THE TUBE

In the beginning, there was Cronkite. And it was good.

Then there was Davis. And it was better--TV news presentation, that is.

Gill Davis, 38, isn’t a newsman. He just builds TV news studio sets. But with his company, G&G; Designs in Carlsbad, Davis is the captain of this hidden industry. KABC, KNBC, KTLA, news studios in Toronto, Sydney and even Bogota--all over the world, news is delivered from G&G; “environments.” Davis, insiders agree, can manipulate perception better than anyone since the Wizard of Oz. Or the Wizard of Is, as he’s called in the world of television news. Want friendliness? “Have anchors sitting nearer each other,” says Tim Saunders, 35, vice president of design services. “We’ve got their position marks down to 31 inches apart now, bellybutton to bellybutton. Plus an oval table. More chummy.” Credibility? “No problem,” Saunders says. “Give them a backdrop silhouette of the town they live in. Make it pretty, something the audience wants to be part of. That enhances the trust factor. Use retreating columns and steps to give depth to the set, a sense that wow, this must be a large, dependable news-gathering organization.”

Perception counts, Davis says. Especially in a market like Los Angeles, where one extra ratings point can mean an additional $1 million in revenues. News directors agree; Davis, who built eight sets his first year, 1980, now builds 50 a year.

An architect, Davis had designed a set for Channel 10 in San Diego and realized that only one company in the country designed sets; he quickly started the second. His latest coup is L.A.’s KCOP: Its newsroom make-over will cost near $1.2 million. The style is hush-hush (news directors are as neurotic as Paris fashion designers), but the word for its newsroom’s new look (due in weeks) is Milano . But the look is just the latest in a parade of newsroom fashions including: * Walter Cronkite’s black-matte, Father Figure desk ‘n’ mike simplicity.

* The ‘70s High-Tech Look: flashes, strawberry swirls on wall, red-hot-news phones.

* The Happy-Talk-Team Look: tables through which you can see the anchors’ legs. Buzzword: team chemistry .

* The ‘80s Let’s Get Serious Look: Sweaty reality sets. Anchors plunked in the middle of real newsrooms (a look that still survives on CNN and “Nightline”).

* Electronic sets: anchors in empty studios with backgrounds thrown electronically around their images (“Entertainment Tonight” and “Inside Edition”).

What next? Virtual reality? You will be in the news with the rioters. Davis promises that KCOP’s set will be “real.” But, as Marshall McLuhan warned, real is relative. And if the medium is the message, watch out for the maker of the medium.