THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260289
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 75 lines
At first glance, it's another show in a crowded field.
But a planned one-hour weekly local news magazine co-produced by WHRO-TV and WVEC-TV illustrates several strategic gambles in the battle for media influence.
WHRO, the public broadcaster, and WVEC, the local ABC affiliate, announced the program, ``This Week in Hampton Roads,'' this week. It will premiere Oct. 11, air on WHRO Fridays at 9 p.m. and be audio-repeated Mondays on one of its sister radio stations, WHRV-FM. Cathy Midkiff Lewis, a longtime local TV news person, and WVEC's Barbara Ciara will be co-anchors.
The idea is simple: Devote more time to big local news stories than the 90 seconds that commercial TV newscasts can typically afford.
But the tapestry that has woven the show together is more complex.
A regular contributor to the program will be The Virginian-Pilot, whose business news editors and reporters will craft a segment each week on local business highlights. The Pilot has been exploring how to branch into TV and radio to extend the newspaper's brand name. The new show offers a chance to test the waters of those media at a time when its cross-region rival, the Daily Press in Newport News, is starting to co-produce news with local NBC affiliate WAVY-TV.
The show's underwriter will be Bell Atlantic Corp.'s Video Services group. It plans to battle Cox Communications Inc. for control of the local cable TV distribution business next spring when it launches a 120-channel wireless cable service in Hampton Roads. The underwriting credits for Bell Atlantic Video that appear at the beginning, middle and end of each show will be its first splashes at local marketing as it tries to distinguish its service from Cox's.
``We certainly hope this will help people start associating us with relevant programming,'' said Robert Dierker, Bell Atlantic Video's director of programming.
For WVEC, whose reporters will be the chief contributors to the show, ``the greatest advantage to us is broadening our news footprint,'' said Richard J. Keilty, the station's vice president and general manager.
Keilty said that as the costs of popular syndicated shows - for everything from talk programs to off-network repeats of series like ``Seinfeld'' - have skyrocketed in recent years, stations have found relatively modest investments in news shows increasingly appealing.
WVEC hopes that if the hourly news show is well-received by viewers, their goodwill will spill over to increased viewership of its commercial newscasts.
Nearly every local TV station has been experimenting with partnerships to deliver news. WVEC launched a 10 p.m. newscast last November on local independent WPEN-TV - on the heels of CBS affiliate WTKR-TV's start of 10 p.m. news on the local United Paramount Network station, WGNT-TV.
In WHRO, Keilty found a partner that has long been inclined to experiment.
The station was among public-broadcasting pioneers in utilizing microwave signals to distribute educational programming to schools. Its decision several years ago to lease some of those unused frequencies to a commercial ``wireless-cable'' operator eventually opened the opportunity for Bell Atlantic Video, which bought a big stake in that wireless company, to launch its planned service. Bell Atlantic plans to use those same frequencies to distribute its service, and WHRO's president and general manager, John R. Morison, said the public broadcaster will get a share of the phone company's revenues.
WHRO provides schools and libraries with access to the global Internet computer network and operates videoconference facilities. It distributes and originates satellite programming and is in the businesses of engineering consulting, graphic design and animation.
WHRO was singled out in the latest annual report of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a national model for public broadcasters. ``We've pushed ourselves out of the stereotype of a bunch of `educasters' sitting here waiting for the next funding check,'' Morison said.
WVEC's Keilty predicted that as the battle for the loyalty of readers, viewers and listeners intensifies, even more significant tradition-breaking media partnerships will be announced. ``This is a time for thinking outside the box,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT D. VOROS/The Virginian-Pilot by CNB