ALL MEDIA EYES ON U.S. VISIT OF THE POPE : Local Channels Plan Extensive Community Coverage of Pontiff

Despite blanket network TV coverage of Pope John Paul II’s Sept. 15-16 Los Angeles visit, local stations are planning their own equally extensive Pope watch.

“The role of the local station, as I see it, is more specific to the community,” said Fox station KTTV’s News Director Bruce MacCallum. “The network has a more general obligation.”

Representatives of area stations say that local coverage can provide unique insight into issues directly affecting Los Angeles Catholics, particularly the area’s large Latino Catholic population (as well as non-Catholic local problems such as papal-visit traffic snarls).

KVEA-Channel 52 and KMEX-TV Channel 34 will provide Spanish-language coverage of the papal visit, and KTLA-Channel 5 will provide one channel of its stereo audio signal for simulcasts in Spanish. Many stations will bring in members of the local Catholic clergy to comment on the proceedings.

KCBS News Director Erik Sorenson said local coverage will be particularly important because the Pope is scheduled to focus on different subjects in each city he visits. Issues to be discussed in Los Angeles are American ethnic diversity, Catholic relations with non-Christians and the communications media.

Several stations, including KCBS and KMEX, will provide full coverage of the two large public masses to be celebrated during the Pope’s visit. “There are only so many tickets available,” said Sorenson.

News directors here believe the controversy over the beatification of 18th-Century missionary Father Junipero Serra--an idea some reject because of Serra’s treatment of California’s Indians--will receive more focus in local news programs than on the national news.

KTLA will provide the most extensive local view of the visit--48 hours of continuous coverage, including both live coverage and previously prepared material for those hours when the pontiff is in closed sessions or sleeping. The station will use local human interest stories, such as a report on area nuns making hundreds of robes needed for various events, as well as 20 hours of film the station prepared on John Paul during its visits to the Vatican and his homeland, Poland, when the Pope is unavailable to their cameras.

Live portions of the broadcast will be uninterrupted, but station is selling advertising time during its pre-recorded papal coverage and hopes to get some corporate sponsorship. )

KVEA also visited the Vatican. The station recently sent a team to cover the visit there of a Mexican priest, Reverend Father Carlos Alvarez, to build a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico. The station plans to air the story during the visit.

Enrique Gratas, KVEA’s news director, says his station hopes to explore the Pope’s views on immigration and the status of illegal aliens. “Another important aspect, we feel, is peace in Central America, and what he will do to ameliorate (unrest),” Gratas said.

Gratas also believes that more general issues facing Catholics, such as abortion or AIDS, are especially significant in the Latino community. “The community believes it should have more information on these subjects,” he said. “We have been reluctant to talk about it.”

Other station representatives agree that national issues--including women’s roles in the Catholic Church, abortion, homosexuality, artificial insemination and the prevention of AIDS--need local angles. “There are many people in Southern California who consider themselves good Catholics who are not living their lives by the rules as handed down by Rome,” said KTTV’s MacCallum.

KCBS’ Sorenson adds that, although the Pope’s visit will provide a forum for those who object to the Pope’s views, there are plenty of more conservative Catholics in the region. They also will have a chance to express their support for John Paul, he said.

KVEA’s Gratas says his station will have a special problem in covering the Pope: the station also plans to cover Mexico’ Independence Day celebration Sept. 15. “It’s going to be a tough week to bring the whole thing together,” he said.