MEDIA / KEVIN BRASS : Advertising, Content Can Clash in Local News Specials

When KNSD-TV (Channel 39) was developing its recent “Third Thursday” segment on the proposed San Diego Gas & Electric merger with Southern California Edison, someone in the sales department thought it might be a good idea to approach SDG&E; about sponsoring the program.

It was slowly explained to the salesman that such a deal might appear to be, well . . . a little bit of a conflict of interest. I see, the salesman said. The idea was quickly dropped.

In the growing business of locally produced news specials, such moral quandaries involving the editorial and sales staffs are not unusual.

The promotional spots for this month’s edition of “Third Thursday,” due to air June 15, announce that the show is sponsored by the San Diego County Teachers Credit Union. The topic of the show is education.

Although there is no direct conflict--certainly the advertiser won’t affect the content of the show, nor is it directly related to the topic--the appearance is enough to bother some staffers.

“People on the editorial side don’t like the concept one bit,” one station employee said.

Some newsroom employees don’t like anything that blurs the separation between the advertising and editorial departments.

“I’m more concerned about the editorials” aired at the end of each “Third Thursday,” another staffer said. “Ninety percent of the viewers don’t know one department does one thing and another department does another.”

Channel 39 employees have been assured that the situation with the teachers credit union is a one-shot deal, a problem that won’t be repeated. However, the topic of interaction between the sales and editorial departments at Channel 39 was raised a few months ago by the direct sponsorship of segments during the news programs, such as “Project Lifeplanning.”

It is not a topic unique to Channel 39. For KGTV’s (Channel 10) upcoming “Signature Series” special on San Diego’s trauma care system, “Trauma!” scheduled to air Thursday, the Channel 10 sales department raised the idea of approaching a local ambulance company about sponsoring the show. The idea was quickly squashed when it was learned that the ambulance company was part of the special.

The question of appropriate advertising is being raised more often simply because stations are doing more of these types of shows, as local affiliates continue to stake out their territory independent of the networks. Instead of being simply afterthoughts, or a way to do a little community service, public information programming is becoming an integral part of affiliates’ program schedules.

Shows like “Third Thursday,” which produced a decent 5.0 rating in the last ratings period, and the “Signature Series” are not exactly gold mines for the stations, but they are revenue producers. When the network supplies a show to an affiliate, the two split the number of advertising spots. But for locally produced shows, the affiliate can keep the revenue from all the spots.

There is a “growing interest” in advertising on “Signature Series” shows, said Darrell Brown, Channel 10’s general sales manager. “They target upscale people, people concerned about their community.”

The ability to offer advertisers direct sponsorship of the program, so-called “billboards” that tell viewers the show is “sponsored by . . .” make the shows particularly attractive to some advertisers.

“It puts a bow on the package for them,” Brown said.

“A lot of people get me mixed up with Samantha Fox, porno movie queen,” bimbo rocker Samantha Fox said in an article in the

San Diego Union. Sure enough, in the May 25 issue of the Reader, critic Stephen Esmedina wrote of Fox, “It is her sordid past as a porn starlet that inspires crude, lascivious remarks. . . . Having seen a number of Samantha Fox classics, I can only say that her dimensions have blossomed since some porn rag voted her ‘the most skillful porno actress in films.’ . . . Porno films are her turf. It’s where she belongs.” Fox may have bared her breasts as one of England’s leading “Page 3 girls,” but she wasn’t the porno star Esmedina ogled. . . .

XTRA-AM’s Mark Williams is scheduled to go to Boston this week to participate in a convention of talk show hosts, but he no longer has a show. Looking to boost its anemic morning ratings, XTRA (690) has dropped Williams, who has been valiantly trying to boost his exposure lately by attacking his competition at KSDO-AM (1130). XTRA is a classy operation, said Williams, who will remain with XTRA, albeit off the air, through July 1. “They handled it the right way. They made a decision and they had to do what is right for XTRA.” Larry Roberts takes over the morning show on a temporary basis, beginning this morning. XTRA is expected to announce the hiring of former Padre Steve Garvey later this week. Management won’t say yet what Garvey will do.

With “Star Trek XXI,” “Karate Kid, Part IX: The Kid Buys a Gun” and “Fright Night IX: The Bob Uecker Story” set to be the foundation of the summer movie season, Landmark Theaters, operators of the Ken, Cove, Guild and Park, have adopted a new theme for the summer: “Just say no to sequels.” It has purposely left all sequels off the summer rosters for its theaters. . . .

Responding to letters from readers, this month’s issue of San Diego magazine includes an apology for running an ad for a water company with the slogan, “A few good reasons to get your jugs removed.” A note from the publisher reads, “The advertisement came in after our deadline, ready to run, and was published without review. We didn’t see it until the March issue came out.” . . .

Noble Broadcasting President John Lynch wasn’t happy that his station, XTRA-AM, didn’t get the contract to broadcast Padres games. But he could take satisfaction in knowing KKLQ (Q106) didn’t get the contract, either. (Incumbent KFMB retained the rights.) “I didn’t want to see Q106 get it,” Lynch said. “If Q106 got it, they would have been another competitive factor on the AM. I wanted to beat them out more than anything else.” . . .

Escondido-based KOW is now simulcasting mainstream country music on both AM and FM, dropping the traditional country music on the AM station. As part of the economizing move, the station laid off announcer Clip Helps, who had been with the station for more than 20 years. Helps, who has been doing weekend and fill-in work with KJQY-FM (103.7) since December, said he had made it clear to KOW management that he was looking for a change anyway. The station also has a new general manager, consultant David Moore, who replaces Al Gordon. . . .

Artie Ojeda has turned down a gig with KABC-TV’s (Channel 7) Orange County bureau to be the No. 2 sports guy at KFMB-TV (Channel 8). He moved into the spot vacated by Jim Laslavic, who is moving to Channel 39. Laslavic’s last day with Channel 8 was Saturday. . . . Lee (Hacksaw) Hamilton’s show with Channel 39 is set to begin June 17. The live phone-in show will follow NBC baseball games on Saturday afternoons. . . . Channel 39 had a problem with the prime-time show on entrepreneurs scheduled to air June 21. After looking at the first edits of the interviews with the entrepreneurs, it was, well . . . boring. So the script was changed to include more dramatic tales, such as stories about those who have been un successful in their attempts to develop businesses.