It’s ‘The Team to Watch’ if You Want to Be Bored

Every night during the 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. KFMB-TV (Channel 8) news broadcasts, the cameras periodically pull back for a Happy Talk Interlude. Anchors Hal Clement and Susan Peters, Serious Weather Guy Loren Nancarrow and Sports Guy Ted Leitner, on cue, take a minute to get reacquainted, to chat amiably about whatever happens to be on their minds.

It’s a bonding moment. Just the folks down the street getting together and talking about things. Sometimes they even talk about the news.

It’s been more than a month since Channel 8 brought this crew together, launching its newest new era. Channel 8 broke open the piggy bank to buy print ads and billboard space promoting them as “The Team to Watch.”

The station’s strategy is as subtle as a Pee-wee Herman joke. Mired in second place in the ratings for several years, the station hopes that San Diegans will respond to familiar faces delivering the news. Except for Peters, all the station’s main players have been part of San Diego television news for years.

The station wants us to think of them as nice folks who just happen to have jobs on television. These aren’t graduates of the Barbizon School of Anchors. They’re just plain, average, noticeably Caucasian, “real people.”

Maybe the strategy is working. Only the ratings can really pass judgment.

But now that the team has been in place for more than a month, one thing is unarguable: It sure makes for boring television.

Aside from Leitner, who has become the television news equivalent of fingers scratching across a blackboard, all the players are likable, in a Midwest back-yard barbecue kind of way. Clement, who seems better suited for the casual atmosphere of the 4:30 p.m. newscast, doesn’t leap off the screen, but he’s amiable and inoffensive.

The same is true of Nancarrow. His environmental reports display little insight or imagination, but at least he appears to be growing more comfortable with the live elements of his job.

The newest addition is Peters, who the station tells us over and over again was raised in San Diego, as if going to high school here should give her instant credibility.

Even giving her the benefit of the doubt, Peters appears to be trying much too hard. She has a sing-song delivery; she hits the high notes, pauses, then drops her voice to make a point. Her eyebrows dip and soar like out-of-control windshield wipers. If Clement is too laid-back, then Peters is the quintessential opposite, punching her phrases to the point of being annoying.

It is left to Leitner to bring some excitement to the program, which is kind of pathetic. His is a one-note act, ranting about his pet peeves, desperately trying to provoke some response. It was fun for a while, but, after 13 years, the act is growing thin. Last year, in a short-lived experiment, the station actually used Leitner to do commentaries--remember “Something to Say”--which only served to emphasize that he has been overexposed, and is redundant and far too full of himself to be entertaining anymore.

Since Leitner and Clement haven’t been able to fit the 11 p.m. newscast into their schedules, the late night broadcast features a completely different team, including Mitch Duncan, Andrea Naversen, Hank Bauer and Larry Himmel. Like the earlier team, they come across as friendly enough--except for Naversen, who projects the warmth of a stern junior high school principal. And sports guy Bauer has definitely improved.

But, like the 5 and 6:30 programs, the 11 p.m. program isn’t bad --it’s simply boring. The mere presence of an amiable news team is a long way away from presenting an interesting or engaging news program.

The problem facing Channel 8 is this: Why should San Diegans stop watching the other stations to watch this gang?

It certainly won’t be for Channel 8’s news coverage, which has become noticeably simplistic. Although the station does a reasonable job of covering the day-to-day news--and its reporters seem as competent as those at any of the other local stations--Channel 8 spends much of its news time on inane lifestyle features and supposedly helpful “FYI” features.

In the hands of Channel 8, “FYI” should stand for Forget Your Intelligence. Several recent segments were devoted to helping people use a camera. The information was rarely more helpful than “don’t jiggle around so much.”

Even features labeled “in-depth” rarely feature more than one or two interviews slapped together. Recent reports on the airport situation and on home video and privacy each focused on only one interview, fleshed out by readily available background material.

In fairness, maybe the station doesn’t have the resources to handle all the news time it must fill. Recent cutbacks have probably put even more strain on the reporters to crank out stories.

And this is far more worrisome than any debate over the pros and cons of Peters’ delivery. Maybe San Diego is ready for a news team that has the charisma of a convention of insurance adjusters. But it will take a lot more than folksy anchors to make Channel 8 the team to watch.

The big television news story of the week had to be Channel 10’s coverage of the rescue of a cat caught in a tree. Channel 10 cameras were there to capture the drama, as a reserve firefighter climbed a ladder to pluck the feline from a branch. “Any second thoughts about going up there?” a Channel 10 reporter asked the rescuer. It was a Channel 10 exclusive. . . .

Thanks to a new agreement with NBC, Channel 39 will be expanding its 11 p.m. weeknight news program to 35 minutes, beginning Sept. 2. The move will give the station more time for news and ads. More than anything, it represents the increasing power of affiliates to dictate terms to the once-powerful networks. . . .

Neil Derrough, Channel 39’s general manager, says the bankruptcy of the station’s parent company, Gillett Communications, won’t have any direct impact on the station. But it will have some effect. Gillett recently announced plans to close its Washington bureau, a frequent resource for Channel 39. . . .

A crew from “48 Hours” has been in town, following members of the San Diego Police Department.