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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, March 21, 2003

Network war feeds force stations to improvise

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Hawai'i's broadcast media are offering enhanced war coverage but may have to change plans quickly, station managers report, as developments occur.

Regular programming is being pre-empted, in many cases, and even scheduled local news shows may be abandoned for shorter hourly reports.

"It's a simple game plan," said Rick Blangiardi, general manager of KHON-2, the Fox affiliate, and KGMB-9, the CBS station. "We're following the lead of Fox and CBS, but we have provisions from both networks to allow us to do local news, with updates on the half-hour. We're anticipating wall-to-wall coverage for at least 48 hours, but we're highly fluid."

Fox aired "American Idol," and CBS showed "Survivor" and "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" backito-back on Wednesday night, but Blangiardi said scheduled programming will likely be affected over the next few days.

"The situation is fluid, with on-the-fly programming," said John Fink, general manager of KHNL-8, the NBC station. "There's no point in planning too far in advance; it's a minute-by-minute thing. We're taking the network's cue, but we'll do whatever is necessary to keep our local viewers informed. My guess is that the networks will tend to stay with it (the war coverage) longer."

The networks are also making decisions on the fly. On Wednesday, Fink said NBC advised affiliates it would program "Law and Order," but the network opted instead to stay with live reports from Kuwait.

Mike Rosenberg, KITV-4 general manager, was fuming yesterday over ABC's last-minute change in direction on its war feeds. After informing affiliates that its war programming would pre-empt the 6 p.m. newscast, ABC reversed course.

KITV was prepared with local content, but other stations were not, Rosenberg said.

"Anything can happen, and did," he said. "The plan now is for sustained coverage for the near future."

Mike McCartney, general manager of PBS Hawai'i, said KHET-11 is maintaining its daytime children's programming, linked to educational angles, but is picking up PBS feeds from 6:30 p.m. daily.

"We'll devote prime-time coverage to the war, along with the other networks, and we have an obligation to carry the news for our Neighbor Island viewers," McCartney said. "In many parts of the Islands, we're (PBS) the only source of news since viewers cannot pick up the other stations."

Radio also is adapting to the world tension.

At Hawaii Public Radio, general manager Michael Titterton said his station is offering "around the clock coverage, but with more analysis than reporting. We're keeping to our basic programming format, but adding news at least once an hour."

KIPO, one of the public radio stations, has replaced classical music with live reports. "But we're not making prophecies," Titterton said. "We'll deploy forces as the situation merits."

Chuck Cotton, Clear Channel manager in Hawai'i, said one of his stations, KHBZ (990 AM) has gone wall to wall with ABC Radio network coverage, with links to other stations as needed. For a time, for example, KSSK-AM and KSSK-FM were hooked to the feed.

"We'll cut in as things escalate or die down," said Cotton.

The stations also have additional news services, Metro Source and Wire Ready, to serve listeners, and can tap Clear Channel affiliates with live feeds as necessary.