KCAL’s ‘Folly’ Paying Dividends : Television: Station’s three-hour newscast is winning awards and making money--and pushing the competition. But it has not emerged as a dominant news source.

Skeptics called it “impossible,” “folly,” “laughable” and “threadbare,” but five years later, KCAL-TV Channel 9’s three-hour, prime-time newscast--the first of its kind in the country--has defied ridicule and predictions of doom.

Not only has the multimillion-dollar venture survived, it also has won more awards for excellence in broadcast journalism than any other local station and has been praised by once snickering critics. Most important, according to the Disney-owned station’s general manager, it even makes money.

Problems remain. While the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. newscasts have pulled decent ratings, the 10 p.m. program, which faces direct competition from three other local stations, has been running third. And efforts to establish other news beachheads--in the early morning and at 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.--have all failed (although one at noon is doing fine).

But, after five years, KCAL executives are nothing but exhilarated that they have proved the naysayers wrong. They even argue that they have helped improve the standard of news at other local stations.

“The news is better here overall than it was five years ago,” said Bob Henry, news director at KCAL since the three-hour block was launched March 5, 1990. “We believe that there is greater effort toward quality and everyone is more aggressive at covering stories, not only here but also those in other places that have special interest here--the Mexican elections and the Japanese quake, for example. There is a better sense of service and purpose to news here now than there ever was before. And to a large extent, that’s because the other stations have followed suit to compete better and to emulate things that we’ve done.”

“No question, KCAL has had a big effect on journalism in this city,” said Larry Perret, a former KCAL producer who is now the news director at KCBS-TV Channel 2. “There were lots of cynics who said it would never work. And it was a rough start, but all the awards came because they’re committed to quality journalism. They’re doing things with graphics and with long-form, in-depth stories that weren’t done here before and (that) even now you rarely see elsewhere.”

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The three network-owned stations--KCBS-TV, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KABC-TV Channel 7--traditionally have been the primary outlets of local news, with the largest staffs, biggest-name anchors and most hours of news each day. Now KCAL has a staff equal to theirs, and KTLA-TV Channel 5--the longtime news leader among the independents--Fox-owned KTTV-TV Channel 11 and KCOP-TV Channel 13 have spent millions over the past few years to upgrade their news operations and launch new shows.

“There’s a leap-frog effect,” KCAL general manager David Woodcock said. “When someone gets a better helicopter, so does someone else. You send people to Mexico, so do they.”

“I think it’s a good thing that you have stations spending more money on news,” said Joe Saltzman, professor of broadcast journalism at USC. “Some of the independents, like Channel 9 and Channel 5, now have the best news shows in town. They are infinitely better than (Channels) 2, 4 and 7. They do a more thorough job and have a more intelligent presentation.”

Not intelligent enough, he hastens to add. “Nothing really has had an impact on making television news any better, in my opinion,” Saltzman said. “You would expect better coverage since there is so much of it, but that really hasn’t happened.”

Rick Feldman, general manager of KCOP, acknowledged that KCAL raised the ante in town, and that the increase in competition probably has put other stations a bit more on their toes. But KCAL--the only one of the seven VHF stations here that is not part of a multiple-station group and national network--had little choice but to go with news because of the prohibitive costs it faced as a single station trying to buy top-flight, first-run entertainment programs.

“I don’t want it to sound like they haven’t done a nice job and performed admirably,” Feldman said, “but I don’t see them ever really getting big numbers, just as you don’t see big ratings on CNN. There are so many places to get news now that it will be very difficult for one station to establish a huge beachhead in this market. On some nights when they are the only ones on, perhaps you’ll see something impressive, but just as we’ve seen on CNN: There’s a war on, everyone tunes in; the war is off, and everyone tunes out.”

KCAL has clearly benefited by what Henry calls “the once-in-a-decade” type stories that have relentlessly besieged Southern California over the past few years. The Gulf War, the Rodney G. King beating, the riots, floods, fires, earthquakes and now the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial have vastly increased viewer interest in news and made TV news more vital to everyone, Henry said. That has brought more viewers to the station, especially on “big news” nights.

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But even with those big nights boosting the ratings of KCAL’s first two hours of prime-time news--two hours when there is no direct news competition--KCAL has faltered. Station executives offer several explanations for the station’s failure after five years to emerge as a dominant news source.

Tradition is one factor in why KCAL trails KTLA and KTTV at 10 p.m., they said. Prior to the three-hour block, Channel 9 did not have a 10 p.m. newscast. On the other hand, KTLA’s news tradition, focused primarily on its 10 p.m. broadcast, goes back nearly 50 years.

The lead-in is another factor. KCAL’s 10 p.m. newscast is preceded by two hours of news, while the competition follows more popular entertainment programs, Henry said.

“There are no breakthrough characters in television news to ensure an audience,” he said. “There are no Bart Simpsons. There’s not a Kramer. You have to self-start every hour and earn your viewers every night with your content.”

Another problem, oddly enough, is cartoons. Ever since Disney bought the station in 1988 for $320 million, the company has used it as an outlet for Disney’s animated product. The cartoons KCAL airs in the mornings and afternoons, however, are incompatible with news, Woodcock admitted. Children don’t watch news and adults who like news don’t generally watch cartoons.

Woodcock said that within a few years, KCAL is likely to dump the cartoons in favor of news-type programming to give the station a more consistent adult identity and promotional base.

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Even then, can the station most wed to local news for its overall identity ever become the most important, most influential, most watched news station?

“I give them high marks for trying, and they are the only station that gives any time to debate issues, especially at 9 p.m., because they have the time to do it,” said Irwin Safchik, a former news director here. “But I can’t see them becoming much more than a peripheral player. All the focus is really on the three network stations.”

Woodcock remains optimistic. “I think at some point, with time, with longevity, we will become the most important news station,” he said. “You have to be here a long time. You have to be consistent. We’ve only been at it five years. And over a long period of time, because each year we’ve seen our ratings grow, I expect we will continue to see progress, and eventually I think we will be competitive with all of them.”