San Diego TV Offers Little New for the Fall Season

You know it’s a boring fall television season for the local stations when:

* The most talked about new programs are a talk show hosted by a chubby, ultraconservative radio personality and a warmed-over version of a 1950s game show.

* Competing stations concede that “People’s Court” is an awesome ratings force.

* Station executives are spending long hours debating the cost-effectiveness and demographic merits of “Roseanne.”

Usually, local stations spend September repositioning themselves in the market, unveiling strategies and new syndicated shows much like the national networks. But this year’s fall season is remarkably quiet, repressed by a lightweight roster of available syndicated programs and several ensconced shows on local channels.

This year’s fall season is so unremarkable, XETV (Channel 6) didn’t even have its annual fall preview party to butter up advertisers, which explains why media buyers have been moping about town. Channel 6 usually gives away a car at the party. (The advertising community can buck up, though, with word that Channel 6 is planning a party for January.)

For local stations, most of the competition is in the 6 to 8 p.m. slot and late-night after 11 p.m. But this fall, KGTV (Channel 10) is sticking with “Inside Edition” and “People’s Court” from 7 to 8 p.m., and KFMB-TV (Channel 8) is locked into “Entertainment Tonight” and “Hard Copy” in the same slot.

Of the network affiliates, only KNSD-TV (Channel 39) made a move, and it wasn’t exactly earth shattering. After paying big money to steal “A Current Affair” from Channel 10 two years ago--part of a deal that also required Channel 39 to buy the short-lived “Personalities”--Channel 39 didn’t renew “A Current Affair” and has instead moved “Jeopardy!” back to 7:30 p.m., where it follows “Wheel of Fortune.”

In the 6:30 p.m. weekday slot vacated by “Jeopardy!”, Channel 39 will insert reruns of “Murphy Brown,” which entered the syndication market this year.

In a sense, this is a return to Channel 39’s lineup of a few years ago, when it had “Cheers” at 6:30 and “Jeopardy!” at 7:30. Channel 39 bailed on that lineup to pick up “A Current Affair,” which never made much of a dent against “People’s Court” at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s weird,” said Channel 39 general manager Neil Derrough. “ ‘People’s Court’ doesn’t work (at night) in any market in the country, but it does work here.”

To show that there is some irony in this game of syndicated programs, Channel 10 has again picked up “A Current Affair.” It has already started airing it at midnight, where it will serve as a lead-in to the new Rush Limbaugh talk show, which debuts at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning5. Limbaugh is a sensation on radio, but it remains to be seen whether his ranting shtick will translate to television.

“We’re going to keep an eye on it to see if it is something that ought to see the light of day,” said Channel 10 program director Don Lundy.

The only other new show that has been getting much attention is “You Bet Your Life,” Bill Cosby’s version of the old game show, which KFMB-TV (Channel 8) is putting up against “Oprah Winfrey” on Channel 10 at 4 p.m. It is a key spot for Channel 8, which is hoping to develop a stronger lead-in for its news programs at 4:30 and 5 p.m.

In the realm of syndicated programs, most of the bidding was over such mediocre product as “Roseanne,” “Designing Women” and “Murphy Brown.”

KUSI-TV (Channel 51) will begin airing “Roseanne” reruns Sept. 28 at 7 p.m., followed by “Designing Women” at 7:30 p.m. Channel 51 has also picked up the new Whoopi Goldberg talk show, which begins airing at 11 p.m. tonight.

“In the past year, there was not much out there, so ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Roseanne’ were regarded as almost priceless product,” said Channel 6 general manager Martin Colby.

Channel 6 is banking on reruns of “The Wonder Years” at 5:30 p.m., which follow a highly touted new animated version of “Batman,” which Channel 6 is airing at 5 p.m. Channel 6 has also moved “Cheers” to 11 p.m. weekdays, where it has been a big winner in the Los Angeles market.

Channel 6 also will be carrying several big-budget syndicated shows that won’t debut until January, including a new series that is an offshoot of “Star Trek” and a new version of “The Untouchables.”

Other than these quasi-dramatic moves, most of the stations are standing pat. Channel 39 has picked up the new Vicki Lawrence talk fest for its 10 a.m. slot, but the old stalwarts like Oprah, Phil and Geraldo still dominate the local market, which is one reason many syndicators have been reluctant to produce new shows. In the competitive world of syndication, it has been difficult to dethrone the old guard.

Locally, with the ratings system due to change in November, many of the stations are also hesitant to dive in a new direction. Funded by local stations, Nielsen is ditching the diary system and going to meters that mechanically record viewing, and most local executives believe there will be a few dramatic swings in the ratings for some programs, although it is difficult to predict what will happen.

Of course, other than Channel 39’s new 4 p.m. newscast set to debut in a month, the stations have apparently rejected the idea of developing local programming as an alternative to the dearth of quality syndicated programming available.

UC San Diego officials are calling the station’s new low-power station, which is finally ready to go on the air after years of wrangling with the federal bureaucracy, “the C-Span of the UC system.”

The station, Channel 35 (K35DG), is expected to begin broadcasting a test signal in mid-November, before beginning daily programming in January.

Much like C-Span, which revels in its simplicity and lack of flash, the station will focus on airing lectures, performances, meetings and other campus events, station program director Rhyena Halpern said. At first, the emphasis will be on taping things outside the studio, going mobile, with the three cameras available to the staff. The goal is to air four to six hours a day of programming when it starts up for real in January.

“We are really an educational and non-commercial station,” said Halpern. “We’re not going to be repeating what is already out there.”

With its transmission tower on Mt. Soledad, the station will probably reach homes in a 15-20 mile radius. There are no immediate plans for it to be carried on the local cable systems--only those within range who have an antenna will be able to pick it up--although cable is certainly the long-term dream of all low-power stations.

Since receiving channel rights in a weighted-lottery in 1986, UCSD has been just one of several organizations struggling to get on the air, working to get the proper permits, equipment and funding.

KBNT-TV (Channel 19) was the first to make it on the air two years ago, offering Spanish-language programming.

After several mishaps and failed start-ups, Channel 17 is still awaiting its construction permit for a tower in Sorrento Mesa, and now expects to be on the air in mid-October, at the earliest.

John Willkie’s Channel 63 also has had trouble getting started, although he insists he is on the brink of getting on the air.

Channel 8 weekend sports guy Curt Sandoval is leaving to take a job with a station in Denver. . . .

Reports from Chicago say that Channel 10 news director Paul Sands has been mentioned as a candidate for the news director job with WLS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Chicago. . . .

Brett Kelly has been promoted from operation supervisor for KPBS-TV to the all-important role of fund-raising coordinator for both KPBS radio and television. Kelly, 30, served as a student assistant in the operations department before becoming a full-time employee in 1987. . . .

“Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth,” the HBO documentary about San Diegan Alfons Heck’s experiences with the Hitler Youth, won a national Emmy last week for Outstanding Historical Programming. . . .

With budgets always tight at KNSD-TV (Channel 39), more than a few employees may be grumbling at a recent Forbes magazine article, which detailed the perks lavished upon station owner George Gillett. Gillett recently filed for personal bankruptcy, and creditors forced a restructuring of his television holdings. But don’t weep for him. Although he gave up a collection of 30 sports cars and a 235,000-acre Oregon ranch, Forbes reports that when Gillett Holdings emerges from reorganization, Gillett will receive a $16-million package of benefits, including a $1.5 million annual salary for seven years and $5 million of the reorganized company’s securities. . . .

Theater-goers should note that the double-bills at the Guild have already degenerated from Samuel Goldwyn/Landmark’s usual foreign and art films to recently released mainstream fare, such as “Batman Returns” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

CRITIC’S CHOICE

A LOOK AT THE MEAN STREETS

Dark and moody drug movies showing the gritty underbelly of society are big these days. Including “Rush,” “One False Move” and “Drugstore Cowboy,” the genre seems to be hitting a forceful stride, thanks to a new batch of young, uncompromising directors.

With “Light Sleeper,” an older, uncompromising director wades into the fray. Paul Schrader wrote “Taxi Driver,” so he’s no foreigner to the mean streets. But he also has a flair for the upper crust, demonstrated in “American Gigolo” and the more recent “The Comfort of Strangers.”

In “Light Sleeper,” currently at Hillcrest Cinemas, Schrader follows a middle-class white drug dealer (Willem Dafoe), who is coming to grips with the fact that it might be time to find something else to do with his life. Some puritanical critics have been torn by Schrader’s depiction of a drug dealer as a sympathetic character.

But like many others of this rapidly expanding genre, “Light Sleeper” doesn’t wallow in sentimentality, nor is it preachy. Unrelentingly realistic, it leaves many questions unanswered, providing the audience with something more to talk about than the number of car crashes in the film.