Hedgecock at His Best When Smarm Gives Way to Action

Despite the omnipresent Roger Hedgecock Smarm Factor, it is worth noting that the Ross/Hedgecock Report has made real progress. It is not the same show that debuted three months ago to generally scathing reviews.

Although still far from the engaging forum KNSD-TV (Channel 39) producers envision, it has developed into a faster-paced program that actually can be interesting at times, or at least more intellectually stimulating than the alternative--watching Oprah Winfrey discuss weight-loss techniques for transvestites on Channel 10.

The half-hour show, which serves as a lead-in to the 5 p.m. newscast, is at its best when it reacts to the day’s events. By going live to breaking news stories or to reporters covering occurring stories, it makes the show a source of immediate information, much like its primary competitor, Channel 8’s 4:30 newscast.

And the show’s producers apparently have realized that it is slow death to commit the show to discussing just one issue. When it bounces from live reports to live “man on the street” interviews to in-studio discussions, the show has the kind of of spontaneity that makes for strong television. Pace is everything for the show, and it succeeds when the viewer doesn’t really know what to expect next.

On the other hand, overcoming the Hedgecock smarm factor is still the show’s greatest challenge. The ex-mayor and ex-convicted felon (his record is clean now) conducts most interviews with a strained perky style and a vague smirk, a look of slight amusement that suggests he might attempt to sell the guests a few Amway products at any moment.

Meanwhile, Allison Ross’ role has been limited to reading the news during the first part of the program--her cutesy “Last Look” segment was canned--and the producers have wisely decided not to try to establish a hokey relationship between Hedgecock and Ross.

As with most programs of this kind, the show is only as good as the guests. Although decent enough at asking tough questions, Hedgecock doesn’t have the personality or interviewing style to make a boring guest interesting.

But a good guest doesn’t a need a good host to be interesting, and the Ross/Hedgecock Report has benefited recently from some solid guests. When Hedgecock interviews such news figures as Karen Wilkening and the “Billboard Bandit,” Don House, it makes the program a timely and effective arm of the newsroom.

The producers originally said they would avoid guests on the book tour circuit. But recently they have had a few authors on promotional tours on the show, including Ali MacGraw and Linda Ellerbee, and even they have been more interesting than local bureaucrats discussing inane local topics.

The show sinks back into the muck of boring television when it has guests only vaguely related to the issues, or when the show doesn’t adequately frame a debate by having all sides of an issue represented.

In general, though, the Ross/Hedgecock Report is far more lively than it was when it first came on the air. And at least it is showing signs of becoming a viable part of the afternoon news lineup.

The man who first hired Hedgecock to do radio at KSDO, Jim Price, announced his retirement this week, after 38 years in the radio business.

For the past five years, Price has been general manager of KYXY-FM (96.5), but he is best known for his stints at KSDO and at KGB. At KGB, where he served as general manager for 10 years before leaving in 1984, Price helped establish the station as a rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse in the years of the KGB Sky Show and the KGB Chicken.

Price will be missed from the day-to-day radio scene. He has ingredients rarely found in radio management--credibility, sincerity and respect. Unlike most radio managers steeped in the rhetoric of advertising sales, Price never tried to bury people in, as Stormin’ Norman might say, bovine scatology. Or at least, he rarely tried to do it, which is about as much as you can ask of a radio executive.

Price, 56, certainly has his detractors as well as fans, as any good radio manager should, but the friends far outnumber the foes.

He will be replaced at KYXY by Dan Carelli, who was the general manager of KCBQ. According to a press release, Price will stay on as a “consultant” through 1992.

What if you aired a television show and didn’t tell anybody? KFMB-TV (Channel 8) doesn’t even bother to send out press releases informing the local media of the air dates for “Assignment San Diego,” the news magazine that airs on a different night each month. In an impressive display of efficiency, the station did issue a release for the first show in March, but it didn’t include the date or time the show was scheduled to air. . . .

Channel 8, the official station of the Miss California Pagaent, is reportedly revamping “Assignment San Diego” and will finally give it a regular air date and regular hosts--news anchors Hal Clement and Susan Peters. . . .

“I was hired to fix the station, and I have fixed it.” KRMX-FM (94.9) General Manager Bob Visotcky said four days before his disagreements with station program director and morning personality Bobby Rich led Rich, the station’s only marketable personality, to “resign.”. . .

When Mike Novak abruptly left the cush job of program director of KFMB-FM (B100), he used rhetoric such as “philosophical differences,” and “it was time to move on” to explain his sudden departure, suggesting that it was a mutual decision. Now we know why he left: To take the, shall we say, slightly less prestigious job of weekend personality and fill-in disc jockey for country station KSON. He was hired at KSON last week, along with Tony Maddox, formerly of KHJ and KCBQ. . . .

Larry Mendte, still unsure about his future, filed reports on the Los Angeles earthquake for WBBM in Chicago and WCBS in New York. . . .

Channel 39, attempting to get the most for the thousands of dollars it spent on Emmy entries, has already started running cheesy commercials trumpeting its Emmy success. . . .

KGTV (Channel 10) is using Stephen Clark as a reporter for the 11 p.m. newscast, hoping to re-establish the reporter-turned-anchor as a professional news hound.