A Harmonic Convergence at Convention

Every television station in the nation wasn’t here covering this week’s Democratic National Convention. It just seemed that way.

Rarely had so many Action and Eyewitness Newses occupied the same turf. Some 330 television stations were represented in Atlanta, ranging in market size from No. 1 (New York) to No. 179 (Biloxi, Miss.). So if the heat here didn’t asphyxiate you, the hair spray did.

The station turnout was symbolic. Based on their public statements and diminished commitment here, the big three networks may soon become the small three in supplying coverage of national conventions. There were major media here, but no major story, and next month’s Republican Convention in New Orleans promises even less drama.

It’s premature to say that ABC, CBS and NBC have permanently passed the convention gavel to others, but don’t bet against it. The gavel-to-gavel ascent of CNN and C-SPAN--and the large local turnout and new satellite services offering spoon-fed, regionalized coverage for stations that stay home--put a large exclamation point on change.

As for those stay-at-home stations, about 200 used the Democratic Party’s very own Convention Satellite News Service (CSNS), according to Ginnie Kontnik, director of the Harriman Communication Center, the party’s radio/TV arm.

Through the makeshift satellite service facilities here, Democratic Senate and House members and local party officials could “interact” (Kontnik’s word) live with anchors or reporters at stations in their home areas. Or former CBS newsman Ike Pappas could conduct the interviews for them. Also available to them were taped convention packages reported by Pappas.

Stations got freebies, Democrats got exposure. Party members who took part believed “this is the best thing going,” Kontnik said.

If not the satellite service, there was always the nearby Broadcast Satellite International, a privately operated firm that sold satellite time to individual TV anchors and reporters and also to the Democrat-supporting American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

The teachers’ union made delegates who were AFT members or officials available for live interviews with their hometown stations. And even some local anchors covering the convention used the facilities to do live satellite interviews with subjects supplied by the AFT, such as union president Albert Shanker.

“We want to put the spin on that the Democratic Party in 1988 is the party that needs to be in Washington,” said AFT media consultant Scott Widmeyer. “And this is better than a press release.”

Improved satellite technology--there were 40 satellite trucks parked near the Omni arena--allowed more out-of-town crews than ever to beam home stories about their local delegations and also promos about themselves, and to do it live if they wished.

Other reporters and delegates often had to navigate the equivalent of an obstacle course in maneuvering around news crews doing stand-ups across from the Omni:

“I’m in Atlanta. . . .”

“The Democrats are officially nominating their President and vice president (candidates). Join me live at 6, live from the conference floor.”

One reporter began her promo by pretending to read a newspaper, then pivoting toward the camera and saying: “Despite all the talk in Atlanta. . . .” It took her seven takes to get it right.

If some of the out-of-town stations were a spectacle to Democratic delegates and others near the Omni, they were outright comical to some foreigners. Englishman John Wyver, who was here completing a documentary on TV and the American political process that will air on PBS and Channel Four in England, overheard one TV reporter grandly tell the camera: “The political debates go on and on and we’ll be here to give you the answers!”

Said Wyver: “I thought: ‘The viewers are going to get the answers from this guy?’ ” They probably got no better answers from the TV crews that fell for a practical joke by Tony Brooks. A 31-year-old anchorman for KAIT-TV in tiny Jonesboro, Ark., who was covering his first convention, Brooks said he was standing amid a group of other local TV people when, just for fun, he shouted: “I think he’s headed for Exit 10!”

There was no “he.” Just the same, said Brooks, all the TV crews immediately rushed toward Exit 10.

A former history teacher with a master’s degree in political science, Brooks was thrilled to rub shoulders on an escalator with ABC’s

Covering conventions can boost newscasts and individual careers.

Peter Jennings and to meet ABC’s David Brinkley, and he dreams of becoming a network anchorman someday. But TV confers celebrity even in the 176th largest market where Brooks works.

“I was in the Omni waiting for somebody, and (Ohio Sen.) John Glenn was there too, and so was (CNN anchorman) Lou Waters. But suddenly I hear someone say: ‘Isn’t that Tony Brooks there?’ ” He had been recognized by a delegate from his area.

Covering conventions can boost newscasts as well as individual careers, a fact that stations count on.

“Some of the stations see us as children, as if we’re lost and didn’t know what we were doing,” said Brooks, whose cameraman, Ray Scales, is a Baptist minister. “But that’s not true. Viewers will take us a lot more seriously now.”

That was also the payoff sought by two stations here from tiny Panama City, Fla. “We are the 171st market, approximately 98,000 households and our audience deserves this coverage,” said WMBB-TV anchorman John Williams, 41, who was also attending his first party convention. “Then there is the ulterior motive. We have a station in our market that’s been dominant for 15 years.”

Only after WMBB began promoting Williams as coming to the convention did the competing station decide to send its own anchorman, but without a cameraman, Williams said.

“He came at the last minute with one of those tripod cameras that he had to set up and stand in front of. In his first report, he did something wrong and his report ran without audio. So there he was standing there with his lips moving and no sound.”

As for his own presence here, Williams said: “The station sent me, the No. 1 anchor, to make sure it’s done correctly.”

That sounded like a promo.

“It is,” he said.