• Tuesday, July 15, 1986 The Times-Picayune/The States-Item ^ E-7 TELEVISION rt No more nudity as WNOL joins Foxnetwork: WNOL ■is adding a “fourth net work” and dropping its policy of running unedited versions of the atrical films. The station has been expected for some time to announce its affiliation with media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Broad casting Company, which pre mieres in September with “The Late Show with Joan Rivers.” No formal announcement has been made yet by Fox, but WNOL general manager John Curren says, “We are going to be the Fox network station here.” FBC plans to start out in Sep tember with Rivers’ late-night talk show and follow up in March with two nights of prime-time programming. The schedule would then expand by one night per year for five years until the entire week is filled. The lineup will consist of a combination of original series and movies from the 20th Cen tury Fox library. So far, FBC has purchased three series: “Jump Street Chapel,” an hour-long action show from Stephen Can- nell about young cops who infil- On the air trate high schools; “Duet,” a sit uation comedy from “Family Ties” producers David Gary Gol- deberg and Ruth Bennett; and a half-hour “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” from Disney, which produced the movie. The network has rejected the idea of adding cancelled network series. It turned down offers to resume production on NBC’s “All Is Forgiven” and “Remington Steele” and ABC’s “Hardcastle & McCormick” and “Greatest American Hero.” One castoff Fox would like to acquire is “Star Trek,” which Paramount TV reportedly is planning to put back in produc tion with a new, young cast. Meanwhile, WNOL has offi cially stopped buying uncut ver sions of theatrical films that are sold to television. Under the prior management of Hal Protter and Gail Brekke, the station distin guished itself among other local commercial outlets by airing fea ture films with nudity and poten tially offensive language intact, often in prime time. The practice gave the station a local identity and occasionally aroused some controversy. But what it did not do, according to WNOL, is increase ratings. “If you look back over the rat ings books you’ll see that it really didn’t give us any numbers,” says Brad Gonzales, director of broad cast operations. It may be true that running uncut movies did not enable WNOL to overtake WGNO in the prime-time movie ratings. It also is conceivable that the rat ings woold have been even worse had the station run those same movies; in their homogenized-for- TV form. Gonzales acknowledges that ratings were not the only consid eration. TVX owns several sta tions around the country, and, according to Gonzales, New Orleans is being considered as a national “dub center” — when TVX purchases a movie for its entire station group, the copies or “dubs” of the movie would be made at WNOL. Making separate versions of the same film would be an added expense and incon venience, and WNOL would be the only TVX station running them uncut. Nevertheless, there will be spe cial circumstances, Gonzales says, in which WNOL will buy an une dited movie and air it that way. But they will be the exception rather than the rule. As for the uncut films that Channel 38 already has in its library, Gonzales says, they will remain intact but will not run during prime time. “Breathless,” for instance, the steamy Richard Gere movie that aired at 7 p.m. the first time it was shown, has been moved to 11:05 pan. for its next airing on July 25. Concludes Gonzales, “It’s really no big deal.” ■ Anchor hire: WDSU’s search for a new 10 o’clock news co-anchor stretched all the way to the state of Washington. Beverly Carr of KREM news in Spokane will occupy the seat next to Charles Zewe beginning “around mid- August,” news director Larry Price says. She replaces Lynn Gansar, who dropped the 10 o’clock news and added noon news anchor duties in March. Carr anchored the 5 and 11 p.m. news and produced the late newscast in Spokane. Price says that she was selected over 35-40 other applicants, and that she scored high in tests to determine her acceptability to New Orleans audiences. “She’s a good reporter who really sparkles as an anchor,” Price says. Strong reporting skills were a priority since Carr will anchor only one newscast and because T)SU regularly sends its anchors out on stories between the 6 and 10 pan. newscasts. ■ WWL retirements: Three long time employees of Channel 4 have accepted general manager Mike Early’s offer of early retire- .U- ment, assistant manager Phil Johnson says. Stepping down were John Pela, who. had been running WWL’s sister-statidn in Lafayette prior to its sale earlier this year; public affairs: director Mickey Wellman,'who - .has worked at the station for 20 years; and 23 year veteran" Jim Dabozal, WWL’s local sales-man ager. Johnson says “af couple of engineers” also retired.*- i Over at WWL radio^ program mer Tom Krimsier has resigned to start his own polling, and. com pute r business. Krimsier had worked at the station since 1975. WDSU also has been trimming its operating staff, although gen eral manager Bob McRaney.did not give specific n'umbexs. McRaney says only that the sta tion has been paring back since February and that ^uiofher round” of layoffs occtrfjrteSd a£few weeks ago. “We’ve been adjusting to! the economic conditions in New Orleans for some time now,” McRaney explains. “I don’t know what station isn’t.” L