Kdoc Television Station

Orange County's only commercial television station, Anaheim-based KDOC, will eliminate its local news operation and shut down its production studio at the end of the month. The decision, prompted in part by a downturn in advertising revenue, will result in layoffs for 11 full-time and 10 part-time employees, according to Station Manager Chuck Velona. In addition to the nightly half-hour news show, the cutbacks will end the one-hour afternoon music video program, "Request Video."

Independent TV station KDOC is being sold to an Atlanta company for $150 million, company officials confirmed Tuesday. The station, home to "Kojak" and "Hawaii Five-O" reruns, as well as the former venue of "Hot Seat With Wally George" and televangelist Gene Scott, among others, will be sold to Ellis Communications Inc., which is headed by broadcast veteran Bert Ellis. Its current operator is Golden Orange Broadcasting, partly owned by singer Pat Boone.

Despite the loss of a prospective anchorman, Anaheim-based TV station KDOC (Channel 56) will proceed with plans to launch "Newswatch," its first locally produced, 30-minute nightly newscast, by the end of the month. Scheduled to air at 8:30 weeknights beginning Feb. 27, the broadcast will be co-anchored by the station's news director, Michelle Merker, and a male co-anchor yet to be hired.

Former Black Panther and cable producer Michael Zinzun, who has used his Pasadena-based public access show for 10 years as a forum to discuss police abuse, the gang truce, and other urban issues, will air his last regular program tonight at 7. Zinzun, 48, said he is leaving to devote more time to his post as chairman of the Coalition Against Police Abuse, but still plans to broadcast several shows a year.

Orange County's only commercial broadcast station, KDOC-TV (Channel 56), pulled the plug on reruns of "Combat" two years ago. What a mistake. "You would have thought that I took their firstborn as hostage," said Chuck Velona, the station's general manager. "The switchboard lit up for days. We found out that it does draw viewers."

The miracle of KDOC-Channel 56's "NewsWatch," Orange County's first locally produced, commercial, 30-minute nightly news telecast, was that its debut Monday was virtually indistinguishable from broadcasts by the major independent stations in the Los Angeles area. Co-anchors Michelle Merker and Pat Matthews did a more than respectable job, with only a few small technical glitches and a couple of minor flubs by Matthews. "We came through pretty much unscathed," Merker said when it was over.

Orange County's only commercial broadcast station, KDOC-TV Channel 56, pulled the plug on reruns of "Combat" two years ago. What a mistake. "You would have thought that I took their firstborn as hostage," said Chuck Velona, the station's general manager. "The switchboard lit up for days. We found out that it does draw viewers." Velona, 52, had just taken charge of KDOC after the station's president retired from day-to-day general manager duties.

To David Lee Porter, it seemed like a big break. Maybe it wasn't Johnny Carson, but an appearance on June Cain Miller's TV talk show--even if it airs at 12:30 a.m. on KDOC in Orange County--would give the 24-year-old musician from Fullerton some badly needed exposure. He never imagined that the March 7 episode would be marred by racial comments that recalled Al Campanis' infamous remarks on Ted Koppel's "Nightline" last year.

KDOC Channel 56 in Anaheim, Orange County's only commercial television station, will devote its entire 30-minute newscast at 8:30 tonight to quake coverage, according to news producer/anchor Jerilyn Donovan. The program will include live phone interviews with news correspondents in San Francisco. Among scheduled in-studio guests is a psychologist offering advise on how to "alleviate fear of the big one hitting us ," Donovan said.

Faced with glaring lights and probing television cameras, plenty of dogs and cats would shy away, preferring to steer clear of the commotion. But the nearly 30 pets from two San Fernando Valley shelters who visited a West Valley cable studio this week seemed to bask in the spotlight. Their guest appearances on the cable television program "The Pet Place" represented a possible ticket out of the shelter--if not to stardom.

Faced with glaring lights and probing television cameras, plenty of dogs and cats would shy away, preferring to steer clear of the commotion. But the nearly 30 pets from two San Fernando Valley shelters who visited a West Valley cable studio this week seemed to bask in the spotlight. Their guest appearances on the cable television program "The Pet Place" represented a possible ticket out of the shelter--if not to stardom.

Faced with glaring lights and probing television cameras, plenty of dogs and cats would shy away, preferring to steer clear of the commotion. But the nearly 30 pets from two San Fernando Valley shelters who visited the West Valley Cable Studio this week seemed to bask in the spotlight. Their guest appearances on the program "The Pet Place" represented a possible ticket out of the shelter--if not to stardom.

KDOC-TV Channel 56 will move its offices and studios from Anaheim to Irvine on Monday. Orange County's only commercial broadcast television station, which went on the air in 1982, broadcasts conservative commentator Wally George's "Hot Seat!" talk show, reruns of comedy and drama series and year-round horse racing. Its transmitter will remain on Sunset Peak, north of Ontario. Its new address will be 18021 Cowan, Irvine; (714) 442-9800.

Entertainment Business Show Set for Debut: "The Industry News and Marketplace," a 30-minute TV news program, is to go on the air April 24 through basic cable channel KDOC-TV. The show, the brainchild of longtime Hollywood publicists Joel and Charlotte Parker, will be aimed chiefly at entertainment executives.

Orange County's only commercial broadcast station, KDOC-TV (Channel 56), pulled the plug on reruns of "Combat" two years ago. What a mistake. "You would have thought that I took their firstborn as hostage," said Chuck Velona, the station's general manager. "The switchboard lit up for days. We found out that it does draw viewers."

Orange County's only commercial broadcast station, KDOC-TV Channel 56, pulled the plug on reruns of "Combat" two years ago. What a mistake. "You would have thought that I took their firstborn as hostage," said Chuck Velona, the station's general manager. "The switchboard lit up for days. We found out that it does draw viewers." Velona, 52, had just taken charge of KDOC after the station's president retired from day-to-day general manager duties.

Entertainment Business Show Set for Debut: "The Industry News and Marketplace," a 30-minute TV news program, is to go on the air April 24 through basic cable channel KDOC-TV. The show, the brainchild of longtime Hollywood publicists Joel and Charlotte Parker, will be aimed chiefly at entertainment executives.

When then-Sens. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.) and George S. McGovern (D-S.D.) met in what was a winner-take-all California presidential primary in 1972, KNXT (now KCBS) Channel 2 preempted the entire network prime-time schedule for election coverage. KNBC Channel 4 did the same four years later when both major parties' nominations were still undecided.

Citing the lingering recession in California and declining advertising revenues, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the top-rated independent television station in Los Angeles, laid off 12 employees this week and told six others that their jobs would be eliminated by the end of the year. Similar cutbacks, including the planned layoffs of 21 full- and part-time employees, were announced by KDOC-TV, Orange County's only commercial television station.

Orange County's only commercial television station, Anaheim-based KDOC, will eliminate its local news operation and shut down its production studio at the end of the month. The decision, prompted in part by a downturn in advertising revenue, will result in layoffs for 11 full-time and 10 part-time employees, according to Station Manager Chuck Velona. In addition to the nightly half-hour news show, the cutbacks will end the one-hour afternoon music video program, "Request Video."