Ross-Hedgecock TV Show to Debut This Afternoon

and it has already had a dose of it, even though the show won’t debut until 4:30 p.m. today.

Chicano rights activist Herman Baca, who has clashed with the former mayor and KSDO-AM (1130) talk-show host over the “Light Up the Border” campaign, among other things, turned down a request to appear on the show to debate immigration issues, because Hedgecock would be serving as moderator.

In a letter to the show’s producers, Baca called Hedgecock a “dyed-in-the-wool racist who has made a lucrative career out of ‘Mexican Bashing.’ ” Using Hedgecock as a moderator is comparable to “having President Bush and President Saddam debate the Persian Gulf War and having Yasser Arafat as the moderator,” Baca wrote.

Baca is not the only San Diegan who has declined to appear with the outspoken former mayor, for one reason or another.

“I wouldn’t say (the Baca letter) is the first,” said the show’s producer, Jack Merker.

It will be part of Merker’s job to field the complaints, to be the buffer between Hedgecock and his fans and and detractors. Merker is used to it--he often handled a similar role when he was with KSDO.

In his years on radio, Hedgecock has become an expert at stirring up people’s passions. Eager to find a strong lead-in for its 5 p.m. newscast, Channel 39 hopes Hedgecock will bring the same flair for nerve-prodding to the new show.

In the current format, Ross, the longtime KFMB-TV (Channel 8) anchorwoman, has been assigned to do what she does best--read the news. Hedgecock will be in a separate studio, where he will conduct panel discussions and take phone calls from viewers.

Today’s first show is scheduled to focus on the shareholders’ lawsuit against the board of directors of Great American Bank. Gov. Pete Wilson is scheduled to do an interview from Sacramento on Tuesday, and water will be the issue Wednesday.

“The idea is to stimulate people and get them involved in the news,” Merker said.

Susan Roesgen’s hair color is already an issue in New York City, where she has been hired by WABC-TV. The local rags have been busy touting her as the replacement for well-established anchorwoman Kaity Tong on the station’s 11 p.m. weekday newscast.

An article in Newsday said Roesgen’s hiring represented the continued “blonding of the (WABC) news,” which means Roesgen must be reverting to her natural hair color, now that she is leaving the fashion designers at Channel 8.

Part of the blonding trend, the article points out, was the hiring of former Channel 8 anchorman Greg Hurst, refered to in the article as “the giant of new journalists in town” and “the talking hairdo.”

“Hurst is the one with the rare ability of sounding just like Shadoe Stevens on ‘Hollywood Squares’ and possessor of the best glottal stops in town: He can make ‘live’ into a polysyllabic word,” critic Marvin Kitman wrote.

Hurst set an intellectual precedent for San Diego television journalism, according to Kitman. At a WABC newsroom meeting during the reunification of Germany about potential experts to be used in a newscast, “a producer piped up, ‘Let’s get Goering.’ Hurst said, ‘Oh, is he in town?’ ”

Noting that Dawn Fratangelo, another San Diego alumnus, had recently taken over an anchor job at New York’s Channel 4, Kitman wondered about the “alarming trend” of San Diegans taking over New York journalism. “San Diego seems to be replacing L.A. as a cultural center. San Diego isn’t L.A. It isn’t New York. It’s San Diego.”

Roesgen, who replaced Allison Ross at Channel 8, again will be entering a situation where she will replace a popular anchorwoman. According to an article in the New York Post, Roesgen, who didn’t return phone calls last week, will earn $175,000 in her new job, which, most industry experts agree, sounds low for the assignment.

When XHKY-FM owner Victor Diaz switched the station from 95.7 to 95.5 last month and increased the power, the move put the station in direct competition with Los Angeles-based KLOS-FM (95.5). Lawyers for Capital Cities Corp., owners of KLOS, jumped into action, and a few weeks later the normally cumbersome Mexican government revoked Diaz’s temporary permit. Now the Mexican-based XHKY is back on 95.7, at a reduced frequency.

“I did find something positive” in the situation, Diaz said. “I have concluded that radio is a powerful industry. The way these guys moved heaven and earth was really enlightening.”

Ads for the tabloid “A Current Affair,” airing locally on KNSD-TV (Channel 39), say “Now you can feel the news,” thanks to the show. The ad doesn’t specify in which part of the anatomy the viewer will “feel the news.” . . .

San Diego radio veteran Lee Mirabal has inked a deal to a syndicated late-night talk show for the NBC radio network. . . .

The rumor mill has former “Sun Up San Diego” host Jerry G. Bishop taking over the KPOP-AM (1360) morning show, replacing the retiring Don Howard, who is nothing short of a radio legend in town. KPOP program director Tommy Sarmiento confirmed that the station is negotiating with Bishop, but added that it is also talking to other personalities in town. The morning show will debut April 1. . . .

Donna Warren is retiring after eight years as director of the KPBS radio reading service.