Stations Strengthen Ties as They Study Aftermath of the Attacks

Viacom’s recently merged KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, which have promised an unprecedented amount of sharing between local stations, premiere their first joint news special Sunday, traveling to the East Coast for a special report focusing on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The one-hour special, titled “The Day That Changed America,” will first air Sunday at 6 p.m. on KCBS, with four other air times on the two stations over the next several days. It was taped in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and features newly arrived KCBS anchor Laura Diaz and KCAL anchor Pat Harvey, as well as a reporter from each station, Drew Griffin from KCBS and KCAL’s Joel Connable.

The special, which will air without commercials, is part of an ambitious package of original coverage for a local station. In addition to the special, the two stations are sending a number of reporters to the East Coast for news reports next week, and a reporter and cameraman were also sent to the Persian Gulf for some reporting.

Indeed, the Sunday joint program will take on a special significance with the news Friday that cameraman Larry Greene, a 24-year KCBS veteran who was part of the team that taped the show on the East Coast, was killed in the crash of a U.S. Navy helicopter in Bahrain.

Greene was in the gulf with KCBS-TV reporter Randy Paige, who was not on the helicopter, shooting footage for next week’s Sept. 11-related coverage.

Asked why two local stations needed to go across the country for their own perspective on the anniversary, Nancy Bauer Gonzales, vice president and news director for the two stations, said: “It sounds cheesy, but we just really wanted to do something as a combined newsroom for our viewers. It’s very simply an idea I had ... to offer them hope from that terrible day.”

In New York in mid-August, interviewing the project coordinator of Columbia University’s Muslim Communities in New York City Project, Diaz deftly brought the topic around to a Los Angeles angle. In a segment titled “Divided We Fall,” Diaz profiled Arab Americans in L.A. as well as New York who were victims of threats or actual violence following the terror attacks.

She said later that it was an advantage to be on the scene of the devastation, instead of reporting on the anniversary from afar. “There is no substitute for being here.... It adds greater depth and detail,” she said, and moreover, “it is personally rewarding to hear the stories firsthand.”

Cool despite the New York heat in a black blazer, white pants and funky platform sandals, Diaz seemed perfectly comfortable with her new KCBS team, even though it was her first week on the job, after 19 years at rival KABC’s “Eyewitness News.” Although it is an adjustment changing professional homes, “the act of gathering the news is the same,” she said. And she has known many of her new station’s management for years, including Bauer Gonzales. The two worked together in the early 1980s in San Luis Obispo.

The special also features KCAL newcomer Connable, 29. It was a plum assignment, Bauer Gonzales concedes, but she wanted him because he grew up in the New York area, on Long Island. He is also a former Nassau County paramedic, who trained in New York City and knew some of those who died when the towers fell, giving him added insight for his reporting.

Bauer Gonzales says the special turned out to be a good way to get the two newsrooms used to working with each other very quickly. She said other specials planned include a KCBS special to air Sept. 18, related to the Latin Grammy Awards, that will feature personnel from KCAL. There will also be a joint special surrounding the CBS program “Survivor.”

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“The Day That Changed America” also will air Monday at 9 p.m. on KCAL. On Wednesday, it will air at 10 a.m. on KCAL, 4 p.m. on KCBS and again at 7 p.m. on KCAL.