News Director at Channel 39 Going to L.A.

After guiding the turbulent news department of KNSD-TV (Channel 39) for nine months, news director Nancy Bauer resigned Monday to take a top post with KNBC-TV (Channel 4), the top-rated news station in Los Angeles.

In two weeks, Bauer will become executive producer of the Channel 4 news team, overseeing the producers and writers for all the station’s news broadcasts.

Bauer, who joined Channel 39 in 1981 as a producer, was named interim news director in June, replacing fired news director Ron Miller. She was given the news director job in July.

The perennial third-place finisher in the local news ratings sweepstakes, Channel 39 has been in transition since it was purchased by Gillett Communications in December, 1987. Several reporters have been laid off and there have been several well-publicized internal debates over the news product, amid persistent rumors that company founder George Gillett, financially pressed, was attempting to sell the station.

In September, the NBC affiliate switched its call letters from KCST to KNSD and began a major effort to change its third-place identity. Despite the changes and a major marketing push, the station’s news programs have remained the city’s lowest-rated.

“It’s been the best experience of my life,” Bauer said Tuesday. “I’ll probably never again be with a station that goes through a call-letter change. To be part of that was incredible.”

Throughout the turmoil, Bauer developed a reputation as a consistent and tireless worker. She could often be found in her office at midnight. She hopes to bring the same “sense of energy and vitality” to KNBC.

“I think that kind of energy, without playing hardball and being considerate to people, is something people seem to respond to,” she said.

Under Bauer’s direction, there was an emphasis on live news reports and “personalizing” news stories at Channel 39. Some complained about the station’s new policy of downplaying so-called “institutional” stories, including council meetings and daily court stories. In February, the station’s chief assignment editor, Eric Hulnick, resigned, citing differences in news philosophy with the station.

Others have applauded the station’s emphasis on in-depth coverage of “hard” news stories during Bauer’s tenure.

“Obviously we’re going to miss her,” said one reporter, who asked not to be named. “For the last nine months, Nancy has been the guiding light.

“Her forte was not being news director, it was being executive producer. The news director is so much administrative stuff, you lose some of the on-the-floor, mix-it-up-with-the-troops stuff, which she was really good at.”

At KNBC, Bauer replaces Nancy Valenta, who left to become news director of WTVJ, the new NBC affiliate in Miami.

“The one day I was up there (in the KNBC newsroom) I saw people fighting for what they thought was right. I think that’s really good,” said Bauer, who primarily will bring a hard-news focus to the station. “I know the station has a certain number of Hollywood fluff and a certain number of hard-news segments. I know how to have fun in a newscast; I like to think I can do both.”

Bauer said she looks forward to being closer to her mother, who still lives in the southeast Los Angeles suburb of Downey where Bauer grew up. Bauer’s father died six years ago. She also will be closer to her boyfriend, former Channel 39 reporter Dave Gonzalez, an anchorman with the Gillett-owned KSBW in Monterey, Calif.

Although rumors of Bauer’s departure had been floating around the station for several weeks, most newsroom personnel were surprised by Bauer’s sudden departure on Monday. Bauer gave two weeks’ notice, but was told to clean out her desk.

“On one hand, I was surprised and on the other hand, it was nice that KNBC recognized her talents,” reporter Susan Farrell said. “She left for a job opportunity that she felt was good for her.”

Despite the station’s general lack of improvement in the ratings, Bauer’s job was generally believed to be secure--at least for the next few months.

“Certainly she had our blessing to stay on; there was no push or shove,” the station’s general manager Neil Derrough said. “She had a good job opportunity and she took it.”

Bauer said she felt no pressure to leave.

“The one thing Neil and everyone is trying to do is make people (at Channel 39) understand that things are not going to happen in one (ratings) book,” she explained. “They have to stick with it through a couple of years.”

Derrough said he hopes to name a replacement for Bauer within two months. After the May ratings sweeps period, the television news ratings battles generally settle down during the summer.

In the interim, managing editor Art Cerf and director of news services Danny Mendez will share news director duties.

“She did a good job of putting a machine in place that functions,” Cerf said. “The ship will sail on.”