TOM VAN AMBURG RESIGNS POST AT KCBS-TV CHANNEL 2

Seven months after becoming vice president and general manager at KCBS-TV Channel 2, Tom Van Amburg resigned Wednesday. The 46-year-old executive did not issue a public statement about his reason for leaving or his immediate plans.

He will be replaced by Robert Hyland, a 19-year veteran of CBS Inc. who is currently vice president of CBS’ FM-radio station division in New York.

“Bob Hyland’s superb management performance and leadership abilities at CBS make him well-suited to take on this most critical assignment,” said Eric Ober, president of the CBS Television Stations division.

KCBS spokeswoman Andi Sporkin attributed Van Amburg’s decision to leave to a “change of philosophy” that occured when Neal Pilson, the former executive vice president of the CBS Broadcast Group, turned over responsibilities for CBS’ owned-and-operated television stations to Ober earlier this year. Pilson hired Van Amburg last October when Frank Gardner resigned as KCBS general manager.

Since then, Van Amburg has faced a radical format change involving the station’s local newscasts, a strike of the station’s newswriters that ended last week and, most recently, an organized protest of KCBS’ minority hiring and promotion practices.

Ober, who was in Los Angeles, issued a statement through Sporkin’s office disclaiming that a demonstration Wednesday by about 100 members of the National Hispanic Media Coalition outside the station had any bearing on Van Amburg’s resignation.

“This is not involving any kind of improprieties or any of that,” he said. “There are no issues involved here. It’s a senior management decision.”

The coalition has singled out KCBS for picketing because of what it claims is the station’s abysmal record in hiring and promoting Latinos. Coalition members said that they eventually plan to bring similar grievances against the other major Los Angeles stations, but for now are focusing their efforts on reaching an understanding with Channel 2.

“We can’t say (we had anything to do with Van Amburg’s resignation), but it is rather fortuitous,” said Armando Duron, a spokesman for the demonstrating coalition members. “Our goal was not to get Van Amburg or anyone in particular fired. The employment or resignation of one person is not going to solve the underlying problem.”

Duron said that his organization sent letters condemning KCBS’ hiring practices to 15 of the station’s advertisers and that a boycott would be organized during the important May ratings “sweeps” if management does not bargain with the coalition. May is one of three months when the A.C. Nielsen Co. takes detailed measurements of TV viewing levels, which stations then use in setting their advertising rates.

Sporkin called KCBS “the undeniable leader in terms of hiring minorities among Los Angeles stations” and said that station management was disappointed that the coalition singled out KCBS for protest.

In addition to naming Hyland the new general manager of KCBS, CBS also announced Wednesday that Donald Gotimer had been promoted to senior vice president and managing director of CBS’ operations and engineering division. Gotimer was most recently vice president of finance for CBS Records, one of the most profitable divisions of CBS Inc.

Hyland will assume his new role immediately.

Despite Ober’s statement, speculation among KCBS staff veterans was that Van Amburg’s departure has been in the works for some time.

“There have been rumors (that the resignation was forthcoming) for some time,” said one news staffer who asked not to be identified.

Before coming to KCBS, Van Amburg had been general manager of KABC-TV Channel 7 for five years. He was replaced there early last year by his former boss, John Severino, who had been president of ABC-TV.

“It ‘s always a shock when there’s a change in top management in any company,” said Pat O’Brien, who left CBS Sports in January to join KCBS as an anchor on the 7 p.m. newscast. “My hope is that the station can move on. The reality of the situation is that this is a TV station and in the last few years, there have been a series of unsettling changes. One thing people have to remember is that there will never be a night when the TV screen will be black.”

Van Amburg came to KCBS amid the station’s deepest ratings crisis in many years.

At the time, Gardner had just instituted a much-touted “news wheel” format that KCBS called “the next generation of local news.” Featuring specialized lifestyle segments and a set that some critics compared to a living room, the “news wheel” lasted for less than a month before KCBS returned to its old, familiar format.

Rather than raising KCBS out of third place among the local network owned-and-operated stations, KCBS actually lost audience share points.

Gardner resigned the same day that his boss, CBS Television Stations division president Neil Derrough, quit the network. KCBS news director Erik Sorenson also left the station a short time later. All three men had praised the “news wheel” as the formula for raising KCBS out of the cellar and all took the blame when it failed.

Under Van Amburg, KCBS news veteran Don Dunkel became acting news director and remains in that position. Van Amburg also is credited with several news department hires, including anchor O’Brien and, just this week, general assignment reporter Yolanda Nava. Since his takeover at the station, Channel 2’s ratings have made modest increases.

Sporkin said that highly publicized recent cuts in the CBS News division, in which more than 200 employees were laid off at all levels, had nothing to do with Van Amburg’s departure.