MEDIA : KGTV Food Critic Seeks Good, Cheap Eats for Family

In Jack White’s world of restaurants, the service is consistently prompt and there is always plenty of good food at reasonable prices. Yes, life is good in his tastefully decorated, homey culinary realm, where negative thoughts and spicy food rarely intrude.

As the voice of fine dining for KGTV (Channel 10), the portly, slightly graying White searches for all that is good and right and inexpensive. The diametric opposite of a food snob, he almost always seeks out the “family” restaurant, a place where the food is piled high and the waitresses don’t use big words.

“Ah, just the way I like it,” he’ll often say when confronted with a heaping plate of barbecued ribs.

No pizza parlor or hamburger shop is too “quaint.” Paper table clothes are OK in his book.

One day, he’ll probably review a hot dog stand: “The buns were nice and soft, just the way I like them, and don’t forget to try the mustard for a little extra zip. . . .”

White, who also works as a reporter and occasional anchorman, has been doing restaurant reviews for 13 years. They air every Friday in the last few minutes of the 5 p.m. newscast. He is always pictured sitting alone in a suit and tie; a lone, conservatively dressed wanderer in search of good eats. An array of dishes is laid before him, more than any one man could possibly eat. A can of soda usually sits nearby.

He gingerly samples each dish, nodding his appreciation, while his narration describes each succulent morsel.

Beyond an occasional critical comment, something like “the lettuce was a tad brown,” he rarely has anything bad to say about a restaurant.

“We don’t go out to attack restaurants,” White said. “Maybe the chef had a fight with his wife, or the waitress has a flat tire on the way to work. There are so many variables.”

White said he did do a couple of scathing reviews early in his career. One restaurant even wanted to sue him. Soon after that incident, he decided to “refine” the approach.

“We decided our viewers didn’t want to know where bad restaurants are,” White said.

Only restaurants that “measure up” make it on the air, he said. In 13 years, only three restaurants that his crews have photographed didn’t make it, he said, one because it was “clearly a setup” for the benefit of the cameras. White usually works in tandem with photographer Leon Barsano.

Obviously, the sight of Jack White strolling into a restaurant would send the staff scurrying for their finest utensils, and prime them to be on their best behavior. So Barsano usually will go in one night, sans camera, followed by White a few nights later.

“I try to go in on a night the restaurant is really busy,” so they can’t offer any special service, White said.

Although about one out of every four reviews involves a “gourmet” restaurant, White sees himself more as the voice of “John Q. Citizen.” If it seems that his favorite restaurants are those where the mashed potatoes run into the peas and the pizza comes with a thick crust, it’s no accident.

“People want to know where they can take their Aunt Mary,” he said, “or where to go when they have friends in town.”

Although the July television rating period is one of the least important of the year because television viewership is generally down, the Arbitron ratings for July, released last week, brought good news for the KNSD-TV (Channel 39) news department. Its 11 p.m. newscast was in second place, according to Arbitron, with a 6 rating and a 23 share, and its split 5 and 6 p.m. half-hour newscasts posted a respectable 5 rating.

Of course, it will be up to the Big Thinkers to decide whether the ratings reflect Channel 39’s strengths or the weakness of KFMB-TV (Channel 8), which continued to post wishy-washy numbers. At 11 p.m., Channel 8 was in third with a 5 rating and an 18 share, and it trailed KGTV (Channel 10) at 5 p.m. with a 9 rating and 22 share.

Channel 10 had a 12 rating and 31 share at 5 p.m. It won the 11 p.m. news race with a 7 rating and 25 share.

The Nielsen ratings, which often tell a slightly different story, are due out this week.

Channel 39, struggling through the financial problems of its parent company, Gillette Communications, was dealt another blow last week when NBC announced it was cutting the compensation it pays affiliates to carry its programs. The networks are paying more for programming they produce and buy--such as NFL football--at the same time the audience for programs is shrinking. While some NBC stations will lose as much as 10% of their compensation, Channel 39 General Manager Neil Derrough said Channel 39 will lose closer to 5%, an amount in the “low six figures.”

“We can make it up,” Derrough said. “It’s not that large a figure.”

That’s not to say he’s happy about NBC’s decision.

“There’s not a lot we can do about it,” he said. “They do it because they can get away with it.”

KGMG-AM (1320) has switched from big band music to “easy listening,” hoping to pick up some of the audience that may not like the new bouncy KJQY-FM (Sunny 103). It may be the first “desktop radio station in California,” according to General Manager Steve Jacobs. The format is operated completely by computer, with humans providing supervision and occasional voices. . . . Promotions and marketing director Leslie O’Neal is leaving KCBQ to take a similar post with KKYY-FM (Y95). . . . In the swirl of television stations and newspapers attempting to promote themselves around Middle East coverage, the San Diego Tribune has moved to the head of the pack. Not content with simply patting itself on the back for sending a reporter to the Middle East, the Trib shamelessly ran a photo of reporter Jim Michaels on page one three times above the fold, as if he were the subject, not the reporter. . . . KNSD-TV (Channel 39) has “Starlink” (a satellite truck) and KTTV (Channel 11) in Los Angeles has “Spacelink.” It’s difficult to decide which to watch. . . . Charlie and Harrigan, a.k.a. Jack Woods and Paul Menard, will reunite to do the KPOP-AM (1360) morning show for a week, beginning today.