Spending 3 News Hours in a New Way

Nearly eight years after launching an unprecedented all-news evening block of programming, KCAL-TV Channel 9 is seeking to breathe new life into the format, showing that three hours of news is still a ready-for-prime-time player.

Starting tonight, KCAL will unveil a new look and a recommitment to its 8-11 p.m. news that will include a state-of-the-art set, twin anchor desks, heightened graphics and the return of veteran local anchor Jerry Dunphy, who was at the station in 1990 when KCAL first rolled out the news block.

Even more significantly, the three-hour news chunk will be broken up into half-hours, instead of the traditional themed hours of local and international news that had been one of the trademarks of KCAL. Anchors will rotate, and each half-hour will have a different anchor team, with the exception of the final hour from 10 to 11 p.m. Expanded segments on education, health and entertainment also will be highlighted.

Station executives said the new direction will make the news more “viewer-friendly” and fast-paced, allowing viewers watching other channels to jump into the newscasts without feeling they’ve missed anything important.

“Our plan is to have more information in a more upbeat manner,” said general manager Don Corsini. “Our motto is ‘live, local and late-breaking.’ ”

News director Dennis Herzig added that by breaking the first two hours into 30-minute broadcasts, KCAL will have a greater chance of catching viewers who are channel hopping.

“We would love people to watch for three hours, but viewers really can’t commit that much time,” he said. “We have a lot of tune-in on the half-hour, so we wanted to give those viewers a compelling reason to stay with us.”

Ratings for KCAL’s evening news have been fairly consistent during the past few years, averaging about 5% to 6% of the available audience. Although the audience was down in July to an average of 134,000 households a night from 177,000 for the same period in 1995, viewership periodically takes an upward bounce, as in May, when an average of 231,000 households tuned in between 8 and 11 p.m., according to Nielsen Media Research.

The revamping marks the first major on-air change at KCAL under the management of the Young Broadcasting station group, which took over ownership last year from the Walt Disney Co. Young executives immediately starting downsizing, laying off 55 employees and ousting station officials such as longtime news director Bob Henry.

Remaining staffers, particularly on the news side, were anxious about whether Young would introduce new programming and policies while cutting down on news.

But Deborah A. McDermott, executive vice president of Young Broadcasting, said the new changes demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the news.

“Our newscast has to be our connection and our lifeline to the community because we’re not affiliated with a network,” McDermott said, adding that the company has poured about $1 million into the operation since January. “Now our energy and excitement level is very high.”

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On the eve of the launch, the anxiety level of the newsroom appears to have leveled off, some news staffers say.

“Most of us are hopeful,” said one reporter. “Things will be faster-paced. Some of us are bummed by having to cut down the length of our stories, but there were admittedly times that stories did drag on. The new management has done things that probably needed to be done. It had gotten complacent around here, and folks are happy that things are moving in a definite direction now.”

Jane Velez-Mitchell, who was one of the original anchors of the three-hour format, concurred.

“There were those question marks before but with the money that is being spent, people are very pleased that there is this dedication to news,” she said.

Station executives are particularly hopeful that a faster-moving newscast will help attract younger viewers, and that the new emphasis on education and health will draw in families.

Another element that the station hopes will draw in more viewers is the return of Dunphy, whom station executives called the “dean of broadcast journalism in Southern California.” Dunphy left KCAL in 1995 after five years in a highly publicized jump to KCBS-TV Channel 2, where he had worked 20 years earlier.

But little more than a year later, Dunphy was booted off the air when there was a restructuring of the news department. He remained under contract and was not allowed to work at another station until the pact expired.

Despite his age--77--and the fact that Dunphy hasn’t been on the air in months, Corsini said he was key to the new look of KCAL.

“Jerry is still one of the most recognizable faces in Los Angeles,” Corsini said. “There is still a perception out there that even though he hasn’t been seen, that he is still on the air.”

In an interview, Dunphy expressed some bitterness toward KCBS: “There were promises made and promises broken. I got caught in the transition when Westinghouse bought CBS, and I wound up not being on the A-list.”

But Dunphy added that he was thrilled to be back at KCAL, and looked forward to the new changes.

“When the station first started this, there was not the foundation that there is now,” Dunphy said. “I’m eager to see what this new transition will entail. I have nothing but the greatest hope that it will succeed exceedingly well.”

* The new anchor lineup at KCAL, starting tonight at 8: Jerry Dunphy and Pat Harvey; 8:30: Jane Velez-Mitchell and Terri Merryman; 9: Harvey and Kerry Kilbride; 9:30: Velez-Mitchell and Kilbride; 10: Dunphy and Merryman.