ANAHEIM : Judgment Against KDOC-TV Upheld

A state appeals court has upheld $236,000 of a $256,000 jury award against Golden Orange Broadcasting and KDOC-TV talk show host Wally George for having fired an advertising salesman who refused to exaggerate the station’s ratings and interfered in George’s romantic pursuit of a female co-worker.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana affirmed most of the amount awarded in December, 1987, to Steve Conobre, 68, who was fired in March, 1984.

A Superior Court jury had awarded Conobre $256,000 against Golden Orange, George, former station manager Mike Volpe and Calvin Brack, KDOC business affairs director. In a unanimous decision issued last week, however, a three-judge appeals court panel reversed the jury’s finding against Volpe and Brack and removed the $20,000 in punitive damages they had been assessed for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The panel said Conobre cannot pursue that allegation because he obtained relief for it under workers compensation.

Jurors found that George, an ultraconservative commentator and host of the Channel 56 show “Hot Seat,” tried have Conobre fired after Conobre tried to stop George’s pursuit of a married female advertising executive. In his testimony during the trial, George insisted that he was merely responding to advances made by the woman.

Conobre accused the Anaheim-based station and its management of firing him because he refused to use phony viewer ratings figures in his sales pitches.