Correction: Last month we gave the date of the startup for KMOX incorrectly. It went on the air in 1925.  

Early Edition

Spring, hockey and the lack of public journalism

By Ed Bishop

Outside my office window, the sky is a beautiful clear blue. The azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom. The air is soft and warm and occasionally filled with drifting blossoms like a wondrous, surreal snowstorm. This issue is almost ready to be put to bed. My classes have slowed to a crawl with only a week of final exams to go. And my mind is mush.

At home I have a front porch filled with hanging plants and a good rocking chair and a great new book on Paul Robeson waiting for me. Tonight the Blues play the third game against the Dallas Stars and I can't wait to watch it. But right now I have a column to write. I stare out the window. Students, flush with the idea that the semester is almost over, seem to dance across the campus.

First I tried to write about Ted Garcia and the evils of commercialism in public television. It went nowhere. Then I tried to write about Carolyn Tuft and the St. Lous Post-Dispatch pushing to get a Pulitzer Prize. Blather, blather, blather.

I've got less than three hours before this puppy goes to press.

I have a friend who used to be a sound engineer for Nation Public Radio. A few years back, he and a producer got a grant to travel around the world interviewing famous authors-playwrights, novelists, poets, journalists. He would record the two- or three-hour interviews and then cut them down to manageable lengths. It was a great experience for him. He got to go to Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, even China. One day, sitting in his backyard in Columbia, Missouri, I asked him if all those writers had anything in common, was there a link in their writing? He thought for a second and then said, "Yeah, they were all pissed off about something." We decided that day that the best writing comes from some inner anger, some inner place where wrongs have to be righted.

I'm not angry today. It's not easy to be angry in Spring. I don't know how hockey players do it.

Tomorrow morning I teach my last Advanced Reporting class of the semester. We're sitting outside. I'm bringing doughnuts. They're good kids. We'll laugh and they'll tease me about how hard I am on them at times. They'll try to get me to tell them exactly what's going to be on the final. Some of them are moving on to management positions on the student newspaper next fall and they're excited. But mainly they're happy the year is over. They're just starting to learn about the pressure of deadlines. It's starting to dawn on them that in journalism you can't just write off the top of your head-you have to get good information, ask the right questions, do thorough reporting. Getting to write the story is just the icing on the cake. Gathering the information is the real work. I hope they don't read this.

I used to have it easy. All anyone had to do was mention a phrase and my blood would start boiling and the columns would just pour out of me. The phrase was "public journalism." But I fear the good times are passing us by. Cole's gone. And worse. I got a report in the mail from the Poynter Institute last week that said the Pew Charitable Trusts is ending its grants to the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. It said Jan Schaffer and her gang were going to have to find new funders. I've even heard that Jay Rosen has called it quits. Now he's doing something called "public academia" or "public scholarship." I can't remember which and the folder with the information in it is way across the room. Suffice it to say there is no joy in the death of that old enemy. I feel like a highly trained paratrooper after they've declared peace.

When I used to write a weekly column for the Riverfront Times, every once in a while I'd have one of these fits of happiness. It was terrible. The columns written during those periods weren't my best. Thank goodness the hot, humid St. Louis summer is just around the corner. I hate heat and humidity. Summer always makes me testy. Plus I'm sure my air-conditioning bills will be sky high. It will be a great time to write a column.

Tonight, though, I'm going to watch a bunch of guys on iceskates beat the crap out of each other and really enjoy myself.

Media activists convinced: We shall overcome

By Charles L. Klotzer

The world is whole.

Changes are taking place and more are imminent. In 50 cities the homeless are publishing their own paper. Not only in Seattle and Quebec, but in many cities the middle classes are joining the disenfranchised in open protests.

Progressive community newspapers not only survive, but are gaining credibility and acceptance.

In New York, 10,000 march--and many more in other cities--to save the Pacifica public radio stations from being sold to commercial interests.

The grassroots is organizing all over the country, convinced that we shall overcome, joined by students from colleges and even high schools, to confront the corporation of American life, to boost environmental controls, fight labor exploitations in foreign countries and poverty at home."

These and other messages emerged at the two-day 25th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco of "Project Censored," the brainchild of Professor Emeritus Carl Jensen at Sonoma State University, the longest-running research project on news media censorship.

Year by year, ten stories, most of which have appeared in alternative publications but were ignored by the mass media, are selected by scores of volunteers at Sonoma with the final selection made by a few judges. That these issues are overlooked whether by intent or ignorance is frightening. Readers of SJR can read the current crop in the next issue.

While the many hundreds of participants at the conference were in a joyful and action-oriented mood, the messages by Michael Parenti, Norman Solomon, Amy Goodman, Carl Jensen and Peter Phillips, now the director of Project Censored and organizer of this conclave, dug into how the media have not only failed but misled its readers, listeners and viewers.

The media's gravest sins, they say, are their failure to cover crucial issues altogether or bury them in back pages.

The list is endless. In no order of importance, here are a few:

* The impact of the privatization and militarization of prison life.
* The influence of corporate / commercial ownership of all the mass media.
* The sellout of public radio and television stations.
* The unfulfilled early promises of the cable industry to provide adequate facilities for independent broadcasts.
* The long- term effects of television on children.
* The nullification of anti-trust laws.
* How the demand for ever higher profits impacts journalism.
* The prostitution of TV news by the inclusion of promotions for non-news station programs.
* The mindless reporting of quotes by officials, such as that " Government" and "Taxation" are evil per se without analysis or follow-ups, thus reinforcing those concepts.
* Just a few days ago, President George W. Bush announced his determination to establish a " missile defense shield." Newspapers cite that the technology for such a system has yet to be proven and that the shield maybe basically flawed. But, according to Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York, author of the forthcoming book "Weapons in Space," that slant reflects the spin of the U.S Administration.

The entire media discussion is about defense, when the true purpose of that program is not defense but the militarization of outer space, as clearly outlined in the U.S document " Commission to assess United States national security space management and organization" produced " Pursuant to Public Law 106-65, January 11, 2001."

It's negligent, uniformed and disheartening, according to Grossman, that all of the media fall into the "defense" trap, not digging deeper and exposing the real purpose of the program.

Similar situations, where the media fall for the spin, and help propagate the planned message while failing to investigate the true intent are abundant.

At the conference the fighting and determined enthusiasm of the conference participants, average citizens, students, scholars, activists, was invigorating.

No doubt, whatever the political climate is in the rest of the country, these people will not abandon their cause and calling. Their success, however, will depend on whether they can rally the masses in support of their dreams. And that, alas, depends on whether the corporate owned mass media can be made to listen.

Ouch!

Thus, much of the work rests with the alternative media.

We can only hope that they are influential enough to help make the world whole.

Letters

Not so

SJR: In regard to your April column, I am glad that the Journalism Review is slamming the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for its highly questionable support of the unnecessary but seemingly inevitable new downtown ballpark, courtesy of the taxpayers of one of America's poorer cities. But I have to argue with the following statement:

"Folks like Joe Pulitzer and Bill Woo, and more recently (Cole) Campbell, never really cared that the Post is viewed as elitist. They would have accepted the Pulitzer deal with the Cardinals as business as usual."

I never could figure out what Cole Campbell cared about, except himself, but I've known Bill Woo for most of my life and I worked for Joseph Pulitzer for more than 20 years. Although I suppose it's at least arguable that Bill and Joe were elitists, their elitism, if it existed, had to do with excellence, not membership in some cozy coterie of local rich men. Both of them assiduously avoided being part of the dreary local establishment, and both of them would have been horrified at the deal between Michael Pulitzer and the Cardinals. In fact, I suspect that Joe, if he were alive and running the paper today, would have nixed any deal between the Post and the Cardinals.

Harper Barnes

Other sources

SJR: I am grateful for SJR's coverage of stadium-subsidy coverage. I remember that when the football dome was authorized it was only after the legislation passed that the St. Lous Post-Dispatch had a story reporting that legislators knew about the misleading "net fiscal benefit" representations being made in support of the public subsidy. And, recently the Riverfront Times had an article about the exemption of stock options from the city earnings tax, which is much more costly to the city than its advocates "estimated." Again, information about the costs came out only after the deed was done. I've been wondering if anyone would say anything about actual costs of the welfare for the owners of the Cardinals before the deal is done. Or, will this be another instance of "keep quiet until the city has been bilked again?" A reason that we need special "dedicated" taxes for such things as fire station repair, school air conditioning, health care, and housing is that the city's and school board's revenue is drained away in the tourism-will-save-us big projects that benefit the experts and the already-rich (from the Spanish Pavilion to the dome, the convention hotel, the sweet deal for the Blues ownership, . . . ). Meanwhile, my alarm-monitoring company reports that the city police are considering not responding to any burglar alarms. So I suppose we will have another special tax or else we will have to live at the convention hotel in order to have basic police protection.

One of Alex Posorske's interviewees intimated that "balanced" coverage of the subsidy issue was difficult because opposition was hard to find. I suggest that Posorske and SJR pass on the suggestion that media folks contact the Libertarians. Their regular meeting will probably be on the first Friday of May and will focus on the issue. Contact Sustainable St. Louis, Dan Lehocky: [email protected], City Progress, Bob Pieper: [email protected] and Gateway Green Alliance, Mary Jo Maroney, who has a petition drive going: [email protected]. And, Larry Rice, Channel 24, is not that hard to find.

Bob Babione

Where did they go

SJR: To add to your wish list of topics no one is covering in the St. Louis region and even around the country (March issue): What happens to all the low-income homeowners and renters who are displaced from their neighborhoods because of action by both public and private redevelopment? Families are being priced out of their homes because of higher taxes, higher rents, eminent domain, lack of drug and crime control and planned deterioration of neighborhoods, where do all these families go?

Joan Botwinick

University City

Where did she go

SJR: I have been anxiously awaiting news of Wendy Weise since she left KTRS but no luck. Can SJR please find out whether she will be back on St. Louis radio? I miss her. When she left, the light went out at KTRS as far as I am concerned-she was bright, informed and entertaining (you can't say as much for her replacements who seem to appeal to the lowest denominator).

Barbara Lawton

Kirkwood

After 18 years, Froehlich leaves RFT

By Alex Posorske

Don't whine to Cliff Froehlich about the decline of the alternative press.

Froehlich, the associate editor at the Riverfront Times until last month, has been with St. Louis' large scale answer to the concept of the opposition press in one form or another since 1983.

Therefore, one would assume Froehlich would be qualified to bitch about the increasingly corporate nature of the "alternative press." After all, he had a first-hand perspective of the RFT both before and after the New Times takeover.

But, when asked about the state of the alternative press during a recent interview with SJR at his new office at the St. Louis International Film Festival, where he now serves as executive director, Froehlich responded with simple common sense.

"The alternatives are becoming the mainstream. It's the natural evolution and to moan and complain about it too much is really counterproductive because it's just the nature of the beast," he said. "The longer you're around, the more establishment you're going to become."

Yes, it is true, he said, that New Times and the Village Voice chains are gobbling up alternative franchises, and other papers are becoming increasingly settled in their respective markets, but what are you going to do?

"As the RFT got older, (but) before New Times purchased it, the same accusations could have been made," he said. "The bigger you become, the more you have to approach things from a business point of view. You can't just allow things to happen anymore. You have to have a really strong organizational infrastructure in order for it to work."

Besides, the idea of being opposed to something or anything is clearly a classic concept of "cool" in America that is not going to disappear any time soon.

Froehlich pointed out that while the Village Voice may have entered the American mainstream long ago, there are alternatives to the alternative that have walked onto the scene in at least New York, Chicago and Seattle.

"You've got an upstart like the New York Press that comes in and basically positions themselves against what the Voice does," he said. "Sometimes it's totally arbitrary, their position. It's just basically we're anything they aren't. And I don't necessarily think that's a good thing but it's certainly a fun thing, often times, for a reader."

When the questioning moved toward a more technical tone, Froehlich even managed a partial defense of the often-maligned length of current RFT/New Times cover stories.

"There are many stories that can be told in long form. You can see it in Harper's and the New Yorker," he said. "New Times has great ambition. They style themselves as a magazine in newsprint, and when they're at their best, that's exactly what they are."

But for all you people out there who want to look down on the New Times empire, never fear. After all, Froehlich did quit New Times and he did have reasons that stretched beyond simple calculations of this job versus that job.

Froehlich is a man who truly loves movies; who respects cinema as a legitimate art form. He said when he started freelance reviewing for RFT in 1983 he pulled in the not-so-impressive sum of $30 a week, whether he wrote one 500-word review or three reviews totaling 1,500 words. Obviously, he is someone who feels a certain romantic tug toward the arts.

New Times does not really share that same tug, Froehlich said. Before New Times, the RFT would position 100-150 arts features in the front of the book every year. These days, he said, the number is closer to two or three.

"They sort of dabble in art coverage, that's been minimized, unfortunately, I think," he said. "I think it's a shame to see it disappear, but it's just a different kind of priority. They choose to devote their space to news coverage."

Besides the philosophical issues Froehlich had with New Times' art perspective, he said his main problems stemmed from the absence of opportunities to write film reviews in the last two years. New Times instructs all of its 14 papers to use one set of reviews, generated by the Los Angeles or San Francisco branch of the family.

The only exceptions, Froehlich said, were films that appeared only in the area, which mainly consisted of the Webster University Film Series.

"What they get is the ability to have consistency across the board, sort of a national approach," he said. "They can have a firm hand on the tiller, so to speak. They don't have to worry about each individual paper finding good reviewers. I don't agree with that concept, but nonetheless, that's the approach."

Froehlich also expressed some displeasure with the style of reviews that New Times sent the RFT.

He said New Times wire reviews often clocked in at 1,500 words, permitting space for only a few full reviews, demoting everything else to capsule status. In the independent days, RFT would review more movies, giving each roughly 500 words, a length that Froehlich noted was still longer than most daily newspapers.

"I really would've preferred to maintain our old approach, but I wasn't allowed to," he said. "I was increasingly not writing about movies. I dabbled, that was basically what I was told to do."

So when the position at the St. Louis International Film Festival became available, Froehlich said he decided to go for it.

For those who are deeply imbedded in the profession of writing, it might seem like a jarring career change. But Froehlich noted he would still be contributing to the RFT (as a theater reviewer) and pointed out that he had been active in the non-profit sector for the last 15 years as a co-founder of the Metro East Humane Society.

And for someone who has made a living for the last 18 years writing for the publication that nominally speaks for the underground and the overlooked in the metropolitan area, the transition to a management role in an organization that has similar motives does not seem that strange.

Froehlich, who also teaches a film history class at Webster, said he considers criticism a form of education and sees his role at the Film Festival continuing his previous work-informing people, which is, of course, the stated goal of newspapers, alternative or otherwise.

"It really is important that people become educated film-goers because they have a tremendous impact on our lives," he said. "(Films) affect you without you having any conscious knowledge of it."

Just consider that seminal 1980s film "Top Gun," Froehlich said.

"A lot of people look upon that film as being hugely entertaining and sort of the definitive example of the roller coaster ride of fun, when, in fact, it's a commercial for the Navy," he said, laughing. "You may say that's fine, I think it's good we have commercials for the Navy. But you should damn well know that you're being sold a bill of goods on some levels. You can buy that bill of goods or say 'no sale,' but you ought to be aware of the fact that on some levels this is propaganda."

Off the Record

Out of touch

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Saturday edition recently offered some advice in its editorial columns for all the selfish folks who are unhappy with the taxes that come with their higher property reassessments: "Grin and bear it, and think of the killing you'll make when you sell your house," offered the Post.

The paper's editorial admonished suburban homeowners for not reveling in their good fortune, and for balking at paying more taxes that "make a city livable." It labeled bills in the state legislature to put a cap on property reassessment hikes as superficial and "populist."

Funny, our local daily wasn't so gleeful about paying taxes a few years ago when its owners sold its broadcast properties for hundreds of millions. In fact, the paper wrote a self-congratulatory business page story on how its stockholders dodged millions in taxes on the broadcast deal with some agile contract wording and maneuvering.

That hypocrisy aside, those who dismiss the anger over reassessment as "just a bunch of bellyaching" are missing the big story. Reassessment is a major scandal in St. Louis County and Missouri for a number of reasons, including:

• The computer system responsible for hiking home property values is faulty. It often uses sales comparables that make no sense or that are far outside the legal radius for such comparison.

• The appeals process is designed to wear homeowners down through three stages of bureaucratic indifference. Temporaries hired to hear the first level of appeals often have no knowledge of the state laws and guidelines enacted on reassessment.

• Homeowners are guilty until they prove themselves innocent. They must hire an appraiser and make the case against unwarranted hikes. But the onus should be on the assessor to prove his case. This system runs contrary to constitutional guarantees.

• While suburban homeowners are often over-assessed, property owners in outstate Missouri are shamefully under-assessed. Properties worth $100,000 in rural areas are yielding about $100 in real estate taxes, while properties with the same value in St. Louis County are levied 10 to 15 times that amount in taxes.

• The situation is destined to get worse. The state foundation formula for funding education will soon be on the table again. Outstate legislators think our "rich school districts" should start funneling local property taxes toward their schools.

The Post spills a lot of ink in its pages lamenting the Hancock Amendment and how under-taxed Missouri is compared to other states. But another tax revolt may well be brewing right under the nose of the daily watchdog whose advice on reassessment is: "Grin and bear it."

-Don Corrigan

Sez who?

An unfortunate choice of words? A quiet editorial comment? Just fuzzy reasoning? Each can be a reason for a line in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch story about the Missouri House vote to approve the issuing of $75 million in bonds for a new basketball arena on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus.

The arguments were extremely familiar. On one side, critics said it was unnecessary to seek private money, especially in a tight budget year, and that it would cater to the wealthier fans. On the other, proponents argued that the existing facility, 29 years old, is too small, and that-follow this closely-"a sports facility would enhance the school's academic reputation because it would lure better recruits and bring notoriety to the school."

Easy to see why the proposal passed, 84-72.

-Joe Pollack

Rex Zwygart

Most St. Louisans knew him as Rex Davis, the morning voice of KMOX Radio from 1946 to 1981. His close friends knew him as Frank Zwygart, a Kris Kringle of a man who was proud of his Swiss heritage.

Zwygart died April 21, of complications from cancer at Christian Hospital Northeast. Zwygart was two days short of 91 years and two decades into his retirement from a half century of radio broadcasting.

After studying at the University of Cincinnati, Zwygart entered the field of radio broadcasting at age 20 and changed his name to Rex Davis for the sake of simplicity. Mr. Zwygart moved to St. Louis in 1946 to become a broadcaster with KMOX Radio, after working as a newscaster in Cincinnati with WCKY, also a CBS network radio affiliate.

Zwygart, who teamed up with the late announcer Bob Hardy, spent much of his career at KMOX doing the "Total Information" morning show that had as many as a quarter million listeners.

The show undoubtedly had many more listeners when Hardy and Davis announced school closings on snowy winter days. It was Zwygart's idea in 1952 to read school closings as a public service for listeners, a practice adopted by many other stations across the country.

Zwygart's morning radio ritual included such items as the Morning March and the Thought for the Day. Early-risers getting ready for work often timed their morning schedules by Rex Davis's show on KMOX.

Zwygart recalled in an interview upon his retirement that he once played the Morning March an hour early at 6:05 a.m. as an April Fool's joke. The station was flooded with complaints and one man threatened to sue, as he said he was startled out of bed and injured himself.

A Kirkwood resident, Zwygart was active in a number of Kirkwood organizations. He led the Greentree Parade as grand marshal in 1981. He and his wife, Susanne, were active locally with the American Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, Boy Scouts of America and the music program at Webster Groves Christian Church. Mr. Zwygart donated his body to Washington University School of Medicine. Funeral services were private.

In addition to his wife, Susanne, Zwygart's survivors include a son, Frank Zwygart Jr. of Florissant; a daughter, Joyce Schoen of Bartlesville, Okla.; five grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Boy Scouts of America, Greater St. Louis Area Council; 4568 West Pine Blvd.; St. Louis, Mo. 63108.

-Don Corrigan

The other Post

The New York Post has a new editor, and if a variety of reports are even close to true, the arrival of Col Allan from the Sydney (Australia) Daily Telegraph will mark a new era in journalism-especially tabloid journalism.

Allan replaces Xana Antunes in a move apparently engineered by Lachlan Murdoch, son and apparent heir to Rupert Murdoch of the News Corporation, which also owns the Post.

According to Australian sources, Allan is both a superb tabloid journalist and a rude, ornery, obstreperous bully who is known for using the sink in his office as a urinal during editors' meetings and who is a classic long-luncher, often returning to the office with an entirely different viewpoint on news and personnel.

He also is credited with raising circulation in Sydney and having a superior touch in taking minor stories and making them huge ones with adept story placement and giant headlines like "A Nation of Bastards," over a story about rising illegitimacy rates and "You Vill Pay," on a story about a German athletic coach with a reported history of steroid abuse hired by the Australian Institute of Sport.

"New York won't know what hit it," wrote Bryce Corbett on Crikey.com, an Australian web site. Corbett admits to a mixed relationship with Allan, though he praises him as an editor, tyrant and hard drinker, if not much else. And Kate Askew, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote in true Bergerian style about Allan and New South Wales premier Bob Carr: "Was Premier Bob Carr smiling with relief or genuine gratitude when he bounded up to the Daily Telegraph's editor Col Allan at Lucio's yesterday to congratulate him on his move to New York?"

-Joe Pollack

Follow the money

When St. Louis Baseball Cardinal owners lobby for a new downtown stadium, they bring out yesteryear base stealer Lou Brock and today's home-run king Mark McGwire.

When Jim Murphy, R-Crestwood, speaks out against what he calls "the welfare-for-the-rich stadium tax debacle," he appears with Rev. Larry Rice.

Murphy joined Rice on April 17 on the steps of the state capitol to speak out against the stadium funding proposal. Murphy had better success speaking on the capitol steps than he did in a legislative meeting a few weeks ago. At that meeting, Cardinal celebrities were given almost two hours to promote the stadium plan, while Murphy's dissident voice was cut off after only 90 seconds of testimony.

Nevertheless, Murphy is being heard. He has been in the forefront of vocal opposition. He says the deal proposed by the Cardinals is a scandal, and he doesn't mind taking the heat from those who call him a spoilsport.

"On the capitol steps last week, the Rev. Rice pointed out how it would be criminal to give multi-millionaires hundreds of millions in our tax money, while city police are losing their jobs, seniors go without prescription drugs, our highways and roads are deteriorating and the governor is talking about a $127-million state deficit.

"I pointed out what a catastrophe this is for Republicans," said Murphy. "The stadium proposal has become a Republican issue, because it's all lace curtain Republicans like DeWitt, Brauer and Baur who will benefit. It's welfare for rich Republicans and it should be an embarrassment to Republicans all over the state.

"The Republican Party is being used by a few fat cats to try to make a big pot of money for themselves," added Murphy. "And I am pointing out that we can't cater to fat cats, because there are not enough votes among these rich Republicans to keep our party in office. We have to think about regular folks if we are going to be a majority party."

Murphy has irked many of his GOP colleagues with such talk. But Murphy said the facts can speak for themselves.

"Some folks are wondering why Gov. Bob Holden isn't on board for the stadium deal. It's not a mystery," said Murphy. "Why should a Democrat support a deal that's going to give fat cat contributors to the Republican Party more millions of dollars?

"Mr. DeWitt of the Cardinal team ownership has a track record on this," said Murphy. "He and his boys fronted George W. Bush $600,000 to get him on board for public-funding of the Texas Rangers' stadium deal. When they sold the franchise, Bush's cut was $15 million. It shouldn't be surprising that Catherine Hanaway (R-Warson Woods), who organized the Bush campaign in Missouri, is the major voice in the legislature promoting $1.2 billion in welfare for these owners."

-Don Corrigan

Channels

Bush signs contract with Channel 5

By Tripp Frohlichstein

Channel 5 sportscaster Mike Bush signed a long-term contract with the station. Smart move. He is clearly the best sports personality on St. Louis television. No one else comes close. That's not to say others in St. Louis aren't good. Still, most of them are at Channel 5-though let's not forget Channel 4's Doug Vaughn and KPLR's (Channel 11) much-improved-over-the-years Rich Gould.

The best thing about his signing is he'll continue to be the primary host for the Sunday night "Sports Plus." Steve Savard has a good Sunday night show but Bush's is still the best. Bush will celebrate 16 years at Channel 5 in July.

• • •

KTVI (Channel 2) became the first station in St. Louis to recognize that severe weather information, while vital, can interfere with a viewers' enjoyment of an entertainment program-or downright ruin it.

So when bad weather struck in April, Channel 2 became the first station to implement something that, in the viewers' interest, I have been crusading for some time now. Instead of blocking the screen with the maps of severe weather areas and the information that scrolls across the bottom of the screen, the station shrunk the whole program picture and put the information on the side and below the program, much as some of the stations do when they list school closings in the winter. Very smart.

That's the easy way to do it yet it helps viewers who have already seen the information refocus on their shows.

Another alternative is to handle weather like KDNL (Channel 30), ESPN or CNN Headline News handle sports scores. Air the program in the top four-fifths screen (compressed slightly) with the information in a separate area at the bottom. Nothing is covered and we get all the information. Unlike Channel 2, that leaves a slightly larger program area.

Channel 30 should have done it that way but at least the station played it smart when severe weather hit in early April and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" was on. Instead of covering up the questions with maps and warnings, the station put them on the screen when the questions weren't and visa versa. It was pretty quick sometimes, but you have to appreciate the effort.

• • •

Channel 2 reached the depth of silliness when on April 6 the station made a big deal-no, a really big deal-because it had exclusive pictures no one else in town had. Was it a high profile politician taking a bribe? No. Was it the first look at a new invention that will change the world? Not even close. It was promoting exclusive pictures of an injured turkey. No kidding. The real turkey was the person who decided to promote the exclusivity of pictures of a pacing turkey with a limp.

• • •

I refused to watch KMOV (Channel 4) at 10 p.m. on Monday, April 30. Why? Because over the previous weekend, the station aired a promo talking about a disease that 40,000 St. Lousians may have, could die from and don't even know about it. If it is that serious, making people wait until a report airs is irresponsible. I don't really believe Channel 4 would do that. If it really isn't that bad, then I don't need to see it anyway. Suckering people in by scaring them is just not right.

How about this one? "The water you drink may kill you. Details at 10." But when you turn on the story, you find out that if you try to breathe the water, you will die.

• • •

You have to admire the KSDK (Channel 5) staff for quick action on April 6. A fire in a light panel in the main studio hit at 5:50 p.m. Flames were said to shoot out two feet. Still, the station managed to air at 6 p.m. in its window set with only portable lighting from the station's mobile units.

In a memo to the staff, news director Mike Shipley said, "That the 6 p.m. news got on the air Friday was a major accomplishment, but the way in which it got on the air was a major compliment to the professionalism of you members of the news and engineering departments. I couldn't be more proud of the calm professionalism shown by everyone during a very exciting afternoon. I don't care what other stations may say about what they'll do when disaster strikes, my money is on Team 5! I've seen them in action!"

• • •

I get a kick out of watching at least one of Channel 30's promos. It has Gina Kurre resting her arm playfully (my description) on co-anchor Rick Edlund's shoulder. I guess it's the male-female thing. I can't see Larry Conners and Julius Hunter doing that. Come to think of it, maybe it's more than just male-female. Given the age difference, I don't see Mandy Murphey and Dick Ford like that either.

• • •

Channel 2's Dave Murray is still our region's best weathercaster by a landslide. But watch out because Cindy Preszler is coming on strong.

Radio History

KXOK was St. Louis' 'American Graffiti'

By Frank Absher

In the decade of the 1960s, one radio station stood out in St. Louis, and an assessment some 40 years later finds that it still stands out in the memories of many people. Anyone who lived through those years understood the premise behind George Lucas' film "American Graffiti." The radio-or more importantly one specific radio station-played a big role in the lives of teenagers in just about every market. Everyone listened to that station, and the disc jockeys were real people who became friends to the listeners. In St. Louis, that station was KXOK, 630 on the AM dial.

KXOK was owned by Todd Storz as part of his chain of AM stations known for their rock 'n' roll formats. A stroll down memory lane, compliments of station vet Dick Ulett, who now owns Clayton Studios: Mort Crowley, Danny Dark, Ron Riley, Peter Martin, Robert R. Lynn, Bob Shea, William D. Rogers, Dan Allison, Johnny Rabbitt, Don "Stinkey" Shafer, Richard Ward Fatherley, Nick Charles, Bruno J. Grunyon, William A. Hopkins, Big Ears Bernard, Steven B. Stevens, Bobby Shannon, Delcia Corlew, Chickenman, News at 55, Radio Park, "The station with the happy difference."

Ray Otis was the station's program director, coming to St. Louis in 1962 at the age of 24. Manager Bud Connell had "opened" the station, and it was Otis' job to move it through the next stages of evolution. "There was magic at KXOK like no other place I've seen," he says. "Everything just fell together. The synergy was incredible."

The station was located in a small grove of trees at 1600 North Kingshighway, which it dubbed "Radio Park." Across the street was the old Parkmoor. There was an old house on the property and the studios were built as an addition, with a room in the house serving as the reception area and the rest being used for storage. Out in front, facing Kingshighway, were the 3-foot high red letters "KXOK" which had graced the side of the building it had previously inhabited, the old Star-Times Building downtown. Jim Bafaro, a former radio journalist here and now working at Boeing in public relations, remembers being confused as a five-year-old: "As a kid, I heard the term 'Radio Park' and assumed there was some little park somewhere with a big microphone in it."

Richard Ward Fatherley was KXOK's production director, and he often did substitute work by doing DJ shifts on the air. Like Ray Otis, Fatherley joined KXOK at the age of 24, coming to St. Louis in 1964. "In 1966," he says, "The Pulse radio ratings research group completed its ranking of the nation's top five most-listened-to radio stations. Two of them were in St. Louis; KMOX, the CBS-owned "At Your Service Station," and KXOK, the Storz-owned Top 40 station.

"This ratings battle between two differently programmed radio stations signaled the beginning of the end for the reign of the AM 'Rocker' and a green light for the AM 'Talkers.'"

Both Fatherley and Otis remember how KXOK capitalized on the construction of the Gateway Arch, tying in its dial position with the monument's dimensions (630 ft. high, 630 ft. wide). Fatherley notes the station "took advantage of every opportunity to embrace the structure in its sales brochures, business cards, promotional pieces and listener contests."

Otis remembers the day an audition tape was played featuring the work of a young entertainer named Don Pietromonaco. "I'd never heard anything like it. We had a fairly rigid framework for our jocks, but when we brought in Don and made him 'Johnny Rabbitt,' things loosened up. Todd Storz used to say some guys need the framework of a format. Others don't. The proof is in the ratings. We turned 'Johnny' loose, and he owned nighttime radio in St. Louis."

And then there was the time a guy drove up to Radio Park towing a speedboat behind his car. Lou Cooley told the station's manager he'd like to make a deal. If KXOK would allow him to paint the station's call letters on the side of his boat, he'd win a high profile boat race. He kept his word, and an interesting relationship was born.

"Lou ran a laboratory shuttle service," Otis says, "and he had a telephone in his car. He'd phone the station with traffic reports and we'd put him on the air." Otis also put the station's janitor on the air. "Eddie Simpson, the janitor, lived in the house behind the studios. Sometimes when he'd be cleaning in the studios I'd sit him down at the mic and we'd talk."

Robert R. Lynn, who was news director in those years, has fond memories of his experience there. "We were actually gatherers, writers, editors, not just news readers like many other stations. The newscasts were full of gizmos, echoes and beeps so they'd fit the format." And those good times sometimes took the form of pranks. Lynn remembers a psychology student at Washington University who sent the station a press release. The student had constructed a body-length black bag (cutting out two holes so he could see out) and he wore it all over campus, recording reactions of other students. The young man scheduled a press conference in which he would detail his findings. "Steven B. Stevens' mom sewed up five more bags and five of our guys went to the campus wearing them. Each of our guys held a press conference claiming to be the student, blowing away any chance he had of getting attention."

Then there was the time Fatherley came back from vacation and had to do an air shift. He conducted the station's "Bingo" game without reading all the instructions, giving out six numbers at once instead of the usual single number. As Lynn tells it, hundreds of "winners" blew out the phone circuits and other multitudes drove to Radio Park, gridlocking North Kingshighway. For the rest of his St. Louis stint, Fatherley became the target of Ray Otis' ribbing, enduring shouts of "Bingo" at unexpected moments.

A young lady who began her on-air stint as a sponsor's spokesperson has fond memories of KXOK. Delcia Devon (later Corlew) was the voice of Famous-Barr beginning in 1964. She remembers the brilliance of Don Pietromonaco, who was known to his listeners as Johnny Rabbitt. "I would be recording my commercials in the production studio and Don would come in to record his Bruno drop-ins. He'd just sit down and start talking in his Bruno voice, doing wild tracks. Later, when he was on the air, he'd carry on a conversation with those recordings. I was amazed how he could remember what he'd said on the tapes."

Everyone interviewed for this article gives the credit for KXOK's success to one man, Bud Connell, the operations manager. "He pulled the right strings and brought in the right people," says Robert R. Lynn. Ray Otis says, "Bud was the best market opener I've ever seen."

Connell came to St. Louis from Miami. "Storz gave me carte blanche," he says. Arriving in July of 1961, he monitored the market for a month. "KXOK had 4 percent of the market while WIL had over 20 percent. KXOK's jocks were Ken Reed, Peter Martin, Jack Elliott and Don Shafer. Bob Shea and Robert R. Lynn were the newsmen. My first job was to brighten the sound and beef up the news. I brought in Shad O'Shea and Danny Dark as jocks and David D. Rogers and Steven B. Stevens for news. Our news department had four of the biggest voices in radio."

"It was a bunch of people having a good time," says newsman Lynn, "and the jocks made as much on the side from personal appearances as they did on the air."

Connell says he brought in outstanding people, but his main criterion boiled down to a simple requirement: "I looked for a capacity to entertain and the intelligence to entertain without using bad taste. The big stars in radio today wouldn't even have been considered for jobs on KXOK. Don Pietromonaco, for example was the ultimate Johnny Rabbitt; the defining Johnny Rabbitt. He was an absolute entertainer."

The veterans of KXOK all say it was the finest job in their careers. "In a word," says Robert R. Lynn, "it was fun!" Delcia Corlew says, "It was unique, exciting. There was a lot of discovery in it, a chance for all of us to learn about ourselves and our listeners." Connell says "My nickname around the station was Mr. Kx-OK. Those were heady days for a young man who loved playing radio. I am convinced the old KXOK would blow away all of today's broadcast wunderkind, including those in the smut-filled control rooms of the present day audio-porn purveyors. And wouldn't it be fun to do it all over again?" The comment by Ray Otis says it all: "In retrospect, it was almost euphoric. I'd go back in a heartbeat."

Cast of characters

Bud Connell, the man credited with creating the KXOK of legend, is quick to credit his staff. Below are Connell's comments about the people who were the voices of the Big 630.

Mort Crowley: The best uptown humorist and multi-voice man to ever grace the St. Louis radio stage.

Danny Dark: A man with a single-minded purpose: to become the best voice-over man since Ken Nordine. He achieved his goal.

Delcia Devon: The sexiest Brit pre-Diana.

Richard Ward Fatherly: One of only a half-dozen men to come to me with a built-in stage name, and also the best production man ever to cut tape. The voice of God was just a bonus.

William A. Hopkins: Consistent and dependable, and statistically on target, always.

Robert R. Lynn: Unquestionably the most consistent, high-quality newsmen/reporter ever in St. Louis.

Peter Martin: A defining personality disc jockey. A voice that will never be matched.

Davey O'Donnell: Mr. Nice Guy and a true entertainer.

Ray Otis: Mr. Natural, a true "Everyman" with a talent to always mirror where the listener stood on any issue.

Don Pietromonaco aka Johnny Rabbitt: The consummate entertainer as the definitive Johnny Rabbitt.

David D. Rogers: The biggest voice in the history of the Universe.

Don "Stinkey" Shafer: An all-around nice guy who would do anything to further the station's goals.

Bob Shea: The rock of the KXOK newsroom. The steady hand on the tiller.

Steven B. Stevens: Voicewise, the son of David D., totally original and a highly talented entertainer as he hosted my cherished Sunday Night Music Museum.

Keith Morris, Nick Charles, Jeff Hendrickson, Shad O'Shea, Louise Harrison Caldwell, Genevieve Bierman, the many "Kays" all receive honorable mentions. All great guys and gals.

(Note: For those who would like to experience the KXOK of the 1960s, The St. Louis Media Archive at the downtown St. Louis Public Library has 42 different taped airchecks of the station from that era.)

AM/FM

Revolving door at KTRS

By Lynn Venhaus

In the revolving door that is the KTRS (550 AM) morning show, Darrell Ankarlo is the latest casualty. Ankarlo was absent from the air April 26, and the station released a statement on its web site. Meanwhile, Rick Sanborn returns to fill in with TV locals Jean Jackson and Dan Buck, who joined the morning show April 23, until a replacement comes on board.

The morning show's body count has been high since its beginnings as WIBV (1260 AM) in spring 1996: Bill Wilkerson, Wendy Wiese, Kevin Horrigan, J. C. Corcoran, Donn Johnson, Dan Dierdorf and Kevin Slaten.

While the lineup of Paul Harris in middays and Frank O. Pinion in afternoon drive time has been solid, the morning show has been, to paraphrase Dan Rather, shakier than cafeteria Jello.

Ankarlo grew up in Maryville, Ill., the son of a minister. He was at stations in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Nashville before coming to St. Louis. He and his wife of 23 years, Laurie, and their four children moved to O'Fallon, Mo. when he chose the Big 550 over an offer from KMOX (1120 AM) last year.

Ankarlo could not be reached for comment prior to SJR's deadline.

• • •

Once the grand master of the voice of St. Louis, KMOX legend Rex Davis died in April at age 90.

Born Frank W. Zwygart, he began his career in Cincinnati in 1931,

moving to St. Louis to become a news broadcaster in 1946. Later on, his claim to fame would be hosting "Total Information" in the morning with Bob Hardy. He retired in 1981.

His smooth, gentle delivery got thousands of St. Louisans going in the morning, and was such a mainstay at the station that boss Robert Hyland refused to let him retire at age 65.

At 1 Memorial Plaza, tributes played in memoriam from the time they learned of his passing on Saturday through Monday morning drive time. Frank Absher and others recalled his importance to the station while Bill Reker and others took phone calls from listeners on their memories of Davis.

He died of complications from cancer.

• • •

When local Emmis stations' contracts with Metro Traffic run out, Traffic.com will take over. Last month, Emmis Communications signed a two-year agreement with Traffic.com for the premier traffic information company to assume traffic reporting duties at its 22 radio stations in seven major markets.

At the five St. Louis stations, Traffic.com will be phased in as the contracts end. Traffic.com utilizes both airborne and mobile reports but its state-of-the-art Traffic Pulse digital sensor is its drawing card. The company touts real-time updates with actual traffic speeds and point-to-point travel times.

Gee, having more timely information-what a concept!

• • •

After nearly a year of happily puttering around the house, former KYKY (98.1 FM) morning host Michelle Dibble is heading to Seattle with fiance Howard (Flo&Eddie). While she did fill in at KMOX in the wee hours on occasion, and do a few commercials and voice-overs during her time off, she said she enjoyed taking a break from the airwaves.

Dibble said they're in the process of selling their house here. She plans

on trying to get back in the biz once out in the Emerald City.

"Howard came here to be with me but never really 'lived' here, and now that we're free for the moment, I told him he could choose the next city and I'll find something when we get there," Dibble said. "The idea of a new city, new challenge, is just what I need. Right now I'm doing so much, showing this house, repairing things, shopping for a house in Seattle, et cetera, that I'm just bouncing about, and enjoying myself immensely."

Dibble said she enjoys hearing from listeners, as her e-mail is still forwarded from Y98.

She is definitely missed-her intelligent and lively take on things endeared her to the loyal female audience for many years in the market. When the suits at CBS/Infinity couldn't reach a contract agreement with her, she opted out last spring.

• • •

No question about it, the best radio party on Opening Day was KLOU's (103.3 FM), with actor John Goodman returning to his hometown to see the Redbirds in action and duet with Smash before the game. Even though it lost the coveted Kiener Plaza spot in a tug-of-war with KMOX, KLOU drew the bigger crowd.

• • •

KMOX is continuing its search for a replacement for Randy Karraker, interviewing prospective radio folks and giving a few on-air tryouts.

In the meantime, KTRS is certainly milking its coup, with ads poking fun at KMOX's aging audience.

• • •

Will Emmis put its FM talker at 97.1 FM out of its misery? KFTK didn't even show up on the latest Arbitron ratings.

• • •

Congratulations to hard-working gal Michelle Matthews, who earned a following at The Rock (97.1 FM) and KLOU (103.3FM) during her tenure in St. Louis. She's the new assistant program director and music director at KXPK in Denver, moving there from the PD reigns at KTOZ in Springfield, Mo.

Media/Politics

So much for regional thinking

By Terry Jones

Passing the use tax in St. Louis County looked like a political no-brainer.

First, applying the 1.85 percent sales tax to items ordered from outside the state leveled the playing field between Missouri and non-Missouri suppliers. Buying $10,000 in office equipment locally means another $185 in taxes, an amount saved if the same goods are purchased out-of-state. That marginally disadvantages Missouri firms so the tax would have benefited Missouri businesses supplying other Missouri businesses.

Second, the measure followed the time-worn maxim to don't-tax-me-and-don't-tax-thee-but-tax-the-person-behind-the-tree.

By exempting the first $2,000 in out-of-state purchases each year from the use tax, only the most obsessive Land's Enders would have been tapped. Almost all the burden would have been on large and medium-sized businesses.

Third, the plans for spending the tax proceeds spread the benefits. Half would have been distributed to municipalities (including the County in its quasi-municipal role for the unincorporated areas) and the other half would have been spent on economic and community development projects in the County's growing number of deteriorating neighborhoods.

Fourth, passing the tax would not have put the County at a competitive disadvantage within the region. St. Charles County already has a use tax and the City of St. Louis passed its own on April 3.

Fifth, the measure enjoyed bipartisan support, led by County Executive Buzz Westfall, a Democrat, and County Council Chair Kurt Odenwald, a Republican. There was no organized opposition and the targeted business sector was largely willing to go along with it.

So what happened? It lost-heavily. The final tally was 58 percent no and 42 percent yes.

Electoral surprises like this one, especially those that seek to foster regionalism, demand exploration and, if possible, explanation. But with the exception of the standard day-after speculative quotes and an April 16 zone edition story giving County Executive Westfall's interpretation in his remarks to a North County, Incorporated meeting, the St. Louis Post Dispatch ignored the puzzle, providing no analysis of what happened and little sense of what it might imply.

The measure tested St. Louis County's sense of connectedness, with the bar for passing set relatively low. Were more affluent citizens prepared to tax someone else-businesses-to provide funds to help their more needy fellow Countians? Is civic altruism alive and well in the County?

Hardly. The five West County townships-Chesterfield, Lafayette, Meramec, Missouri River, and Queeny-rejected the proposal by almost two-to-one.

Keeping them company were the two outer South County townships, Oakville and Tesson Ferry.

In contrast, these same areas had strongly backed two recent regional initiatives, one giving the Metropolitan Sewer District the authority to issue district-wide revenue bonds and the other inaugurating a one-tenth of a cent sales tax, half of which will fund a new metropolitan parks district. Both were on the ballot in November 2000 and both passed easily, with support in the outer County exceeding 60 percent.

Is overt redistribution the issue? The leisure class will certainly make more use of recreation projects, such as an extended trails network which will probably be built with the parks tax, than will lower-income households. So no Robin Hood there. Paying to improve the sewer system in some other segment of the County or in the City, both part of the MSD system, is closer to picking up the burden for the less well off. But the charter amendment only enables such proposals. It is yet to be seen whether a specific one would pass.

The use tax campaign made much of how half the dollars would flow to some of the County's more challenged areas. The underlying point made by its proponents is that everyone in the County, including those living in the outer ring, has a stake in these areas, that a declining Wellston and an embattled Pine Lawn can ultimately harm a booming Chesterfield or a thriving Wildwood.

That's what made it such a relatively clear test for whether the public will support redistributive policies at the local level. Although it was not a multi-county initiative, it did happen within the region's largest and most economically diverse unit. St. Louis County's elected leaders understand and appreciate the interdependence within the County. That's what led them to put the measure on the ballot and to advocate its passage. The April 3 vote demonstrates that, at least for the moment, their view is not shared by a majority of the voters, especially in South and West County.

The governance story within the St. Louis metropolitan area is largely about balancing regional and local interests. Over time, St. Louisans have incrementally moved to more regionalism, establishing a Zoo-Museum District here and a Metropolitan Parks District there. But the trend is neither steady nor inevitable and each episode, such as the County's use tax proposal, must be interpreted within that context, helping citizens understand where they are on that journey. That's what the newspaper of record should be doing.

Sports/Media

The arguements are the same

By Joe Pollack

Proponents of a new stadium keep telling us how much money it-and the adjacent Ballpark Village (It takes a village to raise some money, right?)-are going to bring into downtown St. Louis.

It doesn't take much of a memory to recall the same sales line being used for the present Busch Stadium, and for the Ugly Dome, Laclede's Landing, the Downtown Convention Center, even for remodeling Kiel Auditorium. If any of the projects had done what we were told they would do, there would obviously be no need for still another downtown construction boondoggle.

Why should we, or our representatives, be convinced by the same sales pitch, with larger figures? Why should we allow ourselves to be blackmailed by the baseball owners?

Those who travel the world, from sporting event to sporting event, on the St. Louis taxpayer's dollar, keep telling us the same story about how much money we all make from every minor tournament that comes to town. The civic sports promoters are like a bunch of three-card monte dealers. As an example, let's look at one small facet of the Women's NCAA basketball finals that came to River City a few months ago.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch produced a 12-page special section in advance of the tournament, a section that displayed superior photos, many by Chris Lee, and standout design by Reagan Branham. There were many stories, with three by Shannon Conner, two by Elizabethe Holland, and one each by Dan Caesar, Stu Durando, Kathleen Nelson, Dan O'Neill and Jeremy Rutherford, plus a column by Bernie Miklasz. All were satisfactory, though several seemed to be rehashing tales they had written before.

And the section carried two ads, a half-page from ESPN, and a quarter-page from the Admiral Casino. I don't know how many basketball players, coaches, media, NCAA officials and administrators went to the Admiral, but not many of them watched the over-hyped games on television.

Speaking of watching the games, I'm not sure how many people were in the stands for the final. Television didn't give us much in terms of crowd shots, and I saw no attendance figures in the local press. There's always a problem filling the arena for the final because some of the first-game loses go home, but it would have been nice if the NCAA people set up some sort of collection point for extra, not-to-be-used tickets for that big game, and then gave them away to St. Louisans, school children or high school athletes or others who who wanted to see the game.

And speaking of how much money we all make by having the tournament here, and how much of it goes to women's basketball programs, it was interesting to drive through Webster Groves about six weeks later and to see the Webster University girls basketball players waving from a street corner and inviting drivers to take part in a car wash so as to raise a few bucks for the team.

• • •

RIP XFL (NBC)-From all available indications, it will be a chilly day in Hades when the XFL next appears on NBC, if indeed, the XFL itself ever appears on television anywhere, whether BET or TNT or UPN or TNN. Be thankful if you indeed were among the mere handful of people that watched one of the great fiascos of modern entertainment.

"Moose Murders" has had a longer half-life in Broadway legend.

"Ishtar" brought large amounts of laughter, even if it was a financial disaster.

XFL on NBC was laughable. Along the way it set records for smallest viewing audience anywhere, and even the championship game had a minuscule 2.5 overnight rating.

Vince McMahon, the undisputed king of bad taste, apparently thought that his judgment would bring people who thought as he did; he simply didn't realize how few there are. McMahon, like the Muny Opera's slogan, is "alone in its greatness."

The basic problem was that the XFL didn't play football well enough, wasn't entertaining enough and had announcers so bad they could have been giving out hundred-dollar bills and still would not have attracted an audience. Of 50 state governors, not too many of whom qualify as mental giants, only Jesse Ventura could be conned into the broadcast booth, where he made a bigger fool of himself than he has been able to make in the governor's mansion, and he's done quite well in St. Paul, thank you.

The games were not good enough to be interesting, not bad enough to

be entertaining, and the players had no history to bring about some sidelights. Even NBC, which milks the dramatic so much that it turns every

Olympian into a tragic hero, even if the disease was no more serious than a common cold or the family tragedy no more heartbreaking than the death of a goldfish, simply ran out of any sort of whole cloth from which to create a drama.

The football was close to awful, the phony fights were as bad as the usual phony wrestling to which McMahon lends his name. If McMahon had been more patient, putting games on smaller networks or cable outlets and trying to build an audience, things might have worked somewhere down the road.

Now there are just some pieces to pick up and try to put together, the way the king's horses and men did with Humpty Dumpty.

Guest commentary

When Pulitzer Inc. bought the Suburban Journals last summer, its management asked employees to "give Pulitzer a chance" and not sign cards to indicate our interest in voting to affiliate with a union.

It has been about seven months since that buyout, and there have been some changes-small raises for some, a better 401k plan and vacation policy for all. In addition, Pulitzer increased the mileage paid to employees from 24 cents to 28 cents a mile. That's also an improvement, but still far below the federal reimbursement rate of 34.5 cents a mile.

In the area of raises, informal conversations among our co-workers have shown that some of the newest, and thus lowest paid, editorial employees received raises that added up to enough to buy lunch out a couple more times a week.

Some employees who have been with the company for a long time, however, did not receive more than one raise and were told that they were not eligible because of their higher pay scale. Suburban Journals newsroom staffers under Pulitzer earn wages comparable to people in these occupations, according to recent help wanted ads in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

• shirt presser, $8.50 an hour

• kitchen help, $9 an hour

• painters, $9-$12 an hour

Sales staff, meanwhile, generally haven't seen raises. A new commission system is unproven, because it hasn't been instituted. Many salespeople find it's hard to make ends meet on a Journal's salary and commission, especially in territories that don't have the growth of St. Charles County.

Compare Journals' employees' pay figures to the latest figures available for what Pulitzer Inc. top executives earned in 1999, according to the "100 Highest-paid Executives" St. Louis Business Journal Book of Lists, 2001.

The figures include salaries, bonuses and other compensation. The numeral before each name indicates each man's ranking in the top 100. In parentheses is the percentage change in their annual compensation from 1998 to 1999-their annual raises.

• No. 1 Ronald Ridgway, senior vice president, finance: $10,905,853 (2063.46 percent raise)

• No. 5 Michael Pulitzer, chairman: $4,501,181 (142.41 percent raise)

• No. 31 Robert Woodworth, president and chief executive: $1,380,180 (245 percent raise)

• No. 63 Terrance Egger, vice president: $854,497 (181.95 percent raise)

The Journals' own help wanted ads frequently call for applicants for 10 to 15 open positions at the newspapers-an indication that turnover still is a problem.

Journals' employees still receive no overtime for unusual hours; instead we are allowed to take time off during the week to compensate. Post employees earn overtime pay if rousted from bed at midnight to cover a fire, not simply paid overtime if they go more than 40 hours a week.

Reporters at one Journal publication were asked to work Monday through Saturday. Although two of those days are half-days, it is still a six-day week without overtime pay.

Both Woodworth and Joe Pepe, the Journals' publisher, have repeatedly told us they want to "grow the company" before more raises and other improved benefits can be forthcoming.

Are we growing? According to an April 2 Reuters report, Pulitzer (and by extension, the Journals) is currently experiencing earnings below projected estimates due to a slump in advertising revenue. This is happening at many newspapers across the nation.

With this information in hand, we believe it is in Journal employees' best interests to sign cards indicating their desire to vote on whether to affiliate with the Newspaper Guild.

While Pulitzer earnings may be below projected estimates, it is obvious that those in the company's top ranks get their raises first. Nearly all Journal employees currently have no union representation. Those of us who work with no union contract are simply "at will" employees who can be laid off with no regard for experience or other factors.

"Give us a chance" has been the Pulitzer mantra during the past seven months, hoping to avert employees' unionization.

To our co-workers who have yet to sign cards indicating a desire to vote on whether to affiliate with the Guild, we pose two simple questions regarding that "chance": How secure do you feel in your job, and how does your paycheck look?

Finally, if you fear that signing a card will somehow endanger your job, we point to the fact that it is illegal to dismiss or discipline employees for attempting to unionize. All the undersigned Journal workers have supported the Journals' unionization effort for many months-with management's knowledge-and not one of us has been dismissed for union organizing.

Won't you join us and sign a card? You can do so by phoning 314/241-7046. Won't you now give the Newspaper Guild a chance?

Heather Cole, reporter

Julie Kelemen, copy editor

Joe Harris, sports reporter

Crusade

What drove Carolyn Tuft and the Post-Dispatch in the Woidtke case?

By Roy Malone

Who Killed Audrey Cardenas? That's what the boxed graphic asked St. Louis Post-Dispatch readers each time a story appeared about the murder of the 24-year-old news reporter intern in Belleville in 1988.

Although Rodney Woidtke was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 45 years in prison, the newspaper's three-year campaign to free him finally paid off.

Woidtke got a retrial and was found not guilty by a jury on March 30.

He can thank Carolyn Tuft, the tenacious Post reporter who crusaded for him. Her stories portrayed Woidtke as "a mentally ill drifter" who unluckily wandered into the crime scene and was seized upon by police investigators. He made three separate confessions to detectives but later recanted them. In a non-jury trial, he was poorly represented by his court-appointed attorney and wrongly convicted, the stories said.

On April Fool's Day, the 40-year-old Woidtke left for California with family members, free after nearly 13 years behind bars. Lack of other evidence and inconsistencies in his confessions caused jurors to have reasonable doubt.

But wait. If Woidtke didn't kill Audrey Cardenas, who did?

Don't be fooled, Woidtke really did it, says Bob Haida, state's attorney for St. Clair County. He said a not guilty verdict doesn't mean the person is necessarily innocent, only that the jury had reasonable doubt.

Tuft counters: "Illinois law presumes him to be innocent until proven guilty."

Haida says the Post stories were not fair or impartial in that they followed a script that had been decided upon in advance by Tuft, that Woidtke had been railroaded and someone else was the real killer.

Tuft's stories were double-barreled in that they not only claimed Woidtke was falsely convicted, but that Dale Anderson did it. If you've followed the saga, you'll recall that Dale Anderson is the cold-blooded killer who murdered Jolaine Lanman and her son Kenneth, 3, at about the time that Woidtke was being sentenced in 1989.

Anderson, who had worked for the Department of Public Aid, had a grudge against three superiors. He clumsily tried to pin the murders on them through a note he forced Lanman to write before killing her. He had gone to the Lanman home near Belleville because it was listed for sale. He is serving a life sentence for the murders.

Tuft said she always believed Anderson was the logical suspect in the Cardenas murder but authorities went after Woidtke instead. Tuft had a run-in with Anderson before the Cardenas killing when she went to interview him about his claims against his superiors. She was a Belleville News-Democrat reporter at the time. She said, he threatened her with a gun. Charges were brought and Anderson was found guilty of disorderly conduct, but acquitted of impersonating an officer. His attorney was Brian Trentman, who later represented Woidtke.

Tuft said the News-Democrat wouldn't let her pursue the Woidtke story because of her involvement with Anderson. After several years at the Post, she finally got her chance. Dick Weil, an editor in charge of projects, gave Tuft the go-ahead after Woidtke had written to Tuft, saying no one would listen to his pleas of innocence. She said he had tried to commit suicide in prison.

Weil is helpful in getting some reporters the time to research stories, and they say he then lives these stories vicariously. At the outset, Tuft wrote a first-person story on how Anderson had threatened her. She believes she was Anderson's original target, not Cardenas.

Weil said he met Woidtke, a paranoid schizophrenic who must stay on his medications. He appeared shy, withdrawn and furtive with his darting eye movements, Weil said. "He's never done a violent act. He's docile.

"It was a tremendous accomplishment. We are immensely proud," Weil said of the stories, in which Tuft and reporter Bill Smith shared a byline. "Clearly we believed there was a large amount of doubt. Dale Anderson was the likely suspect."

The Post hired a retired FBI serial killer profiler, Robert Ressler, to interview Dale Anderson. Ressler then said Anderson was the probable killer of Cardenas. Dee Heil, an evidence technician in the Cardenas case, also was quoted as saying nothing about Woidtke fit the crime scene. Ron Jenkins, a top-notch defense lawyer, volunteered to defend Woidtke.

Despite the aggressive reporting, some reporters and editors at the Post questioned the campaign, seeing it as an overblown soap opera. Bob Goodrich, a veteran reporter who covered the first trial, was asked in a meeting what he thought and he said Woidtke almost certainly did it. "Everybody in St. Clair County wishes Dale Anderson had done it because he's so despicable," Goodrich said.

From then on Goodrich felt treated as someone not loyal to the cause. He was not allowed to cover the new trial. Goodrich had done stories a few years earlier that freed another inmate, Lee Otis Griffin, from prison after 16 years on a conviction of a triple murder.

Weil said the Woidtke story ebbed as some in the newsroom were asking "Are we beating a dead horse? I didn't want to let it die." And it didn't, thanks to an appellate court decision that granted Woidtke a new trial and resuscitated the Post stories.

Haida and his assistant prosecutors have a starkly different view of Woidtke and caution the public not to believe everything they read in the Post. In deciding whether to try Woidtke again, Haida assigned three prosecutors with no connection to the original case to conduct separate reviews of the evidence and decide if they had the right man. They said in good conscience Woidkte should be tried again, even though some of what convinced them was inadmissible in the trial.

These included: the tracking by a bloodhound of Woidtke's movements from a convenience store to near the site of the murder; police reports that Woidtke once attacked and choked his sister; a statement by Woidtke's father that he feared Rodney might kill him; reports of him attacking a teacher and retail clerk in California; and an arrest in Granite City on suspicion of home invasion.

The prosecutors felt Woidtke was savvy enough to play games with interrogators. "He has an IQ of 121, that's higher than normal," Haida said. "The paper repeatedly and intentionally referred to him as a mentally ill drifter to suggest he was taken advantage of by police to get him to say anything. That's unfair."

But it was Haida who was unfair, said the Post stories, editorials and columns by Bill McClellan. One editorial said it was shocking that Woidtke was ever prosecuted and shows "the inbred courthouse gang in Belleville is callous to injustice and uninterested in the truth- was it more important to protect the reputations of the close-knit courthouse crowd than to free an innocent man?"

"What gives me heartburn," Haida said, was the suggestion by the Post "that we were hiding facts, or afraid to be embarassed by reversing ourselves."

He said when he first talked to Tuft "I could sense her displeasure because I did not agree with her. She treated me as if I'm some sort of demon."

Haida said he is not allowed to keep information from the defense and is even required to prove a defendant not guilty, if possible. He's also not allowed to comment on a case. But he did lash out in one news release that the Post was practicing "character assassination and innuendo. "Dale Anderson is not the murderer of Audrey Cardenas. . . .there is no credible evidence, of any kind, which connects him to the murder."

Haida said it was irresponsible reporting, and reckless disregard for the truth, to blame it on Anderson who "is a liar who persists in delusions and obsessions about Audrey's murder as well as countless other murders, including the New Year's Eve murder of Amy Blumberg and the recent deaths of women in East St. Louis. He continues to interject himself in high-profile murder investigations."

The charges that Haida acted improperly were fodder for columnist Bill McClellan. He said John Baricevic, who first prosecuted Woidtke, ought to take Haida out to a steak dinner for Haida's show of loyalty in prosecuting Woidtke again and insisting on his guilt. In another column, McClellan said "It's 99.9 percent clear that Woidtke didn't kill Audrey Cardenas" but that Baricevic "prosecuted the innocent, thus allowing the serial killer to keep killing."

McClellan also rapped Baricevic for convicting Gregory Bowman in the murders of two young women in Belleville 22 years ago. Bowman recently won a new trial because of problems on how his confession was obtained. But Baricevic wasn't the prosecutor then. Never mind.

When Haida asked McClellan why he was writing that politics was behind the prosecutions of Woidtke and Bowman, McClellan said he got that by reading the newspaper.

Haida said "the easiest thing for me to do was to drop the (Woidtke) case, to say we're done." But he felt he owed it to the victim and her family. "It was a difficult case. We knew that going in. We fought fair and lost. Carolyn can take credit for him getting a new trial."

Haida said the mother of Audrey Cardenas once had closure in the case, but not now. "She wants to be left alone. It's been a terrible thing for her."

If the Post wants to say the prosecutors are concerned mostly about their reputations, the prosecutors can say the same about the Post and its desire to win prizes. The Woidtke stories were submitted for a Pulitzer prize in 1998, long before Woidtke had won a new trial.

Tuft has won more than a dozen reporting awards over the years but considers the Woidtke stories her best, and they will be submitted again for prizes.

When "Dateline," the NBC television show, did a story on Tuft and the Woidtke case, a cameraman trailed Tuft around Belleville. She looked different, all made up for the camera.

She was successful in getting Editor & Publisher magazine to do a cover story on her. An attempt to get The Wall Street Journal to do a story didn't work out.

She has an agent and has gotten calls from Hollywood to have a movie made of the Woidtke case. She also wants to write a book about it. "This is my story," she said, explaining that agents and lawyers were negotiating for a movie but "they are trying to split us apart, Audrey's mom, Rodney and I."

Other Post reporters say Tuft is the most prize-obsessed reporter they've seen. But she says she's "not in it for the glory. I got in this business to make a difference, to look out for the underdog."

She traces that to her background, of growing up in poverty in a broken home in Granite City. She was the fifth of six children of parents who divorced when she was six. Her dad was an alcoholic and she lived with her mother and other relatives. She wanted to write while in school and was on the high school year book staff, though she did not have enough money to buy a yearbook.

She got married early, had a child but says she was locked in an abusive relationship with her first husband for six years. She finally left him and went to college. She then married an Illinois State Police detective who works on murder cases.

What drives her? She said she relates to being an underdog, a victim and had family members who suffered from mental illness-just as Woidtke does.

While chasing after awards is like having an infection, other reporters acknowledge Tuft is a good reporter and hard-working. That doesn't mean they don't tell jokes about her.

When she and Bill Smith went to Mexico to chase down a man named Cardenas whose high school I.D. was found in Dale Anderson's possession, it turned out to be a dry hole. But Smith, the sidekick, got tagged with the nickname "Pancho" (Hey Cisco. Hey Pancho.).

One reporter said: "Carolyn better pray every day that Rodney stays on his medicine."

Tuft says while she might move on to a bigger job, she wants to stay in St. Louis to follow the Bowman case. She said Dale Anderson was the real killer:

"Oh yeah, the cases run parallel." Ressler, the ex-FBI man, thinks so too.

To that, Haida says: "She's combined the stories into one big Dale Anderson theory. I think it's absurd to suggest that he committed those two murders. It's fanciful and fictional."

In a way, Anderson's the perfect foil. He can't sue and no one will defend him. But it's unlikely he'll ever be charged.

Weil and Tuft said they have thought about taking Anderson's former house apart to look for items he might have squirreled away that would link him to the Cardenas killing or the two victims in the Bowman case. Trouble is, Anderson's ex-wife still lives there and is not interested in having the place torn apart.

But if such a search were to be made, and evidence found to incriminate Anderson, we might then have an answer to the question: Who killed Audrey Cardenas?

The war on culture continues

By Joe Pollack

Tighter budgets and fewer pages seem to be the order of the publishing day this spring, and early symptoms include reductions in book-review sections in many newspapers.

Happily, not the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or at least not yet, according to Jane Henderson, the newspaper's book editor. Of course, the Post has not devoted much space to books for a number of years, but in this difficult time, the newspaper is holding its own. Henderson commented that Ellen Soeteber, the new editor, seems to be a fan of books, and indications are that if things don't get a lot worse, there may be cause for optimism in the future.

It isn't that good around the country, or so a brief and informal survey in The New York Times indicated recently. The Times itself has eliminated its "Books in Brief," a home for shorter reviews, as part of a two-page trim in the section. In Boston, the Globe has had a stand-alone section which may not be in existence much longer; editor Matthew V. Storin has indicated it may become part of the Focus section. The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News has cut book review space by a third, and the Seattle Times has reduced it by two-thirds.

In San Francisco, the Chronicle has a new, redesigned book section, but editor Phil Bronstein expects to have fewer reviews. In exchange he plans more commentary on literature.

Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review, put the issue into focus for writers and readers when he said, "Of all the cuts, the one I mind most is the briefs. What you're losing is the debut short-story collection, the first novel. You're losing the ability to spot someone at the very beginning of a career."

KTRS in up-hill battle for listener share

By Frank Absher

If there were any people out there who still thought KTRS was a threat to topple KMOX, those thoughts should be dispelled. Tim Dorsey's crusade to emulate the late Robert Hyland appears to be a failure. The highest 12-plus share Dorsey has registered over the last two years in Arbitron was 4.4. Less than a year after that peak he's now at 3.4. The same trend shows in the 25-54 demographic, dropping from a peak of 4.3 to a current 3.1. If it weren't for Frank O. Pinion's fourth place standing in the target demographic, the station's numbers would be downright embarrassing.

Meanwhile, Dorsey's arch nemesis, KMOX, cruises along at the top of the market. Not that all is rosy there. While it appears that the addition of McGraw Milhaven to the 9-11 a.m. slot has stopped the audience erosion there, the station sees some troubling developments. KIHT, with the "Steve and D.C. Show" tops KMOX in mornings 25-54 and the Mighty 'MOX is 9th in that demo in afternoon drive. Still, the 12-plus numbers are fairly flat when compared with a year ago and are up in the 25-54 group.

There are stellar performances among some music stations. WIL jumps (25 percent 12-plus, 14 percent 25-54) and holds on to its high rankings; KPNT, WVRV, KSHE, KFUO-FM and WRTH also saw notable upward trends. On the downside, KEZK, KMJM, KLOU, and KATZ-FM could see management tweaking in the near future to stem the drop in listenership. Three stations which switched formats in the past 12 months, KSD, WMLL and WFUN-FM, show strong stability in their numbers. KFTK does not, having dropped to an almost unmeasurable level.

Under Ted Garcia, KETC (Channel 9) established commercial grounding

By Dawn Grodsky

Ted Garcia gets choked up when talking about the people he's about to leave behind. Garcia, 52, who has worked in St. Louis television for 30 years-including the past 20 at KETC (Channel 9)-has accepted a job as general manager/CEO of the public television station in Albuquerque, N.M. His last day at Channel 9, where he is executive vice president and chief operating officer, is June 1.

Garcia calls his impending departure bittersweet. "My success, it's been wholly predicated upon by the people with whom I've been privileged to work, and I thank them," he said while trying to hold back tears.

Before going to work for public TV, Garcia, 52, worked at what was then KMOX (Channel 4) for 10 years.

Over a career spanning the past three decades, Garcia has witnessed remarkable changes in St. Louis television.

Garcia counts among his mentors Ollie Raymond, a retired weatherman and local personality. He fondly remembers other former co-workers such as Les Carmichael, the brother of Hoagie Carmichael; Max Roby, whom Garcia called the "dean of anchormen;" and current Channel 4 reporter Robin Smith, who once worked as a film room intern for Garcia.

He was also present at some historic events in St. Louis television.

"In July of 1973, KMOX was the first TV station in the world to drop 16 millimeter film for electronic news gathering, what we called ENG. The impact was worldwide. You could be on the air immediately. You could never go live with film. ENG revolutionized the industry. Participating in that was a wonderful opportunity," he said.

Garcia also recalled the first time a sitting U.S. president entered a St. Louis TV station. The president was Gerald Ford and Garcia escorted him around the station. "Julius Hunter interviewed him. Ford was a gentleman, his staff treated us well and it was a coup for us."

Garcia added that he was privileged to work with the best talent available anywhere and commented on the uniqueness of the St. Louis market, illustrated by the longevity of its newspeople. Garcia said that is also reflection of the city as a whole. "Change doesn't come easily in St. Louis. Change comes reluctantly. The most popular question is where'd you go to school and they don't mean college but high school. I went to high school in East St. Louis and that's always turned heads.

"But it reflects who we are and how we operate as a society. You watch the anchors change in other markets, yet here we've had Julius, Larry, Karen and Dick Ford for how long now?"

Garcia said he wished that St. Louis television would do more local productions about the region, looking at "who we are, why we are what we are and what we could be."

He also admits to being disappointed in the changes in TV news over the years.

"Thirty years ago the stations were differentiated by news, personalities and content. You don't see many differences today, from the story count to where they put the breaks," he said, adding that consultants get much of the blame. "The industry is plagued by its relationship with consultants. I don't mean that as a cheap shot. . . .They're in business to create value for shareholders and they do a great job at that. Unfortunately, the viewers lose."

Back in 1971, when Garcia graduated from college, things weren't quite so profit-driven. Garcia, who got the job at Channel 4 right out of school, said he had decided he wanted to work for CBS, which at the time was considered the Tiffany of the broadcast networks. Garcia was persistent, and it paid off. The station's broadcasting director told him, "I'm going to have to hire you or have you arrested. I can't have you coming and looking for a job every week."

Garcia recalled, "I was extremely fortunate. It would have been just as easy for him to tell me to stay away."

He first worked as a timing and editing clerk, inserting commercial breaks into "Green Acres." Garcia then became a public affairs producer and did a program called "St. Louis Illustrated," for which he was paid an extra $25 a show. "Twenty-five dollars to do 90-minutes of live TV," Garcia laughed.

He stayed at Channel 4 until 1981. At the time, commercial TV was undergoing what Garcia called a major change. "You saw a shift in the content and in the value of the content and I had to evaluate whether this is where I wanted to ply my trade," he said. "Quite frankly, TV news value hasn't been realized in the way it was in the late '60s and the '70s. The tactics and strategy of news gathering relate more closely to revenue than they do to journalism."

Garcia said he wouldn't return to commercial airwaves. "I believe in public TV," he said, noting the emphasis it places on quality where commercial TV appeals to the lowest common denominator and is in business to turn a profit.

Garcia also supports the necessity of on-air fund raisers - he calls the ones at Channel 9 "less irritating than most"-though he thinks the current fund-raising model will evolve. He has held several different positions at Channel 9, each with increasing responsibility, and has been in charge of content creation and programming since 1994.

One of his first projects at Channel 9 was launching Video 9, the station's commercial production operation that provides technical services to creative departments. It's one of the other ways the station supports itself.

Since he's been in charge of content production, the station has one of the first series in many years to be nationally syndicated. The popular "Breaking Bread with Father Dominic" is carried by 70 percent of PBS stations and is about to enter its third season.

Garcia's favorite aspect of program production, though, is the documentary-a genre he wishes was more popular. Recent documentaries Garcia had a hand in include "Decades," which examines the region over the last century; "Sky High," which chronicles the 75th anniversary of TWA; and a documentary on East St. Louis that is about to enter into the production phase.

Garcia called moving to the new state-of-the-art digital facility in Grand Center, the Dana Brown Communications Center, from the old station on Millbrook the capstone of his tenure at Channel 9 and his greatest professional challenge. He launched the capital campaign that raised $11.5 million and was responsible for the facility's design and construction.

The station moved on Jan. 5, 1998, and the switchover went off without a hitch.

"We weren't off the air for one second, not one second," he said.

The culmination was when they pulled the patch that switched master control from the old facility to the new. "Nothing happened, and that's exactly what we wanted to happen, nothing. It was exciting to be there for that."

So after all that, why is Garcia leaving?

"Opportunities arise when opportunities arise," he said.

He and his wife, Kathy, have long courted a love affair with the Southwest. He was contacted by an executive search firm following the retirement of KNME's station manager.

"I went through the process and was successful," he said. "This is an opportunity to go into a state I love that has a growing market and is full of potential."

The stations have similarly sized staffs though KNME's signal is broader, covering about 200 miles while KETC can be seen over about a 60-mile radius.

Channel 9 has not yet named Garcia's replacement. "It is essential for the organization to evolve, and I am hopeful my departure will serve as the catalyst," he said. "The station needs to become a more integral part of the community."

He wants Channel 9 to enter into partnerships with educational and cultural entities. The New Mexico station already has that affiliation.

Patrick Murphy, who has worked with Garcia for 20 years, couldn't say enough about him. "It's a wonderful pleasure to work with Ted. I know I sound like I'm gushing but I don't know anyone else in the business who is as capable as he is in so many areas. He is a master at helping the people who work with him and he always credits the others around him for his success. I cannot give him enough credit. Ted opens doors for people. You can go through them and work like hell and he'll keep opening them."

Murphy said he doesn't know who will fill the void left by Garcia's departure.

"It's difficult to speculate. Ted has provided us with a lot of vision and energy. Maybe the best way to judge it will be how well we, the people who he has brought up, are able to carry on after him. Our success will be his legacy," he said.

Dawn Grodsky is a St. Louis freelance writer.

A different point of view

By Dawn Grodsky

Ted Garcia has his loyal followers at KETC (Channel 9) but he also has made his enemies over the last three decades in St. Louis television.

The rap is that Garcia brought too many commercial-television ideas to the public airwaves when he moved over to Channel 9 from KMOX (Channel 4).

But Patrick Murphy, who has worked with Garcia for 20 years gushes when he talks about the job Garcia has done at Channel 9.

Murphy said he doesn't know who will fill the void left by Garcia's departure. "It's difficult to speculate. Ted has provided us with a lot of vision and energy. Maybe the best way to judge it will be how well we, the people who he has brought up, are able to carry on after him. Our success will be his legacy," he said.

Senior Producer Jim Kerchherr, who has worked with Garcia for 10 years, said, "My view is Ted's departure is probably the biggest management change that could take place at Channel 9. He is the person who really has set the dominating tone for the station." He called Garcia the most influential of the top managers at the station.

And a current employee who asked not to be identified, called Garcia's departure a win/win situation. "He gets to go somewhere and be the big boss and for us, it removes a lot of limitations."

The employee said many at Channel 9 are glad Garcia is leaving, though they are not publicly speaking out about it. They are hopeful his replacement has more creativity, innovation and vision, and isn't as much of a businessman. They feel Garcia is better suited for a production company rather than with Public TV.

On the other hand, along the devil-you-know philosophy, the employee said the workers have considered the possibility they would learn that Garcia had been protecting them all along, after all.

Media/Law

Gagging over the Internet twins

By Ken Jones

Back when he could talk, Muhammad Ali used to proclaim himself the most famous person in the world, equally recognizable in Times Square, the Australian outback and the jungles of Africa.

Ali may have been right then, but time has not been kind to The Greatest. His status as number one global celebrity has passed on to new contenders, perhaps John Paul II, Bill Clinton or Madonna.

What about St. Louisans? Who can claim the title of being the most world-renowned living denizen of Mound City?

Candidates don't abound. Richard Gephardt? Hardly. Outside the Beltway and his quiet South St. Louis district, our esteemed Congressman is an unknown. Kevin Kline? No. Only buffs of his quirky films would be able to put a name to his face. Nelly? Maybe. The best-selling rapper has crossed the color line and appeals to both African-American and white youth.

Actually, the winner in the St. Louis celebrity stakes would have to be two baby girls who so transcend fame that they are known not by name but by moniker-The Internet Twins.

The London tabloids and media outlets around the world obsessed about them for weeks as their international adoption sensation unfolded. And the buzz did not wane after a British court returned the Wecker girls, named Kiara and Keyara by the way, to St. Louis in mid-April, much to the chagrin of St. Louis City Judge Steven Ohmer, who is hearing the matter.

For Ohmer, the case is a run-of-the-mill divorce and custody proceeding-one of thousands currently pending in the St. Louis area-that somehow metastasized into a "circus" being conducted in a "fishbowl atmosphere. . . in the glare of television cameras and reporters," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, mixing a few metaphors.

The judge now has to balance two competing interests: the right of the babies and their parents to resolve highly personal issues fairly and without the influence of outside forces, and the public's right to know (which, the Missouri Supreme Court pointed out in April, isn't a matter of "the public's amusement, curiosity, or convenience," but is protected "to ensure confidence in the impartiality and fairness of the judicial system, and generally to discourage bias and corruption in public service").

To understand some of Ohmer's rulings regarding media access in the case, it is necessary to understand what type of case it is-a combined juvenile "care and protection" proceeding and a divorce suit involving custody issues.

Contrary to some reports, access has been limited not simply because "juveniles" are involved in the case. Juveniles appear in many cases-such as personal injury, probate and divorce-that are not closed ipso facto to the public.

The Internet Twins litigation, however, includes a proceeding under the state Juvenile Code to determine the parents' respective rights to care and protection of their daughters-and by statute, the file in every Juvenile Code case is sealed. Judge Ohmer was statutorily required to close the file.

As to the "gag order" that Ohmer reportedly issued to the parents and their attorneys, Bill Meehan, the lawyer for mother Tranda Wecker, told SJR the reports are "not quite right."

According to Meehan, "Judge Ohmer has recognized all along that the press has a need to know about the case, and that a total crimping of the information hose is not possible anyway.

"All he told us was, 'I only want two things-no publicity about where the twins are staying or what's going on in their daily lives, and no images of the visits with their parents or accounts of the visits.'

"He told us we're free to discuss in general terms what the process will be and what's going on," said Meehan, who held a press conference on the courthouse steps just a few minutes after Ohmer issued the supposed gag order.

"The judge said that as long as the kids are not sucked into this and the parents don't go on TV to argue their case, we can talk to the press."

Whether any judge has the authority to enforce an order to muzzle attorneys-mainly by holding transgressors in contempt of court-is questionable. But theoretical discussions about that authority are actually irrelevant, because an attorney who doesn't comply with a gag order, legal or not, is going to get pay back when the judge issues a final ruling on the merits of the case.

What gags me about this case is why it's interesting to the media at all, especially since the twins are back from England and the adoptions have been invalidated. There are no significant legal issues involved. Neither the mother nor father has a particularly compelling personality, to be kind. And at least in the circles I run in, no one is talking about it-there's no demand for Internet Twin news.

The media should muzzle themselves and give the world's most famous St. Louisans-and the rest of us-some peace.

Anatomy of a newspaper folding

By Anthony Watt

The Weekly Times-Independent had been a reality for less than a year when it ceased publication in March. The short-lived tabloid was an attempt to provide Metro-East with something it lacked-an entertainment publication concentrating on the communities east of the Mississippi River.

R. John Klimut, 23, was the paper's founder. He conceived the Times-Independent in April 2000 as an alternative campus newspaper for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville where he was a student.

"I was working as the editor-in-chief of the SIUE student paper and I noticed a large hole in all the types of media coverage on this side of the river," Klimut said, "especially in the arts and entertainment areas. We have several good papers on this side of the river but (that coverage) is segmented, and you can forget about St. Louis covering the cornfields."

Klimut began studying the area and in May 2000, took his first steps toward making his idea a reality.

"I did some research, mainly through the different college fact books," he said. "I modeled the Times-Independent after other alternative papers and hit the streets with the idea.

"In the beginning we had the idea, a mock-up and a lot of luck," Klimut continued. "I signed a few advertisers onto the idea and then we sold a full-page ad to Jim Meyers, Captain Jim of Dirt Cheap, and that is what got us printed on the first go."

Advertisers in Collinsville and other Metro-East towns as well as SIUE's Arts and Issues series also signed on. The first issue came out in September.

"We had no funds for start-up," Klimut said. "Other than some pocket money, all of our funds came directly from our advertisers."

Klimut recruited friends and colleagues from SIUE's newspaper and mass communications department as reporters and advertising representatives.

"I ended up with a staff of roughly 12 people," Klimut said. "Most of these had come from the Alestle after I left. It worked out great as I knew what these reporters could and couldn't do and they knew where I lived."

Times-Independent reporters began writing reviews, columns and stories on local sports teams and points of interest.

"Our greatest strength was the reporters and our lack of tradition," Klimut said. "I think it allowed us to do things and, more importantly, change things. We had some really good stories, stuff that still hasn't shown up in other outlets.

"We weren't Pulitzer material, but I think we did a decent job with what we had to work with," he said.

"I guess the best way to judge was that our stands were always empty within three or four days of distribution. Somebody was reading us. I think our stories and overall feel attracted readers."

The paper's staff may not have been all it could have been, Klimut said. The reporters were unpaid, and the advertising representatives were often unreliable.

"While I had some sales reps, only one sold two ads. Everyone else just disappeared after a few weeks," Klimut said.

"The greatest weakness of the paper was its unpaid reporters. The overall quality of the paper was okay, but it was definitely not up to par," Klimut said. "Part of that I attribute to the fact that my staff was doing this on a promise of pay at some point in the future, vague to say the least."

Klimut said he appreciated the effort, even when it fell short of his standards.

"I didn't feel I had the right to criticize the work they were handing in too hard because they were doing this simply out of love for the idea. I'm not saying they were horrible reporters and we printed trash, but you can't complain too much about a free product."

Before its end, the Weekly Times Independent became the Tri-weekly Times-Independent. It produced eight issues and reached a circulation of more than 3,000. The tabloid was distributed on the campuses of SIUE, Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville as well as commercial ventures that draw young readers.

Klimut said the paper was not failing and he did not decide to end the paper because of debt or a lawsuit.

"I ended it because I changed," he said. "I'm changing career paths and am soon off to fulfill a lifelong dream and possibly end up in a career that might keep me above the poverty level. I plan to keep my hand in journalism in some way throughout the course of my life but I'm not going to make it my primary focus."

Anthony Watt is a St.Louis freelance writer.

Media on Media

By Frank Absher

Bad idea

It may have seemed like a good idea, but ... The TNT network will not hook up the wives of NASCAR race car drivers to heart monitors during race telecasts. Network GM Steve Koonin announced the idea but backed down after being badgered by reporters. A spokesman later claimed it was brought up in a brainstorm session. (Broadcasting & Cable 4/2)

Competition

Internal squabbling at WBZ radio and television in Boston made the papers after a reporter from a competing TV station was interviewed on WBZ radio. Natalie Jacobson talked about celebrating 25 years working in the TV market, but WBZ-TV execs were mad they had not been told she'd be there. Their reasoning: They weren't able to "greet her properly." An internal memo said the radio station showed "callousness and a lack of respect for the Channel 4 newsroom." (Broadcasting & Cable 4/9/01)

Women's world

And the No. 1 cable network is ... Lifetime. Nielsen ratings show the women's net is tops in prime time in the most recent measurement period. USA was second, followed by TBS and The Cartoon Network. (Broadcasting & Cable 4/9)

Cluttered up

Radio management is still grappling with the dreaded "C" word, but the situation has improved a little. Empower Media reports clutter declined very slightly overall in the fourth quarter of last year. In the recent past the amount of clutter (commercials, promotional announcements and all other non-programming material) had grown continuously. Clutter is cited by listeners as a major tune-out factor. (New York Times 4/16)

Heated up

A free-lance writer in Arkansas has lost a job because of something she wrote for an online publication. Suzi Parker had been scheduled to appear on "Arkansas Week" on the Arkansas Educational Television Network, but producers cancelled her appearance when they learned she'd written a piece for Nerve.com about Niagara, a supposed aphrodisiac and Viagra-like concoction for women. The article contained Parker's first-person account of her sexual experience after taking the stuff.

A show spokesman said, "This is a rather unusual thing ... We want to look at it." (Arkansas Business 4/23)

Pregnant pause

Being great with child may not have been great for ratings. Boston's WHDH-TV pulled anchor Kim Carrigan off the air six weeks before her contract with the station expired, saying they were unable to come to a contract agreement. Carrigan, who is seven months pregnant, was yanked the week before the May sweeps period began. (Boston Herald 4/24)

Old news

CNN has announced plans to transfer its entire video archive from videotape to a digital format. The new format will allow workers to quickly scan the 115,000 hours of tape collected over the last 21 years to search for material. In the long term, CNN may consider making the stuff available to consumers for a fee via the Internet. (New York Times 4/22)

Merger

Dan Rather anchoring on CNN? Don't rule it out. CBS and CNN are reportedly discussing ways to merge parts of their TV news operations to each party's mutual benefit. Possibilities include sharing anchors and reporters. (New York Times 4/30)

Rerun reruns

The concept of video-on-demand is taking on a whole new look thanks to a company known as DemandVideo. Instead of the usual current movie menu, the company will set itself apart from the competition by offering reruns of popular television shows for a fee. They plan to buy up entire runs of popular TV series and offer the shows to viewers at a cost varying between 99 cents and $4. (Electronic Media 4/23)

Hair brain

The moral is a simple one: If you're a woman on TV, your hair is more important than you think. Cindy Hernandez, an anchor on KOB-TV in Albuquerque, learned this the hard way. She was suspended and taken off the air for two days after she cut her shoulder-length hair. It seems her contract has a clause forbidding her from doing anything to change her hair unless it had first been cleared with the station's general manager. Hernandez says she has promised management she'll grow her hair back from the current style, which a caller to a local radio talk show said made her look like "Spock" from "Star Trek." (ABQjournal.com 4/24)

In SJR

10 Years Ago:

• KSD General Manager Merrell Hansen told the Gay News Telegraph the word "fag" would no longer be acceptable on her station. Her promise came after complaints were received about the use of offensive language by disc jockey J.C. Corcoran.

• KETC (Channel 9) announced a new weekly newsmagazine, "Newsnight," to be hosted by Jim Kirchherr.

• April meant the appearance of the Riverfront Slime, thanks to those crazy kids at St. Louis University. It was the latest in the series of parodies by the staff of the University News.

5 Years Ago:

• The employees of the West Countian were told to pack up their belongings and cash their paychecks as soon as they could because the Internal Revenue Service was coming.

• Phil Gaitens was promoted from business section editor to the position of metro editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

• Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, loosening government controls on the broadcast industry.