CBS shift to Channel 62 is bad news for Rather By Tim Kiska News Television Writer C BS News anchorman Dan Rather jokinglyYe- fers to himself these days as “Texas Dan in the Tem" pie of Doom.” ; -; -; And, in part, he has Detroit to thank for it. -;-I- The widely publicized shiftoC stations from CBS to Fox;this, month moved CBS from high-' powered, well-entrenched YHE-.' stations (channels 2-13) in-Dfe troit and several other larger cities to lower-powered, littje£ watched UHF stations way-fig; the dial (Channel 62 in Detroitfr That’s going to hurt the rgt£ ings of the CBS Evening News- with Dan Rather and Connie. Chung. And Rather was remark^ ably candid in discussing thi£ impact in a telephone interview from New York. “Detroit represents, perhaps?- the biggest challenge for usg~ Rather says. “We are going from' a station (WJBK, Channel 2) that has had a news reputation — and a good one — to a completely different kind of sta tion that now wants to build from the ground up, with no news operation. “I don’t know of any other place,” says Rather, “where there’s such a stark contrast between where we were and where we’re going.” And there is another problem for Rather: Starting Jan. 5, Rather’s 48 Hours news maga zine will be moved to Thursday nights at 10 against NBC’s ER, the hottest new show on televi sion. “I don’t like it,” Rather says. “They wouldn’t want me in this job if I did It’s the worst time period in prime time right now.” For a couple of months, it appeared as if the Rather-Chung newscast was on a roll. The CBS Evening News had been beating NBC Nightly News in the ratings much of the fall, though both trailed ABC’s World News Tonight, according to the A„C. Nielsen Co. Rather’s work earli er this year from Haiti, where he arrived early and served up argu ably the most aggressive report ing on the scene, showed the anchorman at his best. But then came what industry- analysts call the biggest shakeup in the history of over-the-air broadcasting: the mass move of stations owned by New World Communications Inc., including Channel 2, from CBS to Fox.'". “We’ve been in the middle of an erupting volcano since the early to mid-1980s,” Rather says. “This reminds us that the eruptions are not abating.” . The move from highly rated VHF stations to lower-rated UHF stations dropped Rather to third place again. In Detroit, the move has had a particularly drastic impact bn Rather and CBS. Tom Brokaw*s nightly newscast on NBC fol lows Channel 4’s (WDIV) highly rated local newscast. ABC’s Pe ter Jennings follows Channel 7’s (WXYZ) highly rated newscast at 7 p.m. Please see RATHER. 7C