Channel 39 Sends Viewers on Video Search for News

It is really no great surprise that KNSD-TV (Channel 39) is starting a program designed to encourage people to use their home video equipment to record news for the station. In this day and age, the Era of Cheesy Home Video television, it would be much more of a shock to hear a news director tell people to save their grainy, out-of-focus videos for their family’s eggnog-juiced Christmas party.

For all those who have been secluded in caves in the Alps reading Donald Trump’s autobiography, home video is the hot thing in television. Instead of people reaching out from their homes to embrace television, a video-hungry television industry is inserting its tentacles into people’s homes, reaching for their most personal moments.

“America’s Funniest Home Videos” and its slew of imitators--including an especially tacky syndicated version hosted by San Diego Union cartoonist-cum-stand-up comic Steve Kelley, who is not cut out to be a genial host, simply make up the tip of an excruciatingly successful trend.

Television news has been encouraging amateur photographers for years. Camcorders are everywhere. It’s logical that Bob, Dick and Carol with their new, high-quality, light-sensitive, auto-load, Hi-Fi home video systems would have just as much, if not more, opportunity to stumble on to news as trained, professional photojournalists.

The San Francisco earthquake was best chronicled not by television news organizations, but by home video enthusiasts who just happened to have their cameras on when the ground began to shake. Locally, when a killer whale died at Sea World last year, amateur photographers supplied the local stations with video of the blood-filled pool.

Channel 39, like many stations, is taking the amateur video craze to the next step. Instead of simply taking submissions from the public, the station is actively encouraging folks to become photojournalists, to have their cameras ready to record local crimes and disasters. Yes, you, even you, can be a professional television news photographer.

The new “KNSD Newsbreaker Network,” unveiled right before the November ratings sweeps period, will pay people a whopping $50 for footage used during the news, in addition to giving the amateur local on-screen credit. Members of the network also will receive newsletters with helpful tips on how to shoot video, an official “reporter tip sheet to help gather important information” and the opportunity to attend seminars conducted by Channel 39 photographers. Sorry, no secret decoder rings.

“We’re primarily interested in eyewitnesses to news, for our viewers to become more of our eyes and ears,” Channel 39 News Director Don Shafer said. “Everybody out there could be professional photographers, and we’re trying to tap that resource.”

Shafer was excited about a recent submission, video of a home on fire.

“Our amateur video was shot a full hour before anybody else got there,” he said. “We had great flames, and great video.”

While all this sounds warm and fuzzy, conjuring up images of Channel 39 and Mr. and Mrs. Average San Diegan walking arm in arm, bringing the news to the world, the real story is tucked into the last line of Channel 39’s two-page press release.

“Above all, KNSD stresses safety,” the release states. “Newsbreakers should never interfere with anything at the scene, and always obey all officials.”

Trained, professional photojournalists have enough trouble walking the thin ethical lines of television news. Amateurs eager to become “official newsbreakers” may have difficulty understanding the moral guidelines of a crime scene, or fully realizing the dangers.

Shafer said “newsbreakers” will be coached on safety, and discouraged from taking any risks at the same time that they are briefed on methods to best shoot news stories. He doesn’t see any contradiction in encouraging people to shoot dramatic video while discouraging them from taking any risks.

“We don’t want them to go walking into hostage situations, and we don’t want them telling an armed robber to hold it a second while he adjusts his zoom focus,” Shafer said. “We’re going to try hard to steer them away from the bravado of professional camera people.”

Channel 39 and television stations throughout the country with similar programs apparently underestimate people’s mania to take part in the Era of Cheesy Home Video. People clearly love to play with their camcorders, and there are few boundaries to their enthusiasm.

News reports have made it clear that people are willing to set up their own children for pratfalls in attempts to get on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” It boggles the mind to think what they might do for $50 and a chance to be on the local news.

Former KCBQ owner and general manager Simon T is out as general manager of Los Angeles’ KQLZ-FM (Pirate Radio). According to a report in Inside Report--characterized as “highly sensationalized” by one staffer--Simon left after a “blowup” with morning star Scott Shannon. . . .

Channel 10 has dumped the highly-touted game show “Challengers” after six weeks, replacing it in the key 7 p.m. time slot with the tabloid “Inside Edition.” “What they put on the air wasn’t quite what we thought we’d get,” Program Director Don Lundy said. The station decided to make a change early, rather than go into the November sweeps period with a faltering show. . . .

The reoccuring role of Debbie Pfeiffer on “The Wonder Years” played by 11-year-old San Diego actress Torrey Anne Cook will be spotlighted on an episode scheduled to air Nov. 7. . . .

Renewal of Channel 8’s operating license is still pending, more than a year after civil rights groups challenged the station’s minority hiring practices. Several other California stations are facing similar challenges. The Federal Communications Commission reportedly has heard the recommendations of its staff, but hasn’t made a decision yet.