ACCENT ON NEWS : NEW TV STATION TO BOW IN VENTURA

Television is coming to Ventura County.

Local television, that is.

Nestled comfortably on the Southern California coast between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Ventura County has always been able to receive television programs from both cities. Paradoxically, however, this seeming abundance of program choice has lacked one critical dimension: local flavor.

That will change Saturday with the unveiling of KTIE Channel 63, a new TV station serving Ventura County (and, courtesy of cable, Malibu and a small portion of southern Santa Barbara County). It goes on the air at 9 a.m. with taped coverage of its own “switching on” ceremonies that are being held today.

Along with a heavy load of old movies and a selection of old TV series and cartoons, KTIE will be offering viewers a strong dose of news--90 minutes each weekday.

More than $1 million has been invested in establishing a fully equipped news department with a staff of 12, who will produce a one-hour newscast at 6 p.m. and a half-hour news broadcast at 10 p.m., according to Donald Sterling, president and chief executive officer of KTIE.

That’s more news than some of the major independent stations in Los Angeles offer. For a new station, it represents an extraordinary commitment. By contrast, KDOC Channel 56 in Anaheim, which went on the air in October, 1982, as Orange County’s first commercial TV station, still does not offer even a half-hour newscast.

“It’s because I don’t know what I’m doing,” Sterling jokes about the news emphasis at KTIE.

Sterling’s reference is to the fact that he and his fellow owners of KTIE have no prior experience in broadcasting. Sterling is a former accountant, business manager and real estate developer who got caught up in the excitement of TV after his one-time client and investment partner, Thorne Donnelley Jr., decided it might be interesting to build a UHF station in Ventura County.

“It just sort of came into my life at the right time,” says Sterling, 56 (who is no relation to the Donald Sterling who owns the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team). “It was an opportunity to do something that was the culmination of my life, sort of a last hurrah--to build a TV station and operate it. Even if it’s a small one, it’s not something that most people get to do.”

Sterling, Donnelley and a couple of minor partners in the venture have invested about $5 million in getting the broadcast operation going--including building a 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Oxnard that houses offices, two sound stages and state-of-the-art production facilities. The KTIE signal will be transmitted from a 396-foot antenna on South Mountain, three miles southeast of Santa Paula.

Like most fledgling independent stations, KTIE’s program schedule primarily will feature reruns of old series (“Lost in Space,” “Death Valley Days,” “Lancer,” “Cisco Kid”) and motion pictures. The weekday schedule includes movie blocks at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., and there will be at least three movies on Saturday and Sunday, too. (This weekend’s lineup consists entirely of movies, ranging from “The King and I” and “Patton” to “The Enemy Below,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Love With the Proper Stranger” and “My Friend Flicka.”)

It is through the local news coverage that Sterling and his general manager, Bob Bradley, hope to establish KTIE’s identity.

“What is the purpose of television if not to serve the local community?,” Sterling asks. “If all we offer are movies, syndicated shows and cartoons, then we’re no different from anyone else. We could be a distant signal brought in by cable for all the pertinence we’d have to the community.”

The KTIE news programs, which will rely on Cable News Network for national and international coverage, will be anchored by Steve Miller, a former reporter with CNN and KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, and Leticia Ponce. Miller doubles as news director.

KTIE plans to add other local programs in the months ahead, Sterling says. In development are a music video/dance show, a children’s program and a crime-prevention series, he says.

At the moment, however, much of the station’s production efforts are going toward making commercials for its local sponsors, most of whom have never advertised on television before. Sterling says that sales have been stronger than expected, but he doesn’t expect KTIE to move into the black before the end of 1986. National and regional advertisers won’t buy time until the station can generate some ratings figures to show how many people are watching, he notes.

One factor that could throw off the timetable for profitability, Sterling concedes, is the recent decision by the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington to invalidate federal regulations that required cable TV systems to carry all local broadcast signals.

About two-thirds of the 201,000 TV households in Ventura County are wired for cable, so getting the KTIE signal on the systems there is critical, he explains. So far, with the exception of Group W Cable in Simi Valley, all have said they will carry the new station, he reports.

“Unfortunately, they can change their mind any time and we’re powerless to do anything about it,” Sterling adds with resignation. “The court said it was up to the marketplace to determine the service that cable would provide; it will be interesting to see if the marketplace has that power over cable.”

The executive does find one positive aspect to the decision about the “must-carry” rules, however.

“I don’t think any other station is going to be built (in Ventura County),” he says. “There are two licenses available, but I don’t think any intelligent businessman would build a new UHF station without the ‘must-carry’ rules. I wouldn’t. If I had known two years ago that the ‘must-carry’ rules would be eliminated before I went on the air, I never would have done it.”

He remains hopeful, therefore, that KTIE, like Ventura County itself, will be able to carve out a nice little niche for itself.