august 2003

offcamera

Off Camera, august 2003, page 1

back on top at 11

kgo & kqed up for national emmys

war and peaceWebsite: www.emmysf.tv

Electronic and print journalists will discusscoverage of the Iraq war and anti-war pro-tests at a NATAS-sponsored forum nextmonth at KGO’s studios in San Francisco.

The “War and Peace” forum starts at 7 pmon Wednesday, September 24th. ADAMHOUSLEY from Fox News and the SanFrancisco Chronicle’s JOHN KOOPMANwill talk about their experiences as embed-ded reporters in Iraq. KGO anchor DANASHLEY moderates.

forum set for kgo

ADAM HOUSLEY, FOX News

NBC-11 reclaimed the lead in the July late-night news wars as the topsy-turvy Bay Areatelevision market continued its fluid ways.The San Jose NBC O&O averaged a 4.5rating (10 share) for its weekday 11 pm news-casts, a 21 percent improvement over lastyear.

ABC-7 placed with a 4.2 (10). CBS-5, whichwon the time slot in June, slipped to thirdwith a 3.9 (9), still 13 percent better than ayear ago.

KRON-4 continues its “no network lead-in”struggle in late-night news. It finished fourthwith a 2.7(6), the same numbers it had inJuly 2002. The independent station’s 9 pmnews continues to do well, however.

KTVU still holds sway over all nighttimecompetitors. Its “Ten O’clock News” earneda 6.3 rating, 11 share, but those numbersare off 18 percent from last year.

At 6 pm, ABC-7 continued its winning wayswith a 4.5 rating (10 share). CBS-5’s 6:30pm finished second with a 3.5 (7), up 19percent from a year ago. KTVU’s 6 pm newswas right behind with a 3.3, up 20 percentfrom July 2002. KRON was fourth with a2.8 and NBC-11 was fifth with a 2.6rating,although that’s a 21 percent increase froma year ago.

At 5, ABC-7 still dominates. Its Oprah-lednewscast finished July with a 4.2 rating (11share), easily outdistancing KRON’s 3.3 (9).People’s Court on KTVU was third with a3.1(8), followed by CBS-5 (2.6 7) and NBC-11 (2.0/6).

KTVU reclaimed the crown among mid-day newscasts with a 3.4 (13), edging ABC-7’s 3.2 rating. CBS-5’s noon news contin-ues to slide. It finished third with a 2.0 (8),

A KGO-TV news story, “Child AbductionUnderground,” has been nominated for anational Emmy award for investigative re-porting. The “I-team” report exposed anunderground child abduction network re-sponsible for hiding two young girls takenfrom their mother by her ex-husband. It wona regional Emmy in May. Producer BETHRIMBEY, anchor DAN NOYES, photojour-nalists MICHAEL HORN and MARCSANCHEZ-COREA and associate pro-ducer LYNN R FRIEDMAN are named inthe nomination.

“At ABC-7 news, we put a premium on en-

terprise and investigative reporting thatmakes a difference in people’s lives,” saidKEVIN KEESHAN, KGO news director. “It’s

great to see the I-Team’s work get recog-nized by the Academy on a national level.”

The KGO entry will compete against fourother regional Emmy winners for the honor.The other nominees are from WTTG(Washington D.C.), WBZ (Boston), WCPO(Cincinnatti) and WTVF (Nashville).

Regional winners from all 20 Academychapters in investigative reporting andbreaking news are eligible for nationalEmmy consideration, as part of the NationalTelevision Academy’s “News and Docu-mentary Emmy Awards.”

KGO’s BETH RIMBEY, DAN NOYESand LYNN R FRIEDMAN

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Photo © Robert Mohr 2003 (415-647-6647)

Off Camera, august 2003, page 2

catchings joins itn

avery named to

JOHN CATCHINGShas been named di-rector of operationsfor ITN|MediaOneServices. John is abroadcast veteranwith more than 30years of experience.

THERESE GAMBAhas been promotedto vice president ofprogramming andstation marketing atKGO-TV (ABC-7),San Francisco.Gamba joined the

kgo promotions

A North Bay TV ex-ecutive has beenappointed to theT e l e v i s i o nAcademy’s North-ern California boardBRIAN AVERY waspicked by the board

He was Director of Station Operations atKPIX-TV San Francisco, where for ten yearshe supervised all aspects of program de-velopment and production at the CBSowned and operated station. For more thana decade, Catchings served as ExecutiveProducer at ABC’s KGO-TV, where he wasresponsible for daily news and sports cov-erage and production. He launched the sta-tions first morning news show and its firstsports magazine show. John began hisbroadcasting career behind the micro-phone at San Francisco radio stationsKMPX, KFRC and KSFX, where he was alsoProgramming and Operations Manager.Catchings has received numerous broad-cast awards including three Emmys. In2001, he founded Catchings and Associ-ates, a television production and consult-ing company. John serves on the NTAboard of governors and is co-chair of thearchive and museum committee. He wasinducted into the NTA Silver Circle in 1992

station in last December as director of cre-ative and strategic marketing.

In her new job, Gamba will be responsiblefor the overall image of the station as wellas for the purchasing and development oflocal programming. She will continue tooversee the ABC-7 News web site, publicrelations, and station events.

Ms. Gamba, a native of the Bay Area, has aBA from St. Mary’s College in Moraga and aMasters Degree in Radio and Televisionfrom San Francisco State. She was previ-ously the Vice President of Marketing forTNN in New York.

when a position opened up after the Mayelections.

Avery is the station manager at KTLN Chan-nel 68, based in Corte Madera and part ofthe Total Living Network presenting Chris-tian programming. Avery previously spent17 years as a video producer at KPIX-TV,San Francisco. He will chair the chapter’smanagement relations committee.

ERIC DAUSTER was named technicaloperations manager for the San Francisco-based ABC affiliate. Dauster was most re-cently the systems manager for TeleSuiteCorporation and manager of worldwidevideo operations at Oracle Corp. He alsohas extensive PBS experience, havingworked at KTEH in San Jose, KVIE in Sac-ramento and KQED in San Francisco.

JACK FRASER is the station’s new assis-tant director of engineering. Fraser beganhis career at KGO in 1980. He’s worked asa maintenance engineer, an ENG techni-cian and a production technician.

In graphics, LISA WELDON PHELAN isKGO-TV’s new art director. Most recently,Phelan was lead artist for Video DesignGroup, a subsidiary of 10 ABC-owned sta-tions and Buena Vista Syndication. Phelanhas also worked at CNN and KHOU-TV inHouston.

KGO executives also hired JACK LIVOLSIas promotion manager. LiVolsi most re-cently was executive producer of specialprojects for WBZ/WSBK in Boston. He alsoserved as creative services director atWSBK.

Journalists who covered the peace proteststhis spring will also recount their experi-ences, including the growing hostility ofdemonstrators towards “corporate media.”

Taped copies of the forum will be shippedto outlying areas for viewing by anyone whocan’t attend.

This is the third in a series of forums spon-sored by NATAS on issues important to thetelevision industry. Last fall’s topic was newsjudgment. In the spring, a panel discussedovernight ratings.

war & peace 9/24continued from page 1

JOHN KOPPMAN DAN ASHLEY

natas board

legends salutecreature features

The September 23rd Broadcast Legendsluncheon will salute “Creature Features.”Former hosts of the KTVU “Creature Fea-ture” program BOB WILKINS and JOHNSTANLEY will be on hand to show clipsand tell stories.

The luncheon will be held at the Bay BridgeHoliday Inn, Emeryville, 11:30 a.m. recep-tion, 12 noon, lunch followed by the pro-gram. www.broadcastlegends.com

JOHN STANLEY BOB WILKINS

Off Camera, august 2003, page 3

broadcasting virtual museum national emmys

A KQED program that focused on a SanFrancisco Opera production has receiveda national Emmy nomination. “Then OneNight: The Making of Dead Man Walking”has been nominated for a national Newsand Documentary Emmy Award.

The program detailed the San FranciscoOpera’s December 2000 production of theopera, “Dead Man Walking.” The docu-mentary aired on KQED in 2001. It pre-miered nationally in January 2002. KQEDproducer/director LINDA SCHALLERworked on the project for almost a year

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The Emmys will be presented on Septem-ber 3rd at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in NewYork.

SF Opera production “Dead Man Walkiing”

July’s edition of Off Camera announced theexciting plans for the development of theBroadcast Archives and Museum of North-ern California. An important component ofthe plans include a virtual museum thatwill allow visitors to view, via the Internet,material from many regional archivesthroughout our Chapter. The process thatwill enable this unique collection to be ac-cessible to museum visitors will be a feat ofepic proportions! It will involve the cleaningand transfer of thousands of hours of origi-nal broadcast footage on film and video,which will then be digitized into specializedworkstations enabling the material’s resto-ration and storage.

As a first step into theseuncharted waters, theBay Area Video Coali-tion and SiliconGraphics, both mem-bers of the museum planning committee

and consortium, have set up workstationsat BAVC’s facility. Ten high powered “Oc-tane” workstations were generously do-nated by SGI. The workstations are specifi-cally configured to run specialized film andvideo restoration software, donated by con-sortium partner Mathematical Technolo-gies Company. MTI is the market leaderin resolution-independent digital mastering,restoration and formatting software.

The BAVC learning lab will eventually serveas a test site for the virtual museum, per-fecting the process that will allow thousandsof visitors to explore the rich media historyof northern California

SGI’s Octane workstation installed at BAVC

From Ohio to Oahu. SUE LEVINE, formerassistant news director at WOIO/WUAB inCleveland, has been named news directorat Hawaii NBC affiliate KHNL News 8.

Levine switches stations but stays in thesame company. Raycom Media owns bothWOIO and KHNL.

Before joining Raycom, Levine was execu-tive producer at WJBK, the Fox station inDetroit. She’s also worked in Miami, NewYork and Los Angeles.

“We are very excited to have someone ofSue’s caliber coming to lead our news de-partment, said JOHN FINK, vice presidentand general manager, said in a statement.

Levine replaces SETH FELDMAN, whoresigned in June. The hire leaves KGMB-TV as the only Honolulu TV station withouta news director.

new nd at khnlcommunity leadership benefitGate Chapter AWRT. “We invite our mem-bers and other media industry friends tochoose to send a gift for the Belva DavisDiversity Scholarship.”

The Belva Davis Diversity Scholarship wascreated in honor of the award winning andhighly regarded television reporter and an-chor, BELVA DAVIS. Davis is a member ofAWRT and holds the distinction of havingbeen the first African-American, female tele-vision reporter on the West Coast (1966).

JACKIE WRIGHT was AWRT President forthe Golden Gate Chapter in 1999. She cur-rently serves as Executive Director of theOffice of Public Engagement and Informa-tion for the SF Unified School District. Shespent most of the 1990’s as Public AffairsAssociate for the Bay Area Chapter of theAmerican Red Cross.

RSVP by August 10, please call 415-705-0557 or www.celebratejackiewright.com.

BELVA DAVIS JACKIE WRIGHTThe American Women in Radio and Tele-vision (AWRT) Golden Gate Chapter’s BelvaDavis Diversity Scholarship will be a fea-tured beneficiary at the Community Lead-ership Reception and Fundraiser August15, 6-8:30pm at San Francisco’s LavashRestaurant, 4 Embarcadero Center.JANICE EDWARDS of KNTV, NBC 11 willbe emcee.

“We want to build the funds for this very im-portant scholarship, so we are pleased thatit is one of the beneficiaries of the event,”said LISA SCIMENS, President Golden

Off Camera, august 2003, page 4

july ratingskpix cancels emmy-winning newscast

new kntc programAzteca America, KNTC-TV 42, is now air-ing a locally produced Latino-oriented pro-gram featuring entertainment news, artistinterviews and community events.

“Ojos Latinos, Tu Musica” premiered July28th on the San Francisco-based, Spanishlanguage channel. It airs from 4 to 5 pmweekdays. “Ojos Latinos” is an “entertain-ment magazine targeted at young adultswho are looking for programming alterna-tives,” said KNTC General MangerROBERTO PINEDA.

The show’s producer is ANDRES PRUNA,

continued from page 1down 20 percent from last year. KRON’s11:30 am news was fourth with a 1.3 (5).

It’s a tight battle in early mornings. KTVUholds on to its lead with a 2.2 rating (13share) at 6 am. Right behind were NBC-11and ABC-7, both with a 2.0 (12). KRON wasfourth with a 1.6 (9). CBS-5 was fifth with a1.2 (7), although its numbers were 35 per-cent better than a year ago

Less than three months after winning theEmmy for Best Daytime Newscast, the 4:30p.m. news on KPIX has been cancelled. The final day for the newscast, anchoredby BARBARA RODGERS and KATEKELLY, will be Aug. 29.

In its place will be the syndicated show,“People’s Court.” KPIX purchased the rightsto the hour-long show, wresting it away fromKTVU. “People’s Court” will run from 4 p.m.to 5 p.m. Another syndicatedshow, “Living It Up with Ali and Jack” will runfrom 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. That show, starringToday correspondent JACK FORD and co-medienne ALI WENTWORTH, replaces“Good Day Live.” The Los Angeles-basedtalk show will move to the Viacom-ownedUPN affiliate, KBHK.

Station Manager RON LONGINOTTI tolda stunned KPIX newsroom about thechanges in late July. He said the decisionshad nothing to do with the quality of the 4:30p.m. newscast. Longinotti said a stronger“audience flow” into KPIX’s 5 p.m. news-cast was the reason for the switch.

“People’s Court” has been airing on KTVU

BARBARA RODGERS KATE KELLY

This year’s Gay Pride Parade in San Fran-cisco not only drew big crowds, it had alarge television audience, as well. TheJune 29th event, aired live on KRON-TV,scored a 6.5 rating (22 share). This is the first year the San Francisco indy hasaired the pride celebration.

That 6.5, which translates to more than150,000 households tuned in, beat by awide margin the 2.6 rating the live cover-age earned when it was carried by KBWB/KOFY in 2002, and was the highest the pa-rade had garnered since 1998.

DINO DINOVITZ, KRON 4 President andGeneral Manager said, “KRON 4 is com-mitted to providing the best news and localprogramming for the diverse communitiesof the Bay Area, and we believe that thisevent is one more way we can reach out tothe people we serve.”

gay pride draws

a Cuban-Americandocumentary film-maker who alsoproduces the En-glish language“Latin Eyes” forKRON-TV. (That

program airs at 10 Sunday mornings.)

big ratings

Former “TeleCopter 4” traffic reporter BOBMcCARTHY died on July 5th fighting a battlewith lymphoma. Bob was hired by KRON inthe early 1980’s as the helicopter coordi-nator. News Director MIKE FERRING de-cided to put Bob in the helicopter as theTeleCopter 4 traffic reporter. Bob gavemorning and afternoon traffic reports on“NewsCenter 4” for several years.

His daughters request donations to bemade to the Sutter Cancer Foundation,2800 L Street/ Sixth Floor, Sacramento, CA95816-5600.

in memory bob mccarthy

Wednesday, Octo-ber 15, 2003 at theSony Metreon Ac-tion Theatre, SF. NewMedia CommitteePremiere Event:Broadband andVideo On DemandPanel.

save the date

at 5 p.m. In July, it garnered a 3.0 rating (8share) and was number one in that timeslot for female viewers ages 25 to 54.

KPIX’s 4:30 p.m. newscast began two yearsago. In July, it received a 1.7 rating (5 share). That was up 23 percent from July 2002, butapparently not good enough to stay on theair. In May, the 4:30 p.m. news scored amajor upset at the Northern CaliforniaEmmy show when it defeated KTVU’s“Mornings on 2” to win the Best DaytimeNewscast Emmy.

Longinotti also announced KPIX will expandits weekend morning newscasts. On Satur-day, an extra 90 minutes of news will run onKBHK after the KPIX newscast ends at 8a.m. On Sunday, an extra hour of news willrun on KBHK after KPIX’s newscast ends at8:30 a.m.

Off Camera, august 2003, page 5

sacramento natas cinema clubsan francisco 8/11

“WHALE RIDER” Drama - 1 hr. 45 min. AMaori tribe must contend with a female astheir leader after her twin brother dies atchildbirth, and she must struggle to proveherself. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief lan-guage and a momentary drug reference.Distributor: Newmarket Films

Starring: KEISHA CASTLE-HUGHES, RAWIRIPARATENE, VICKY HAUGHTON, CLIFFCURTIS, GRANT ROA Directed by: NIKI CAROProduced by: TIM SANDERS, JOHN BARNETT,FRANK HUBNER

The CINEMA CLUB is a FREE first runmonthly screening (second Monday) forNATAS, DGA and AWRT members whomay bring a guest. The private viewing isat the Delancey Street Screening Room,600 The Embarcadero, San Francisco.Refreshments & Networking 7 p.m., movie7:30 p.m. Seating limited to first 146 toarrive.

Two dozen Sacramento NATAS membersgot a chance to “reload” at the movie the-ater last month. The members and guestswere treated to a free showing of “Matrix:Reloaded” at the IMAX theater in downtownSacramento. NATAS members mingled inthe lobby before entering the wide-screentheater for the two-hour sequel.

members “reload”at movie night

cinema clubsacramento 8/23

Sacramento Cinema Club moves to a new theatre, dateand time…

The next free Sacramento movie will be Saturday, Aug.23, at the Regal Theaters in the Natomas Mall. Meetin the theatre lobby for networking at noon, moviestarts at 12:30 p.m. NATAS members and a guest willget in FREE to a showing of “Seabiscuit.”

This is the true story of a former bicycle repairman,Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), who made his fortuneintroducing the automobile to the American West, andwho owned a small, knobbly-kneed horse calledSeabiscuit.

Photo © Robert Mohr 2003 (415-647-6647)

www.emmysf.tv

kron adds $$$ showA new program on business, money andinvestment has hit the air at KRON-4.

The San Francisco Indy premiered“Rob Black & Your Money” last month.The half-hour program airs weekdays atnoon.Hosts ROB BLACK and CHERYLCASONE field phone and e-mail questionsfrom viewers, offer market updates andanalysis, and provide investment tips.

Black is best known for his CNET nation-ally syndicated radio show, “Stock Talk.”

CHERYL CASONE, ROB BLACKCasone has been reporting on business forKRON and previously worked for businessnews network Bloomberg Television in NewYork.

Off Camera, august 2003, page 6

(415) 777-0212(650) 341-7786 4317 Camden Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94403-5007fax: (650) 372-0279e-mail: info@emmysf.tvwebsite: www.emmysf.tv

officers:DAVID MILLS, KPIX, PresidentLYNN R FRIEDMAN,KGO, VP,San FranciscoKEITH SANDERS, KICU, VP, San JoseGEORGE FRANCO,KOVR, VP SacramentoJEFF CARDINALE, KFSN, VP, FresnoDAVID RATTO, KTVN/ImageSync, VP, RenoPAMELA YOUNG, KITV, VP, HawaiiMICHELE BALL, KBWB WB20, SecretaryJIM SPALDING, Spalding & Co., Treasurer(Finance)

the board of governors

national trustees:JAMES LAUTZ, Tudor CommunicationsCYNTHIA ZEIDEN, Zeiden Media (Activities)

governors:DAN ADAMS, KXTV 10DAN ASHLEY, KGO ABC 7JOHN CATCHINGS, ITN/Media One (Museum)ALBERT GARCIA, KUVS Univision 19ALISON GIBSON, Media Cool (Education)STEWART HELLER, York ProductionsADAM HOUSLEY, FOX NewsASHLEY JAMES, KTOP Cable 10(Publicity)RON LOUIE, KTVU FOX 2TERRY LOWRY,LaCosse ProductionsJAVAID MALIK, KGO ABC 7, JAM Prod.SCOTT McGREW, KNTV NBC 11DEANNE MOENSTER, KTVU FOX 2JOHN MURRAY, JM CommunicationsSHARON NAVRATIL, KTVU FOX 2JOHN ODELL, City College of San FranciscoROSS PALOMBO, KRON 4PAT PATTON, KRON 4 (Membership)TERRI RUSSELL, KOLO 8HEATHER SEARLES, ITVSDAMIAN TRUJILLO, KNTV, NBC 11JAVIER VALENCIA, KRON 4 (Awards)KIRA VILANOVA, KDTV 14(Publicity)STUART YAMANE, IndependentRICK ZANARDI, Notre Dame de Namur University

committee chairsDARRYL COHEN, Cohen & Cooper ( Legal Counsel)LINDA GIANNECCHINI, KQED9 (Museum)

zamacona working with grateful dead

coming events coming events coming events coming events coming eventsAug. 11th Cinema Club, “Whale Rider,” San FranciscoAug. 23rd Cinema Club, “Seabiscuit,” SacramentoSep. 24th “War and Peace Forum,” KGO-TVOct/ 15th “New Media Event, Sony Metreon exective director

DARRYL COMPTON, NATAS, SF/NorCal

On July 15th, FRANKZAMACONA began shooting in-terview footage with members ofThe Dead (formerly The Grate-ful Dead) in Northern California.Dead band members MICKEYHART and BOB WEIR, along withlong-time roadie Steve Parishwere among those interviewed.The footage will appear on both a25th Anniversary DVD/CD setand a 90-minute PBS specialcelebrating the Grateful Dead’s

Zamacona Productions have a strong andcreative partnership—Frank has been direct-ing spots for the station since 1993.

In June, Zamacona directed a promotionalspot for KGO-ABC/7’s “Experience” cam-paign. He had the good fortune of workingwith station-veterans Pete Wilson, JessicaAguirre, Dan Ashley, Mike Finney, and pro-ducer Missy Crawford. The spots are sched-uled to air July through October 2003.

On the corporate front, Zamacona teamedup again this summer with Medical Pro-grams/HMP, directing two programs for livesatellite broadcast, webcast and audio con-ference. The first program, “Current Ad-vances In The Treatment of LymphaticMalignancies”, was shot and broadcast inJune from Denver’s Comcast ProductionCenter. The second, shot in July in New YorkCity is entitled “Behavioral Management.:Treatment Team Strategies.”

DANNY MANEJA, ANNIE ROTHCHILD, BOB WEIR, FRED TETZNER, FRANK ZAMACONA

performance at Winterland, one of SanFrancisco’s most renowned entertainmentvenues. The Dead’s performance thatnight was the last ever at the venue beforeit was closed down, and lasted from 12midnight until 6 am the next day. In August,Zamacona will begin editing footage of theperformance for both the DVD and the PBSspecial. Post-production will continuethroughout the remainder of the year, withthe set slated for release in November andthe PBS special scheduled to air in De-cember of 2003

Zamacona recently directed a promo-tional spot for KGO-ABC/7, publicizing theopening of the upcoming Marc Chagallexhibit at San Francisco’s Museum ofModern Art (SFMOMA). The exhibit in-cludes pieces spanning in time from 1907to 1970, and is open from July 26th throughNovember 4th. KGO-ABC/7 and