THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 80 lines
THERE IS A theater in the WTKR building in downtown Norfolk that's been neglected for years. Come Monday, Sept. 9, at 9 a.m., the theater will be reborn - and so will locally-produced talk and variety television.
That's when ``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' signs on from the stage of that theater.
The co-hosts need no introduction to people who regularly watch Channel 3. Jane Gardner and Kurt Williams have been selected to revive a format that disappeared about six years ago, when WVEC last did a local talk show in the mornings.
``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' is to be a big deal, promised Michelle Butt, executive producer of the station's local news operation. ``This show will be a far more ambitious undertaking then anything you've seen before in this market,'' said Butt, who made the announcement on behalf of news director Barbara L. Hamm. Hamm is vacationing this month.
So, what will ``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' be, exactly?
News? Yes, some of that, said Butt. Features? Help to get and stay healthy? Certainly.
Many of the features will be supplied by the newly-blonde Paula Miller, who's been designated ``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' special correspondent.
And what else will this new program be? Variety. It will be a mirror of this community, said Butt, whose has deep TV roots in this area after working five years with WAVY before she joined Hamm's team. Delores Gee will produce the new show.
Look for ``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' to bring before the cameras everyone from the farmer who grows the biggest watermelon to the big names appearing at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater.
``If it's happening in Hampton Roads, it'll be happening on our stage,'' said Butt.
Yes, she said STAGE.
Not studio.
``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' will originate from the WTKR theater, which is a gem of a hall - small and cozy. Production manager Howard E. Mills' crew is installing 79 seats this week. The walls, ceiling and carpeting look and smell new.
Mills describes it as a theater brought back from the dead, and that's no exaggeration.
When the broadcast house on Boush Street was built in 1949 - it was once home to WTKR and two radio stations - it came with a nice 104-seat theater. However, when the station changed hands, the new owners made the theater disappear.
I mean that literally.
They built a floor over the seats, put up inner walls within the theater's outer walls and constructed a conference room. The theater lay dusty and forgotten beneath that room until The New York Times Co. bought Channel 3 last year, and general manager Elden Hale came to town looking to expand the station's local programming.
He launched a local news broadcast at sunrise seven mornings a week. He put ``Virginia Outdoors'' on the schedule Saturdays at 7 p.m. (Did you catch morning anchor Ann Keffer on ``Outdoors'' last week, excusing herself as an ``amateur non-fishing person'' when the big ones kept getting away?)
Now Hale is tossing Gardner and Williams into the morning TV talk-show thicket for one hour a day, Monday through Friday. Why Gardner and Williams?
Because their bosses think they can handle a live talk show - they can think and talk fast. ``They are both great ad-libbers and know how to work with crowds,'' said Butt.
That's important because WTKR will be inviting 79 guests to the theater to watch ``News Channel 3 Live at 9.'' I don't know how the show will turn out, but I can say for sure that the seats are comfortable.
I tested one.
You could put on quite a show on the stage. It's about 40 feet deep. Mills' crew will soon be on the stage, building a set for Gardner and Williams. Gardner will continue as co-anchor on the 5 p.m. news, and Williams will still come in before dawn to co-anchor WTKR's early-morning news.
``News Channel 3 Live at 9'' is something a little extra for them to do between 9 and 10 a.m. They'll replace ``Geraldo.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Kurt Williams
Jane Gardner by CNB