A Dream Hits Anchor

Granted it was a pleasant, fulfilling and successful rut, but Laura Diaz was stuck in it nonetheless. The longtime KABC-TV Channel 7 anchor with a winning smile and a winning newscast wanted more than her vital, yet somehow peripheral, role at one of this area’s strongest news operations.

When Ann Martin, formerly Channel 7’s top female anchor, was wooed away by rival KCBS-TV Channel 2 in 1994, Diaz hoped her long winning streak as anchor of the station’s 6 p.m. news would propel her naturally into the leading anchor job. Instead, Channel 7 turned to Lisa McRee, an out-of-towner, to replace Martin on the station’s centerpiece newscasts at 5 and 11 p.m.

When it was announced in July that McRee would be moving to New York to replace Joan Lunden on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Diaz was left to sweat. For nearly three months, the local ABC station, now owned by Disney, conducted a nationwide search for a new anchor--continuing even after McRee left and Diaz was filling in on the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts.

In late September, Channel 7 finally gave the home-grown TV personality the promotion of which she’d always dreamed--and a new five-year contract.

“You can see a few people tried to get the job,” Diaz jokes, pointing to large mail bins overflowing with scores of audition tapes on the floor of her news director’s office. “But big companies do that. There was, of course, some level of anxiety because it was out of my hands, but at the same time I felt that I had built up a portfolio over the years that made me right for the position.”

KABC management agreed, although it took a while.

“We did look around the country at who was out there,” said Cheryl Kunin Fair, Channel 7’s news director. “You always are obligated to look at everything. But it was really tough to ignore her experience in this marketplace. She is very good at what she does, and she was right here all along.”

Indeed, Diaz had joined the station as a reporter in 1983 and began anchoring two years after that. She’d been fronting the 6 p.m. newscast since 1990.

“I think Laura’s having worked out in the street as a reporter has endeared her as a journalist to the viewing public,” said Harold Greene, Diaz’s co-anchor at 5 and 11. “That’s the foundation of what we do. People perceive you as someone they can trust. That puts you at the top of the class.”

In making the switch to 5 and 11 p.m., Diaz has her work cut out for her in the ratings. While her 6 p.m. newscast has been a consistent winner, the 5 and 11 have been losing regularly in the sweeps to KNBC-TV Channel 4.

She acknowledges the challenge but adds, “I don’t think you can focus on that. You have to put on the best newscast you can and hope to convert the audience that is there. If you’re doing a newscast that is fresh and full of information and fluid, people will want to watch. By doing an effective job, by being there for your viewers whenever there is a breaking story, by not engaging in tabloid journalism but dealing with real issues in all areas of this immense market, that’s the only way you will succeed, no matter what the lead-in.”

Diaz characterized the KABC newsroom as “in flux,” continually discussing and working to produce newscasts that are more substantive. Channel 7 is moving in that direction, she said, with less emphasis on body counts and a greater focus on longer, more explanatory stories.

“I think there has been a turn,” she said. “You don’t just see crime shots. That’s not satisfying. It doesn’t deal with the issue of violence or guns. It raises more questions than it answers. We are trying to portray every community in a more balanced and fair way. You do get calls that say, ‘There is only a minicam truck in our neighborhood when something bad happens. Not when anything good happens. Where are you then?’ We do have to try to show the community as a whole. There is violence, but there is also sweetness and people who are trying to improve it. We have to look at some of the solutions to our problems, not just show you the bad outcomes.”

At 41, Diaz is heartened by what she sees as a growing respect and appreciation for female anchors as they mature. Kelly Lange, Christine Lund and Ann Martin have all been on the air here since the 1970s.

“That is such an encouraging sign, especially in a town with Hollywood and all this glamour and youthful beauty right in the middle of it,” she said. “There are very few anchors who are 25 here. I can’t even think of any, at least not on any of the primary newscasts, and that’s how it should be.”

The other thing that “should be,” which has been slower to change, is a reflection in the newscasts of the diversity of L.A.’s population. Diaz doesn’t bring it up herself and she is far from evangelical on the subject when pressed, but her success as a Latina--who grew up in the Santa Clarita area in northern Los Angeles County, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who labored as farm workers in the fields of California--is not only gratifying personally, but, she acknowledges, a potentially resonant symbol as well.

“First and foremost, I consider myself a journalist,” Diaz said. “But I am Latina. That’s who I am. I’m a woman. I’m Hispanic. I’m a journalist. All of those things. I am proud that I have been able to chart a little bit of new territory. It’s gratifying when I receive letters or people come up and say, ‘I tell my daughters, “Aim high. You can make it. Look at her.” ’ There are so many negative images and many children of color who rarely ever see themselves reflected back in a positive way. So if, in some small way, my presence on television serves as some sort of role model for them, I’m terribly happy about that.”