At the Barricades for Underpaid TV Anchorwomen

I propose that we all go to bat this week for a group that can really use our help-- underpaid TV news anchorwomen.

After all, we were there with our support for hundreds of janitors when they went on strike and marched in our streets.

We have also been quite vocal on behalf of schoolteachers everywhere who don’t make the kind of money they deserve.

The least we can do is give equal time to the women who deliver to us our daily news, despite their being treated like second-class anchorpeople.

A survey by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists--of which I am a proud, dues-paying member, even though I am not in television, not in radio and not an artist--revealed this week that women are getting a raw deal.

Television news anchorwomen in Los Angeles are apparently making 28% less than the average TV anchorman.

(Not that there are any average TV anchormen.)

As for our local radio news anchorwomen . . . well, it turns out that there hardly are any local radio news anchorwomen.

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Come on, let’s get behind these short-changed women of the airwaves. Let’s show them we like women giving us the news. Let’s show them we are sick of men and not going to take our news from them anymore.

According to the AFTRA report, women all over this glittery town of ours are not being treated like stars.

For example, female news anchors at Channel 11 supposedly make half of what the males there make.

(If this keeps up, I fear that the women of Channel 11 could end up becoming the women of Chapter 11.)

Meanwhile, the female on-air personalities from KLOS-FM (95.5) reportedly take home a mere quarter of what the guys do.

(That’s a lot of K-loss, let me tell you.)

Here it is, the year 2000, and women are still fighting the old 1900s fight. Janitors, teachers, TV anchors . . . unfair is unfair.

OK, I know, it’s hard feeling sympathy for a woman whose most arduous task is turning to her left and asking, “So how’s the weather look, Fritz?”

To be honest, I can’t help chuckling at the thought of mobs of TV anchorwomen marching with picket signs, the way those janitors recently did. I am picturing cops in uniforms dragging women in Coco Chanel suits off to paddy wagons.

But women of the media are my sisters, so I shall stand by their side. They have my whole-hearted support until the day I can turn on my local 6 o’clock news and the anchor is a woman, the co-anchor is a woman, the weather person is a woman and the sports guy is a woman. And at least two of them have to be older than 60. And at least one of them has to wear a really bad wig.

I prefer getting my news from women. Channel 2 here has men who physically scare me. I actually go to bed afraid that one of Channel 2’s guys is going to come through my TV screen and strangle me with his bare hands. Channel 2’s women are classy and professional. I would pay each of them more than that one guy, because no Channel 2 female reporter makes me hide under the covers.

AFTRA’s survey does have flaws.

For one thing, our local CBS, NBC and ABC outlets weren’t a part of it. Leaving them out of a TV news survey is like leaving apple, peach and cherry out of a pie survey. There are anchorwomen at Channels 2, 4 and 7 who are not on food stamps, trust me. (Channel 9, maybe, but not 2, 4 and 7.)

But AFTRA did conclude that women in TV broadcasting are being paid 20% less than men. Women, it’s time for you to unite. The writing is on the TelePrompTer. Tell your boss that if you’re going to be paid 80% of what a man makes, you’re only going to read 80% of each story. For example: “Here are the five winning lottery numbers: 2, 4, 6 and 8.”

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And women on the radio? AFTRA’s survey could barely find any. Astonishingly few women host local talk shows by themselves. The only women on drive-time radio call-in shows seem to be callers.

Listen, I have heard men do radio. They’re overrated. Their voices are deep, but the men themselves aren’t, particularly.

I say we do away with all these men suffering from Ted Baxter Syndrome and start up a few all-women stations in this town. Are you with me? The only overpaid males in the Los Angeles media should continue to be newspaper columnists.

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Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com