Cable, Local TV Vie With Networks on Vote Results

Although ABC, CBS and NBC still figure to draw the overwhelming share of the audience, cable television networks will have more of an impact than ever before during coverage of today’s election.

Not only will four cable networks provide forms of coverage--doubling the two that did so in 1988--but elements of cable also will find their ways into the broadcasts of CBS and KCBS-TV Channel 2.

Aping the interactive nature of Cable News Network’s “Larry King Live” and other television phone-in shows, CBS’ Dan Rather and his colleagues have a call-in segment planned between 9 and 11 p.m. This is the first time the network has included viewer comments in its presidential election coverage.

KCBS, meanwhile, has added comedian Elayne Boosler to its election-night team, following the lead of Comedy Central, which has covered both major party national conventions and the vice presidential debate.

Changing technology is also allowing local stations in on a traditional function of the networks. KABC-TV Channel 7 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 are both taking advantage of low-cost satellite feeds to dispatch reporters to the national campaign headquarters of President George Bush, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and (in KABC’s case) Ross Perot.

ABC, CBS and NBC will begin their coverage at 4 p.m. The first results of exit polls from the first states where the polls have closed--Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia--figure to come in a few minutes later.

ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC all figure to have similar exit polling data, which is being conducted by Voter Research and Survey, a consortium formed in 1989. No network will declare a projected winner in a state until all its polls are closed. However, a presidential winner will be declared after a candidate is projected to have won in states with the 270 electoral votes needed for victory, which in four of the last five elections has come before the polls close in California at 8 p.m.

CNN begins a planned 13 hours of continuous live programming at 1:30 p.m. with “Inside Politics ’92.” A special edition of “Larry King Live” follows at 2 p.m. “The World Today” gives an election preview at 3 p.m. Bernard Shaw and Catherine Crier will anchor the next six hours of coverage from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., with Patrick Greenlaw and Susan Rook handling the duties from 10 p.m.-2:30 a.m.

KCET-TV Channel 28 will carry 4 1/2 hours of election-night programming from the Public Broadcasting Service and will produce 2 1/2 hours of its own. “The Finish Line,” hosted by Hodding Carter and Ken Walker, airs from 5-8 p.m., followed by the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour Special Election Report” from 8-9 p.m. An updated “MacNeil/Lehrer News-Hour Special Election Report” airs from 11-11:30 p.m.

KCET and KCRW-FM (89.9) will simulcast “Life & Times California Election Night Special” from 9-11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.-midnight. Warren Olney, who hosts KCRW’s “Which Way L.A.?” joins “Life & Times” regulars Patt Morrison, Hugh Hewitt and Ruben Martinez, for a panel discussion on the results. Various community leaders, reporters and Times Poll Director John Brennan will also comment.

C-SPAN, cable’s public-affairs network, starts its coverage at 3:30 p.m. with a 90-minute call-in program that will also include portions of local nightly newscasts from Dallas, Houston and Little Rock, Ark., the three cities serving as the hosts for the election-night headquarters of the major presidential candidates.

From 5 p.m. to midnight, C-SPAN will devote the first 15 minutes of each hour to reporting on the presidential race, with the remainder of the hour devoted to the so-called battleground states in the presidential election and key U.S. Senate races. Stations in Denver, Sacramento, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Portland will share their coverage with C-SPAN. Susan Swain will anchor the presidential coverage with Brian Lamb handling the individual states and the Senate.

Comedy Central is devoting five hours to election coverage. Political satirist Will Durst and comedian Bill Maher host an hourlong edition of “Short Attention Span Theater: An Election Night Preview” at 4 p.m., featuring political commentary, famous campaign commercials and clips from politically themed stand-up comedy, “Saturday Night Live” sketches and the network’s coverage of the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Al Franken hosts “Indecision ‘92: Election Night” from 5-9 p.m. Comedian Joy Behar and author Roy Blount Jr. will join Franken at Comedy Central’s New York City studios.

Buck Henry and Robert Smigel will be at Clinton headquarters in Little Rock, Ark. Ben Stein will report from Bush headquarters in Houston.

CNBC, which features call-in programs at night after its daytime coverage of the financial markets, will present an expanded version of “Pozner/Donahue” with Phil Donahue and Vladimir Pozner taking calls from 6:30-8 p.m.

Univision, the Spanish-language network whose local affiliate is KMEX-TV Channel 34, will have coverage from 4 p.m. until at least 11:05 p.m., with reporters at all three national headquarters and in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Antonio and Washington. Univision plans special emphasis on issues of interest to Latinos, along with the expected growth in the number of Latinos and women in Congress. Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas are the anchors, while pollster Sergio Bendixen will serve as an analyst.

KMEX will produce its own six-minute reports at 24 and 54 minutes past the hour from 4-8 p.m., an hourlong report at 8:24 and a half-hour at 11 p.m.

KVEA-TV Channel 52, another Spanish-language station, will have 10-minute updates at the start of each hour and five-minute summaries at half past the hour beginning at 4 p.m., along with half-hour specials at 7 and 10 p.m. in addition to the regularly scheduled newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. KVEA will also have coverage supplied by CNN and Telemundo’s 11 owned-and-operated stations throughout the nation.

KCAL-TV Channel 9 will have the most extensive coverage of any Los Angeles television station, signing on at 5 p.m. Susan Estrich, who managed Michael S. Dukakis’ unsuccessful 1988 presidential bid, and Bay Buchanan, who managed her brother Patrick J. Buchanan’s quest for the Republican nomination earlier this year, will join KCAL’s regular lineup of reporters and anchors to provide analysis.

KNBC-TV Channel 4 will have updates at 22 and 52 minutes past the hour between 4 and 8 p.m., before beginning extended coverage at 8 p.m. The station will continue its tradition of running a continuous electronic ticker across the bottom of the screen throughout its coverage to report on every race in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

KABC-TV Channel 7 will also have updates between 4 and 8 p.m., with its own half-hour from 8-8:30 p.m., before rejoining the network coverage at 8:30 p.m. KABC will then intersperse its reporting with that of the network for the remainder of the evening.

KCBS plans seven-minute updates at 23 and 53 minutes past each hour from 4 to 10 p.m. and a 42-minute report from 10:53 to 11:35 p.m.

KTTV-TV Channel 11 plans open-ended coverage beginning at 10 p.m., while KTLA-TV Channel 5 and KCOP-TV Channel 13 plan to have election updates during their movies and to report on the returns on their regularly scheduled 10 p.m. newscasts.

On radio, KCRW-FM and most of the other area National Public Radio affiliates will broadcast an extended election edition of “All Things Considered,” from 4-7:30 p.m. NPR will also conduct a national call-in show beginning at about 10:30 p.m.

Other radio coverage will include all-news KFWB-AM (980) and KNX-AM (1070). Michael Jackson and Steve Edwards will host on KABC-AM (790) from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Coverage Start Times

ABC, CBS, NBC 4 p.m.

CNN 1:30 p.m.

C-SPAN 3:30 p.m.

CNBC 6:30 p.m.

KTLA Channel 5 10 p.m.

KCAL Channel 9 5 p.m.

KTTV Channel 11 10 p.m.

KCOP Channel 13 10 p.m.

KCET Channel 28 5 p.m.

KMEX Channel 34 4 p.m.

KVEA Channel 52 4 p.m.