MEDIA : ‘Print Geeks’ a Hot Item for Local TV Talk Shows

A bizarre phenomenon in the local media world: San Diego print journalists are a hot ticket these days on the local television circuit.

A hard-working, semi-articulate beat reporter can appear on at least three local shows a week. Besides the usual myriad of radio chatfests and cable access programs, KPBS-TV’s (Channel 15) “San Diego Week,” Cox Cable’s “Cable Forum” and KNSD-TV’s (Channel 39) “San Diego Headliners” all call on newspaper reporters--ranging from media reporters like myself to political reporters--to provide serious-sounding analysis of local issues.

“Reporters are an untapped resource,” said “San Diego Week” executive producer and host Gloria Penner-Snyder. “They’re out there and they know what’s going on.”

“San Diego Week,” which is in its third month of production, pays four reporters $50 each to gather in the KPBS studios Fridays at 7 a.m. to discuss the news topics of the week. Instead of having reporters quiz newsmakers, on “San Diego Week,” which airs at 6 p.m. Fridays (and repeats at 5 p.m. Sundays), the reporters question each other about subjects like sewage and the strength of the Japanese yen.

For the gallant members of the Fourth Estate--sometimes referred to as “print geeks” by their counterparts in television--it is an opportunity to speak their minds, to show that they do indeed have some knowledge of the subjects they cover daily. Most print journalists, i.e. those without opinion columns, must suppress their true feelings and opinions to preserve the sensitive issue of pure objectivity.

The television shows allow them to cut loose, or at least get their nice clothes out of mothballs for the show.

“It is insight I’m looking for more than than reportage,” said Penner-Snyder.

There is precedent for this interest in print journalists. Shows on PBS, CNN, CBS and ABC all feature sharp-witted writers, providing the networks with experts, or at least people who think they’re experts.

Although the popularity of the shows varies, the local versions attract a guaranteed audience--an audience of journalists. In the newsrooms of the San Diego dailies, people gather around television sets each Friday to either cheer or jeer their compatriots on “San Diego Week.”

Of course, some may argue that print journalists should be read and not seen. Penner-Snyder disagrees. She said only that 10% of her writer guests have proven inappropriate, because of “behavioral characteristics.” In other words, they couldn’t speak well.

“We’re assuming that, when we think of reporters we have intelligent people,” Penner-Snyder said. “If they can communicate by the written word it suggests a level of intelligence and an ability to convey ideas.”

San Diegans who love to sit by the radio and listen to a catchy instrumental arrangement of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” or “The Theme to Hill Street Blues” may soon be without a radio station to call their own.

Astute listeners of KJQY-FM (103.7) may have noticed a new upbeat twist in the station’s music, which (some would argue) is rapidly losing its distinction as the the king of San Diego elevator music. It’s hardly entering the rock ‘n’ roll derby, but the station has added a few more toe-tappers, dropping some of its sappy instrumentals in the process.

KJOY, as the station is known, began adding radical songs, i.e. those with vocals, last year, when it switched to an “Adult Spectrum” format developed by station general manager Bert Whalen for Group W’s FM stations throughout the country. The station’s ratings have been on a steady slide for the past 18 months.

The latest changes are the result of “continuous testing of the marketplace,” Whalen said, noting that in the last year the station was unable to budget money for research because of Group W’s plans to sell the station.

“A lot of instrumental covers of hits were not acceptable” to KJOY’s listeners, Whalen said. The station now is playing only about 30% instrumentals.

Meanwhile, Whalen said his efforts continue to buy the station from Command Broadcasting, which purchased the station a month ago.

Representatives of Channel 17 plan to meet with Federal Communications Commission officials today in an attempt to resolve problems that have frustrated their efforts to put the low-power television station on the air.

The station (which doesn’t have call letters yet) has hired staff, and it has been taping events for several months while it awaits approval from the FCC, which must coordinate approval with the Mexican government. Due to the location of Channel 17’s transmitter, the Mexican government must be satisfied that the signal will not interfere with any Mexican signals before the FCC can approve it.

Station manager Glenn Shoemaker hopes to have the station on the air by June.

A San Diego Tribune circulation department representative, explaining the paper’s new North County strategy last week, matter-of-factly told an incredulous group of the paper’s editors that the paper’s representatives have been following Blade-Citizen carriers to discover the addresses of the Oceanside-based newspaper’s readers. Common practice, the circulation rep said. Did they wear disguises, an editor asked? . . .

Landmark Theaters was forced to cancel a press screening of the controversial “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” last week when the print didn’t arrive in time. The distributor sent it to Landmark’s Park Theater. Unfortunately it was Landmark’s theater in Menlo Park, not San Diego. . . .

After KKYY-FM (Y95) fired off a letter to their old morning team, “Jeff ‘n’ Jer,” their new employer, KFMB-FM (B100), agreed not to use their name or likeness until their contract with Y95 expires later this month. The duo is expected to start at B100 on April 25. . . .

KFMB-AM’s (760) death row phone interview with Robert Alton Harris has been picked up by all three television networks, the BBC and “Hard Copy,” in addition to stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. . . .

KGTV’s (Channel 10) news updates throughout the day on “Headline News” debut today. . . . If you call information for the phone number for XHRM-FM (92.5),d the operator will give the number for the office of former station manager Willie Morrow, who has been in an often-bitter dispute with the station’s owners. Ask Morrow’s office staff for the station’s new number and they say they don’t have it. . . .

KYXY-FM (96.5) radio personality Sam Bass, modestly referred to in a press release as the “King of Midday Radio,” has signed a new long-term deal with the “longer listening” station. Not exactly a surprise. He’s been with the station for 12 years. . . . According to Inside Radio, KKLQ (Q106) program director Garry Wall has been called upon to clean up after a “blood bath” at Edens Broadcasting’s Tampa station, WRBQ-AM/FM, where three top staffers were suddenly fired.