Author's note: The following article was published in the June 1986 edition of El Paso Magazine. The story was written as an insider's perspective of the many changes in El Paso TV news between 1976 and 1986. Rapid advances in technology and changes in news gathering practices during the period helped usher in a new era of improved local news coverage that lasted well into the 2000s. Since then, the development of digital technology and the advent of the Internet have brought further improvements in the scope and quality of local TV news.
By Roy Ortega
has undergone more changes for the better in the last ten years than in any other period in its history. Gone are the days of noisy film cameras and klakety klak teletype machines replaced by the latest state-of-the-art news gathering technology. Also gone are the "rip and read" artists replaced by seasoned, well-trained professional TV journalists.
It wasn't until the mid 1970's that El Paso television news began to earn some long-awaited respectability. Prior to 1976, all three local network affiliates, KDBC-TV (Channel 4), KVIA-TV (Channel 13), and KTSM-TV (Channel 9) presented news broadcasts that were adequate for the time, but all seemed to lack journalistic quality and style. Twenty-three-year news veteran John Garmon recalls, "Newspaper reporters didn't seem to consider TV reporters real journalists. We were referred to as 'electronic journalists' and the reference was usually followed by a sneer." Garmon says he knew local TV news had to prove itself journalistically before it could earn the respect it deserved.
"Gathering TV news in the mid-1970s was becoming quite a challenge," said KDBC-TV News Director/Operations Manager Bill Mitchell. "Newsrooms relied on 16mm film to tell a news story, but getting the film on the six o'clock news was something short of a miracle sometimes. Early deadlines were needed in order to shoot a story, process the film, write a script, edit the film and load the studio projector. The procedure meant that by the time the story aired, it was nearly half a day old.
Garmon, a former KTSM-TV news director, remembers a time when all three stations sent their film to Tike Slaughters photographic studios on Missouri Street to be processed. Three hours later, the film would be returned to each editor only to find the wrong film had been delivered. "We'd end up with channel 4 or 13's film and they'd end up with ours. There would be a mad scramble by all three TV stations to get their film back in time for the newscast. It was a real mess."
On occasion, Slaughter's processing machine would break down while news film was being processed destroying someone's newscast before it got on the air. It wasn't long before all three TV stations purchased their own film processing equipment.
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| KDBC-TV News Set 1976 |
"It was about this time that station owners realized that a lot of money could be made in news," explains KDBC's Bill Mitchell. "With larger news budgets, we broke new ground." Mitchell says larger staffs enabled news departments to do a better job of covering local news. Larger, more attractive studio sets were built. More cameras and editing equipment were purchased. All three TV stations began investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in their news departments. The competition for the ratings dollar began to intensify, the result was a noticeable improvement in the way television news was covered and delivered.
The ever-present fear of being sued for libel also precipitated the move to hire experienced reporters. "We chose people who had already broken someone else's equipment... and who had made their learning mistakes elsewhere," said Mitchell. Prior to this period, it was not at all uncommon to see poorly written copy that fell on the verge of outright libel. Veteran KVIA-TV newsman Gary Warner remembers a story that aired on his station that sent shudders through the ranks of management. Due to a grammatical error, the story clearly named an innocent person as a suspect in a burglary case. Says Warner, "the error was noticed after it got on the air, obviously too late to do anything about it. Luckily, no one ever raised a stink about the story." Most veteran news watchers would agree that it was a miracle that no one ever sued for libel.
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| KDBC-TV News Team 1977 |
The late 1970's saw local television news become more viewer-oriented. Aside from reporting the news events of the day, the three local channels began devoting their time and resources to subjects of particular interest to viewers. Former KDBC-TV investigative reporter Cynthia Neu points out that this type of specialty reporting helped bring much credibility to local TV news. "TV news in El Paso had been considered a joke," states Neu who came to TV with a ten-year background in newspaper reporting. "I was hired because of my ability as a journalist and because of my strong contacts in the community," she says. That's something Bill Mitchell admits was sorely lacking in local television news reporting at the time.
Another specialty reporter was Marce Galaviz who became known as KVIA-TV's colorful consumer advocate.
Galaviz says, "TV news in El Paso began to get a lot of viewer attention when it began to get involved with people in the community. More people get ripped-off for five dollars than those who get ripped-off for fifty. We pointed that out."
No other single factor contributed more to the transformation of local TV news than the advent of ENG ... Electronic News Gathering. Small, handheld portable video cameras and recording appearance in El Paso in late 1978. ENG not only made news gathering much simpler, but it also greatly enhanced the quality of news pictures on the air. Grainy, low quality 16mm film began to make way for sharp, crystal-clear images of the day's news events. The biggest advantage of ENG was the ability to videotape a news event and instantly play it back on the air.
KTSM-TV's Jeff Gates, one of the first to get a video camera in his newsroom, observes,
"ENG was exciting ... it made covering the news a lot of fun." Most everyone in the industry welcomed
ENG with enthusiasm, however, there were a few reporters who quite didn't warm up to it right away.
"ENG was exciting ... it made covering the news a lot of fun." Most everyone in the industry welcomed
ENG with enthusiasm, however, there were a few reporters who quite didn't warm up to it right away.
KDBC-TV's Lucy Tipton recalls, "For me it was a nightmare ... all those buttons, switches and lights were
intimidating." Tipton says that after years of editing 16mm film, videotape was hard to get used to.
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| Howell Eurich, KDBC-TV |
intimidating." Tipton says that after years of editing 16mm film, videotape was hard to get used to.
By 1981, all three El Paso network affiliates had made the transition to ENG, an expensive but worthwhile endeavor. The average cost of a video camera complete with recording equipment and accessories was between $25,000 and $30,000. Editing machines and other related equipment pushed the cost even higher. It is difficult to estimate how much money each station has spent equipping its newsroom with ENG, but KVIA-TV Chief Engineer Jack Wilkinson puts the initial figure at a quarter of a million dollars. He says that figure has likely doubled in the last few years as stations renew and update the equipment. Wilkinson points to a rapidly changing technology that often renders newly purchased equipment obsolete before it is put into place. He says TV stations will be forced to continue spending hefty sums of money in order to keep up with the changing technology.
The 1980's brought El Paso TV news into the age of live-from-the-scene news reporting. Although the capability to transmit live pictures from the scene of news events had existed for years, it wasn't until this period that the local TV newsrooms began regularly using live ENG in their broadcasts.
Viewers became familiar with "9-Alive" and the "Live Eagle-Eye."
Reporting live from a news event required a slightly different approach to TV journalism. KTSM-TV reporter
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| KDBC TV, El Paso |
Tom Thorpe, who specializes in live reporting, states. " You have to change your reporting style. Not only do you report what has happened, you report what is happening now." Thorpe says live television news reporting has enabled a reporter to bring the absolute latest information to the viewer. It also provides a unique challenge for the reporter who must be exceptionally alert, particularly when things go wrong. There's very little a reporter can do when someone walks in front of the camera during a live broadcast or when something technical malfunctions.
Ever since live ENG came into wide use in El Paso, viewers have seen such drastic live pictures as the immediate aftermath of a natural gas explosion in central El Paso that destroyed several homes and caused numerous injuries, a sniper incident along the river levee in which a border patrolman was seriously wounded and the aftermath of a plane crash on Mt. Franklin. Local television news has become perhaps the most important source of immediate information during a breaking news story. "It's almost like radio," observes KINT-TV News Director Javier Sanchez. "Look how fast we can get the story on the air ... newspapers can't do that."
The biggest winner in the local TV news game is the viewer. The heightened competition between the stations has resulted in a far better-quality news product than ten years ago. Says KDBC-TV's Bill Mitchell, "there's only one thing that can happen ... viewers win." KVIA-TV's Dan Krieger echoes that view. "Local viewers rely heavily on us to find out what is going on in El Paso ... we have to be concerned about local coverage to serve the community." That means doing a good job of covering local news and competing more aggressively for the audience, With the establishment of another major TV news department in town (Spanish language KINTTV), viewers can expect to see a much higher level of professionalism in their news presentations.
What lies ahead for local television news technologically and journalistically may prove to be even more exciting.
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| RCA TK-76 cameras were among the first ENG cameras in El Paso. |
"viewers will still have to come back to local TV to find out what is happening in their community." The demand for more local news will likely increase, forcing stations to make a greater commitment. Some local markets across the country have extended their newscasts to an hour or longer, but local news directors have not felt a need in El Paso. That could very well change as the demand for more local news increases. In that eventuality, KVIA-TV News Director Dan Kreiger foresees mini-newsrooms scattered around the city each linked by micro-wave, each contributing live stories from their area. A new generation of satellite technology will make it possible for local stations to set up their own live transmitting equipment anywhere in the country, or the world for that matter.
Some of this technology is already in use but not generally available to stations in smaller markets like El Paso primarily because of the cost. El Paso stations will likely take advantage of the cheaper cost of satellite technology to set up full-time news bureaus in Austin and Washington, D.C.
El Paso television news has grown up. El Paso, a thriving international city of half a million has deserved better and those of us who took part in the transformation couldn't be any prouder.
Roy Ortega
El Paso Magazine
June, 1986
Roy Ortega may be reached at rortega54@elp.rr.com
