CBS NAMES RODGERS TO STATION POST

After only five months as executive producer of the low-rated “CBS Morning News,” Johnathan Rodgers was named Wednesday as the first black executive ever to be put in charge of a CBS-owned television station--WBBM-TV in Chicago.

A CBS spokesman in New York said Rodgers’ appointment as WBBM’s vice-president and general manager was unrelated to either his race or a boycott of the station by minority groups in Chicago seeking more hirings of minorities for on-camera and management positions.

“No,” said the spokesman, Jeff Erdel. “And I can say very easily that that (the reasons for Rodgers’ new appointment) would be crystal clear to anybody who takes even a cursory look at his background. More than anyone else, he has been groomed for a general manager’s spot.”

Rodgers, 39, with CBS News since 1983, is succeeding Gary Cummings, who was dismissed last week as head of WBBM. The station’s local news programs have suffered from low ratings in recent months.

The minority boycott against WBBM was prompted by the demotion last fall of veteran anchorman Harry Porterfield, a black, to make room for Bill Kurtis, a white who returned to the station after several years as co-anchor of the “CBS Morning News.”

Portfield now works for rival ABC-owned WLS, which has enjoyed a ratings rebound since his arrival there.

CBS executives, who earlier this week met with leaders of the boycott and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, concede that WBBM has suffered in ratings, but primarily attribute this to successful programming moves by WLS, not the boycott.

Rodgers, whose successor at the “CBS Morning News” has not been picked yet, will fly to Chicago tonight with Neil E. Derrough, president of the CBS television stations division, and start work at WBBM on Friday, Erdel said.

WBBM’s new chief began his career as a reporter for Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and started in television news in 1974 as a producer-reporter at NBC-owned WNBC-TV in New York.