KCBS May Add Home Videos to News Show

The popularity of the TV entertainment hit “America’s Funniest Home Videos” has prompted KCBS Channel 2 to consider including a similar element in its nightly news, according to the station’s general manager.

A final decision on whether to proceed with a videos feature, which would focus on how to use camcorders and include examples of amateur tapes, will depend on the quality of viewer submissions, scripts and other elements, said KCBS general manager Robert Hyland and news director Michael Singer.

Amateur tapes are increasingly used on news broadcasts with the spreading popularity of camcorders. Videos have already been broadcast locally by such journalists as KNBC Channel 4 sports reporter Fred Roggin, a spokeswoman for that station acknowledged.

However, an ad placed in The Times last week by KCBS--which Hyland said “basically came out through our promotion department”--implied a firm hope by the last-place network station to begin a videos series on the 11 p.m. news anchored by Jim Lampley and Bree Walker. The May ratings sweeps, one of four months a year that help determine advertising prices for local stations, began this week.

“Shoot your family and friends . . . with your videocamera,” said the ad, “and KCBS will air them during the 11PM ACTION NEWS broadcast. Send us your funniest, most noteworthy video moments and . . . watch what happens.”

Singer said earlier this week that he hadn’t seen the ad and had never watched ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” He added: “The idea was to do a consumer piece on video cameras, how they work, what’s coming out down the road. And someone said, ‘If we do that, why don’t we solicit videos to see how people use their video cameras, like panning too fast?’ ”

Hyland, like Singer, emphasized that proceeding with the project was uncertain at this point. But Hyland acknowledged that “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” the top new hit of the 1989-90 TV season, was a factor in stimulating the thinking at KCBS.

“We were talking about different things that happened to be very hot right now,” he said. “The Saget show (Bob Saget is the host of ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’) is very popular. The one on Fox, too (‘Totally Hidden Video’). We’re in the TV business. People are fascinated by these cameras, and we figured that since we’re in a visual business, why not let people participate?

“We thought we’d have some of our own camera operators on and explain things to people and talk about these cameras and what they can and can’t do.”

Hyland said that it would probably be late this week or next before KCBS knows whether it has gotten worthwhile videos from viewers for the project and “if it is a good idea.” He said he was opposed to the kind of tapes on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” that were criticized for seeming to exploit children: “I think it’s wrong making fun of little kids who fall down or walk into a wall. Taste is our No. 1 consideration.”

But as for putting comedy into the news, he said: “News isn’t all hard news. There’s an entertainment section, a sports section. So this is just another dimension you’re trying to communicate to the viewer.”

Informed of KCBS’ consideration of a videos segment, Steve Paskay, producer of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” said: “Is local news airing funny home videos for entertainment value or news value during the sweeps? We have certainly raised the interest of home videos and camcorders to a high degree and I’m not surprised that a news organization should try to capitalize.”

Singer countered: “We’re not trying to do ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos.’ I know it drifted somehow this way, but that’s not the intention. People are buying these things (camcorders) like crazy.”

He added that KCBS is putting on outstanding investigative reports and hard news, and that if a videos segment “gets people to watch something like that, then I’m satisfied.”