SAN DIEGO TV NEWS AMONG THE BEST IN NATION, DIRECTOR SAYS

Jim Holtzman believes the quality of local news broadcasts in San Diego is excellent, among the best in the country. Holtzman’s opinion means something. He’s executive news director of KFMB-TV (Channel 8), an affiliate of CBS.

Holtzman, 39, oversees the No. 1-rated newscast in the elite 5 p.m. broadcast hour. Channel 8 has a slight lead over KGTV, Channel 10 (ABC), and a wide lead over KCST-TV, Channel 39 (NBC). Channel 8 comes in second to Channel 10 in the 11 p.m. broadcast, by a wide margin. Channel 39 finishes third in each.

Regardless of ratings, Holtzman sees the competition as powerful, and San Diego newscasts in general as setting a standard for the rest of the country.

“We have excellent anchors in San Diego,” said Holtzman, who came to Channel 8 in 1977 after three years at Channel 10. “This is an excellent local news market. People here know how to cover news.”

What makes TV news in San Diego so good?

“A lot of local newscasts are not just poorly done, they’re awful,” he said. “They’re homogenized, phony. Here, they’re good. We have good personalities here.”

Part of Holtzman’s job is the hiring and firing of such personalities. He oversees the assigning of stories, which is mainly handled by an assignment editor; he budgets the news operation; rearranges formats, if necessary, and worries if Channel 8 drops in the ratings. He reports to the station’s general manager. He has a lot to do with the station’s philosophy of news.

“We’re kind of a home-grown station,” he said. “We’re owned by a family in the Midwest (the Meyer family of Champaign, Ill.). I see other stations in town as being a little bit like a slick restaurant chain, with all the wonderful glass, fine wine and amenities. We’re more like a diner.”

Holtzman said that local TV news, at least as it’s practiced in San Diego, doesn’t often do what an ABC affiliate recently did in Dallas: WFAA-TV revealed that a former football player for Southern Methodist University was still receiving payoffs from the school.

The story led directly to another investigation of SMU by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., and to SMU’s receiving the so-called “death penalty”--cancellation of its football program for 1987 and other drastic cuts.

“I have no hard and fast philosophy,” Holtzman said. “We try to cover as many good things as we can every day. We try to look for interesting stories--people stories, emotional issues. We try to do a lot of outdoor stories. We’re a very outdoor city.”

Regardless of focus, local news is in the spotlight nationwide. It’s being blamed, in part, for what some see as the erosion of the power of network news. In some markets, local stations are making increasing use of satellite technology, from remote locations. (Example: Channel 39 filed live reports from Fremantle, Australia, for coverage of the America’s Cup.)

The networks are crying foul, saying such coverage used to be--and should be--their territory. Local news directors deny such impact. Holtzman said network news divisions are merely atoning for years of waste.

Local TV news is, at times, Holtzman said, unavoidably, undeniably entertainment.

“We are journalists,” he said, “but more than newspapers, we reflect, I think, real life in all phases. Real life isn’t just one group killing another in Lebanon. It’s people caring for each other. It’s funny, it’s personable, it’s interesting, and it’s informative.

“We do have one big edge over newspapers, and always will. We have immediacy with pictures and sounds. People don’t always come out in the newspaper, but with us, you can look in someone’s eyes, you can hear them, you can almost touch them.

“When a tornado hits in Oklahoma, or a flood storms La Jolla, we can put you there--instantly. I don’t think newspapers can ever do it quite the way we do, and the networks can’t cover local news quite the way we do.”

Anchormen and women are a big part of the local scene. Holtzman believes in anchors, saying they’re the “cherries on the sundae--the people who put you in the tent.” Allison Ross--in Holtzman’s words, the station’s most popular anchor--handles newscasts at 5 and 11 p.m. Holtzman is fond of--and protective of--Ted Leitner, a sports anchor whom he calls the most popular newscaster in San Diego.

“The most talented person I’ve ever worked with,” he said of Leitner. “He’s a very important factor (to maintaining good ratings). I don’t care to find out how important--I don’t ever want him to leave. He’s extremely important.”

Holtzman admitted that recent rumors were true--Leitner has been approached by KCBS-TV (Channel 2) the CBS-owned station in Los Angeles. To anchor a sportscast for the CBS affiliate in the largest West Coast market would, Holtzman said, “appeal to just about anybody in television.”

He said Leitner turned the job down.

Recently, as a way “of rewarding Leitner,” Holtzman let him travel to Club Med in Tahiti. He admitted that Channel 8 didn’t pay for the trip--Club Med did, even though Leitner took a film crew and completed a story on the Caribbean resort.

“I couldn’t afford something like that out of my own budget,” Holtzman said, “but to give credit to good people, I’ve softened up on junkets. I hate to stand in the way of someone wanting to do something like that, especially when the job they’ve done is good.”

Holtzman said local stations are going through “a love affair” with out-of-town stories, possibly because “they seem so exotic to people.” Channel 8 recently paid for sportscaster Jim Laslavic to fly to Indiana to do a feature on high-school basketball. The piece was Holtzman’s idea. He said reporter Loren Nancarrow might soon be going to Vietnam for a story, pending approval of the country’s government. Channel 8 would also pay for that story.

How important is Indiana high school basketball to San Diegans?

“Oh, I guess we could have done a piece on Morse and Lincoln,” Holtzman said. “But it just didn’t seem as interesting.”

Wednesday: Channel 39’s Ron Miller.