Hide Article Text (OCR)
f armington uauy nmes £unaay, April Zo, 19ez-yOptimism Reigns at Local StationBy Rex Graham Daily Times StaffKIVA-TV is thought of as a kid with dirty elbows and tom pants wearing a top hat; sort of a poor cousin of a topnotch metropolitan TV station tugging away at its bootstraps.The 18-year-old National Broadcasting Company affiliate has changed ownership a couple of times, and things are definitely improving. But the old label and some of the old nagging problems are as hard to get rid of as fly paper.Farmington City Councilman Jimmy Drake chided the station during a 1972 council meeting for its poor reception: “I can even almost tell the men from the women on my set now.” *Thanks to new cameras and better lighting, and a new transmitting antenna the picture has improved - the pastel colors are gone - but other problems persist.Apparently one of the main problems has been, and continues to be “old and worn-out equipment,” says KIVA station manager and vice president Mike Clark. Replacing equipment is expensive, he said.“In the TV business, it's not like buying a loaf of bread,” Clark says, “It has to be built - frequencies have to be matched.”Another change at the station is the people; Center Group retained news director Richard Draper and field productions and promotions manager Connie Zimmerer, but the rest of the crew is new. ?Since Center Group took over, the size of the staff has doubled. Most of the new newsmen and newswomen and other young technical personnel came to New Mexico from ail over the country.“I came here for a year to get the experience,” says Ms. Zimmerer, and after three years, the North Carolinian added with a satisfied grin, “I'm still here.”Ms. Zimmerer was working alone in the studio about two years ago (before Center Group took over). The score of a televised football game was tied with about two minutes remaining when an automatic electronic timing mechanism switched on cue to a different ballgame. The premature end of the first game prompted irate viewers to call the station,“I went around and locked all the doors because peoplewere threatening me,” Ms. Zimmerer recalled. Unlike other blackouts caused by equipment failures or power outages, she said the local cable television distributor was responsible for the automatic switch.But despite the efforts of the hard-working staff some persistent electronic glitches at the station continue.The “most embarrassing thing that can happen to an anchorman,” Draper explains is to call for a tape of a local news story, and ... ah umm ... We hope to have that for you later in the broadcast.It has happened to Draper more than once in his five-year tenure at KIVA.“We know it is going to happen,” said technical controller Lisa Adkins, “We hate to say it, but we just accept it.”But the optimistic Draper balances the obvious technical shortfalls with the unseen advantages.“I wanted a chance to build a small market news operation into something,” he said, “I came for the freedom and the chance to experiment.”Two of those experiments include Naja Dollar's “12 on 12” interview program and David John's “Voice of the Navajo.”“The money and equipment problems are the darker side of the moon.” Draper said.A partner of Center Group Broadcasting Inc., owner of the station since March 1981, said the company has invested about $500,000 in new equipment, and he said the station has recently purchased a $140,000 solid-state channel 12 transmitter to replace a 21-year-old transmitter which has given the station fits.Most of the electronic equipment is “just old and worn out,” said station manager and vice president Clark.“The station was built on a low budget, and it never was quite right,” Clark said.Why did Center Group Broadcasting Inc. buy the station?Center Group owner Dale Palmer said his company specializes in taking over floundering TV and radio stations. But he said from his Tyler, Texas, office that he got “some bad advice” about KIVA; “Esentially all we got was a, license and a building,” he said.Palmer said the station is planning a major round of equipment additions, but added that he wasn't going to publicize the renovations because others before his company have promised improvements and then failed to come through on the promises.One of the planned equipment additions includes a new “switching board.” The old switching machine currently used by KIVA causes problems with taped segments of local news broadcasts.A KIVA employee said that when one of the switching machines gets too warm, it doesn’t work. Even if a news broadcast is playing, the machine must be turned off to let it cool before it will work again.Another problem that may be more difficult to solve is the power supply.Clark said the station is susceptible to power surges from the county electric system. “Sometime it goes out for an hour or two,” he said.Viewers of NBC’s most popular prime time programs, including Little House on the Prairie, Hill Street Blues, Different Strokes, and Chips have been known to complain.But Clark says the regular viewers of the popular daytime soaps - Another World or Search for Tommorrow - can get downright nasty when their shows have been interrupted.The problems don’t help KIVA's image in the eyes of viewers and advertisers.♦But Clark said the new equipment is expected to boost the gross receipts from $700,000 in 1981 to $1.2 million this year.Beginning no later than June 1983 NBC will be transmitting all their network programs via sattelite. Clark said another continuing problem is due to the poor reception of the microwave signal in Farmington from a series of Colorado mountaintop receiving and transmitting stations.Clark said KIVA will soon be installing a receiving dish for the NBC signal but the whole station may be moved to a new site near Aztec. He said the bluffs near the San Juan River cause receiving “shadows” for some residents.Sandra Hill, of Waterflow, and Lillian Arrighetti, of Bianco, have written to the Federal Communications Commission complaining of “poor reception,” according to the assistant chief of complaints and compliance division Jeff Malickson.Malickson said he is satisfied that “KIVA is making an effort to correct” the reception problems.
Newspaper Details
Farmington Daily Times
Farmington, New Mexico, US
Sun, Apr 25, 1982
Page 78
Full Page
Clipped by
Sammi B.
NA 05 Dec 2021
Other Publications Near Farmington, New Mexico
Farmington Daily Times
Farmington Republican
Farmington San Juan Times
Farmington Times
Farmington Times Hustler
