Content area
Full Text
Nobody ever got into the local television business for its stability, observed Neil Derrough, KCST-Channel 39's recently minted general manager and president.
Still, the CBS Television veteran added: "There are ways you can try to bring about a stability of attitude, focus on continuing to move things ahead and not be preoccupied with the unpleasant things."
Derrough was referring to the gyrations Channel 39 has undergone in recent months, along with persistent rumors that the station may be on the block again after changing hands only last year.
Or maybe he was talking about the intense competition, declining audience, constant ratings wars, debate over content and sudden personnel turnovers that have long characterized local TV in general.
Five months into his tenure here, Derrough, 50, is presiding with gusto over a bottom-to-top makeover of Channel 39. He hopes to jolt the station's ratings out of the doldrums.
The NBC affiliate had made lots of money over the years but in his own assessment had grown lazy, unimaginative and just plain dull.
"This TV station has had a very low profile. It needs to have the volume turned up," he said. "In many cases, the broadcasts were bland, predictable and not very interesting. You've got to give people more than that."
Derrough's proposed cure is radical: several new programs and on-air personalities, new call letters and logo (KSDN-Cable7/Channel 39) a new "no gimmick" set and name (News San Diego) to jazz up the station's matronly Newscenter 39 operation; even snappy new theme music. The facelift is set to be unveiled Friday night in a half-hour show leading into the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics.
Those 30 platinum minutes, when the overwhelming majority of local sets will be tuned to the Games, are a TV man's dream.
"There'll be more viewers watching than have probably ever watched us in the history of the station," Derrough said with anticipation. NBC is giving affiliates a half-hour slot each night during the Olympics' two-week run for local programming, and he plans to use it to showcase the station's glitzy new look.
Even in an industry of rapid-fire change, Derrough's efforts to rebuild Channel 39's engines have been watched with keen interest. Ed Quinn, general manager at rival KGTV-Channel...