By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
Here’s update No. 4 regarding the availability of UPN television programs in the Inland Northwest (or lack of same):
A solution may already be in place, at least for viewers in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
Equity Broadcasting, owner of the area’s new UPN station, was installing a 2,500-watt transmitter on a mountain above Post Falls on Friday. It will replace the previous, wimpy 100-watt transmitter that covered virtually none of the area.
Equity spokesman Doug Krile expected the new transmitter to be running over the weekend. Its signal should reach all of Coeur d’Alene and all or most of Spokane, as well as outlying areas as far away as Spirit Lake and Medical Lake.
Here’s how to find out if you’re getting this new station: Tune your TV to channel 47 (over the air, not cable) and point your rabbit ears or your antenna in the general direction of Post Falls. You should be able to pick up the station.
A few caveats: Even though this new transmitter is beefier than the old one, it is still a low-power translator, not a true full- power station. That means the signal may be spotty. Sometimes, low- power signals can even be blocked by walls in your house, for instance.
Also, this station is still not on cable. If you are on cable, you will have to switch your TV to its over-the-air mode. You will probably need an antenna or rabbit ears. (But even an antenna won’t guarantee you’ll receive the signal better.)
By the way, this new station has changed its call letters. The Post Falls translator is now called KQUP-LP (low-power), while its full-power sister station in Pullman has been changed to KQUP-24. Together, they will be billed as KQUP-24/47.
However, that Pullman station is still not on the air and won’t be until the first of the year. This makes no difference to Spokane/Coeur d’Alene over-the-air viewers, because that full-power Pullman signal won’t reach this far north. You’ll be picking it up on 47 from Post Falls anyway.
But it makes a huge difference to cable viewers, who constitute a majority of area TV viewers. Once the full-power station goes on line, all of the cable companies in the area will be required to carry it.
AT&T Broadband, the major cable company in Spokane, has reached a tentative agreement with Equity to carry the UPN signal on cable channel 29 even before the Pullman station hits the air.
But when? Steve Kipp, an AT&T Broadband spokesman, said they must comply with the FCC’s 30-day notification rule before changing the channel lineup. That 30-day waiting period won’t even start until an agreement is finalized.
Still, both parties are interested in doing it more quickly, if FCC regulations will allow it.
Krile said Equity’s Little Rock, Ark., headquarters has gotten 250 phone calls from confused and/or peeved Spokane area viewers. Most of them are fans of either “Enterprise” (whose new season premieres Wednesday) or “WWF Smackdown,” the most popular UPN shows along with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
So, to recap:
• You might be able to pick up UPN over-the-air on channel 47 in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
• It is still not on cable anywhere in the region, although that situation might change rapidly.
For updates, call the Equity Broadcasting information line at (800) 457-5534.
Sunday, September 15, 2002
By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
It looks as if Inland Northwest TV watchers will be without their UPN for at least a few weeks.
The new UPN affiliate in the Inland Northwest, Equity Broadcasting’s KBGC-24 in Pullman, will not have its transmitter up and running until the end of the year.
However, Equity said on Thursday that it’s close to a deal with Spokane’s main cable system, AT&T Broadband, to carry the UPN programs on cable before that. But it may take a few weeks to complete the arrangements.
“It won’t be fast enough to avoid a little disruption,” said Doug Krile, the Equity Broadcasting spokesman. “Realistically, it will be October sometime.”
Meanwhile, viewers of “Enterprise,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and other popular UPN series will probably be out of luck unless AT&T Broadband can rush the new station into its lineup sooner than expected. The UPN season debuts in mid-September.
Also out of luck will be customers of the many smaller cable systems serving the Inland Northwest. Krile said Equity has not yet talked to any of them about carrying UPN this fall.
Viewers in Coeur d’Alene should be better off, since a low-power transmitter is already on the air (or will be within days) on channel 47. However, this signal won’t carry much beyond the Coeur d’Alene area.
The entire problem should be solved by the end of the year when the KBGC transmitter is up and running in Pullman. The signal should cover a great deal of the Inland Northwest, and at that point, all area cable companies will be required to carry the station, too.
The new WB station
KSKN-22 was the region’s UPN affiliate – until today.
Now, KSKN is changing its name to “Spokane’s WB22” to reflect the fact that it has become the region’s primary WB station.
WB shows will be carried in prime time in Spokane from now on. KSKN used to sandwich the WB programs around the UPN lineup.
It should be easier to find the WB’s shows, which include “Gilmore Girls,” “Smallville,” “7th Heaven” and “Dawson’s Creek.”
KSKN will continue to carry its 10 p.m. newscast, using the people and resources of KREM-2. However, it has been renamed “The Ten @ 10 News on WB22.”
Sunday, September 1, 2002
By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
In just over a month, the Inland Northwest will finally have separate affiliates for the UPN and WB television networks.
At the moment, KSKN-22 carries both networks’ programming. On Sept. 1, KSKN will drop UPN and become strictly a WB affiliate.
“We will carry all WB shows, live in pattern,” said Meg Antonius of KSKN.
That means the shows will air in prime time, as scheduled. KSKN now carries WB shows in non-prime-time slots because UPN shows have had priority during prime time.
Meanwhile, UPN will shift to two sister stations: one a full-power station, KBGC-24, out of Pullman, the other a low-power station, K47EJ, channel 47, out of Coeur d’Alene. Arkansas-based Equity Broadcasting is launching both of these new stations.
These two signals should combine to cover most of the region, according to Doug Krile of Equity.
The catch is that KBGC-24 will not be on the air by Sept. 1. Krile said Equity hopes to get the station up and running in October. Only Coeur d’Alene’s low-power station will begin broadcasting on Sept. 1, and it won’t carry more than 20 to 50 miles, at best.
However, if you have cable, this may not be a problem. Equity is talking to AT&T Broadband and the other major cable carriers about getting the UPN signal on cable on Sept. 1. If that works out, you can have your “Buffy” and your “7th Heaven,” too.
Sunday, July 28, 2002
Station says ex-anchor didn’t harass female co-worker
By Kevin Blocker
The Spokesman-Review
Attorneys for KHQ-6 TV and former anchor Randy Shaw reached a settlement in a lawsuit after the television station’s investigation revealed Shaw did not sexually harass female co-workers as it first alleged.
Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The case was scheduled to go to trial before Spokane Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue next month.
Ross White, Shaw’s attorney, and KHQ-6 attorney Michael J. McMahon issued a joint statement on Monday after the settlement was reached late last week.
“KHQ conducted an investigation of certain employment-related issues regarding Randy Shaw,” the statement said.”The investigation showed neither gender discrimination nor sexual harassment by Mr. Shaw.”
KHQ-6 had alleged that Shaw – now an anchor at KREM-2 – “intentionally interfered” with the contractual relationship the station had with his one-time co-anchor Penny Daniels.
That interference, which was never specifically detailed in court documents, was a factor in Daniels’ contract being terminated by the station, KHQ’s attorneys said in court papers.
Shaw is on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.
Shaw, probably the most popular newscaster in Spokane, was fired by KHQ on Nov. 8, 2000. His termination came a month after Daniels asked to be let out of her contract and left the station. Shaw had been an anchor at the station for more than 17 years.
In December 2000, Shaw filed a claim that said he was a victim of an orchestrated attempt “to destroy him” led by KHQ President Lon Lee and news director Patricia McRae.
In Shaw’s claim, attorneys said that during his years of employment he developed “very positive relationships” with the vast majority of those he worked for.
KHQ-6 rebutted that.
“While employed at KHQ, Shaw willfully failed to interact with co- workers and management of KHQ, in violation of the parties’ employment agreement and KHQ’s Employee Handbook,” the station claimed.
Shaw was “devastated” by the lengths to which management was willing to go to attempt to “destroy him,” Shaw’s complaint said.
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
By Addy Hatch
Spokane Journal of Business
Belo Corp., the Dallas-based media conglomerate that owns KREM-TV here, has agreed to buy Spokane’s KSKN-TV for an undisclosed amount.
Belo has had a contract to operate KSKN, Channel 22, since 1996 under an arrangement known as a local marketing agreement, says Mark Querio, general manager and one of the owners of the Spokane station.
Through that marketing agreement, KSKN has been managed by KREM, which is Spokane’s CBS affiliate. KSKN and KREM share broadcast facilities and offices at 4103 S. Regal.
Querio’s family has owned the majority of KSKN for almost a decade through a company called KSKN-TV Inc., he says. His stepmother, Judy Querio, and brother, Gregory Querio, are co-owners of the business, along with minority shareholders Bill Romine and Steve Whitehead, he says.
Belo and KSKN’s owners have applied to the Federal Communications Commission to transfer ownership of the station. The federal agency is expected to approve the application, but probably won’t issue its decision for another 60 to 90 days, says Bud Brown, general manager of KREM.
KSKN’s license to operate the station, as well as its broadcast equipment and other assets, would be included in the acquisition, Brown says.
Assuming the sale goes through, the business would be renamed KSKN Television Inc., and would become a subsidiary of another Belo station, KING-TV, of Seattle.
A change in ownership should be “transparent” to viewers of KSKN, a UPN affiliate that broadcasts some Seattle Mariners baseball games, Brown says.
The deal “just continues to solidify Belo’s operations in the Pacific Northwest,” he says.
Besides KREM and KING, Belo owns 15 television stations and operates three others, including KSKN, under marketing agreements. It also owns six cable news channels, including Northwest Cable News, and four daily newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News.
KSKN was launched here in December 1983 as an independent station, but was financially troubled for much of the next decade or so. It filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court protection twice, under different ownerships, and went off the air for a number of years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Thursday, July 26, 2001
Television news too soft, veteran newsman says
By Nicholas K. Geranios
The Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — Television reporter Tom Grant was the first to report that an epidemic of child sexual abuse in Wenatchee, Wash., may not have happened.
Grant’s reporting helped put a serial rapist behind bars in Vermont.
He has won a George Polk award, two Edward R. Murrow awards and two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards for broadcast journalism.
But he’s no longer working in television news. Disgusted by the push for higher ratings, greater profits and fluffier stories, Grant resigned earlier this month from KXLY-TV, the ABC affiliate in Spokane, the nation’s No. 77 market.
”TV sucks,” Grant wrote in a column announcing his move to print journalism.
It’s not unusual for reporters to criticize the superficiality of television news, with its focus on crime, losing weight and civic boosterism.
It is unusual for a middle-aged, award-winning reporter to quit his job for the uncertain world of an alternative weekly called The Local Planet. Grant, 47, will be the news editor.
The pudgy, bespectacled Grant is the first to admit that he doesn’t much resemble the chiseled gods or boy-band look-alikes who populate television news.
But Grant has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and that long list of journalism awards.
”Spokane is a good place to do news, but the emphasis is on making money, even in the newsroom,” Grant said.
Television shies away from certain stories for fear of offending advertisers or being sued, Grant said. During his career, he’s been discouraged from doing stories on dirty restaurants, incompetent doctors or dentists, shyster lawyers or unscrupulous car dealers.
”We all follow the same recipe,” Grant said. ”Put on puppies and babies and the ratings will go up.
”That’s not the news that people need,” he added.
But is it what people want?
Last year, a television station in Chicago experimented with a local newscast that shunned fluff and crime stories in favor of a hard-news approach. That program was canceled after nine months for lack of viewers.
”The public does want that kind of news,” Grant insisted.
”It may not be as entertaining as reruns of Drew Carey, but people need the news,” he said. ”If you give them the news day after day, people will trust you and come back to you.”
Grant began in television in 1986, and worked at KTUU in Anchorage, Alaska, KCAU in Sioux City, Iowa, WCAX in Burlington, Vt., and KREM in Spokane.
Grant’s major claim to fame was his work in the mid-1990s that first cast doubt on the horrific Wenatchee child sex rings. Two girls accused dozens of adults of molesting them and other children in orgies.
Grant got an interview in which one of the girls recanted her story, spurring legal appeals that ultimately discredited the 1994-95 investigations. All 18 people sent to prison have been released.
”I’m rather proud of that story,” Grant said. ”For six months, I was the only one casting a critical eye toward those arrests.”
The story earned Grant a 1995 Polk award, a prize that usually goes to reporters from much bigger news organizations.
Grant left KREM in 1998 to take a Mike Wallace fellowship in investigative journalism at the University of Michigan. When KREM declined to rehire him, Grant worked in construction for several months before he was hired by KXLY.
Grant was not critical of KXLY, saying the management generally supported his work.
For the past couple of years, Grant has reported dozens of times about the use of public money to help one of the city’s richest families build an upscale shopping mall in downtown Spokane.
The story is complicated and does not have compelling pictures. Grant said his superiors became worried that the story was boring viewers.
KXLY General Manager Steve Herling declined to say much about Grant’s departure.
”We wish him luck,” Herling said. ”We’ve supported him very strongly in his career here.”
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
After hectic move, KHQ makes smooth transition
By Erica Curless
The Spokesman-Review
Audiences probably didn’t notice the small audio blip during “Saturday Night Live,” but for KHQ-TV it was history.
That 1 a.m. blip Sunday signaled the first broadcast from the television station’s new $15 million studio at 1201 W. Sprague.
Moving the signal was the easy part. All through the night, workers dismantled the old studio at 4202 S. Regal. From the end of the Saturday 11 p.m. newscast, workers had less than 16 hours to load the moving vans and reassemble everything, including the weather center, at the downtown location.
The 5 p.m. newscast was the deadline – the first live performance from the new headquarters. And they made it in plenty of time.
Newscasters and technical crews practiced all week to make sure they knew how to operate the new equipment.
An hour before showtime Sunday, operations manager Scott Blair poked his head from under a console in the master control room where he was checking some wires.
Disheveled and weary, Blair stood and looked around the glass- encased room that allows visitors to watch the action from the lobby.
He hadn’t slept in more than 24 hours.
“My energy seems to come in waves,” he said. “I just had a cookie and that helped.”
But with a proud smile, Blair admitted loss of sleep was a fair price.
As the “On Air” light popped on and the cameras began to roll, relief filled the control booth. A round of smiles shot around the room before the crew turned its concentration back to the show.
More is new than the building and the 60 miles of wire and cable that enable the station to operate. KHQ-TV became the first television station in Spokane to go digital, leaving the analog system to the history books.
“The way we do our job is extremely different than it was 24 hours ago,” said news director Patricia McRae.
President and General Manager Lon Lee said audiences will probably see few differences, but they exist. The station spent $2 million on the new equipment.
“Digital cameras are nice on the skin,” Lon explained while showing off the new features. “It doesn’t highlight the wrinkles and it doesn’t fatten you up.”
The station had outgrown its South Hill home, which was built in 1952. The electrical system couldn’t keep pace with technical advance, the air conditioners were inadequate and there just wasn’t enough space.
The new 53,000-square-foot building, which fills a downtown block, solves all those problems and is designed to keep pace with the station’s growth for the next 50 years.
Planning for the new station began in 1998.
To ensure that the new building fit in with its historic downtown neighbors, architects matched the bricks to blend in with the other red brick buildings.
Yet once inside, the station takes on an art deco flavor with red walls, lots of glass and natural light.
“It’s phenomenal, just terrific,” said Lee, who has overseen the project from blueprint to Sunday’s first news broadcast.
KHQ is owned by Cowles Publishing Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.
Although opening day put most staffers in a celebratory mood, some couldn’t help but mourn the old building.
Chief photographer Jeff Hite has worked for KHQ for 20 years and said many significant events have happened in his life while at the South Hill location.
“I was working here when I got married,” he said of the former site.
“I worked here when I bought my first house. I was working here when my son was born.”
Staff writer Ryan Blethen contributed to this report.
Monday, March 21, 2001
By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
So maybe you haven’t yet run out and bought an HDTV set for $2,000, but that doesn’t mean you can altogether ignore the issue of DTV (digital TV).
Because it’s coming soon, and you can’t do anything about it.
Put simply, DTV is the nation’s new digital broadcasting standard, and HDTV (high-definitionTV) is the new generation of high-resolution TV sets which take advantage of it.
All commercial TV stations must be broadcasting digitally by May 2002. For them, the problem is massive: Every station in the country must spend millions on an upgrade.
Here’s an update on how the local stations are coping:
KXLY-4: This is the only local station that already has its DTV signal up and running. It has been broadcasting on Channel 13 for a year. The only catch is they still don’t have a whole lot to broadcast.
Right now, ABC supplies only “NYPD Blue” in HDTV, along with the occasional Disney movie or sports broadcast. The rest of the time, KXLY’s DTV tower sends out a demonstration video.
Yet at least KXLY is ready and able to deliver the DTV content as soon as the entire network schedule becomes available, which shouldn’t be too far down the road. When that happens, KXLY will be airing two simultaneous TV stations, on channels 4 and 13. That will continue through 2006, when all regular TV signals, including KXLY’s channel 4, will be cut off.
“That’s just the way it is,” said KXLY general manager Steve Herling. “It’s a huge expense. We’re already into the $3 to $5 million range.”
KREM-2: CBS already sends out most of its prime-time schedule in digital, but KREM is not yet able to deliver it.
John Souza, KREM’s director of engineering, said both KREM and sister station KSKN will make the May 2002 deadline – but it won’t be easy.
The problem is logistical. They must install two new digital transmitters on Tower Mountain, and Tower Mountain is covered with snow all winter. That means most of the work will have to be finished this summer.
Souza estimated the final bill at something approaching $8.5 million. But the results just might be worth it in the long run, he said.
“Once you see true HDTV, you’ll be a believer,” he said.
KHQ-6: This station just moved into spotless new digital-ready headquarters this weekend – but that doesn’t mean they’re broadcasting in digital yet.
General manager Lon Lee said that everything will be ready by May 2002, right on deadline, but maybe not much before. They have the same problem that KREM has: They need to get a digital transmitter up on a tower.
Even if the transmitter was running, there wouldn’t be much to show. The only NBC offering in digital is “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
KSPS-7: Public broadcasting stations have been given an extra year to convert, until May 2003. But even that is a significant hardship for revenue-strapped public stations.
General manager Claude Kistler said it will cost $2.7 million to fully convert to digital – and KSPS simply doesn’t have it. They’re hoping to get help from the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, a federal agency.
“We have a grant application in, which would fund 40 percent of it,” said Kistler. “If we don’t get it this year, we’ll put in for it again in the following year. If we don’t get that, we feel we’ll be in critical shape.”
They would have to try to do a bare-minimum conversion for $1.2 million, but even then, they would have to raid their entire capital budget.
“Then what happens the next day, and the day after that?” said Kistler.
And from the consumer side…
“We’ve sold hundreds and hundreds of HDTV sets,” said Murray Huppin of Huppin’s Hi-Fi, Photo and Video in Spokane.
Yes, it’s true – sales are picking up. According to Brill’s Content magazine, only 125,000 sets were sold in 1999, but 625,000 were sold in 2000.
Still, this constitutes only a fraction of the market. Altogether, 25 million TV sets were sold in 2000.
Because HDTV shows are still rare, Huppins said that most of the purchasers are using the digital TVs for playing DVDs on high-end DVD players.
Meanwhile, the prices are dropping, if not precipitously. You can find HDTV sets for under $2,000 now, down from $8,000 a few years ago. Also, digital converters – which allow any TV, including your regular TV, to accept a digital signal – have just dropped from about $1,000 to $799.
Prices won’t plummet, however, until the public finally embraces the format. Huppin believes we’re on the verge.
“I think it’s going to start heating up very soon,” he said. “I think it will be one of those deals where all the sudden, it will just click.”
Meanwhile, regular TV signals will be broadcast alongside the digital signals until the end of 2006. At that point, you’ll have to buy either a digital converter box for your regular TV, or buy an HDTV set that has a converter built-in.
We’ll be revisiting this subject periodically through the year
Sunday, March 11, 2001.
By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
KSKN-22 has yanked two episodes of the UPN network show “Gary & Mike” because the new claymation series is “inappropriate” at 8 p.m., according to Bud Brown, general manager of KREM/KSKN.
“It had pretty heavy sex and drugs content,” said Brown.
The station aired the premiere episode of the show two weeks ago and received “five phone calls and a couple of letters” of complaint, Brown said. So he went back and watched the show himself.
“I determined that the viewers were absolutely right,” said Brown.
So he pulled the Jan. 26 episode and the Feb. 2 episode.
However, other viewers like the show and are irate that the station pulled the episodes.
“There’s a bunch of viewers out here who are upset about this,” said Karen Kirmaier, who lobbied for the show’s return. “I saw nothing offensive in there at all. Those viewers who are offended have an off button they can use.”
As a compromise, Brown said he is moving the show to 10:30 p.m. beginning Friday. However, he said he will watch it in advance and he is reserving the right to yank that episode, too.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, February 4, 2001
By Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review
KAYU-28’s “Fox News at Ten” swept three of its four anchors out the door during a major housecleaning last week.
News anchor Craig McMorris, weather anchor Paul Horton and sports anchor Troy Hirsch are all gone.
The only anchor left is Linda Stratton, who will now be flying solo on the newly revamped broadcast at 10 p.m.
This mass departure was prompted by the station’s decision to go back to a half-hour broadcast, Monday through Friday. One year ago, the station expanded its weekday broadcasts to an hour and added weekend broadcasts.
That simply didn’t pay off in the ratings. The weekend broadcasts didn’t find an audience, and weekday viewers were bailing out of the second half-hour. “Spokane viewers have told us they prefer our original half-hour length,” said station spokesman Rick Andrycha.
So on Monday, the station announced it was cutting back the hours and had to prune the staff accordingly. It was a “basic expense move,” Andrycha said.
Besides Stratton, the on-air staff now consists solely of reporters Dan Mitchinson, Rob McMillan, Hayward Martin and Leanna Humphries. Mitchinson will take over weather anchor duties. There will be no sports anchor, although Martin will do the sports reporting.
Andrycha called the decision “difficult.” Hirsch and Horton were both original members of the anchor team from August 1999. McMorris came on in February.
All three are on the lookout for new jobs. Maybe you’ll see them on other stations soon; Andrycha said they have been released from the noncompete clauses in their contracts and are free to seek work locally.
Sunday, January 21, 2001
Spokane Television History 