EX-SALES REP FILES SUIT AGAINST KDOC

A former advertising saleswoman for KDOC-TV Channel 56 in Anaheim has filed a lawsuit charging that the station’s general manager encouraged KDOC’s sales staff to lure sponsors by giving out “false and misleading” information about the station’s ratings.

In a suit filed May 1 in Orange County Superior Court, Linda Ford also claims that KDOC television personality Wally George threatened her with the loss of her job if she did not “protect” general manager Michael Volpe by keeping quiet about alleged unethical business practices.

According to the suit, Ford resigned under duress in January, 1985, after less than two years at KDOC, Orange County’s only commercial-TV station.

Ford’s is the third suit in less than two years to be brought by former KDOC sales representatives leveling similar charges against the station and Volpe. Ford’s suit, charging breach of agreement, fraud and deceit, asks for at least $150,000 in advertising commissions she claims she did not receive, as well as unspecified punitive damages.

Volpe, contacted at the station Wednesday, said he had not been served with the suit. “I haven’t seen it or been notified about it.” Of Ford’s allegations, Volpe said, “That’s all old news--yesterday’s newspapers.”

Wally George flatly denied the charges.

KDOC attorney and stockholder Thomas Sheridan, also named as a defendant, said he had not been notified of Ford’s suit. “I have no official comment until I see the lawsuit,” he said.

Other defendants named in Ford’s suit are the Golden Orange Broadcasting Co., which owns KDOC, Volpe and several Golden Orange board members and owners. Singer Pat Boone, president of Golden Orange Broadcasting and one of the founders of the station, was not named as a defendant.

At the heart of the suit’s fraud complaint is Ford’s charge that Volpe instructed KDOC’s sales staff “to give false and misleading information to prospective sponsors about viewer ‘ratings’ . . . , that is, false and unsubstantiated facts and figures about the number of persons and households that watched Channel 56 at various times and days . . . “

Ford claims that Volpe told the sales staff that if prospective sponsors asked about the source of the ratings, they were to say the numbers came from “A-R-B.” Those initials are commonly used in the television and radio industry to refer to Arbitron Ratings Co. (To use Arbitron’s figures in sales presentations, a station must subscribe to the ratings service, an Arbitron spokeswoman said. KDOC has never been an Arbitron subscriber.)

But Ford charges that “ ‘A-R-B’ in this case was meant to refer to Anaheim Research Bureau,” which Ford said was “a fictitious name created by Volpe for a nonexistent organization.” Ford states that she never referred to “A-R-B” or Anaheim Research Bureau in her sales presentations.

KDOC attorney Sheridan said: “We’ve heard those accusations before. The accusations were investigated and found to be without substance. At one time Mike jokingly said he does his own ratings, and in fact he has always done his own ratings. When we looked into that about three years ago, we found it to be baseless at that stage.”

Commenting on the ratings issue, Volpe said: “I estimate the ratings. We don’t quote any source but our own . . . .”

Ford’s complaint also includes a copy of a letter she wrote to Boone in 1984 alleging that on two occasions Channel 56 “Hot Seat” host Wally George told her “that if I ever made things uncomfortable for Mike (Volpe) by discussing certain personal or professional issues which did not reflect well on him, that I would be fired.”

Reached at the station, George responded, “That I can absolutely and totally deny. I am not familiar with any of the things she is saying. To my knowledge they are completely and totally false.”

Volpe is further alleged to have improperly directed advertising accounts to another KDOC sales employee, Peri Corso, described in all three complaints as Volpe’s girlfriend.

Ford, contacted Wednesday at her home in Irvine, declined comment on the suit. “I’ve been told not to say anything at this time,” she said.

Other lawsuits were brought against the station and Volpe by former salesman Steve Conobre, who was fired in 1984, and by former sales manager John Funk, fired in 1985. Both suits are still in litigation.

In addition, a former model who worked during a KDOC-hosted telethon filed a suit in 1983 charging Volpe and the station with sexual harassment. That suit was settled out of court.

KDOC went on the air Oct. 1, 1982.