KNBC-TV Shuffles Producers of Two Afternoon Newscasts

KNBC-TV Channel 4 plans to shuffle the producers of two of its afternoon newscasts, promoting two minorities into positions formerly dominated by white males.

Beginning Sept. 5, Serena Cha will head up the 6 p.m. news and Ernie Arboles, formerly an Emmy Award-winning producer at KCBS-TV Channel 2, will oversee the 4 p.m. broadcast.

Cha, an Asian-American, replaces Bill Sorensen, who will be moved into the producer slot on the station’s early morning newscast, “Today in L.A.” Arboles, a Latino, replaces Bob Compton, who will be reassigned as a general news writer. Both Sorensen and Compton had been in their producer positions for more than five years.

The changes were outlined in a memo to the newsroom staff signed by Nancy Bauer, KNBC’s executive producer.

“We have some strong producers that we wanted to promote and we’re just trying to strengthen the newscasts,” KNBC spokeswoman Regina Miyamoto said Thursday.

KNBC’s news lineup underwent a face lift last month with the hiring of former KABC-TV Channel 7 anchor Paul Moyer, and the producer changes are designed to inject new life and a faster pace into the shows, a source at the station said.

“The change of producers is not a bad thing nor is it horribly uncommon in television,” said one Channel 4 staffer. “And the ethnic diversity is definitely a good thing. In terms of meeting the needs of our viewers, this adds voice and sensitivity to racial and ethnic issues.”

Newscast producers are generally regarded as the king of hill, responsible for the daily content of their particular show, although in recent years at KNBC, executive producer Bauer, managing editor Kenny Boles and news director Nancy Valenta have been more involved in the day-to-day operation of the newsroom than in the past, one source said.

Stan Weinstock, the current producer of “Today in L.A.,” will become a weekend show producer.

Meanwhile, several sources at KNBC said that Mike Gage, president of the Los Angeles Water and Power Commission and former deputy mayor, has been told by station management that he will not be retained as a reporter when his contract expires in December.

Spokeswoman Miyamoto responded only that Gage “is still an employee of ours.” Gage’s office said he was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Gage was hired in December, 1990, to report on education, sparking a controversy that his government jobs posed a conflict of interest in working on an objective news-gathering staff. If Gage goes, he would be the second KNBC news personality to be released since management awarded an $8-million-plus contract to Moyer. Consumer reporter David Horowitz got his pink slip a week ago.