DATE: Monday, August 18, 1997               TAG: 9708160091

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

NEW OWNERS OF FAMILY CHANNEL ARE MUM ON EXPECTED CHANGES

LOCAL TV NEWS to ponder while you await Andrew Dice Clay's return to primetime Aug. 26 in ``Hitz'' on UPN:

Mum's the word - The people who bought and recently assumed control of the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel refuse to confirm or deny these rumors circulating at FAM:

The Lynnhaven offices will be shut down soon, operations will move to Los Angeles, and 60-day layoff notices are on the way to dozens of employees in Virginia Beach.

Spokesmen for the new owners - a partnership between Fox and Saban Entertainment which is called Fox Kids Worldwide - say only that everything about FAM as it exists today is ``under review.''

Will FAM's daily two-hour ``Home & Family Show'' be swept away by children's programming?

``It's under review.''

In the future, will the channel be known as Fox Family or Fox Family Kids?

``It's under review.''

Of those who work at FAM's headquarters in Virginia Beach, who will go and who will stay when the new channel evolves, probably by September 1998?

``It's under review.''

Fox and Saban execs also refuse to comment on published reports that say Margaret Loesch will quit as vice chairman of Fox Kids Worldwide because she lost a power struggle with the Saban brass including Haim Saban. Loesch founded the Fox Kids Network, TV's hottest package of kidvid.

This business deal is playing out like an episode of ``Unsolved Mysteries.''

What does she call people who live in Cheseapeake? - LeAnne Rains, the WTKR co-anchor who believes it's never too hot to wear a turtleneck, recently referred to the people of Buxton, Duck, Nags Head and their neighbors as ``Outer Bankers.''

Is that name official, LeAnne?

Random observation - WVEC created an eyesore when it merged a BIG number 13 with the ABC logo to form the ``bug'' that you see in the right hand corner of the screen. It's larger than Mt. Trashmore.

The envelope, please - The folks at ``The 700 Club'' tell me that Norfolkian - like that name, LeAnne? - Skip Collector (of ``Seinfeld'') isn't the only local guy to be nominated for an Emmy. Jeffrey C. Spurlock, who edited a ``700 Club'' segment about the Tenerife air disaster in 1977 which claimed more than 500 lives, is also up for a statuette.

Question of the day - Is it sharp advertising? Or is it fooling the public? I'm talking about the TV spots in which a local auto dealer stages a press conference with a ``candidate'' who says his platform is to do away with the personal property tax. (In reality, you buy a car and he pays the tax.)

One-armed forecaster - Why is WTKR meteorologist Jeff Rucker's right arm in a sling? He didn't fall off Channel 3's rooftoop weather set, did he?

Nope. Rucker said he dislocated the shoulder, same as in 1990. Emergency room doctors put the shoulder back in place. There's no pain, said Rucker. But there is inconvenience.

Before air time, he has to find somebody in the newsroom to put a knot in his tie. Rucker's a Naval Academy grad who put in 10 years in uniform.

I'm game - Scott Cash and his newsroom buddies at WVEC think it's a big deal when they finish an eight kilometer race in under 46 minutes on the weekly ``Sports Challenge.'' The idea here is to have viewers test Scott and his out-of-shape colleagues.

I'll make it easy on you guys. I'll take you on in . . . darts.

Random observation No. 2 - Either the horizontal hold on my TV set is out of whack or WVEC co-anchor Barbara Ciara is looking much thinner these days.

On TV, you can see him for free - It'll cost you at least $22.50 (top ticket is $35) to hear ABC news' bulldog Sam Donaldson speak at Willett Hall in Portsmouth next February.

Welcome home, Pat - She was once a beauty queen, model, actress and comedian who worked in film, off Broadway and on national TV. Pat Bailey's face still pops up in commercials. She's done about 75.

Bailey, who once starred in a show called ``Live from the Lava Lamp Lounge,'' has come home to Norfolk to launch ``Encore Entertainment,'' a talent agency for offbeat acts. Are you a celebrity look-alike? Call her at 587-0037.

Random observation No. 3 - The coolest mailbox I've seen lately is one that's shaped like a golf ball and tee. It popped up on WTKR recently in a weather shot. Who owns it, I wonder?

Subtle moves? - Unlike the FAM-Fox-Saban deal, in which many changes are anticipated, the new owners of WAVY and seven other stations in the LIN group, say they'll move slowly. From Hicks Muse Inc.: ``LIN will retain its name, all station personnel and management team.'' How about if the new owners toss in a designer wardrobe for everyone at fashion-challenged WAVY?

Beam us up, Gene - ``Earth: Final Conflict,'' a syndicated sci-fi series about deceptively friendly aliens based on the long lost scripts of ``Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry, will soon air on WGNT Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at noon.

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