TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: KCBS MOVES THINGS UP

In an effort to make inroads in the battle for local news viewers, KCBS-TV Channel 2 said Wednesday that it plans to move its afternoon newscast in September from a 4:30 p.m. start time to 4 p.m., the same as competitors KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KABC-TV Channel 7.

“If you’re going to be competitive, you’ve got to show up on the playing field at the same time. We’ve been showing up half an hour late,” said Frank Gardner, general manager of the CBS-owned station. “We’ve got to go head-to-head with the competition if we are going to be dominant--and we want to be dominant in local news.”

The move came as part of a major overhaul of KCBS’ 3-to-8 p.m. time period that includes shifting the “CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” from 7 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., launching a new magazine series about Hollywood, “Photoplay,” and acquiring the syndicated series “Divorce Court,” which has been running on KHJ-TV Channel 9.

Gardner said that the five-hour block, which overall tends to draw a smaller audience than those of rivals KNBC and KABC, is being redesigned for the fall “with an eye to creating compatible audience flow from beginning to end.”

Anchor assignments will not be affected by moving the local newscasts to the earlier time period, Gardner said in an interview. The 2 1/2-hour block that now runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m. simply will be broadcast from 4 to 6:30 p.m. instead.

Preceding the “Channel 2 News” from 3 to 4 p.m. will be the newly acquired “Divorce Court” and “People’s Court.” Pairing the two syndicated courtroom series will provide good counterprogramming to the talk shows on KNBC and KABC, Gardner maintained.

“We think that will improve the (audience) flow--and improving the flow is the name of the game,” he said, referring to the concept of feeding viewers from one program into the next.

Shifting the “CBS Evening News” to 6:30 p.m. will put it in head-to-head competition with the “NBC Nightly News,” which moved to that spot in October, 1984, and immediately registered a jump in ratings. Only ABC’s “World News Tonight” will continue to be seen at 7 p.m. on Channel 7.

Gardner said that KCBS has renewed its magazine series “2 on the Town” for a ninth season and that it will be seen Mondays through Thursdays at 7 p.m., instead of 7:30 p.m. “Fridays at Sunset” also will return Fridays at 7 p.m.

Filling the gap at 7:30 p.m. on weeknights will be “Photoplay,” a video version of the once-prominent fan magazine that KCBS said will spotlight “the people, places and things that make up modern Hollywood.” It will be produced by Alan Landsburg, Jack Haley Jr., Dan Lewis and Barbara Lewis under the auspices of KTVU-TV in Oakland.