Station Gets Lesson in Decency

Kansas City teacher Treva Burk vaguely knew what sweeps ratings periods were, but she had no idea sweeps were a factor in bringing out the kind of TV programming that she abhors the most.

“It was last Memorial Day and my husband was flipping around the dial--he likes to watch Westerns. And he found this movie, on at 8 o’clock at night, with female nudity from the waist up and a simulated oral sex scene to the point where it left no doubt what was going on,” said Mrs. Burk.

The movie, aired by Kansas City’s KZKC-TV Channel 62, was called “My Tutor,” a 1983 teen sex fantasy about a student whose French teacher teaches him sexual intimacy as well as verb conjugation. The following evening, the Burks got to see “Private Lessons,” another R-rated fantasy aimed at teens about another older woman bedding down a teen-age boy.

That’s when they decided to turn KZKC in to the Federal Communications Commission. They sent videotapes of both movies to the FCC Complaints Division.

Last month, Mrs. Burk got a call from the FCC: Thanks to her complaint, the FCC found portions of “Private Lessons” to be allegedly indecent and KZKC became the first TV station in more than a decade that the FCC had formally charged with broadcast indecency. The station’s owner, Chattanooga-based Media Central Inc., was given 30 days to reply. Last week, Media Central denied the charges, setting the stage for a showdown over KZKC’s license (see accompanying story).

“We always stacked the sweeps,” former KZKC general manager Steven Friedheim told The Times.

Scheduling the most titillating and violent films during November, February and May is standard practice among independent television stations from Miami to Los Angeles, according to Friedheim.

Sweeps “stacking” was also standard practice for all eight of the stations owned by Media Central Inc., including KZKC which billed itself as Kansas City’s “Movie Station.” And it was, in part, what got the station in trouble with Mrs. Burk and the FCC.

Though they didn’t bother to tape any more of KZKC’s films after “My Tutor” (still being scrutinized by the FCC, according to Mrs. Burk) and “Private Lessons,” the Burks found similar fare during the week of May 25. It was “School’s Out Week” on the station, according to Friedheim, and that meant a new teen exploitation movie every night. “Massacre at Central High” and “Student Bodies” were aired from 8 to 11 p.m. along with “Private Lessons.”

“It showed her buttocks and the sheets moving around and sound effects,” Mrs. Burk said. “One of the main things the movie was trying to validate was that it’s all right for an adult to have sex with a teen-ager. It was all aimed at teen-age audiences.”

Mrs. Burk, secretary of the Kansas City chapter of the National Council for Decency (recently renamed the American Family Assn.), has since learned that what she and her husband watched was a May sweeps theme week. During theme weeks, prime time is “stacked” with films designed to draw in the maximum number of viewers in hopes of temporarily boosting ratings.

During sweeps periods--when A. C. Nielsen and Arbitron measure the viewing habits of every community in the country--advertising rates are set. That’s why broadcasters attempt to lure viewers with exploitative and sometimes sensational programming.

It is also during sweeps months that the FCC get its most viewer complaints. According to Complaints Division spokesman Rob Plummer, complaints jump by as much as 300% to 400% during the sweeps months of February and May. That fact has not been lost on media decency watchdog groups like the American Family Assn. and New York-based Morality in Media, which have alerted their members to be vigilant about sex and violence on television during sweeps months.

“These stations should be running scared and the ones that aren’t should be turned in and a good time to do it is during sweeps periods,” said Paul McGeady, Morality in Media general counsel.

In Los Angeles, KTTV-TV Channel 11 aired a package of teen movies last May similar to KZKC’s “School’s Out” film series. “Private Lessons” was among the movies shown during “Mother Never Told Me” week.

Next week, Channel 11 will reprise “Private Lessons,” the 1981 fantasy/comedy about a 15-year-old boy who learns about sex from his French maid, “Emmanuelle” star Sylvia Kristel. This time, the theme week is entitled “Plain Brown Wrapper” week, according to Peter Martin of the KTTV creative services department.

Unlike KZKC, which apparently used a young film editor unfamiliar with Media Central’s no-frontal-nudity standards in editing the theatrical version of “Private Lessons,” KTTV will excise such scenes, said Martin. KTTV is equally careful about promoting its teen exploitation theme weeks during shows directed to children, such as cartoons, he said.

“We may have done so in the past, but we never run promos during kids’ shows now,” he said. “Also, the promos (for Plain Brown Wrapper Week) are conceptual. We’re not using any of the video in them.”

Martin said he knew of no viewer complaints as a result of “Mother Never Told Me” week or any other KTTV theme week.

But KZKC got complaints.

Friedheim said Media Central produced its own promotional spots in addition to editing most of the theatrical movies its stations aired. The promotional spots usually contained the most suggestive or violent clips from the movie as an enticement to the viewer. The general policy was to edit for time and not for content, he said, so that the station could air films that were as near to being the original shown in theaters as possible.

Morton Kent, chairman of 7-year-old Media Central, maintains his company has always been “family-oriented” and that the showing of a generally uncut version of “Private Lessons” was a fluke. Since its May airing, “Private Lessons” has not been seen again on KZKC and the programing has been toned down to the point where it has become “rinky-dink,” in Friedheim’s opinion.

A former sales manager of KCOP-TV Channel 13 in Los Angeles, Friedheim left the Kansas City station after “School’s Out” week, along with former program director Debbie Stauber. But neither left because of the “Private Lessons” incident, he said.

Less than a month after May sweeps, Media Central sought Chapter 11 reorganization protection under federal bankruptcy law. The company had $68 million in assets, but owed more than $50 million to creditors, including MCA, which sold KZKC its “School’s Out” film package.

Former employees who were laid off or resigned, like Friedheim, blame the bottom-line mentality of Media Central for the kind of TV fare that so offended Treva Burk. Had better-trained, better-paid and more experienced people been scrutinizing what went on the air, they say, frontal nudity might never have aired during May sweeps in Kansas City.