Channel 53 news death no surprise Before WLAJ-TV, Channel 53, went on the air in the fall of 1990 as the first ABC affiliate in the Lansing-Jackson television market, news director Bruce Cornelius knew the fight was going to be a dandy. The fight for accep tance. The fight to prove itself. But more importantly, the fight to wrest viewers away from the market’s Big Two — Lan sing CBS affil iate WLNS, Channel 6, and Lan sing-Jackson NBC affiliate WJLX, Channel 10. Then there was that sly Fox on the other side of town: Lan sing Fox affiliate WSYM, Chan nel 47, riding the wave of a net work that’s making huge strides in the medium. When the bell sounded in a ratings game often played with venomous flair, Channel 53 was well-armed with its new lights and bells and whistles of a fan- cy-schmancy art deco set for its “53 Newsbeat” broadcasts. New faces. New looks. But it wasn’t enough. Not when you’re battling two estab lished stations with loyal viewer- ship. Not when people have be come accustomed to having Tim Staudt or Jane Aldrich join them for dessert. And not when the overall quality of the newscasts doesn’t match up to the lights and bells and whistles. The fight was over before it began. TKO. Hit the showers. The announcement last week that Channel 53 is pulling the plug on its'“53 Newsbeat” news casts next month wasn’t exactly a shock. For weeks, the some times vicious media rumor mill was full of talk of the early death of a news broadcast few people ever took notice of. Those of us who take notice of the all-important numbers knew it was only a matter of time. A dark cloud was hanging over the Channel 53 news set. The Nielsen Weed Whacker was whirring. Channel 53 news was contin ually mangled in the ratings by Channel 6 and Channel 10, which barely felt a nudge in what was supposed to be a three- station ratings battle. Channel 53 often was watched by a mere 2 percent of the audi ence. Channel 53 general manager Tom Jones, obviously trying to throw some humor into an oth erwise dismal situation, likened the fight among the three sta tions to the battle between fast- food joints. “With McDonald’s on one comer and Burger King on the other, we made no progress com ing in with a third hamburger store,” he said the other day. Not many people sampled the Channel 53 menu, that’s for sure. In the first two ratings periods after Channel 53 began news casts, its viewership was so low they had to dispatch divers to fetch the Nielsen numbers. So low, in fact, they didn’t even register on the Nielsen charts. OK, you tell yourself, they need time to find a niche in the market, time to make those faces a part of everyone’s family. But in the cutthroat TV news biz, time can sometimes be an enemy. The news ratings never got any better for Channel 53. In fact, they got worse. There were sweeps periods when Channel 53 lost out to Lansing’s Fox-47, which has no newscasts. When your newscasts are get ting punched in the nose by “Mama’s Family” reruns, you’re in big trouble. The smell of death at Channel 53 wafted from more than near- invisible ratings, though. The red flags went up while the Nielsen numbers went down. In July — less than a year af ter the station beamed its first signal — news anchor Warren Williams was canned, eventually demoted to an on-the-strect re porter. Station officials said low rat ings had nothing to do with it, that Williams — once touted as Channel 53’s golden boy of the news desk and a major find for a rookie operation — simply did not fit into the station’s plans. Neither, for the moment, docs delivering the news. DAVE HOGER Staff Writer