THREE AREA TV CHANNELS COURT LATINO VIEWERS

“My life has been a Calvary,” the first caller to KSCI’s (Channel 18) “Encuentro Astrologico” says in a voice trembling with melodrama. The middle-aged Argentine woman confides to astrology program host Maria Graciette that she has suffered an unending torment of illness, romantic disappointment and psychic catastrophe.

Graciette, a large and engaging woman, first asks the caller’s birthdate, then serenely predicts her future in a Spanish heavily accented with her native Portuguese.

“After Nov. 3,” she begins, “you (will) begin a cycle of success, and maybe, new loves.” Graciette recommends to the woman that she place an onion behind her back door, convinced that this will improve the caller’s luck.

Shot inside KSCI’s almost closet-sized West Los Angeles talk-show set, Graciette’s show is the station’s latest effort to provide much-needed information to Los Angeles Latinos.

But by either English- or Spanish-language broadcasting standards, Graciette’s live call-in program--a quirky and refreshingly spontaneous blend of astrology and folk belief--is clearly exotic. It is also the lighter side of KSCI’s “Linea Abierta” (Open Line), a serious effort, station officials say, to create new programs targeted at local Latino audiences.

Besides Garciette’s hour of astrology, “Linea Abierta” offers a series of four live half-hour shows starting at 1:30 p.m. five days a week where callers can ask questions of Latino professionals in the fields of law, medicine, mental health and social affairs.

Michael Draznin, KSCI director of media relations, said “Linea Abierta” is the first live call-in program of its kind in the United States in Spanish and the latest of several attempts to carve out a niche in a field that he claims is neglected by the station’s competitors, KMEX (Channel 34) and KVEA (Channel 52).

KMEX has dominated Los Angeles Spanish-language television for years by relying on the Spanish International Network for most of its programming. KVEA became a full-time Spanish-language station last November and features Spanish-dubbed American films and Latin American-produced television shows.

Draznin singled out KMEX as a station that relies most on programs with broad-based appeal, rather than those directed at local audiences. “For so long they have run programs that are so general and generic that they have neglected the interests of the local communities,” he said.

KMEX station manager Sandra Gibson agrees with Draznin that more local programming is needed. And although KMEX offers fewer locally produced programs--about 1 1/2 hours of news five days a week compared to KSCI’s 5 1/2 hours of mostly call-in TV--the station does meet its viewers’ needs, Gibson said.

In addition to “Mundo Latino” (Latin World), a daily community affairs program produced in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, KMEX will air two new entertainment shows this month: “Lo Nuestro” (Ours) will feature local amateur talent filmed before live audiences at locations throughout Southern California. “Fiesta Mexicana” will feature top-name talent under a similar format.

But it’s strong viewer demand for novelas (the equivalent of American soap operas) that dictates just how much local programming the station can offer, Sybil McNair, a KMEX spokeswoman, said.

“When ‘Cristal’ (heroine of a novela by the same title) isn’t shown, we get calls,” McNair said. “What’s happening to the heroine (viewers ask)? Is she dead, is she alive, is she in love? That says to me there is a lot of interest.” As a result, she said, about seven novelas appear on the station each day.

KSCI, however, has drastically reduced its novela programming in an attempt to create a new viewing audience among Latinos.

So far, early responses from advertisers indicate that “Linea Abierta” will soon begin paying for itself, Draznin said. And the thanks expressed by callers and a stream of letters to its hosts also appear to show that the one-month-old program is satisfying a real need.

Dr. Cynthia Jimenez-Telles, host of “Consulta Psicologica” (Psychological Consultation)--a part of the “Linea Abierta” series--says the program’s benefits are obvious.”

“The reason I decided to do the show is that I feel there is an enormous amount of unmet needs in the Hispanic community,” said Telles, a faculty member of the psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences department at UCLA. “What I’m hoping the program does is provide educational information to make them aware that mental health services are available.”

She said a recent UCLA study shows that Latinos may need mental health services as much or more than other groups but they rarely use them.

Recent studies conducted in Santa Clara, San Diego and Los Angeles counties, she added, also suggest that Latinos manifest higher levels of depression compared to Anglos and blacks. These studies showed that women and recent immigrants from Latin America were at higher risk of becoming seriously depressed.

Altruism was not the sole reason for creating “Linea Abierta,” said Thomas Headley, KSCI’s president and station manager.

“We felt we could not compete with KMEX” and its well-watched novelas , Headley said. “We wanted to be creative. We wanted to get people involved.”

The nine-year-old station’s call-in talk show is part of an overall strategy to develop audiences among big-city ethnic communities by providing programming in 15 different languages. Another example of KSCI’s approach to programming is “Jackpot Bingo,” the nation’s first viewer participation bilingual game show, Headley said.

Game hosts Anita Hamilton and Frazer Smith announce bingo numbers in Spanish and English to viewers who can win as much $50,000 an evening by playing cards distributed free by participating merchants. Headley said the show, which started last July, has revolutionized television advertising by delivering potential customers directly to the advertisers who distribute a million bingo cards each week.

Programs like “Linea Abierta” and “Jackpot Bingo” also represent a fundamentally different approach to Latino audiences for another reason, Draznin said.

Even if they are only recent arrivals, Latinos undergo fundamental cultural changes when they come to the United States, he said. “The people are changed by their experiences here. You can’t expect their likes and dislikes to be the same anymore.”

Danny Villanueva, KMEX’s general manager, while acknowledging that he had not seen either show, disputed Draznin’s programming approach.

“One of the things which I have learned to live with . . . I guess I can never accept it, is to have non-Hispanics judging what we want,” Villanueva said. “The fact is, when you can’t find programming, you do live shows and disguise them as something the people want. Live shows were the TV programming of 25 years ago.”

KSCI could have followed a novela format but chose not to, Draznin countered. “The point is, we want people to have a choice, to have some other kind of program available to them.”

Enrique Gratas, KVEA news director and a former Spanish International Network executive, said his station is moving away from novelas .

“They want to be part of the political and social atmosphere,” Gratas said. “We (Spanish-language broadcasters) have been asking (the community) to change, but if we don’t give them new choices about programming, we are making a big mistake.”