- thing else. The syndicator, part prophet, part huck- ster, must know which show now on the air won't be on next year. Then he must sell a replacement that might or might not retain the viewer enthusi- asm it had in its network run. (Star Trek did far better in syndication; Mary Tyler Moore was a surprising, and expensive, disappointment.) Or he must conjure up irresistibility for a show that may not even be in produc- tion yet. In the cut throat argot of the trade, distributors "go after the lame pup- pies." The key is to do it before the competition does. TVX Group president Tim McDonald: "Buy without passion or you'll overpay" Some syndicated programming may actually be sold to a key buyer before spokesman for the sellers' consensus, tive of a significant tilt in the market. the National Association of Television "because they're creating new pro- L -T is itself a distributor of enormous Program Executives (NATPE) mem- gramming and willing to invest in weight. It's pitching off-network Dal- bers gather at the biggest program pilots." las and first -run People's Court, among market of the year. That annual con- While a deal with a network owned - other products. Said one veteran dis- vention is critical, however, to provide and -operated station traditionally has tributor, reflecting on the rush of pro- access to supplemental takers who fall been the sine qua non for a successful gram suppliers into station ownership, into line when a leader buys, and who syndication, major station groups, tra- "Remember," when discussing the top make the difference between profit and ditionally the supplement, now some- five buyers, "here are guys who are loss. times supplant the O&Os. Fox Broad- also sellers. They speak out of both Who are the "must" buyers, whose casting has made a quiek run to the top sides of their mouths." ardent courtship can move a program of the list of non-O&O buyers, followed off the shelf and into the living room? by Tribune, Gannett and Taft (see NBC Owned Stations The Peacock First, of course, are those with the chart). The latter, by selling all five of Group is described by syndicators as a largest number of major -market sta- its indies to TVX Broadcast Group, "really, really big factor" and "won- a tions and/or those reaching the largest created a new major player. TVX now derful guys to do business with." "A percent of viewers. With eight affili- owns 12 stations, the new ones in far lot of buyers are as unprepared as ates serving 24.4 percent of all U.S. larger markets than the old. Lorimar- some sellers," one Paramount distribu- 4 households, CapCities/ABC heads the Telepictures also waits on deck. FCC tor notes, "but NBC always knows list. However, corporate belt tighten- rules prevent stations in between own- what it wants." According to an ing, including a note to distributors ers from bidding on product, but if L -T Embassy representative, the station that ABC will be "holding back on bar- does pursue acquisitions to replace its group is important in several specific ter," has sellers scrambling. There's no abandoned purchase of six major-mar- areas: talk shows, game shows, situa- haven at CBS, either, where the tur- ket Storer properties-as it says it tion comedies and weekend barter moil caused one distributor to moan, will-a deal could conclude just in time shows. "You don't even know who to call." for NATPE. Indeed, the company's NBC's decision to checkerboard five NBC is the "better bet," said one possible clout as a buyer is representa - new sitcoms in access time is "our big-

54 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com WHO'S HOT AT NATPE "YES, THERE IS LIFE AFTER BREAST CANCER. AND THAT'S THE gest commitment so far to non -network ing The Wil Shriner Show with Group fare and the first time checkerboarding W and a series on psychotherapy from WHOLE POINT." is being done all in the same genre," Chelsea Productions/LBS. "By law, we says Wes Harris, programming vice can't enter into a partnership where -Ann Jillian president for the NBC Owned Sta- we would participate in syndicated tions. The shows include Out of This sales or profit," Harris explains. "But World (MCA/Universal), Suddenly we like to be in on the process, offering Sheriff (Lorimar-Telepictures), You holding money or option money that Can't Take It With You (LBS/P&G), will help get a show launched. It's an Marblehead Manor(Paramount) and expression of good faith." We Got It Made (MGM/UA TV -Fred Donahue, People's Court, Love Con- Silverman Co.). Harris says a sixth nection and The New Newlywed Game show may be in the wings. are some examples of NBC O&Os' past Program sellers believe NBC's move willingness to welcome first -run syndi- could change the face of syndication. cated product. "First -run sitcoms really have been alien to syndication," Harris says. Fox Television Stations With independ- "But they offer a real alternative to ent stations in seven of the ten top mar- game shows, reality shows and evening kets, the Fox group is ambitious about magazines." its impact. "We're hoping to be able to NBC also plans to go after the early influence the marketplace," notes fringe market and currently is develop - David Simon, programming vice presi- dent. "We want to make changes that A lot of women are so afraid of will benefit all stations." Simon offers breast cancer they don't want to BIG -TIME BUYERS: one major "do" for sellers: "Do your hear about it. homework. When a distributor And that's what frightens me. NATPE'S HEAVY HITTERS comes in and tells you 'You need this show in Because those women won't this time period,' and you're already practice breast self-examination NBC OWNED STATIONS: WNBC-TV New York, WKYC-TV Cleveland, WRC-TV locked into something else, you know regularly. Washington, D.C., KNBC-TV Los Angeles, he hasn't done his research." Simon is Those women, particularly WMAQ-TV Chicago, Coverage of U.S. especially exercised by sellers of ani- those over 35, won't ask their doc- Homes: 19.8% mated children's programming. "With tor about a mammogram. FOX TELEVISION STATIONS: WNYW- Yet for TV New York, KTW-TV Los Angeles, most animated shows contracted for that's what's required WFLD-W Chicago, W1TG-TV Washing- two years," he says, "Fox stations, as breast cancer to be detected ton, D.C., KDAF-W Dallas, KRIV-W Hous- well as others, don't have a great deal early. When the cure rate is 90%. ton, WXNE-W Boston (pending), Cover- of flexibility to open a spot from 3 to 5 And when there's a good chance age of U.S. Homes: 23.8% P.M., TRIBUNE BROADCASTING: WPIX-W but that is what sellers want a it won't involve the loss of a New York, KTLA-W los Angeles, WGN- commitment for." One anonymous dis- breast. W Chicago, WGNX-TV Atlanta, WGNO- tributor waited until October to offer a But no matter what it involves, W New Orleans, KWGN-TV Denver, package of three half-hour animated take it from someone who's been Coverage of U.S. Homes: 19.6% it TVX BROADCAST GROUP: WTAF-W series underwritten by a toy maker. through all. Philadelphia, WDCA-W Washington, The seller, of course, wanted a 3 to 5 Life is just too wonderful to D.C., KTXA-W Dalla, KTXH-W Houston, P.M. guarantee. The bad timing was give up on. And, as I found out, WCIX-TV Miami, WWZ-W Norfolk, "unbelievable," Simon says. you don't have to give up on any WLFL-W Durham, NC, WMKW-TV Mem- phis, WCAY-W Nashville, WNOL-W Fox Television Stations, owned and of it. Not work, not play, not even New Orleans, KJJM-TV Little Rock, KRRT- operated by Fox Broadcasting, will romance. TV , WNRW-W Greensboro, eventually carry more and more 20th Oh, there is one thing, though. NC (sale to Act III pending), Coverage of Century Fox programming. Among You do have to give up being U.S. Homes: 15% GANNETT BROADCASTING: KUSA-W the non -Fox -produced series slated for afraid to take care of yourself. Denver, KPNX-W Phoenix, KOCO-W 1987 are Jump Street Chapel, a one - Oklahoma, KARE -W Minneapolis, WLVI- hour action -adventure show from W Boston, WUSA-TV Washington, D.C., Steve Cannell, and the half-hour sitcom KVUE-W Austin, WXIA-W Atlanta, Cov- erage of U.S. Homes: 10.1% Duet from UBU Productions/Para- : WTSP-W mount. "These are not [multi -year] Tampa, KTSP-W Phoenix, KTVN-TV syndicated contracts, however," Simon AMERICAN Columbus, Ohio, WKRC-TV Cincinnati, points out. "They will only have the WBRC-TV Birmingham, WDAF-W Kansas CANGER City, WGHP-W Greensboro, N.C., Cov- regular -season run, unless renewed. erage of U.S. Homes: 6.8% Meanwhile, our stations have to buy SOCIETY for the other time periods, and the bot- Get a checkup. Life is worth it. tom line for us is fill a need."

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Gannett Broadcasting Group Gannett has the best stations in the second tier of markets, numbers 10 to 25, making it the second stop on the distributor's sales route. Gannett owns stations in such hot population centers as Atlanta, Phoenix and Minneapolis, and it gives those sta- tions autonomy. It is the only major . group station owner that doesn't buy as a group. AP "We are trying to speed the proc- ess," says Dan Ehrmand, financial vice president, "but sellers eventually are told to go to the individual stations. . Our feeling is that local management has a much better understanding of the ` er needs of its marketplace. That's been 1 the Gannett philosophy starting with , its newspapers." Beating NBC O&Os into checker - boarding, KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City already airs first -run sitcoms in prime time access (Ted Knight Show, Throb, One Big Family, Mama's Family and rom the moment the first telecast Small Wonder). WLVI-TV Boston buys big movies in a big way (Big Chill, made its way into a handful of living Diner and 150 other titles in 1986 rooms, audiences were entranced, alone). KARE -TV Minneapolis is gam- entertained and enlightened. Now, bling on a late -night talk show, Crook television reaches 98% of all house- & Chase. holds. That's why advertisers invest Taft Broadcasting "When we sold all a whopping 21 billion dollars each our independent stations," notes Greg year. How do we know? We've been Miller, vice president for program- ming, "we became an all -affiliates watching audiences watch TV since group, and the nature and type of pro- 1949 - longer than anyone. And, as gramming we'll seek will have to meet the medium and the audience grow affiliate needs." and change, so do we. Developing Specifically, Taft will go after new programming for the fringe and access new ways to define and describe who time slots that bookend network fare. they are, what they watch, and what Taft has had "great success" with they buy. Arbitron. We know the Entertainment Tonight, Small Won- der, Star Search and Lifestyles of the territory. Rich and Famous. Gidget, What a Country! and Dream Girl are, says "too early to tell." îi4`1 rt. tí/ HRH tiUll aUÜUI n Miller, "Ideally, you get involved with Reirr2nN PATIN. shows that fill a void," Miller says, © 1986 Arbitron Ratings Company "and that offer the market a realistic alternative." Sellers do not only approach Taft for straight, across-the-board sale of a show, Miller says, "but for seed money for a pilot, or, at the least, an endorse- ment." If Taft provides the money, it takes a share of the profits. But, according to Miller, "it's becoming more difficult.

56 FEBRUARY '87

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Small Wonder was the first first -run TPE's You Write the Songs, saying the you must buy without passion. Other- sitcom. Now there are several. It's just format was "done to the ground." In wise, you'll overpay." "And, second, if getting harder to (be first) on a consist- fact, McDonald notes two givens that you can't generate a profit with it, ent basis." all good buyers must embrace: "First, don't buy it."

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune scored by coventuring Tales from the Dark Side and G.I. Joe, the latter a top -rated animated kids' show. G.I. Joe came about because "our stations said they needed first -run animated kids' prod- uct," says Mel Smith, vice president of programming. At the time, he says, CI-laNVFI.; "He -Man was the only competition. Now, there are 25 first -run animated rtve`""s+ y211,11,1111,ei.. 0e. shows for sale." He offers Smith's Law l'licClass :1111.11 of Syndication: "Out of scarcity comes d h glut." Smith is careful tanote the decision - making power of Trbune stations. "We serve as a coordinator," Smith says of his role, "because I know sellers would rather make one visit than six. But all our stations are involved. We work very closely with ; them to learn their needs." ì Upcoming for Tribune is Bustin' Loose, the new MCA/Universal sitcom starring Jimmy Walker, What a Coun- try!, One Big Family and Charles in Charge. "I have a 'do' and a `don't,' " Smith says. "Do call. Don't forget. We deal Channels with the big and the small. And that's the way it should be." Subscribers: TVX Broadcast Group Even before the purchase of the five Taft independents, TVX president Tim McDonald was Should you at any time quick to assert, "We were a significant buyer of programming as we stood." have a question about According to McDonald, the chief fac- tor in whether or not a seller gets a foot your subscription, you in his door is "prior relationships." "I didn't personally like Start of Something Big," McDonald says, "but can call our customer service I took it because I supported Al Masini," whose company, TPE, was department directly for a the distributor. McDonald's group was a major sup- quick answer. The number porter of Paramount/Tele-Rep, buying Solid Gold in 1979 when TVX had one to call is (914) 6281154. station. "And we still carry it," McDonald adds. If you would like to notify us of a change of address, please write Since then, TVX also has taken Star to us at PO Box 2001, Mahopac, New York, 10541, enclosing the Search, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Start of Something Big, address label from your most recent issue of Channels. all from TPE, Tele-Rep's production arm. McDonald passed, however, on

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www.americanradiohistory.com Checkerboard Gamble The fate of syndication's new first -run comedies is hitched to a scheduling tactic that stations abandoned years ago. BY STEVE BEHRENS

TUESDAY ACROSS THE WEEK The five NBC -owned stations took the lead in adopting checkerboards for fall '87, buying these five new sitcoms for the prime -access period (these are not necessarily the weekdays the shows will run, however-that decision comes later). Philadelphia's CBS - owned WCAU-TV was first to follow. Suddenly Sheriff

The prime -access period wide selection of new sitcoms, many won an average 9 rating and 14 share- comes along in every sta- won't get the buys they need. He "spectacular for a seven -station mar- tion's day, but not every advises program buyers to watch what ket," says Bell. This season KTLA station can fill it with a others are doing: "Stations must go came in third in the time period, up daily thermonuclear device beyond assessing the best shows avail- from sixth place the previous Novem- like Wheel of Fortune-or able and identify those that will get the ber. even a close substitute. requisite clearances." In Las Vegas, KVVU general man- Because of this simple fact of television NBC's five owned stations have ager Rusty Durante says he's satisfied life, broadcasters across the country taken a major step in building a consen- with his checkerboards, which draw a are watching the results of an equally sus, announcing purchase of five new 14 share at 4:30 and a 16 at 7:30. But simple experiment in scheduling: comedies for their prime -access lineup checkerboards did not perform uni- checkerboarding. Instead of devoting next fall: We Got It Made, Suddenly formly as well in other markets during their weekday prime -access slots to the Sheriff, Out of This World, Marblehead the November sweeps. In Sacramento, usual five-day strip of Wheel or another Manor and You Can't Take It With KCRA's average weekday 7:30 P.M. single show, a handful of stations are You. WCAU-TV, a CBS -owned station rating dropped from an 8 last year to a trying to boost ratings by scheduling in Philadelphia, where NBC doesn't 6.4. In Knoxville, WTVK has already five separate weekly shows-generally own a station, has booked the same five replaced its 7 P.M. checkerboard with a sitcoms. shows for a 7:30 P.M. checkerboard. Benson strip after getting only a 6 If checkerboard schedules work this A number of other TV stations have share, half the station's usual audience season at those stations, and if many helped stir up interest in checkerboard- for the time slot. others follow their lead, their need for ing by trying it this season, among Though some of the new syndicated five weekly shows in the half hour them: KTLA, Los Angeles; WOIO, sitcoms will be purchased for airing on before the evening's network shows Cleveland; KCRA, Sacramento; weekend evenings as well, their des- will boost demand for the many first - KOCO, Oklahoma City; WTVK, Knox- tiny is interwoven with that of checker - run syndicated comedies proposed for ville and XETV, Tijuana / San Diego. boarding. And putting together a next fall. But there are questions about KVVU in Las Vegas has one checker- checkerboard requires stations to take whether that demand will push more board in early fringe at 4:30 and on the same jobs that have made the new syndicated sitcoms over the hump another at 7:30. KTLA general man- networks' role so risky and occasion- and into production. ager Steve Bell claims "an enormous ally lucrative. Stations are not only John von Soosten, vice president and success" with the station's 7:30 week- screening pilots and buying whole sea- director of programming at the ad rep day checkerboard, made up of four sons of the programs they choose- firm Katz Television Group and a skep- first -run sitcoms and an off -network making longer commitments than the tic about checkerboarding, says that rerun. In the time period last Novem- networks make these days-but with purchases spread among such a ber, the Tribune -owned independent they're also stuck with the task of

58 FEBRUARY '87

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reshaping viewers' habits for each (Mama's Family) and as low as 10 (The Jonathan Murray, assistant director of night of the week. New Gidget). And each weakness loses program services at the rep firm HRP. Instead of ballyhooing one show for viewers to a competing strip. To plug Strips of off -network reruns are clearly the time period, promoters of checker- leaks, proprietors of checkerboards are a better choice for stations in markets boards are hammering away at selling stocking up on extras. KTLA, for smaller than the top 50, where the Fed- five. "It does take more effort," says example, expects to have Bustin' eral Communications Commission's Tribune Broadcasting vice president Loose in reserve next fall, as well as Prime Time Access Rule doesn't ban Jim Ellis. "It takes about five times as Square Pegs, an off -network show that off -network shows, according to Mur -

WEDN =SDAY THURSDAY

llarhleheucl Manor Out of This World You Can't Take It With You much." The task is a welcome chal- ray. And off -network strips are also lenge to an old promotion man like better for independents in larger mar- KTLA's Steve Bell. As manager of an ROMOTING kets because sitcoms are good for coun- independent, Bell could air network terprogramming the game shows on reruns at 7:30 but he chooses to get FIVE SHOWS TAKES network affiliates. involved in nurturing new programs. Until their reputation is rehabili- "It's so different to be in an independ- MORE EFFORT- tated, checkerboards rank almost as a ent station now," he says. "With off - last resort. "If stations can't run off - network, we were borrowing someone 'ABOUT FIVE TIMES network because they're in the top 50 else's successes." AS MUCH' markets, or if they don't have Wheel of First -run syndicated comedies and Fortune, Hollywood Squares or The dramas, and the checkerboards to New Newlywed Game, then they have accommodate them, aren't really new to consider a checkerboard," says Mur- to TV this season. In the late '50s, ray. Stations that are ranking first or a there were such syndicated successes strong second in the time period have as Frederick Ziv's Highway Patrol and retired from active duty in the checker- no reason to risk a checkerboard, von Sea Hunt. But after the FCC adopted board when the new Charles in Charge Soosten says. the Prime Time Access Rule in 1971, became available in January. But some stations that are adopting effectively pushing the networks out of Many other stations haven't decided checkerboards have not been doing so the 7:30 half hour (6:30 Central and whether to schedule checkerboards, well. None of the NBC -owned stations Mountain time), checkerboards lost but are keeping their options open by had Wheel in their treasuries. WCAU, favor to game shows and other pro- buying first -run sitcoms. Jack Fen- Philadelphia ranked fourth in its 7:30 grams that could be turned out daily. tress, vice president and director of period. WTVK, Knoxville, was in third Today's checkerboards, in compari- programming at Petry Television, esti- place, handicapped by having a UHF son, take advantage of the new breed mates that there is "substantial inter- frequency. KOCO rated a distant third of syndicated sitcoms-productions est" in checkerboarding at one or more in Oklahoma City with The Price Is slick enough that they can be used by stations in 35 to 40 percent of the mar- Right. ("They could do better with a network affiliates, in effect, to rev up kets. Other rep firm programmers are test pattern," says a competitor.) And prime time a half hour early. But more skeptical. Katz's von Soosten KTLA, Los Angeles, was number six checkerboards still fall victim to weak says the idea of checkerboarding has in a field of seven major commercial links, as they did in the '70s. At KCRA- been hyped by syndicators and the stations. Said Steve Bell, after opening TV, Sacramento, in October, for exam- trade press. his checkerboard for business: "The ple, different shows in the checker- For many stations, checkerboards competitive situation was ripe for board drew shares as high as 18 are simply inappropriate, according to this."

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www.americanradiohistory.com FOCUS

NATPE'S HOTTEST SHOWS

So what's it going to be this year? Which shows, ter Monty Hall returns. Programmers who have yearned which genre will entice the nation's television pro- for their very own home -shopping extravaganza will get grammers to dig deeply into their already thread- their chance this year-in spades, with Lorimar's Value bare budgets? Once, "game" was the name, Television and the Home Shopping Game heading the list. headlined by Hollywood Squares and the phenom- But regardless of which shows a programmer chooses, enal Wheel of Fortune. Last year it was first -run sitcoms. John von Soosten, vice president of programming for Katz This year, the smart money is firmly based in "reality"- Television, a national rep firm, has some trenchant advice: therapy shows such as Blair's Strictly Confidential, Dick "Stations should look first at who the syndicator is and Clark's Getting in Touch and Columbia's Parole Board, in how likely he is to actually get a show on the air and keep it which, presumably, viewers will try to make sense of that there. That means syndicators with a track record, mar- most unfathomable mystery, the American penal system. keting clout and those that have already locked up a Sitcoms are still well represented among this year's group deal." most talked -about and bargained -for shows, and they're Speaking of deals, in alphabetical order, here are the stocked with such familiar faces as Donna Pescow, Harry new shows we think will be burning up the booths and Morgan, Jimmy Walker and the Ropers. The Starship En- back rooms at NATPE. terprise will be back in deep space this fall, and game mas - JOSEPH VITALE

MCA hopes star Jimmy ("Ji") Based on the Friday the A daily one-hour show featuring fi?/DMY 1E13 T+ Walker will make this sitcom dyn- sema 13th horror movie se- psychiatrist Dr. David Viscott o-mite. A smart -talking bachelor ries, these one -hour helping real people overcome real tries to deal with four street -wise dramas will be wa- problems. Viewers should keep an

foster kids and one skeptical but ', tered-down versions eye peeled for occasional well- caring foster mom in this co- (less gore per minute) known guests who'll drop by to production effort. for the TV audience. Produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., bare celebrity anxieties. who also produced the films.

EPISODES 26 PRODUCER EPISODES 24 PRODUCER EPISODES 210 PRDDUCER The Co. and MCA -Tribune Paramount Malrite Communications Group

PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR Sept. '87 MCA Fall '87 Paramount Sept. '87 Baruch Television Group

DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL Early fringe Barter, with MCA retaining three min- Weekend access Barter, with Paramount retaining six Daytime Cash -barter, with producers keeping utes of ad time and locals getting four. minutes of airtime and Ipcal stations three 30 -second spots; local stations getting sx, 12' minutes.

Isabel Sanford of All in the Family A revived pilot that never took off Donna Pescow stars as modern and The Jefferson as owner of a couple of years ago. Stars Pax- mom with unusual problem; The debt -ridden hotel constantly at ton Whitehead, Michael Richards father of her 13 -year -old daugh- odds with its penny-pinching and Charo as domestic staff of ter is an alien who has since re- r general manager. DEG, confident estate. Already sold to NBC O&Os turned home. Girl and mom learn of 75 percent national clearance, for access checkerboarding. episode by episode of the many will produce 100 episodes up powers girl possesses. Sold to front. NBC O&Os as lead-in to Cosby.

EPISODES loo PRODUCER Farr/Silverman Co. and PRODUCER Gary Nardino and Dames/ EPISODES 22 PRODUCER DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group Fraser Productions Bob Booker Productions

PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR Sept. '87 Access Syndication Sept. '87 Paramount Fall '87 MCA

DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL Fringe access Cash -barter. Producers will hold one Prime access Cash -barer. Producers keep one and Prime time Cash -barter, with MCA retaining one minute per episode; locals get five. a half minutes; locals get five. and a half minutes and locals getting five or five and a half minutes.

60 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com «'110'5 HOT AT NATPE

Thirty-minute strip in which ac- The marriage of game show and The dean of American TV games, tors re-create the drama of parole home shopping, MCA will use the Monty Hall, is back with something board jearings. Drawn from ac- show, in part, to move merchan- new and something old: an updated tual case histories. Will the mis- dise from its records, home-video, version of a 1972-1975 show. Three creants get 40 years, 40 days or toys and books divisions. Stations players match wits and knowledge for money and prizes. If any new 40 lashes with a wet script? carrying the show will get a per- game shows make it past NAPE, centage of sales in their markets. this should be the one.

EPISODES 175 PRODUCER PRODUCER Home Shopping Network, EPISODES 26 PRODUCER Columbia Ken Kragen & Co. and MCA -TV Hastos-Hall Productions

PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR Sept. '87 Television Program Source Sept. '87 MCA -TV Jan. .87 Viacom

DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL Early fringe, late Cash -barter, with one minute for Prime access Cash -barter, with local stations keep- Early fringe Cash -barter, with one minute for night Coca-Cola Telecommunications and ing four minutes of ad time. Viacom and five for the locals. five ano a half for local stations.

Revival of one of televi- Despite the title, viewers are en- Priscilla Barnes plays a widowed sion's most popular couraged to watch. Couples mother of three who replaces her series, with new cast. gather round Dr. Susan Forward husband as sheriff of Lake Tahoe. Gene Roddenberry re- to talk about and even act out She is supported by kids, mother, turns as executive pro- their most personal problems. meddlesome deputy, dizzy secre- ducer. Show will be tary and bumbling dispatcher. offered first to stations running original series in Already sold to NBC 0&Os. syndication.

EPISODES 24 PRODUCER EPISODES 180 PRODUCER PRODUCER Paramount Kushner -Locke Lorimar-Telepictures

PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR

Fall '87 Paramount Fall '87 Blair Fall '87 Lorimar -Te l e p i ct u re s

DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL Prime access Barter. Paramount retains seven Daytime and early Cash -barter, with Blair retaining one Prime access Cash -barter, with producer retaining and prime time minutes of ad time; locals get five. fringe minute and local stations getting five one and a half minutes and local sta- and a half minutes. tions getting five minutes.

Norman Fell and Audra 1fl t.0 A joint venture of L -T, fox and the Stars Harry Morgan and Lois Net- Lindley return as the Hanover Co., this magazine -for- tleton in TV version of the Kauf- !1 Anon, 1TCIJIJ.' Ropers-those nosey mat shopping show features Alex man -Hart comedy about eccentric but warm -and -lovable Trebek and Meredith MacRae as but blissfully happy household. landlords. Three new on -air hawkers. Susan Winston, Show has been sold to five NBC actors will compose bumped from CBS Morning News, 0&Os. ménage the à trois upstairs with occasional guest is executive producer. Will be appearances by the show's original Jack Tripper, carried by Fox stations. . EPISODES 22 PRODUCER EPISODES 312 PRODUCER Lorimar-Telepictures and PRODUCER Procter & Gamble Pro- D.L. Taffner Fox Television Stations ductions and Harps Productions

PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR PREMIERE DISTRIBUTOR April or Sept. '87 D.L. Taffner Jan. '87 Lorimar-Telepictures Fall '87 LBS

DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL DAYPART DEAL Daytime /early Cash -barter. Taffner retains one and Early or late fringe Cash, then cash -barter for '87-88 Prime access Cash -barter or barter. Cash -barter: Pro- ducers retain one and a half minutes; fringe a half ad minutes; locals get five. season. L-T will eventually get two stations, five. Barter: Producers get minutes, local stations four and a half. three minutes; stations three and a half.

CHANNELS (il

www.americanradiohistory.com FINANCE The Schizoid Li e of the Media Analyst The voices they hear are often at war. Do they tell all to a research client if the subject is an investment banking customer of their own firm? by John F Berry

t was late Friday afternoon in his peers at other companies did not. Wall Street sell -side analysts. The buy- August 1982 and David Lon- Right or wrong, the results of the Warner siders, in turn, report their findings to doner's family, eager to get call were so dramatic that analysts still the institutions' money managers, who away on vacation, waited anx- use it as a benchmark for their own may have millions of dollars to invest. If a iously in the car outside his acuity. leading Wall Street analyst turns thumbs office in 's Pan Am While the opinions of entertainment down on the prospects for a media com- Building. Londoner, a vice president in critics can make or break a TV sitcom or a pany, money managers may react by sell- the investment house of Wertheim & Co., movie, the opinions of media analysts like ing their funds' stock in the company. If was heading for the door when the firm's Londoner can make or break a whole the holdings are sizable, these sales will electronics specialist grabbed him and company. drive down the price of the stock, leaving said, "We gotta have a meeting." Who are these numbers crunchers and the company's management vulnerable "I said, `Screw off. I'm leaving for vaca- how do they affect media fortunes? How to criticism and maybe even to ouster. If tion,' " Londoner recalls. Quickly, the do they handle the potential conflicts the price drops far enough, the company specialist explained that Texas Instru- between their role as dispassionate ana- could attract the attention of raiders in ments was slashing the price of its low - lysts and Wall Street's natural lure search of a bargain. end computer. toward self -enrichment? Whom do they In truth, that scenario is unlikely. After Londoner, who has spent 25 of his 49 serve and how are they evaluated? Can all, most analysts work for big brokerage years following media companies, their opinions be trusted? or investment-banking firms whose earn- instantly understood what that meant: The analyst forms his judgments for ings come mainly from the very subjects Trouble for TI competitor Warner Com- more than one audience. The first is his of their analysis. The analysts' firms com- munications, whose corporate profits firm's retail -securities sales staff, many pete to underwrite corporations' new rested on sales of its higher -priced Atari. of whom wouldn't know a balance sheet securities or to handle their investment- Based on his expectation of those profits, from an income statement. The big insti- banking affairs. That's where the real Londoner had been recommending the tutions-pension and mutual funds or money is. And that's what forces the ana- purchase of Warner stock since January. insurance companies-are more impor- lyst to walk a very fine line between an "I called in the salesmen at four o'clock tant clients who pay handsomely for honest appraisal of a corporation for his that Friday and said, `Everybody bails information. According to a Greenwich institutional clients and the disruption of out of Warner Monday morning.' Then I Associates study of institutional research his employer's relationship with that went on vacation." Londoner called it practices, the largest institutions pay same corporation. right, as it soon turned out, but some of most of the cost of most of the research In an attempt to keep everyone done on Wall Street. Institutions have happy-or at least to offend as few as pos- John Berry last wrote for Channels about analysts of their own (called buy -side ana- sible-analysts are extremely circum- Wall Street's young investment bankers. lysts) who evaluate the reports of the spect in their written critiques. "Very

62 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com is not that you say things are positive when they're not. You probably just don't open your mouth.'

Dennis Leibowitz vice president Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

often, I will temper it to a degree," says Dennis Leibowitz, one of the most reason. I see that more and more." Merrill Lynch vice president Harold L. respected of the analysts and a vice presi- If an analyst learns bad news about a Vogel, "because I'd like to give the com- dent at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, company, should he bring it to the atten- pany the benefit of a doubt. But if I see concurs: "If you're in a banking situation, tion of his buy -side customers? Such neg- something that's not to my liking, I'm not a negative opinion is probably soft-ped- ative may reports not only offend a val- afraid to say it." aled. Not that you say things are positive ued client but may depress the price of when they're not. You probably just the stock if the institution sells out. And Drexel Burnham Lambert don't open your mouth." that goes against the real aim of a Wall has a formula for saying A "sell" recommendation is virtually Street firm, which is to underwrite and a company's a dog with- unheard of, even when the market turns sell stocks and other securities for corpo- out really saying it. Most down. "I've never rated a stock a `sell,' " rate clients. "Analysts are in a ticklish firms do. Drexel vice says Alan Gottesman of L.F. Rothschild, situation," says Anthony Hoffman, a president John Reidy is Unterberg, Towbin. "I do often change former analyst who is now a New York - candid about how it works: "If we put my recommendation from 'buy' to some- based investment-banking specialist for investment-banking clients under our thing other than `buy.' " Union Bank of Los Angeles. "They're ratings program, an agreement is estab- Chumminess between the analysand almost never found saying a stock should lished at the outset that if the stock gets and the analyst troubles institutional cus- be sold, because they feel-and rightly overpriced, we will change our recom- tomers. "It makes them a little less objec- so-that the company will be less confid- mendation from 'buy' to `neutral,' and tive, wouldn't you say?" asked Karen ing in the future about what's really both they and we understand that it Firestone, a buy -side analyst with Fidel- going on." won't prejudice the relationship. If that ity Management in Boston, the invest- At Goldman Sachs, says vice president bothers them, we'll treat it as a `not rated ment firm which runs the country's big- Barry Kaplan, "We strive to have ana- stock' and we'll write about it and say gest group of mutual funds. "These lysts be as objective as possible. You may that things are going okay. If the client's analysts are often reluctant to voice a have a personal relationship, but you try going to go into a paroxysm of rage if you negative opinion on a company that's a to be professional." Still, he says, "it change your recommendation, it isn't corporate finance client of the firm, and remains an industrywide issue." worth the aggravations" they often tend to push the stock beyond The analysts' accepted image, of

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www.americanradiohistory.com He was Wall Street's earliest bear on Warner. 'Most people thought was crazy. It was tough being the lone worrier.' Then came the crash.

Harold Vogel vice president Merrill Lynch

course, is that of a reflective observer, analyst Hoffman. "Analysts say, `Geez, if interest when the analyst loses his objec- somewhat akin to a news reporter. In a I could get a 5 or 10 percent fee on one of tivity about a company's future." Reidy business dominated by hucksters, those deals, I could retire.' " Adds Drex- agrees. "I've got competitors who got traders and dealers, the analyst has el's Reidy, "It's tempting. Wall Street greatly involved in corporate finance and played the thoughtful role. That sagacity firms throw increasingly large bones to lost their effectiveness. They lose some has become extremely important with the analyst who helps in corporate - stature with institutional clients and Wall Street's young deal makers literally finance deals. And what everybody therefore lose their value as research recontouring the media landscape. But in dreams of is bringing in a quarter of a bil- analysts." some firms, analysts have gone beyond lion dollar deal with a six -figure bonus." But Leibowitz counters that firms have opinion, joining the hungry deal makers demanded more of analysts because insti- in putting together multibillion -dollar DLJ's Leibowitz is heav- tutions have pinched on payments. "The mergers and buyouts. Not surprisingly, ily involved in deal mak- institutions have made that part of the analysts' paychecks, once quite modest ing along with his work business relatively unprofitable," he by Street standards, have climbed, aver- as an analyst. "The firm says. "So the firms are trying to get more aging between $200,000 and $400,000 and has encouraged analyst mileage out of the analysts by working twice that for those who get deeply into involvement because we them in other areas, including invest- deal making. don't have a tradition of investment ment banking." When an analyst joins his firm's invest- banking." He helped structure the Because of the attraction of deal mak- ment bankers in masterminding a merger leveraged buyout of Viacom Interna- ing, corporate clients have become more or some similar deal, he becomes an tional, among others. "I was responsible reluctant to trust analysts in the big firms insider, privy to nonpublic information. for introducing Viacom to my firm," he with aggressive merger operations. The law says he cannot discuss those says. Despite the Chinese Wall and the ethical negotiations elsewhere, even within the But Fidelity's Karen Firestone thinks considerations it implies, a corporate firm, where a so-called Chinese Wall sup- such dealings are not in her institution's manager fears that if he gives an analyst posedly separates departments involved best interest. "People get bonuses on the too much information, it could come back in potentially conflicting situations. basis of how much corporate -finance busi- to haunt him should the analyst's firm be "The lure is enormous," says former ness they bring in. It's a real conflict of retained by a predator looking to acquire

64 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com L You just can't give a client a half-assed argument. The business is too competitive. They're smart and they hear a lot of stuff from the Street.'

Richard MacDonald vice president First Boston

his company. nies to study. the amount of cash flow generated. In the real world, of course, there's Three significant developments fueled Asset value, or breakup value, is what a nothing to stop the unscrupulous from this change. First, in 1984 the Federal buyer today would pay for a media prop- breaching the Chinese Wall-or a natu- Communications Commission abolished erty, or part of that property. Paul rally nosy analyst from trying to learn the 7-7-7 rule, raising to 12 each the num- Kagan, an independent media analyst what's happening on the other side. One ber of TV, AM and FM stations one cor- and indefatigable newsletter publisher, analyst's not -for -attribution comment poration could own. This freed many often writes of "the gap between public seems typical. He considers it part of his established companies like Taft Broad- and private values," or the difference job to know what the investment bankers casting and Gannett and newcomers like between a company's stock market value are up to-but he says he keeps the infor- Rupert Murdoch to build larger stables of and what it would fetch if broken up and mation strictly to himself, sharing it nei- stations or even to start a network. sold privately, piece by piece. The private ther with institutional clients nor with value includes heavy amounts for good- brokers in his firm. As Smith Barney Second, interest rates dropped, will, since stations have relatively mod- managing director Ed Atorino succinctly making it cheaper to finance est assets, and it has become a key meas- put it, "The analyst's got to keep his fat mergers, acquisitions and ure for deal makers doing mergers or mouth shut." leveraged buyouts. Also, buyouts. As media properties got higher Not many years ago, analysts led a Drexel Burnham popularized and higher prices based on their asset fairly leisurely life. There were only a few junk bonds, which allowed value, the gap narrowed. publicly owned media companies to fol- raiders and others to raise vast amounts Cash-flow analysis is another out- low, among them ABC, CBS, Time Inc. of capital at low cost. growth of the merger and buyout craze. and Times Mirror. But in the 1970s and Finally, these two developments led a Cash flow is measured before deductions '80s, a phalanx of newcomers hit the secu- couple of years ago to a third: Analysts for depreciation, amortization and inter- rities markets. At the same time, techno- began evaluating media companies not by est payments. In media companies, those logical advances-satellites, cable TV, the traditional measurements applied to items are often so large, they produce a home computers-expanded the media steel or auto or rubber companies, such as bottom line that shows a paper loss. The business and gave the analysts a vast earnings per share or the ratio of stock same companies, studied on the basis of array of complex, sophisticated compa- price to earnings, but by asset value and the quantities of cash they generate

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www.americanradiohistory.com before those deductions, look much more been the recent bull market, which nies a chore. "Sure there are trips," vigorous. brought tremendous daily trade volume. grumbled Vogel, "but you come back Using the analyst's research, a firm's "In a bear market, you've got all the time exhausted and still have to face the same merger -and -acquisition specia:ists show in the world," says Atorino, who follows 35 publications, crises in the markets, clients how cash flow can finance increas- about twenty companies in advertising, reports to write...." ing debt, which is used in turn to acquire broadcasting and publishing, "but these new properties, which are brought to days management wants you to write nalysts are slaves to the them at high commissions by the same more, travel more, call more." telephone, constantly firm. For example, Rupert Murdoch paid In more leisurely times, when compa- exchanging calls with a whopping $2 billion for the six Metro- nies are eager to woo market interest, institutional clients and media stations Drexel Burnham intro- there are junkets for analysts to Holly- corporate investor -rela- duced him to, at least partly on the basis wood and exotic climes where executives tions executives. Alan of the cash flow he could anticipate from brief them between cocktail parties and Kansan of First Manhattan Co., which the properties. banquets. ABC, for instance, flew a manages $4 billion of institutional and For analysts following media compa- bunch of friendly analysts to the 1984 individual investments, burns the wires nies-far more than for those following Olympics. But the erstwhile guests say daily to the West Coast. "A big chunk of less dynamic industries-life on the job is there's not much time for junketing any- my day is spent on the phone with studio life at a gallop. Adding to the pace has more, and most find Even visiting compa- people. A lot of it is asking one company The Men Behind the Numbers

Tn the basement of his subur- ers are William Suter, who follows ban Westchester home, J. broadcasting, and Peter Falco, who Kenneth Noble, 58, stares at follows newspapers and cable. the screen of his old Hewlett- Merrill Lynch, Vogel claims, Packard 9845 computer. It's a mas- approaches investment research dif- sive pre -miniaturization machine ferently than most firms: "At many that cost $100,000 back in 1979. other places, analysts must go Nearby, a big generator that pre- through elaborate procedures to vents power surges from bleeping upgrade or downgrade a stock-lots out Noble's calculations emits a mad- of committee meetings where they dening drone. The floor is a tangle of have to be accountable to lots of peo- wires, and the rest of this room and ple. If people don't like to fly free, another next door are stacked with then they probably wouldn't like it filing cabinets and shelves of here because we've got lots of free- research. On hot summer days, dom to do what we want." Noble strips to his underwear as he Across lower Broadway from peers through deep-set eyes at the Vogel's office sits Dennis H. Leibo- flickering screen; in the dead of win- witz of Donaldson, Lufkin & ter, he needs a footwarmer to com- Jenrette, generally viewed as the Ken Noble's success formula sounds simple: "Come up bat the cold. top media analyst. But 44 - with something nobody else has" Laboriously, he does. Street's Noble, a first vice president at year -old Leibowitz, whose outside PaineWebber, is unique among analysts. He eschews the interests include playing classical piano, has a love -hate rela- New York deal -making scene to do laborious research with tionship with the Street, which he escapes when he can. "I variables and constants that just might reveal trends. Right have the obligatory subscriptions to Fortune, Forbes, Busi- now, for instance, he's trying to prepare an outlook on adver- ness Week, and I cringe when they come in because I have to tising, a worrisome thing for networks these days, by tracing read them," he says. "I'm just not one of those people who trends back to 1947. "It takes forever, but I figure nobody lives the business." else is going to do this," he says. "And that's the way to be a Last year, after he disappeared into Mexico on vacation, top analyst-to come up with something nobody else does." leaving no address or phone number behind, Capital Cities While corporations find Noble's work helpful, some of his moved on ABC. On his trip home, Leibowitz checked stock fellow analysts scoff at his economic model building as pedan- quotations in a newspaper and found that the price of ABC, tic, especially in the fast-moving merger environment of as well as CBS, had soared. "I was in a state of total shock recent times. Noble has been around Wall Street long enough trying to figure out what happened," he recalls. to know that only money talks. So every year he runs a very Uptown, Edward J. Atorino, managing director of Smith successful media conference whose unspoken but primary Barney, looks down at Central Park from an office that con- purpose is to lure investment-banking clients to PaineWeb- trasts sharply with Vogel's and Leibowitz' in its painstaking ber. That week helps justify the rest of the year Noble neatness. "The toughest part of the job is keeping up with spends working in the basement at his true calling: research. the information," says Atorino. "Media companies send us all In downtown Manhattan, meanwhile, Harold L. Vogel kinds of research. They do their best to make our job as easy looks out over massive stacks of reading that cover his desk as possible. They're wonderful people to deal with-even the and repeats the analyst's universal plea for more time and managements." Then, reflecting on his words, Atorino adds, less work. A balding man with long sideburns that frame his "But I try not to fall in love with a company, because sooner narrow face, capital markets vice president Vogel, 40, heads or later you're going to be bagged." a team of three media researchers at Merrill Lynch. The oth- -J.F.B.

66 FEBRUARY 'S7

www.americanradiohistory.com When he predicted- accurately -that broad- casting's salad days were over, 'the networks were up in arms. Two of the three wrote position papers against the piece.'

David J. Londoner vice president Wertheim & Co. whether the strategy of another will quoted in influential journals or appear- thinking is what goes on paper. "I think work." ing on television. But as the financial it's important to document what you've It's a little like being a reporter. "You press grows in size and demands, some said," says Francine S. Blum, a young have to develop relationships to under- analysts are inundated with calls from all associate of David Londoner who ana- stand what's going on," Kassan says. over the country. lyzes broadcasting at Wertheim. "When "But reporting isn't all of it. Those who you've written it, you're on the record." tend to accept the company's party line as Afavorite among re- Generally, Wall Street prose is func- gospel have frequently made mistakes. porters is Drexel's John tional at best. It declined perceptibly There are a lot of analysts who are good Reidy, a master of the when Ellen Berland Gibbs, a Ph.D. in reporters. But I'm not sure if they're neatly packaged quote, English, left Goldman Sachs to start her good money-makers." who also has the direct own firm. Her reports were likely to be The most effective of them are good delivery and sonorous peppered with literary allusions from communicators, able to describe and eval- voice that goes over well on TV. Thucydides to Twain. For the rest, "It's uate succinctly-and to sell their ideas to Recently, CBS News tracked him for not great literature, but it serves its pur- buy -side analysts. Richard MacDonald, three days at his 25th reunion at Har- pose, which is to relay information," says an articulate broadcast -industry analyst vard, concluding with his appearance on Vogel, a good writer who has published at First Boston, gets high grades from CBS Morning News to talk about the an impressive textbook titled Entertain- buy siders. "You can't give a client a half- boom in home shopping channels. Later, ment Industry Economics. Rothschild's assed argument," he says. "The business The New York Times did a piece based on Gottesman, a prolific writer, shows occa- is just too competitive. They are smart, the show, as did The Wall Street Journal. sional flair in his regular newsletter, each and every one of them, and they Press coverage is "flattering, but it "AdLibs: Notes on Media/Advertising hear a lot of stuff from the Street. You've reaches diminishing returns," says Topics." A somewhat truculent man who got to get them in a dialogue." Atorino. Lisa Donneson, a media analyst sports a Van Dyk goatee and cowboy Many of the calls to- analysts these days for Salomon Brothers, says flatly, "I boots with his pinstripes, Gottesman are from news reporters seeking informa- don't talk to the press." allows, "I might have been a journalist if tion and commentary. Analysts have While a knack for the pithy quote can I could have figured out how to make a enjoyed the fame that comes from being win publicity, the acid test of an analyst's decent living from it."

CHANNELS 67

www.americanradiohistory.com Occasionally a Wall Street author takes turely, broadcasters who paid big cash- Drexel Burnham tries to recruit the a step back and produces a far-ranging flow multiples for acquisitions not long number two- or three -rated analyst cov- work more ambitious than an everyday ago are indeed struggling. ering an industry. "It's important to the report. In 1978, Londoner wrote an analy- Analysts, like students, are forever firm to establish its image with institu- sis of the changing economics of enter- getting report cards-from corporate tions," says Reidy, who made the 1985 tainment that shook the industry. The investor -relations executives, from insti- squad in broadcasting and publishing. salad days for broadcasters were over, he tutional clients, from peers, from sales- "And it's important to the analyst to said, and accurately predicted that with men, from employers. The most impor- make the team because it's a direct factor programming costs rising rapidly, the big tant grade, both in terms of prestige and in compensation." money would be in that end of the busi- pay, is to be chosen for Institutional "Does First Boston care about it?" rhe- ness. According to Londoner, "The net- Investor's "All-American Research torically asks Rich MacDonald, on the works were up in arms. Two of the three Team." Each October for the past 15 second team for broadcasting. "You wrote internal position papers against years, the monthly magazine for institu- betcha. But it's a drag to have to worry the piece." tional and professional investors has pub- about it." lished the results of a survey of 1,000 Worry the analyst must. If not about ondoner and Blum teamed money managers who rank analysts in 65 Institutional Investor, then about up to produce another industries and investment specialties. whether he's offended a corporation, important report in April The title is apt. Those who make it gain shortchanged an institution, breached J1985 that questioned the top pay, perks and privilege usually the Chinese Wall, impressed The Wall soaring prices being paid accorded a top athlete. And like ballplay- Street Journal, comprehended the latest for broadcast properties. ers, they become hot properties. technology, given a buy to the wrong Titled "Gong!" to signal the top of the Dennis Leibowitz has been named num- stock.... market, it argued that "with excessive ber one in broadcasting for nine consecu- But things could be worse. He could be valuations put on private transactions .. . tive years, and consequently is immensely analyzing plastics or chemicals or insur- it simply takes too long to pay back a sta- valuable to his firm. "In the cable industry ance companies. As Wertheim's Blum tion acquisition...." While the two may especially," he says, "I'm seen as the draw- puts it, "I'd rather be at a screening than have rung their warning a little prema- ing card to getting the business." touring somebody's steel mill." Who's Who Among Media Analysts

FIRM ANALYST, PHONE* FIRM ANALYST, PHONE*

Aetna Life Kenneth Bragdon David J. Greene and Co. Richard Caro 344-5180 203 275-3792 Paul Kagan Associates Paul Kagan 408 624-1536 Management Ted Fitillis 969-1060 Alliance Capital Kidder, Peabody & Co. Joseph Fuchs 510-3883 Corp. Lazard Frères Eileen Alexanderson 373-4436 Arnhold and Bleichroeder Jessica Rief 943-9200 Paul Matlow 373-4438 E.W. Axe and Co. Peter Gmunder 914 631-8131 Manufacturers Hanover Ann Oliver 957-1230 Bank of New York Barbara Jenkins 530-1784 Marine Midland Pat Feeney 440-1000 Bankers Trust Co. Edwin Platt 850-2127 Lynch Harold Vogel 449-1148 Bloom Research Edward Bloom 718 625-6925 Merrill Peter Falco (cable) 449-1172 Brown Bros. Harriman & Co. Jay Nelson 483-1818 William Suter (broadcasting) Capital Research Gordon Crawford 213-486-9309 449-1171 David Kniffen 578-5790 College Retirement Equity Fund Barbara Merrell Metropolitan Life 916-4096 Insurance Co. Comcap Inc. Ronald P. Mullane 201 Morgan Guaranty Trust David Bennett 826=7446 671-5774 Newberger & Berman John Kornreich 790-9505 Cumberland Associates Richard Reiss 575-0900 Oppenheimer Dennis McAlpine 667-7035 Cyrus J. Lawrence Inc. Peter Apert 306-9417 PaineWebber J. Kendrick Noble 713-2514 Dean Witter Reynolds Fred Anschel 524-3464 Provident National Bank Elizabeth Toth 215 585-5313 Donaldsdon, Lufkin & Jenrette Dennis H. Leibowitz 504-4248 Prudential Bache Mark Grotevant 214-1537 Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc. John Reidy 480-6675 Rosenkrantz, Ehrenkrantz, Lawrence R. Rice 986-6700 E.I. DuPont Michael Weiner 774-4642 Lyon & Ross EMW Counsellors Elizabeth Dater 878-0600 L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Alan Gottesman 412-1578 Equitable Life Sarah Blair 382-8048 Towbin Fahnestock and Co. Stanley Fishman 668-8016 Salomon Bros. Lisa Donneson 747-7327 Kavanagh 466-4100 Fiduciary Trust of New York Marge J.W. Seligman and Co. Suzanne Zak 775-1864 First Boston Corp. Richard MacDonald Shearson Lehman Bros. Ed Hatch 298-4381 (broadcasting) 909-3093 Smith Barney Harris Upham Edward Atorino 698-6368 Ford Foundation Leslie Gottlieb 573-5000 Thomson McKinnon Eileen Gormley 482-6433 G.E. Pension Trust David Carlson 203 357-4152 Anthony & R.L. Day Ernest Levenstein 618-7696 General American Investors Harold Kingsberg 916-8400 Tucker, Anthony Hoffman 599-7970 Co. Inc. Union Bank Goldman Sachs and Co. Richard Simon (film) 902-6792 Trust Co. Carol Cutler 806-4154 Barry Kaplan 902-6847 Wertheim and Co. Inc. David J. Londoner 578-0438 *All phone numbers are area code (212) unless otherwise noted.

68 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com TV

DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMMING

STRUGGLES FOR POLAND 9 x 52' Documentary Series

QUEST FOR BEAUTY 1 x 78' Documentary

IT'S OUR WORLD SWEET DISASTER 6 x Half hour Drama Series 5 Short Animations

CONTACT: JANE SMALL

TV4 I NTERNATIC NAL 60 CHARLOTTE STREET LONDON W1P2AX TEL O1-6314444 TELEX 892335

www.americanradiohistory.com Local News News Meltdown Hits L.A.

Virtually overnight, KCBS-TV scuttled its format, ditched its anchors and introduced an innovative "news wheel" to its afternoon broadcast. How did it do? Don't ask. by Dick Adler

veryone thought it was CBS -owned stations to four, with cover- the zeal of a major talent raid, was uncer- a good idea. KCBS-TV, age of just 19 percent of the national audi- emoniously dumped by being offered a CBS' owned -and-oper- ence, the lowest of all three networks. new contract with a substantial pay cut. ated station in Los The Los Angeles market now represents Colleen Williams, one of the smartest Angeles, was running a a quarter of the station group's national younger anchors on the local scene, got weak third in the local coverage. And, with just one rating point similar treatment at contract -renewal news race, its low rat- in the Los Angeles early -news market time. Both quickly bolted for KNBC. ings hurting Dan Rather's fight to keep worth about $800 per minute in ad reve- KCBS sportscaster Jim Hill adopted a the CBS Evening News in first place nues, the network was losing millions of more novel approach. To avoid being nationwide. Why not try something com- dollars because of KCBS' disappointing associated with the new "California" pletely different-or as different as you showing. look, he simply decamped for an extended can get in the cookie -cutter world of local Last year, when CBS stations presi- vacation. television news? dent Neil E. Derrough dispatched Frank So the management of KCBS last fall Gardner-then news director at WCBS- fter the usual promo- came up with a bold concept for the 4 to 6 TV in New York-to Los Angeles to take tional hoopla, KCBS' P.M. news slot-six 20 -minute broadcasts, over as KCBS general manager, "news -wheel" format each with a special theme. Each segment Gardner's mandate was abundantly made its debut on Sep- in the news wheel would begin with a clear. He was to give KCBS' news tember 15, complete brief news wrap-up, then segue into the- department the same kind of genial boot with the inevitable matic segments such as "California in the britches that Van Gordon Sauter redesigned set (by 60 Health," "California People" and "Cali- had just been brought back to administer Minutes director Arthur Bloom) and the fornia Family." At 6 P.M., a traditional 30 - to the network news division. Indeed, latest in video graphics. The Los Angeles minute local news show would lead into Sauter had performed that same service television critics, however, were predict- the network newscast, which had been for KCBS in the late 1970s, levitating ably rude about the new program. KCBS rescheduled from 7 P.M. to 6:30 to counter Channel 2 back into the high ratings after weatherman Kevin O'Connell took the rival KNBC-TV's similar move with Tom an earlier station decline. But his magic brunt of their raps for his live, on -location Brokaw's Nightly News. That would free hadn't lasted. After Gardner arrived last "California Living" segments that "dis- up another 30 minutes of lucrative prime spring, he and KCBS news director Erik covered" a new town every day. Wrote access time for the station. Sorenson surveyed the talent at the sta- the Herald Examiner's Ray Richmond: Owned stations have traditionally been tion and decided to go for broke. "The only hope is that he'll eventually the most profitable operations within the "It's time for a change," Gardner told a run out of towns." networks, and the changes at KCBS reporter. "We have a video -savvy audi- Los Angeles viewers quickly voted reflected CBS management's dissatisfac- ence watching a news form invented 35 with their channel selectors. After two tion with the performance of its station years ago. It's got to be more in tune with weeks, the Nielsens for KCBS news were group, which had been battered by the the California of 19$6." down a full share point over the previous overall problems at CBS. In 1985, the net- Many of the changes Gardner envi- year. The Arbitron ratings were even work sold its St. Louis station, KMOX- sioned did not involve spending money. worse. For the five-day period between TV, to Viacom to raise cash for its The new format, with its reduced airtime September 29 and October 3, KCBS fin- defense against Ted Turner's takeover per person, would let anchors become ished in seventh and last place in the local attempt. That reduced the number of "working journalists again," Gardner market. The abysmal ratings carried enthused, with paychecks matching their over to the network newscast. That Dick Adler is a Los Angeles free-lancer new status. KCBS anchor Jeff Marlow, week, the CBS Evening News with Dan who writes on television and the media. originally courted from KNBC with all Rather fell to sixth place.

70 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com As luck would have it, Dan Rather was news directors. Local news viewing was fired. As a primary force behind the broadcasting from Los Angeles during tends to be habitual, and a station's core flashy, "people -oriented" formats that the new format's debut-a particularly audience usually remains loyal to the propelled KABC into ratings leadership humiliating turn of events since the broadcast even in the face of an overall in L.A., Van Amburg seemed a curious entire purpose of his trip was to enhance decline in ratings. Sudden format choice, but he has quickly moved to the Evening News' profile in the impor- changes always run the risk of perma- restore traditional broadcasts at KCBS. tant West Coast market. At a reception nently alienating this nucleus of tradi- After just three days on the job, Van that week for KCBS, Rather attempted tional viewers while failing to make up Amburg jettisoned the news wheel and to reassure the staffers after a particu- the difference in new viewers attracted resumed straight newscasts at 4 and 5 larly nasty set of reviews, but his net- to the changed look. In the early 1970s, P.M. Van Amberg also canceled a weak work bosses back in New York would not for example, the CBS -owned station in Entertainment Tonight clone, Photo - be as gracious. Chicago, WBBM-TV, replaced its anchor play, which KCBS ran at 7 P.M., and After the first burst of bad ratings, team and many of its correspondents and replaced it with another 30 minutes of Derrough flew out to Los Angeles to changed its format, only to suffer an local news after Rather. "We're telling meet with Gardner. A KCBS spokesman immediate ratings decline that took years people that we made a mistake-come reported afterward that a "minuscule" to reverse. Westinghouse's Philadelphia back and give us another chance," says number of changes would be made, none station, KYW-TV, introduced an equally Van Amburg. of them visible to the viewer. But just a drastic format change a few years later Van Amburg has his work cut out for week later, with no visible changes in the from which it has ony recently recovered. him. CBS not only expects him to restore numbers either, Derrough was fired in Attempting anything radically different KCBS to respectable ratings, but to do so New York (his resistance to cost-cutting in local news, in short, has proven within the new budgetary restraints that measures also contributed to his depar- extremely difficult, and this is exactly the now prevail at the network. Says Van ture). Neil Pilson, executive vice presi- lesson KCBS learned the hard way with Amburg: "The message I'm getting is, dent of the CBS broadcast group, flew to its news wheel experiment last fall. 'Run the business as if it were your own. California to accept the resignations of CBS' new Mr. Fixit is Tom Van But please don't run it as though it were a Gardner and Sorenson. Amburg, former vice president and gen- government-funded operation.' " KCBS' embarrassing slippage and the eral manager of KABC-TV in Los And, he might have added, please don't firings in New York and Los Angeles Angeles, who was brought in as KCBS' schedule any more 20 -minute weather point up an enduring problem faced by general manager shortly after Gardner segments called "California Living."

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www.americanradiohistory.com The State of Syndication Seven captains of the industry discuss where it's peen and

where it's headed in a two-day seminar in New York.

On the tenth anniversary of LBS Communications, the syndication company's chairman, Henry Siegel, made a grant to the Museum of Broadcasting in New York for a seminar to illuminate the arcane field that allowed a smart operator and his company to prosper. The subject was syndication-its history and its significance in the television industry today-a subject large enough for two sessions. Held on successive days last fall, the seminars were coproduced and cohosted by the museum and Channels. The full transcript is now part of the museum's permanent collection. While the discussion ranged over all aspects of the syndication field, the recurring theme was barter. The highlights presented here focus on that motif

Henry Siegel (left) of LBS Communications, who underwrote the seminars, shares the stage at the GEORGE BACK, president, Museum with its Robert Batscha, who both panels. All American Television: of Broadcasting president, moderated Barter is perhaps the greatest boon to diversity in programming in the worth of that show, they're very effect a network competing with my history of frightened about salesmen on Madison Avenue. He broadcasting. putting up the competes not only Barter creates money. So your for network dollars access to best shot at getting but for network advertisers and the program on is audience. Barter is access to the barter, because now between a station, while you're getting the $500 million and an spreading the risk advertising money $800 million among producer, and taking a chance business, but the j. station and a third that the ratings are network business is party, the advertising sponsor. And going to come in to cover. It gives you a measured in anywhere you have a risk being spread chance to produce shows that wouldn't billions, and so far barter is not a direct among so many parties, the get on the air, and it certainly helps the threat to what we do. We monitor it independent producer is better served small stations, because for them carefully; we sell against it. We think a because money can be more easily there's no cash outlay and no risk. network buy is better than a market gotten-and new ideas made to happen. buy for a number of reasons. But

RAY TIMOTHY, barter is here to stay. The six stations own in AL MASINI, president, Telerep: group executive vice president, NBC: we deal barter syndication, just as other stations do, so we aren't When you come out with a new concept If a barter packager gets his program against it. NBC's Today show is a pure that's never been tested and you go to on 150 stations and has, say, a minute form of barter. The affiliates sell one a station and ask them to buy a year's of advertising time to sell, he is in hour and the network the other.

72 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com HENRY SIEGEL, chairman. LBS Communications: JOSEPH TIRINATO, president, Southbrook Television Distribution Co.: The barter syndication industry is 'While we pay less per almost, but not quite, inflation proof. viewer for bartered shows, I don't like the term "syndicator." In a soft market we we're also buying lower We're really marketing specialists. get a lower With Fame, for price for our ratings. Last fall, the top 15 example, we took a merchandise. On barter series averaged a 7.9 show that was the other hand, we household rating. The top 15 perceived as dear more stations network shows got upwards having failed on the do because the spot of 22 ratings. These shows network. How marketplace is soft you take that show too, and stations didn't necessarily rate lower and revive it, would rather take because they're of lesser reduce the cost to the product on a barter basis than pay quality, but because their some degree for it. In a tight marketplace, we get a lineups are shorter and without touching the quality and then higher price for our :.nventory but may because they don't get the convince the stations, both affiliates not be able to clear as many stations. and independents, to clear it? On top of Right now it's a soft marketplace, but calibre of promotional that, what Henry [Siegel] had to do there's a lot of competition in the support the networks was take it to an advertiser like Joel barter field.... Currently barter provide.' [Segal] and convince him to put his programs carrying national spots -Joel Segal, advertising dollars in a "failed show." I number about 150-approximately one- executive vice president consider that being a specialist. I third of all syndicated programs. We Ted Bates Advertising consider it marketing. I don't consider expect that by next season as many as it syndication. half the programs will be done on a barter basis. Almost every national DON MENCHEL, president, MCA -TV: advertiser in the top 100 group is using barter in some fashion. 'The history of syndication Just to keep things in perspective, there's another area of syndication has been to follow the JOEL SEGAL, executive vie president, that is very, very, networks and be a good Ted Bates Advertising: very important- guerrilla. For syndicators and off-network From an advertiser's point of view, barter people, the method of syndication, where there are certain weaknesses in barter stations pay license competing is to cut network that tend to fees, in cash, for restrict the pricing in general. So we've programs. We keep medium's growth. discovered that barter can't talking about First, the shows rise unless the networks rise. barter and how it's are cluttered with In other words, in terms of grown to be a more advertising. half-billion -dollar But it advertising dollars, we're a than business. Secondly, while wouldn't be far off the track to say that syndicators usually stepchild to the networks. one program, The Cosby Show, is guarantee Barter just went through its ultimately going to produce the same audiences, their worst year in six years, and half billion dollars in syndication rating estimates are wildly off base. the reason was that the revenue.... In today's market it's This means that when the demographic network economy had its possible to produce series through a data are reported, sometimes months combination of network and worst year in I had no after a show airs, we start scrambling many. syndication. So in a perverse kind of around for make -goods, long after our idea until I had to live way, despite deficit financing, it's still advertisers' schedules have expired... through this past year that an advantage to get a show on a We don't want to see advertisers our existence in syndication network even if it only lasts one year. frightened away from the syndication is so completely dependent You can take a show that was canceled business by poor performance, because after 22 weeks, as we did with Charles upon the health of the frankly, syndication works very well In Charge, and combine it with first - for us as a device to keep pressure on networks.' run episodes. Not only does that give the networks-keep those guys in their you a leg up on the shows that begin place and their prices down.... It -George Back, with episode one, but having 22 would be wonderful if there were seven president, episodes in the can makes it a heck evenly distributed networks and I All American Television of a lot easier to reach the magic could pit one against the other. Wow, number of 80 episodes you now need what a deal we could get for our clients. fora strip.

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www.americanradiohistory.com This could be your last chance to see what is really going on in South Africa.

APARTHEID Four one -hour films made by Granada Television of England

"The year's best documentary project" The Independent "Superb documentary" The Observer "Merits every minute of precious airtime" The Sunday Times GRANADA TELEVISION Granada is represented world-wide by Granada Television International Limited London: 36 Golden Square, London WI R 4AH Telephone o t-734 8o80. Telex 27937 Paris: 18 Rue Volney 75002 Paris France Telephone (33 1) 42 61 79 to. Telex 213008 New York: 1221 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 3468 New York NY 10020 USA Telephone (212) 869-8480. Telex 62454 UW

NATPE BOOTH NUMBER: 734

www.americanradiohistory.com RINATE EYE

release any cassettes to critics for prescreening. I can HOW ABC only wonder why the likelihood of failure didn't occur DROPPED THE BALL to anyone earlier-say, at the point when the network committed to buying a full season's worth of episodes The biggest news of the 1986-1987 season was the without even commissioning a pilot. It's not as though return of Lucille Ball to weekly prime time televi- a Lucy comeback was an untested notion. In the late sion. Among the littlest news, by the time it hap- 1970s, CBS aired a special costarring her old foils, pened, was her show's "suspension" after just eight Vivian Vance and arpeggio -voiced Gale Gordon, with dismal episodes. The end may have come as a relief. whom Lucy teamed up again at ABC. The special was Gossip columns reported Lucy was tired, speckled inept: Its comic high point came when someone sat on with bruises from slapstick stunts, frustrated that a cake, which even by slapstick standards is a long audiences didn't respond the way they used to. The walk from opening an oven and watching a seven -foot show's ratings humiliated TV's most enduring star. It loaf of bread push its way out. By William A. ranked 23rd the week it opened-pretty good for a When Fred Silverman took over at NBC in mid - Henry new entry and for Saturday, a light viewing night, but 1978, one of his first acts was to hire Lucy as consult- III borderline lousy for the resurrection of a national ant. Her one completed project was an inane com- icon 12 years after her last edy pilot starring Donald weekly series. O'Connor as a white -bread Viewers, only mildly curi- paterfamilias who owned a ous to begin with, proved music store. The show downright uninterested aired only because Lucy once they saw what Lucy agreed to pad it with a story was up to. The show never that provided a sizable role Why didn't again ranked better than for her-and again her per- the likelihood 53rd. The episode that formance was subpar. aired the day after ABC Who is to blame for this of failure issued its pink slip justified season's fiasco? Not Lucy the lack of faith: It finished herself. Performers like to occur to 74th and was outdrawn by perform, and after hearing anyone all three networks' news over and over that TV specials about the midterm needed her, she responded earlier? Why elections. admirably, like an old fire - commit to Doesn't America still love horse hearing the bell. Lucy? Aren't her three pre- Maybe some of the onus a season's vious series (I Love Lucy, should fall on producer worth of The Lucy Show, Here's Aaron Spelling, who makes Lucy) still in syndication Loathing Lucy: The 1986 version (right) never reinvented the mostly "eye candy" (his episodes practically everywhere? character fully enough to reflect the passage of time. phrase) but who demon- Isn't hers the only TV char- strably knows the differ- without even acter, except maybe Ralph Kramden, that has ence between competent trash and hapless trash. commissioning beguiled every generation from late vaudeville to Foremost one should pin the donkey's tail on ABC, post -punk? which knew or should have known two things: a pilot? Sure. But that wasn't Lucy up on the screen. It was First, that slapstick doesn't sell much anymore, no some elderly imposter. Caked with makeup, she matter who is doing it. Consider the failure of its own looked mummified. Her voice, deep and hoarse, 0 Madeline, a skillful enough attempt to recreate the sounded like a bullfrog's in agony. She gamely Lucy shows of old with a star, Madeline Kahn, still in attempted her old style of slapstick but her impecca- her full youthful vigor. ble timing had fled. Worse, what used to be cute and Second, that in trying to counter NBC's Golden girlish in a younger woman, and in a male chauvinist Girls, ABC missed the point of that superhit. Golden era, turned out to be embarrassing in a senior citizen Girls succeeds not simply because it is about older today. One excruciating episode engaged Lucy in a women, but because it is about women who look and protracted flirtation, at least half-serious, with John act younger than they are-and who in fact are played Ritter, who is young enough to be her grandson. by actresses who are marginally younger than the The objection is not that she grew older, that her characters. The show is a testament to the illusion of body underwent normal physical change. Appearing eternal, or at least enduring, youth. as herself, she does fine. She was an ornament to The new Lucy, by contrast, was-and looked-more this year's Emmy show, and CBS is still finding use than a decade older than any of . for her in specials. I just regret that despite her Unlike them, she played someone younger than her pledge at the season's start, she did not reinvent the age. The Lucy of old beguiled us with impossible Lucy character nearly enough to reflect the passage dreams-of instant fame and stardom, of show biz suc- of time-and the manifold differences in the way we cess via a misplayed saxophone or the soprano of an live, particularly the battle between the sexes. ailing crow. Her new impossible dream of agelessness ABC apparently realized by the time the show pre- only saddened audiences with its intimations of mor- miered that it had a stinker: The network refused to tality. That's no recipe for a sitcom.

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www.americanradiohistory.com WASHINGTON

decade ago sees the next great issue facing that indus- WHAT EVERY LOBBYIST try as "what the American people perceive as greed in SHOULD KNOW broadcaster profits from political advertising." Other ticking packages include the increasing concentration As new senators and representatives unpack their of ownership and the general lack of minority partici- bags, they might notice a trophy hanging in the pation. But whatever the next flashpoint, broadcast- halls of Congress: Mike Pertschuk's head. Perts- ing will always be subject to greater scrutiny by the chuk, for those who may have forgotten, was the Fed- public than other industries because of the "public eral Trade Commission chairman who, during the interest, convenience and necessity" language of the Carter Administration, tried to ban all television Communications Act of 1934. advertising aimed at young children. One of Washington's little secrets is that some cor- He lost big. A huge majority in both houses of Con- porations are currently forming coalitions with public gress-who found in Pertschuk a ready target for interest groups, enlisting do-gooders as allies in by Joel Swerdlow growing antiregulatory sentiment-eventually voted largely intercorporate battles. This is happening, for to emasculate the FTC by subjecting its actions to leg- example, in telephone regulation at the state level, islative veto. Official Washington shook its head and where large clients have aligned themselves with con- said, "That's what happens sumer activists to stop rate when you take on the TV iuoawR increases. industry." w,war+ctas Reflecting on his earlier But Pertschuk has not defeat, Pertschuk calls it gone away. Along with JOK "an endless source of inspi- former Common Cause 11 Cie TRICKS ration in how not to conduct chief David Cohen, he now public policy." He also says The best heads the Advocacy Insti- he learned two major les- keep in touch tute, a two -year -old, not -for- sons that should be remem- profit organization designed bered by those who antici- with the to promote public -interest pate a move to reregulation lobbying. Although none during Reagan's final two grass roots of the institute's activities years: 1) Congress and not a and remain involve television per se, regulatory agency should the world of TV can learn a always take the initiative; realistic lot from Pertschuk. and 2) compromise solu- about what Thanks to deregulation, tions, such as requiring free communications industries TV ads pointing out the they can and lobby against each other health risks of eating too (cable versus broadcast, for much sugar, should receive cannot do. lawyer - example) and are increas- Public -interest prestidigitator: Pertschuk keeps a bag of precedence over driven regulations such as ingly cloaking themselves tricks and says savvy lobbyists could learn a thing or two. in the trappings of the an outright ban. These les- "public interest." The savvy among them could learn sons apply to several current issues, such as chil- a thing or two from an old public -interest lobbyist's dren's television and how best to guarantee a diver- bag of tricks. Appropriately, at the entrance to Perts- sity of voices on the nation's cable, satellite and chuk's office is a weathered wooden sign advertising broadcast systems. "Washington's Headquarters for Magic, Tricks, Pertschuk's insights into lobbying can also help Jokes-Fireworks." Now in his early 50s, Pertschuk CEOs judge whether their D.C. dollars are well has a rumpled, professorial look. He smokes cigars spent. The best lobbyists, he says, are always in touch and laughs when reminded that he spent much of his with the grass roots and remain realistically self-effac- career fighting the tobacco industry on health ing about what they can and cannot do. grounds. He doesn't mind giving corporate America a Pertschuk quotes former Sen. Warren Magnuson, little advice, he says, because "I'm sure they'd never who once lamented that "I spent this whole day see- listen to me anyway." ing people who never even tried to persuade me of Pertschuk's academic manner belies the tough prac- anything. They just wanted to be able to report to ticality of that advice: In public -policy debates, corpo- their clients, `I saw Magnuson today.' " rations should carefully devise and use symbols; they Leading broadcast executives, Pertschuk says, should seize the moral high ground on an issue early should save some money and come to Washington and always keep in mind that media attention and themselves to meet people, including "the 25 -year -old grass -roots organizing are the decisive battlefields. staffers on Capitol Hill who have lots of power." He says the major pitfalls for corporations are appear- But there's another way to learn more about what ing too greedy or powerful-by conspicuously pouring Pertschuk is thinking about: The Advocacy Insti- money into political action committees, for example, tute's brochure promises that for a tax deductible and failing to anticipate the issues that lie "just below $1,000 contribution, the former FTC chairman "will the surface of public outrage." come over for dinner and regale you with tales." It All of which leads Pertschuk to the subject of broad- might be the most economical $1,000 dinner that a casting. The man who battled the industry almost a broadcaster ever paid for.

76 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com America's . Leading First-run Television Distributor

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www.americanradiohistory.com The World According to Lorimar-Telepictures

L -T's Richard Robertson talks about the company's collapsed station deal, why NATPE is overrated and why program costs won't go down.

As the top syndication executive and a PROGRAM COSTS basically fill-in time for most companies member of the office of the president at The cost of programming, I believe, will that do it right. The companies that go to Lorimar-Telepictures, Richard Robert- even go higher. This business won't be in NATPE thinking they're going to launch son's job requires a salesman's bravado true balance until programming gets a a new show are ignorant of the process. and a senior manager's analytical skills. better share of the back end. All the talk Those skills were severely taxed during in the industry of bringing down pro- DEFICITS 1986, when L -T's senior management gramming costs is rhetoric, in my opin- The deficit problem has to get resolved. was consumed with its now collapsed ion. I wish clothes didn't cost so much. I It's the single biggest problem in our efforts to spend $1 billion acquiring wish cars didn't cost so much. I wish gaso- business. The only reason people are in seven television stations. But with thir- line still was thirty cents a gallon. But I this business and take deficits, from a teen first -run shows on the air, the com- just don't see it as a realistic goal. financial point of view, is so they will pany is again focusing on programming. There's nothing more expensive than a recap the deficit and yield a profit in the A former network sales executive and show that doesn't do a good rating. Sta- back end. You don't have to be a real executive vice president of Telepictures, tions live off of selling their thirties. And major financial maven to figure that out. which he helped start in 1978, Robertson the cost of programming to the people But there are a good number of hit hour discussed the changing television mar- who make it is not going down. The infra- shows that are either going to lose money ketplace recently with Channels' execu- structure is there: the agents, the man- or, at best, break even, because they're tive editor Merrill Brown and West Coast agers, the unions, the networks, the not sold in the top ten markets-things editor Patricia E. Bauer. banks who finance it, the interest rates like Hill Street Blues, Simon & Simon, they charge. It just keeps going-like a Night Rider and The A -Team. A lot of giant machine. people are going to wind up shaking hands with themselves. THE SYNDICATION BUSINESS Right now we make all three of our I've always said that syndication is a sell- hours in profit because they're very suc- ing and marketing business, and the best cessful hours, with foreign revenues and shows don't get on the air and stay on, syndication revenues. We have to know necessarily. The shows represented by that we're going to make a profit. Just to the best marketing and selling companies be on the network for the network's sake get on the air and tend to stay on the air is not a business. because they get the best time periods. The best thing about selling programs, THE APPEAL OF and it's what I love about this business, is FIRST -RUN FARE that somebody's always in last place so I think first -run syndication is pretty there is always a marketplace. Relatively much maxing out in terms of number of speaking, it's a recession -proof business. hours on the air. It's an enormous indus- try, but the pie is only so big. Still, it's a WHAT HAPPENS AT NATPE great business. Most people buy pro- Wheel of Fortune was a big hit, and all of grams to be safe. They don't want to a sudden there were fifty game shows spend six million dollars and buy a turkey going to NATPE. So what? People go to and be stuck with it. Careers are on the NATPE and they have all these booths line. Stations are in the first -run business and they give away all this shrimp and because they only have to commit to they don't sell diddly squat. By the time these projects for, generally, one year. you go to NATPE, everything's done in Then if the shows work, the station can most of the major markets. NATPE is make the decision to renew them. And if

78 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com All the talk of bringing down programming costs is just rhetoric. I wish clothes didn't cost so much. I wish gasoline was still thirty cents a gallon. But it's just not a realistic goal.' the shows don't work, they can cancel and We would prefer the old way of having a tions, so how do we do business there? buy a new one. lot of different customers, because then Barter. Then we don't have collection The problem in off -network is that no one customer has that much control problems, and they don't have to advance when you make that commitment, you over the ability to get programs seen in money. The best thing that ever hap- commit for multiple runs, generally for the major cities, in the right time periods, pened to the national advertising busi- three years or more. If the general man- on the right stations. When there are just ness in the last ten years, from an adver- ager makes a big mistake on The Cosby a few major customers, the deals you tiser's point of view, is the giant growth Show, spends all that money and it make are not as attractive as they once and proliferation of barter syndication. doesn't work, that could cost him his job. were. They extract major profit partici- The networks didn't really take it very First run is a much lower risk. pations and make back -end deals. seriously; they snickered at it. But barter ... They can clip the upside on the risk syndication was real, with real national SELLING STRATEGY that we take. We thought that with the ratings: eights, nines, tens, fifteens. That This business has changed. It is getting group of stations that we were buying, a had a major impact on network pricing more complex and more sophisticated wonderful group of stations, we would from the advertiser's point of view and the program buyers are getting get security. In addition to operating because all of a sudden there's a fourth smarter because the money is getting so them as a business with a good return on place to go with your money. big now. It's not just a pat on the back and our investment, we would be able to align a couple of martinis when you sell a show. ourselves with these other companies as FOX BROADCASTING The general manager's very involved in partners in program ventures. But This Quite frankly, they're a competitor, but every programming decision in those sta- would never be an alternative to network they're also a customer. And I've got to tions, and you've gotten a much higher television. That's just ridiculous that any- tell you, I feel like I'm riding with the level programming director. Instead of body would think that. hounds but my heart is with the fox. I'm just buying a show, they're asking them- rooting for them. They will create more selves: can we sell this? THE APPEAL OF competition. The question is, can they OFF -NETWORK SHOWS support this giant cash loss long enough L -T'S FAILED STATION DEAL There is still an overwhelming fundamen- to get it turned around? I think they're We're real sad. We all worked real hard tal bias [toward off-network] at the sta- going to have to get some better -quality and we spent about seven million dollars tion level. Any syndicator who has ever stations in the major markets. You may on lawyers' fees and bankers' fees. And sold a show will tell you that coming in even see them wind up with an affiliate or we really took our eyes off of managing with an off -network show is magic. And two every now and then. our core business for those many months. the funny thing is that sometimes an off - We believed that television stations are network show creates magic in syndica- THE NEXT WAVE a good business. We did believe it and we tion, and sometimes it doesn't. Every- I think the stations will take a more still believe it. It's an excellent business. body thought The Muppet Show was aggressive role in determining their But it depends on what you pay. You going to be the greatest thing since sliced future-investing in programming or have to pay a price that gives you the bread, and it was a colossal failure. Those experimenting with a night a week on opportunity of getting your money back stations are still paying off on Muppet their own, or maybe adjusting the net- at a reasonable rate of return. That's contracts. What a program does once a work relationship a little bit. Networks number one. Number two: we became week on the network doesn't have much are still going to dominate this industry, concerned when we saw the Tribune to do with its success in syndication five but we may see some changes in how affil- Company buying KTLA; when we saw days a week. iates look at their network relationship the 12-12-12 rule come in. There was a lot when the compensation formula changes. written that this would make it easier on BARTER SYNDICATION And the Fox Network is lying in the syndication, because you had to go to It's a little tougher to sell cash program- weeds, offering a much better deal than fewer people to get your show watched. ming at the bottom third of the indie sta- they get from their own network.

CHANNELS 79

www.americanradiohistory.com Box Office Mid eocassette Columbia 11.1% Columbia AIM Disney 9.2% Disney ® 6.2% Lor-Tel Lor-Tel. 2.4% MGM/UA ® 6.2% MGM/UA 9.0% The power Orion ® 7.7% Orion recei )ts Paramount 16.5% Paramount 8.3%

Jan.-gip . of the majors v Tri-Star ® 7.2% Tri-Star 20th Cent Fox 1»7.9% SOth Cent Fox 13.5% Spokesmen for the movie and cable industries are slugging VICA (Universal) 10.1% MCA (Universal) 7.0% away at each other in "a sand- Warner 12.2% Warner 8.3% lot fight," as a Capitol Hill aide called it. Each says the other is dominated by relatively few aggressively ex- panding corporations. Motion Picture Network production Syndication Association of America president Jack Valenti points out that cable sys- Columbia an 5.1% Columbia 9.6% tem ownership is highly concentrated Disney III15.8% Disney t 1.0% among a few powerful operators, and Lor-Tel 8.1% Lor-Tel . 4.9% is growing more so. Forty percent of MGM/UA 1.2% MGM/UA .4.8% cable subscribers are served by the i ten largest operators. National Gable Orion in 2.8% Orion , 1.3% Paramount 3.7% r,n2ere of Paramount Television Association president xai.od.s 4.4% a.irituMd 1ÿ Tri-Star James Mooney complains about Hol- Tri-Star J 1.2% 1736 - lywood's "cartel -like grasp on the 20th Cent Fox 4.7% 20th Cent Fox .15.1% and American entertainment dollar," MCA (Universal) 11.0% MCA (Universal) 9.5% offers the accompanying figures as evidence. (Sources: NCTA compila- Warner 5.1 % Warner 4.5% tion of estimates from Variety, Videoweek, Katz Television.) "joint venture with RCA. "Joint < enture with CBS.

Phil': Oprah's °hi Oprah Donahue v. The Oprati Winfrey Show lead in lead-in 1 October '86 audience shares in farce rra: k oto where tie shows air I-ecd-to-head

41 33 30 23 20 15 8 10 n , l I 1 'I 111 1 , , I Lcs Angeles Atlanta Pittsburgh

37 34 30 Zg 29 29 30 27 25 12 [ I [ St. Louis Denver Milwaukee

months in syndication. She's in 141 markets already; he's in 212 after 18 years of syndication. But Winfrey's toasty personality Look to the lead-in doesn't fully explain her wins, says Jonathan Murray, a program- At first glance it appears that 's syndicated talk ming expert for the ad rep firm HRP. Where Donahue is preceded show is besting 's in the six biggest of the 48 markets by an equal or stronger show, and presumably inherits some of its where they go head -to -head: Note her four winning shares in bold- audience, he gets the larger audience. (Sources: HRP, based on face. And indeed she's been gaining on Donahue during her five Nielsen Station Index, October'86; King World; Multimedia.)

80 FEBRUARY '87

www.americanradiohistory.com i SFM Children's Theatre Crystal Light National Aerobics Championship Bud Greenspan/ Cappy Productions Specials A CDE SFM Holiday Network Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors The March (/ Time Photon SFM G IJKL Special Event Sports Pros .. & Cons

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IN OVATIVF, PROGRAMMING FROM A TO Z

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www.americanradiohistory.com The BREAKTHROUGH PROGRAMMING for September 1987!

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