Kabc Television Station

Hotline. This column has learned from a highly knowledgeable source that KABC-TV Channel 7 "Eyewitness News" anchor Lisa McRee was married in Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church recently. And also that: * Her marriage is "breaking the hearts of many men here in the Southland." * The bridegroom and "man of her dreams" was Donald Granger. * The "joyous" occasion was attended by the McRee and Granger families, and having her "Eyewitness News" family there, too, also meant a lot to the bride.

Life is so confusing. Whom do you trust, for example, an Oscar-nominated Brazilian movie or a low-IQ newscast in Los Angeles? Which is the real Rio de Janeiro, in other words, the gray, smudged, impersonal urbanscape of "Central Station" or "the sexiest city on Earth" touted by KABC's "Eyewitness News"? And finally, what does one heavily promoted three-minute story, inserted to snag a larger ratings sweeps audience, say about stereotyping of foreigners in local newscasts?

KABC-TV Channel 7 and KTLA-TV Channel 5 remained the local news ratings leaders in a February sweeps that brought dramatic ratings increases in news for several area stations, according to data released Thursday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. KABC again won all head-to-head news competitions except one in both Nielsen and the Arbitron ratings service, widening the lead it held over rivals KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KCBS-TV Channel 2 a year ago and during the last major ratings period in November.

In the grand scheme of things, the salaries of most TV anchors still can't compare to the idiotically inflated sums paid to mediocre athletes and movie actors who can't act. Still, the $8-million-plus, six-year contract landed by Paul Moyer this week to switch his allegiance from KABC Channel 7 to KNBC Channel 4 raises more than a few eyebrows in even this tough show-biz town.

The return of anchorwoman Christine Lund helped KABC Channel 7 jump ahead in the local afternoon news race in what has become a see-saw war with former champion KNBC Channel 4, according to ratings for the November sweeps released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. Lund, the anchor superstar who re-emerged this month at Channel 7 after a four-year absence, boosted the station to victory for her 4 p.m. newscast by more than 40,000 households over Channel 4.

KABC-TV Channel 7 and A. C. Nielsen Co. have settled, on undisclosed terms, a lawsuit that KABC brought last June amid a controversy over the station's alleged attempts to improperly boost its audience ratings. The suit "is settled, and we continue to do business with each other," said Larry Lasky, a Nielsen attorney in Chicago.

Not only does KCBS-TV Channel 2 anchor Michael Tuck read from a TelePrompTer with a big, booming voice but--as his Sunday night commentary on "Action News" proved--he is also a great comic. The target of his moral outrage this time was a competitor, KABC-TV Channel 7's "Eyewitness News," which on Wednesday had devoted its entire 11 p.m. newscast, minus weather and sports, to that night's preceding Oprah Winfrey-Michael Jackson interview on ABC. Tuck was steamed.

KABC Channel 7 has acquired the syndicated tabloid news program "Inside Edition," and in the fall will begin airing it weeknights at 7, the time that the station currently airs ABC's nightly network newscast, "Inside Edition's" production company said Thursday.

KABC Channel 7, having won many of the key local time periods in the ratings sweeps last February, led its rivals again Thursday with 45 nominations for the 1990 Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. KABC collected 15 more nominations from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences than its nearest network-affiliate competitor, KCBS Channel 2. KNBC Channel 4 garnered 15.

Granted it was a pleasant, fulfilling and successful rut, but Laura Diaz was stuck in it nonetheless. The longtime KABC-TV Channel 7 anchor with a winning smile and a winning newscast wanted more than her vital, yet somehow peripheral, role at one of this area's strongest news operations. When Ann Martin, formerly Channel 7's top female anchor, was wooed away by rival KCBS-TV Channel 2 in 1994, Diaz hoped her long winning streak as anchor of the station's 6 p.m.