Local Angle for KTLA’s Morning Show : Television: Channel 5’s program, which starts July 8, will also have immediacy over the three-hour tape-delayed network shows.

TV or not TV. . . .

WAKE-UP CALL: It’s a natural--a Los Angeles TV news show challenging NBC’s “Today” series, ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” from 7 to 9 a.m. daily.

Starting July 8, KTLA Channel 5, which already has the town’s best nightly newscast with Hal Fishman, will make its big bid for the weekday local breakfast set as well.

“KTLA Morning News” will try to shoot down such network stars as NBC’s Bryant Gumbel and ABC’s Charles Gibson by focusing on local news, weather, traffic, sports and entertainment along with national headlines.

KTLA’s anchors will be Carlos Amezcua, an import from Denver, and Barbara Beck, previously in Miami--both morning personalities in their former markets for the last few years.

But the most important thing KTLA has going for it is the fact that all three of the networks’ morning shows are tape-delayed here by three hours because of their New York origination and only offer brief news updates. What’s more, the shows are invariably similar.

Being live and local offers limitless opportunities. During the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, KCBS Channel 2 tapped the potential with a notable series of daily, early morning news broadcasts that caught the bustle and energy of the city preparing for the coming day.

Early morning newscasts already exist on network stations KABC Channel 7, KNBC Channel 4 and KCBS, but they all have to end by 7 a.m., when “Today,” “Good Morning America” and “This Morning” begin.

For those viewers who don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, the 7-to-9-a.m. time period is just about perfect for a TV fill-in on the day’s events.

It could be that the major hurdle for “KTLA Morning News” will not be the network series but the fact that this is the nation’s biggest radio market, with early morning and drive-time hours a peak period for stations to offer the same kind of local news, weather, traffic and sports updates.

KTLA commissioned a “feasibility study” that, the station reports, “revealed that 52% of those polled would switch their viewing habits from a morning network show to a locally originated newscast.”

Maybe--if it’s good and solid, in the manner of KTLA’s nightly newscast.

EAGLE EYE: ABC just keeps on picking up top-flight talent that the other networks stupidly let slip away.

Only recently, Tom Bettag, who was dropped as executive producer of Dan Rather’s “CBS Evening News,” was hired by ABC to run Ted Koppel’s distinguished “Nightline” series.

And now ABC has signed Marty Ryan, former executive producer of NBC’s “Today” show, as boss of its daytime “Home” series, which will expand to 90 minutes July 15.

If one network finally folds, it won’t be ABC.

REPORT FROM THE FRONT: “I just did a thing for CBS called ‘America’s Missing Children,’ with Michael Landon as the host,” says Lee Rich, one of Hollywood’s premier producers. “We got over 2,500 calls. We got a 19 share (19% of the audience) on a Monday night from 8 to 9. Whether that’s good or bad, who knows?”

But what bothers Rich, who helped found Lorimar Productions and whose TV credits range from “The Waltons” to “Dallas,” is that “CBS led me to believe we were going to do two or three more specials.”

What happened? Well, says Rich, he was told that CBS “can’t do this because they have too many sports programs. I said, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself. This is really worthwhile.’ They’ve spent so much money on sports, so they’ve got to do sports programs. I can take the show elsewhere, but I just get upset when I get an answer like that.”

CBS lost a fortune by overpaying for major league baseball. In the coming season, it has the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: David Letterman says France has responded to German reunification by dialing 911.

DEBUT: Debbie Reynolds launches a weekly interview show on the American Movie Classics channel Saturday at 7 p.m., with Donald O’Connor, her co-star in “Singin’ in the Rain,” as the guest. Now, that’s one for posterity--and worth taping.

DATEBOOK: Catch ABC’s “Equal Justice” Wednesday for its portrayal of a dynamic woman attorney, played by Colleen Flynn, who uses a wheelchair and is an activist for disability rights. Tari Susan Hartman, a prominent show business spokeswoman for the disabled, says the episode captures the “passionate struggle (and) realistic essence of the disability experience.”

LISTENING POST: Over on radio, a friend reports, KFWB carried a story on the death of the National, the daily sports newspaper, and then, only minutes later, broadcast a “previously scheduled commercial plugging the paper and extolling its virtues.”

HOLIDAY: A recently restored print of that grand and great musical “Show Boat” will premiere July 4 at 8:35 p.m. on TNT, starring Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Marge and Gower Champion, William Warfield and Joe E. Brown. Someone is always rediscovering “Show Boat”--and no wonder.

CLOUT: ABC, in its bid to be No. 1 in the ratings next season, has a potent motion picture lineup--including “When Harry Met Sally . . .” (Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan), “Rain Man” (Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise) and “Back to the Future II” (Michael J. Fox).

ADVISER: Johnny Carson says he discouraged Magic Johnson from quitting, reminding him that he has 15 weeks of vacation each year and only plays three games a week.

YESTERDAYS: Hard to believe, but “American Bandstand” debuted nearly 40 years ago, as a local dance show in Philadelphia in 1952, and ABC marks the anniversary with a special next season.

BEING THERE: “Money can’t buy happiness. . . . But then, happiness can’t buy government-insured C.D.’s.”--David Addison (Bruce Willis) in “Moonlighting.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .