Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501200063
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The best - or at least the most highly touted - is being aired even though there is no regional affiliate for the new United Paramount Network. "Star Trek: Voyager" has its premiere on CBS affiliate WDBJ (Channel 7) tonight from 8 to 10 p.m.
Because there is no Paramount station in the market, the show was offered to other stations. WDBJ programming manager Mike Bell said he'd been hoping for the show for more than a year. Apparently the station's consistent audience strength and an agreement to air the program at 11:35 p.m. Saturdays won the favor of Paramount over WFXR/WJPR (Fox 21/27).
Once the basketball season is over in mid-March, WDBJ will repeat the show at noon on Sundays, Bell said. The station's contract for the show will run for nine months.
"Voyager" has gotten generally strong reviews, and programming directors - like Bell - around the country rated the Paramount network as the stronger of the two new ones being launched this month primarily on the basis of the presumed appeal of the show.
The new Warner Brothers network, on the other hand, has been panned by virtually every national reviewer who has seen the four shows it premiered with last week.
A new Danville station - WDRG (Channel 24) - went on the air earlier this month and is affiliated with the WB network.
Since Danville is considered part of the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market, cable systems in the region will be required to include the station in their basic service within about three months.
That is a relatively complicated process, said Gretchen Shine of Roanoke's Cox Cable. Her company will have to eliminate one existing channel from its 12-channel basic service to add WDRG, she said. No decision has been made yet on what will be dropped.
The cable operator just this month added the Disney channel to its Cox Preferred Service - also known as "extended basic."
Larry Smith, operations and sales manager of WDRG, said his station has the maximum power allowed for a UHF broadcaster and should be available in 36 counties. He said eventually the station also should be included in 20 to 25 cable systems.
Unlike many small UHF stations, Channel 24 will be producing some local programming as well as airing the Warner Brothers and syndicated programs. There will be local talk shows - on such topics as health, teens and regional personalities - as well as local movie hosts.
The network is scheduled to expand its programming to a second night - all the shows air on Wednesday nights now - in the summer, Smith said.
Broadcasting and Cable Magazine reported this week that Warner Brothers failed to meet its promised audience figures on last week's premiere night and will have to provide additional free time to its national advertisers.
Despite that setback and the sometimes scathing reviews of the network's programs, the new shows reportedly made a respectable showing in inner-city New York, for example, which may show their strength among the young, urban audience at which they are targeted.
by CNB