The chances of KZAR-Ch. 16 - a new commercial television station based in Provo - actually making it on the air are good. As a matter of fact, they're virtually 100 percent now.
But the ownership will be somewhat different than originally announced.Roberts Broadcasting, the St. Louis, Mo.-based company that has been working on getting KZAR up an running for months now, recently sold controlling interest in the station to a company rather innocuously known as Acme. But Acme is controlled by Jamie Kellner - the managing partner and chief executive officer of the WB television network.
Local television insiders are wondering if this wasn't the plan all along.
It's good business on the part of Kellner and the WB. By having controlling interest in the station, there's no chance of it being sold out from under them - which is pretty much what happened with current Utah WB affiliate KUPX-Ch. 30. That station was sold to Paxson Communications, which plans to drop the WB and start up its own network of sorts later this year.
And, while the Utah television market isn't huge - it's No. 36 nationally - it is rather important for a network wannabe like the WB to have a presence here. Owning a station is a great way to assure that will happen.
And KZAR certainly won't be the only local commercial television station to be controlled by out-of-state interests. As a matter of fact, only KSL-Ch. 5 and KJZZ-Ch. 14 are locally owned.
(In addition to Paxson-owned Ch. 30, there's CBS-owned KUTV-Ch. 2, United Television-owned KTVX-Ch. 4, and Fox-owned KSTU-Ch. 13.)
Mind you, Utah gaining another commercial television station is a good thing no matter who owns it. The addition of Ch. 16 will provide more competition and more program options for local viewers.
But KZAR's main loyalty will, of necessity, be to the WB. Getting that pseudo-network's programming on the air will be job one.
And you have to wonder about Roberts Communications' stated goal of making Ch. 16 a family friendly station. KZAR has purchased the local broadcast rights to "The Jerry Springer Show," which is by far the sleaziest, most exploitative national talk show on television today.
That hardly fits with a philosophy of family friendly viewing.
Add to that the fact that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a rather violent show appropriate only for older children and adults) airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m. and "Dawson's Creek" (a show in which teenage characters speak frankly about sex and one 15-year-old boy is having an affair with his 40ish teacher) airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. and the powers that be at KZAR - whoever they end up being - might want to tone down their "We are a family station" rhetoric.
As to when exactly Ch. 16 signs on the air, they're still aiming for sometime in May but that's far from definite. Stay tuned . . .
NEW NEWS DIRECTOR: Well, it took KSL-Ch. 5 a while, but station management finally made it official and took the "acting" out of acting news director Brink Dee Chipman's title. He got the job.
Chipman had been acting as acting news director since Ray Carter vacated the post in December to take similar job at the ABC-affiliate in Atlanta. Chipman is not exactly a newcomer to KSL - he's been the managing editor of Ch. 5's newscasts for more than a year.
Nor is he a novice as a news director - Chipman led the news rooms at stations in Boise, Portland, Tucson and Des Moines. He's a University of Utah grad who spent 10 years at KUTV-Ch. 2 before moving on.
VIDBITS: Cher will produce and host a retrospective of "the Sonny and Cher years" in a prime-time special scheduled for the May sweeps on CBS. In addition to clips of Cher performing with her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono, she will talk about their life together.
CBS, of course, was the home of both the pre-divorce "Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" (1971-74) and the post-divorce "Sonny and Cher Show" (1976-77), and the special will rely heavily on clips from those variety shows.
- ABC has announced a three-part, six-hour Steven King miniseries titled "Storm of the Century" for next season. What makes this different from all the others is that this is an original script - it's not based on a King novel.
"Storm" will be "the terrifying tale of one small town's struggle for survival when faced with pure, unadulterated evil during the most brutal winter storm in recorded history," according to ABC. Tim Daly and Debrah Farentino will star.
- Burt Reynolds, whose television career ranges includes regular roles in "Riverboat" (1959-60), "Gunsmoke" (1962-65), "Hawk" (1966) "Dan August" (1970-71), "B.L. Stryker" (1989-90) and "Evening Shade" (1990-95) - will be returning to TV on a semi-regular basis. He's signed with cable's TNT to do three movies about an ex-cop, ex-con by the name of Conrad Logan.
The first movie, "Hard Time," is scheduled to begin production in May. Reynolds will direct; Barry Levinson is the executive producer.