New General Manager Named for Channel 2 : Shake-up: CBS appointment is the third in as many years for the Los Angeles affiliate. News style is expected to change.

CBS, seeking to turn around its troubled Los Angeles station, on Friday named veteran station executive Bill Applegate to be vice president and general manager of KCBS-TV(Channel 2).

Applegate’s appointment comes just two weeks after KCBS finished a distant third among the three network-owned and -operated television stations in Los Angeles during the crucial May sweeps ratings period.

Applegate is the station’s third general manager in as many years. He succeeds Steve Gigliotti, who was bumped down to vice president and station manager.

The shake-up also comes seven weeks after the firing of News Director John Lippman, whose blunt management style and tabloid philosophy caused turmoil in the newsroom.

Applegate, 47, is known as a demanding manager who has run several TV stations, most recently CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago.

Ironically, Applegate’s previous stint at KCBS (then KNXT-TV), as a general assignment reporter from 1973 to 1976, ended with his being fired during one of the bloodlettings that took place periodically at KNXT after it hit a ratings slump.

“Bill is a remarkable broadcaster with a variety of experiences at a number of management levels,” said Johnathan Rodgers, president of the network’s TV stations division.

“Ever since he was fired by KNXT in its dog days, he has wanted to come back and manage that station.”

Applegate said he hopes to hire another news director at KCBS within a month or so. He said that he would like to move the station away from the “police gazette” format that was emphasized under Lippman.

“I’ve read the criticism, and it’s not the kind of newscast I would want to put on the air. I want to do a newscast that is more than chasing the crime of the day,” Applegate said.

Succeeding him as vice president and general manager of WBBM-TV in Chicago is Robert McGann, 45, who has been vice president and general manager of WCCO-TV since 1989.

John Culliton, 32, executive director of news and public affairs at WCCO, will take over McGann’s position as vice president and general manager.