Kcop Television Station

Tawny Little--Miss America 1976 and the most glamorous personality at KABC-TV Channel 7 during that station's heady days of news supremacy in the late '70s and '80s--has been anchoring the news at KCOP-TV Channel 13 for the last two years. Which itself may be news, it seems, to a lot of folks. "Oh, it's really frustrating that not very many people even know we're here," Little said.

To: KCOP From: Robert Lloyd Dear KCOP, Or perhaps I should say, Dear Fox Television Stations Group, of which you are a part, or going higher up the chain, Dear Fox Broadcasting Co., or Dear News Corp., or just Dear Rupert Murdoch. Yet, no -- it's KCOP I want to address, Channel 13. Not the globe-trotting landlord but the hometown TV station. Fellow citizen!

Marc Brown and Bob Jimenez rank among the elite at local television stations. They are in the first string of news anchors. But although both are veteran journalists who have risen through the ranks and gained respect among their colleagues and managers, another factor sets the two apart: Brown and Jimenez are the only two minority men anchoring a local newscast on weekday evenings. Brown, 34, anchors the 6 p.m. news on KABC-TV Channel 7 and is also a reporter for the station's 11 p.m. newscast.

The alphabet-soup merger of UPN and the WB spells a solid victory for one local station and a resounding defeat for another. The big winner in the Los Angeles area when the CW network debuts this fall is KTLA-TV Channel 5, which will be able to cherry-pick the best shows from the former UPN and its current WB prime-time lineups while losing a key competitor for the 18-to-34-year-old urban demographic group.

KCOP-TV news anchor Rick Chambers got mixed up at the end of last Thursday's newscast. Chambers was attempting to remind viewers that the UPN station's newscast would premiere in its half-hour 11 p.m. time slot today. The move is part of a strategy prompted by the station's owner, News Corp., which also owns KTTV-TV and decided it didn't want to have both its stations competing with news at 10 p.m.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Lovisek could not be here today because his spiders couldn't clear customs in time. His eight-legged friends were supposed to be the special guest stars during the July television critics meeting in Pasadena as part of the preview of the fall adventure drama "Peter Benchley's Amazon," which premieres nationally next week, and turns up locally on KCOP-TV on Sept. 26.

The anchor team of Warren Olney and Wendy Rutledge at KCOP Channel 13 is being replaced, Jeff Wald, head of the station's news operation, said Monday. Wald said the new co-anchors for KCOP will be Ross Becker, a former longtime newsman at KCBS Channel 2, and Kim Devore, currently a reporter for the syndicated Fox TV series "Personalities." Rutledge declined an offer to remain at the station as a reporter and will leave by year's end, Wald said.

The Channel 13 news has an image problem. The problem is that it doesn't have an image. To get one, to become a major player in the local news game, KCOP's news director says, the station has been willing to take a few chances. The latest follows in the tradition of "Nightline" and "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour": Channel 13 has been airing a longish segment of news and live interviews on a single subject during its nightly newscast. Anchored by longtime L.A.

John Marshall, the award-winning reporter dismissed by KNBC Channel 4, said Wednesday that he has quit his new job at KCOP Channel 13 after only one day because "it's time to find a new life" outside of local TV news. Emphasizing that his decision had nothing to do with KCOP or the state of local news, he said: "The minute I got back in the saddle (at KCOP), I knew I'd gone pretty much as far as I could in this profession. So I'm going to find something else. "I turn 50 this summer.

"The Arsenio Hall Show" is history. But the late-night landscape on KCOP-TV Channel 13 is more "busy," as the departed talk-show host liked to say, than ever. KCOP has procured a 2 1/2-hour block of original, syndicated programming specifically designed as a late-night alternative to news, old sitcoms and the tried-and-true network talk shows. "Nobody has ever done this before," said Rick Feldman, KCOP's general manager.

David Boylan, the general manager of Fox-owned KTTV Channel 11 and KCOP Channel 13, will leave the merged TV stations today to become general manager of ABC affiliate WPLG-TV in Miami, Fla. Boylan, who has been with the Fox Television Stations group for seven years, resigned late last week in order to take the new position. He ran the Fox owned-and-operated stations in Greensboro, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., before taking command at KTTV in 2000. Fox executives have not yet named a replacement.

KCOP-TV news anchor Rick Chambers got mixed up at the end of last Thursday's newscast. Chambers was attempting to remind viewers that the UPN station's newscast would premiere in its half-hour 11 p.m. time slot today. The move is part of a strategy prompted by the station's owner, News Corp., which also owns KTTV-TV and decided it didn't want to have both its stations competing with news at 10 p.m.

Channel 13, located at the end of the VHF lineup, has always been sort of out of the loop, the forgotten station. It's probably best known for "Blind Date," or maybe "WWF Smackdown." KCOP certainly has never been much of a sports station, unless you count carrying the Clippers. It televises the L.A. Marathon, but that is a once-a-year event. The station recently cut its weeknight sports segments to one minute, turning them over to news anchors.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Lovisek could not be here today because his spiders couldn't clear customs in time. His eight-legged friends were supposed to be the special guest stars during the July television critics meeting in Pasadena as part of the preview of the fall adventure drama "Peter Benchley's Amazon," which premieres nationally next week, and turns up locally on KCOP-TV on Sept. 26.

Cal State Northridge's student-run newscast, "Valley View," has a new look due to a set donated by KCOP-TV Channel 13. Previously, students producing the weekly show had to use a makeshift set with a wooden desk, a couple of nondescript chairs and a gray wall as a backdrop. "We looked like we did it out of a closet," said Rick Marks, CSUN journalism professor. "We look great now. It's just much more professional."

Advertiser: KCOP-TV Channel 13 News Agency: Colby Effler & Partners, Santa Monica Challenge: Create an identity for the station's local news program. The Ads: Outdoor ads show grainy photos of newsmakers alongside the slogan, "Just one character in the big show." On one ad, Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks is referred to as "the new marshal in town." President Clinton, shown in another ad, is labeled "embattled leader."

The scheduled appearance tonight of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on "The Arsenio Hall Show" has sparked protests from religious and gay organizations who fear Farrakhan will be given an uncontested forum to put forth his controversial views on whites, Jews and gays. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has urged KCOP-TV Channel 13 and other stations around the country not to broadcast the program.

KCOP-TV Channel 13 is trying "to work out a compromise" so commentator Bill Press can remain on the air should he be elected state Democratic Party chairman Saturday. Station officials who asked not to be identified said the compromise would be the hiring of a conservative commentator. At KFI-AM (640), where Press is the host of a Saturday talk show, program director David Hall said Press would continue on the air there.

"Seinfeld" is going off on NBC, but it will be on in a few years on KCOP-TV Channel 13. The station surprised television insiders Friday by announcing it had purchased the second syndication cycle for the hit comedy, stealing "Seinfeld" from KTLA-TV Channel 5, which is currently showing the reruns. The deal mirrors a recent agreement in New York, where a Fox station outbid the Tribune-owned station that now carries the reruns.

Tawny Little--Miss America 1976 and the most glamorous personality at KABC-TV Channel 7 during that station's heady days of news supremacy in the late '70s and '80s--has been anchoring the news at KCOP-TV Channel 13 for the last two years. Which itself may be news, it seems, to a lot of folks. "Oh, it's really frustrating that not very many people even know we're here," Little said.