The local small-screen scene in review... All the way across the dial, it’s been a topsy-turvy year in local . television. Channel by channel, here’s how it went: WWL Footprints on Mt. Rushmore: The competition made some inroads on WWL’s newscast rat ings. which dropped a bit from November of 1983 to November of 1984 — to be exact, three rat ing points (percent of TV homes) at 6 a.m. five points at noon, four points at 5 p.m., four points at 6 p.m., and six points at 10 p.m. It’s not cause to perspire yet. because the Ch. 4 lead is still one point at 6 a.m., 11 points at noon, 10 points at 5 p.m.. 10 points at 6 p.m.. and 11 points at 10 p.m. But what we have here is a gen- you-wine downward trend. In ’85, we see if the King of the Hill can hold its ground. The Wheel of Misfortune: The national portion of “PM Maga zine’’ went sour, so the local “PM” crew went out the back door. Host Eric Paulsen moved over to the weekend anchor desk, while co-host Lea Sinclair, after some extended soul-searching, took up residence on the con sumer beat. As for “PM’s” oid 6:30 p.m. time slot, it now belongs to "Wheel of Fortune," the popular syndicated game show. In New Orleans, it’s more popular than “PM" ever was. The Rise and FaH and Rise of Dave Barnes: When weather god Nash Roberts semi retired, respected meteorologist Dave t Barnes took over Nash’s 5, 6 and 10 p.m. broadcasts. The station decided he wasn’t “fresh” enough for three broadcasts, so it brought in Mike Modrick, who was fresh but unfamiliar to viewers, who were already confused because A! Duckworth was bumped from the morning news and replaced by Miles Muzio. With Don Westbrook on weekends. viewers needed a hurricane track ing chart just to figure out which weather man was on which which newscast. So Modrick was axed and Barnes returned to the same three newscasts he had in the first place. The Anchor Salon: When Chan nel 4 veteran Dennis Wolter left for a reporter’s job in Philadel phia. news director Jim Boyer began grooming some young new talent on the weekend anchor desk. It’s almost as though Boyer realizes that his star players BiR Elder, Angela Hill and Garland Robinette aren’t going to be around forever, and he’s decided to develop depth within the ranks. Names such as John SneB, Judy Storch and James Makawa should be popping up in Channel 4’s future, if the lure of larger markets doesn’t send them elsewhere. WDSU Live and direct from the Pea cock Pavilion .. . They called it a “telecommunications center,” but when Channel 6 set up a huge television studio on-site at the world’s fair, its real purpose was as a billboard. The project lost the station an estimated $1 mil lion, but seems to have paid huge dividends in terms of exposure and community good will. WDSU’s audience levels in Octo ber and November made it a solid second-place finisher in the local ratings race, and the numbers are “trending upward.” A 'Late-Night' cruise: One of the longest hostage crises in New Orleans history came to an end in September when Channel 6 returned "Late Night with David Letterman" to its late night — uh. early morning sched ule — after a year’s hiatus in favor of the idiotic talk show, “Thicke of the Night” Letterman fans must wait until syndicated reruns of "The Love Boat" are over to see the Sultan of Sar casm, who now airs on a one- hour tape-delay, at half-past mid night. And ya momma, too: It wasn’t enough that sports director Buddy DHiberto had been kicked off the Saints team plane. After intense coverage of the local team’s lease problems with the Superdome, Saints owner John Mecom banned the entire Chan nel 6 sports staff from the team’s chartered flights to out-of-town games. This was, as it turned out, dearly a silver-lined cloud. WVUE But can he walk on water? This seemed to be the year that Chan nel 8 became a one-man band named Ron Hunter, who seems to carry the image of the station around on his shoulders. With big-name and big-salaried anchors such as Richard Ander son, Lynn Gansar and Ron Swoboda out of the picture, news director/anchor Hunter became the station’s only bona- fide “news star.” He made the most of it by integrating himself into the station’s news coverage and ongoing features. “Tuesday’s Child,” “Crimestoppers,” “Save- A-Cop’’ and “Child-Find” are four continuing series run by Hunter’s community-involved operation, and he also assumed a detective-like role during an investigative story about Mark Posey’s highly-publicized murder. In general manager Jack Long’s view, he rid himself of what he calls “prima donnas” and put all his eggs in Hunter’s basket. What now? The kitchen sink? Not only did Channel 6 overtake Channel 8 in the ratings race, it did so with much of Channel 8’s old programming. At 4:30 p.m., VUE dropped "People's Court" in favor of "Three's Company." WDSU promptly picked up “Court,” ran it in the same time slot and beat Channel 8 by two ratings points. Similar story at 6:30 p.m., where "Entertainment Tonight," a former property of *VUE, continued to pick up viewers for Channel 6, beating Channel 8’s "Family Feud" by some six ratings points. Adding insult to injury, it was with the help of some former Channel 8 reporters that WDSU overtook WVUE’s 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts in the ratings. Gansar left Chan nel 8 after a contract hassle and became Charlie Zewe's co- anchor at Channel 6. Pierre DeGruy and Richard Angelico became featured news reporters for ’DSU after starting their careers at VUE. WYES and WLAE Holy Pledge Break! A new PBS station! The city, uh, welcomed its seventh over-the-air TV sta tion this summer when the Arch diocese of New Orleans got into the television business over Channel 32. Despite operating under the auspices of PBS and claims that “we are not a reli gious station,” ’LAE’s program schedule reflected a decidedly religious — though not especially Catholic — flavor. More importantly, however, Channel 32 made a big impact by showing live some of the PBS satellite feeds that VES used to broadcast on a tape-delay. The result: Local viewers without cable don’t have to wait weeks to see PBS programs. Competition is good for the soul. Soliciting as art: The arrival of the new public station in town preceded an innovative new approach to PBS fund raising. Channel 32 responded to the tra ditional telethon-style pledge breaks by soliciting donations via the “quiet drive” — a 60-second promotional spot, minus the beg ging, with a phone number flashed on the screen. Channel 12 responded to its own admittedly “annoying” style of pledge seeking by staging “A Drive for a Pledge-Free Decem ber,” an enormously successful campaign that netted $240,000 in cash donations and renewals without a single program inter ruption. WGNO and WNOL Speaking of competition . . . Before New Orleans got its seventh station, Channel 38 became local No. 6. With an impressive assortment of syndi cated series and specials and sev eral top-notch movie packages, WNOL scored high in its first ratings book — remarkably high for a first-year station, according to competing programmers. State-of-the-art technology helped polish the on-air look, and despite running behind the estab lished independent station in the market — Channel 26 — ’NOL established itself as a brash new kid on the block. Hey! Remember us? It’s proba bly more the result of new own ership (Tribune Entertainment from Chicago) than increased technology, but whatever the rea-' son the results are positive: better programming on Channel 26 as well. Tribune also had an impact in public affairs programming, the most significant move being the return of former Channel 6 newsman Warren BeS to televi sion to serve as host of "Impressions." And now they bring you 1985. Stay tuned. i A