Tribune Rises with KTLA Success of Morning Show Has Company Cloning Format; Wplx Could Be Next

hadcutipme imimmommt BROADCASTING Tribune rises with KTLA Success of morning show has company cloning format; wPlx could be next By Joe Schlosser radio program in Los Angeles. "If you go to other cities, when they are casting Three years ago, KTLA -TV Los their news teams, they say `We need a Angeles entertainment reporter Mark (Kriski), we need a Barbara Sam Rubin conducted a live report (Beck) and we need a Sam (Rubin).'" outside a Hollywood sandwich shop. KTLA General Manager John Rear- At the same time, KTLA'S morning don isn't surprised. "I think it depends news team had been protesting the on the market, but this format really quality of the food that the Tribune - works well here in Los Angeles. Obvi- owned station was providing its early - ously, you focus on localized news and rising and top -rated morning news events. It's basically a morning drive team. So anchors Barbara Beck and Model for success (l -r): Carlos Amezcua, program with pictures. It's a combina- Sam Rubin, Barbara Beck and Mark Carlos Amezcua, and weatherman Kriski. tion of having a good time but also Mark Kriski decided to take things into bringing the news to viewers. I think it's their own hands. They walked off the does entertainment reporting for other a format others would want to follow." set in the middle of the telecast, piled Tribune stations and hosts a daytime KTLA Morning News made its debut into Amezcua's van and drove to the sandwich shop. Left behind to handle the news was Muppets take Munich in- TV studio guest, producer Arnold A decade after a deal to sell the Jim Henson Company to Disney fell Shapiro (Scared Straight). After get- through, the home of Kermit and Miss Piggy has been sold to German ting their food and an earful from pro- entertainment company EM.TV. ducers, the reporters rushed back to the According to the deal, expected to close later this year, Munich -based studio in -"running three red lights" EM.TV & Merchandising AG will pony up $340 million in cash and 6 mil- the process. lion EM.TV shares, a deal valued at about $680 million, in exchange for "The police saw and followed us all 100% ownership of the family -run Jim Henson Company. the way back to the lot with their sirens The company comprises 450 hours of film and TV programming, includ- on," says Amezcua. "They were really ing TV series The Muppet Show, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies and Frag- mad .... Luckily, they watched the gle Rock, as well as numerous Muppet movies. The company also includes show and knew what we were about." Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which creates creatures and effects for films No tickets were handed out -and it's and TV; as well as a partnership in the Odyssey cable channel; an interest the kind of off- the -wall stunt that has in international cable service The Kermit Channel; and a stake in Nick- driven KTLA's morning news show to elodeon /Children's Television Workshop's Noggin Channel. the top of the ratings in Los Angeles. The Henson Company began looking for an investor about six months The KTLA Morning News, which also ago in anticipation of the expiration in August of the company's two major does its share of serious news, not only TV and film deals, with ABC and Sony Pictures, respectively. The compa- beats local news in - the nation's second ny was founded in 1958 by its namesake, who died in 1990. The Disney largest market, but tops all of the net- deal fell apart shortly after Henson's death. work morning shows. Jim Henson Company President and COO Charlie Rivkin says the deal That success is not lost on Tribune, with EM.TV, also a family -controlled company, is a perfect fit. "We've whose flagship WGN -TV Chicago start- always been a creative company; they started out as a merchandising and ed a similar (if somewhat less wacky) licensing company -two areas we could have done better with," he says. program three years ago and just last Rivkin will move into the CEO seat once the deal is complete, allowing week reported its best morning num- the current CEO, Brian Henson, to become chairman so that he can "free KWGN -TV bers ever. Denver had started up his time from managerial responsibilities to drive the company creative- a copycat version this year and earlier ly," Rivkin says. He adds that the deal will make Henson a stronger partner KCPQ- other Tribune stations, including in Odyssey in terms of putting capital behind production to fill the channel's TV Seattle, are following suit. Sources schedule. The deal will also inject the financial support to continue "creat- say wPtx(TV) a New York may begin ing other successful film and TV franchises and new `creatures, "' he says. new morning show later this year. Another appeal of the sale, Rivkin says, is that the brothers who control WPix(TV) executives had no comment. EM.TV, Thomas and Florian Haffa, have a hands -off policy toward cre- Stations outside of the Tribune fami- ative companies EM acquires. "They invest in management as well as ly KTLA'S have widely copied format. assets," Rivkin says. "Thomas Haffa has been quoted as saying they never "We are the most ripped off show in all change players on winning teams" -Melissa Grego of television," says Rubin, who also 36 BROADCASTING & CABLE I FEBRUARY 28, 2000 .

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