Shefchik: '11 News' working to dress up its act ■ Continued from Page 7A ' a comedian and a painter can comfortably co-east “We want to have a wildlife segment right behind a ballad,” Gurrola Mid. “In the hour version, we had rock, we had puppets and a dramatic'sketch for senior citizens,, but the powers that be (Channel 5 station manager Ralph Dolan and production manager John Deegan) didn’t want to go beyond certain parameters. “They have their way of looking at things,” Gurrola said of the KSTP brass. i"They made it tough, because they compare it (“The Minnesota Show”) to network. I felt we had communicated clearly 7 to Mr. Hubbard, though, and that . carried us through.” KSTP donated its fatalities for the studio shots and post production work, and the rest of the material was shot on location with the use of equipment loaned by John Clinwprtb of Todd Communications. 1 Some of the technical people have worked with Gurrola in thepast at Film in the (Sties, and the actors were selected from an initial group of 200, rounded np through casting calls. Nobody got paid, and Gurrola managed to keep bis costs down to abont $200. Use Eisenbergs Main Entrance To The Best Fruit Buys In, Town! Prices good While Supply Lasts! ‘Open Mon.-rH. a-s^sat. 7-5 Lowest Prices in Town with no need for coupons CARLOAD SALE Honeydew And Cantaloupe Melons 2/M Imported Red Lge. Size Slicing HEAD LETTUCE If the initial airing of the half- hour pilot gets a good response, Gurrola is hoping “The Minnesota Show” will be picked up by Channel 5. He said General Mills has expressed interest in co sponsoring a possible series. “We’ll see what kind of response we get,” he said. ’Tly fall, hopefully we’ll be doing this on a regular basis, but it’d difficult to assess a market for new ventures like this, because there’s nothing to compare it to.” ■ ■ ■ - Cora-Ann Mihalik joined John Bachman as permanent co-anchor of Channel ll’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts tins week. Joan Steffend moves into Mihalik’s weekend anchor slot, and a co-anchor for Steffand is being sought now. Id addition, investigative reporter Ted Dracos will join new entertainment reporter Barry ZeVan as additions to the Channel ,11 newsroom. x The moves were orchestrated by Tom Kirby, WTCN’s new vice president in charge of news. Kirby predicted Wednesday that WTCN- TV’s “11 News” would soon be equal in quality to the newscasts at Channels 4 and 5. “We will have a newscast on the air as good as anybody’s in town before the end of the year, but that will not necessarily reflect in the ratings,” Kirby said. “That’s up to the promotion people and that sort of thing. But our lead story will be better than 4 or 5’s tonight, and by the end of the year, our whole newscast will be better.” Kirby didn’t wait long to make changes in the appearance of Channel ll’s newscast Since arriving a month ago, he has • changed the name of the newscast from "NewsCenter 11” to “11 News,” instituted the co-anchor format, and this weekend he’ll have the new set painted. The search has begun for an entirely new set design, but that won’t be ready for several months. “Almost on arrival here I could see our newscast didn’t have the kind of pace Channels 4 and 5 had,” Kirby said. “One reason was that we were trying to go with a single anchor. People expect to see two anchors, and it looks odd when they don’t see that It slows down the pace when you have three stories without visual support. The intensity we need isn’t something a single person can carry for 30 minutes. We need to take a 30- to 40-second break and look ahead to where we have to go next “The question was how quickly- we could get there and who would do it We’re basically taking the top two anchors we have in-house and pairing them up.” Kirby said his former station,-^. KBTV in Denver, called its popular* newscast “9 News” — thus the change here to “11 News.” “NewsCenter 11 is probably - associated with the kind of news ^ (former owner) Metromedia was 1 doing here, with half the people as; at 4 and 5. We changed the name •; because we don’t want the old * image. It’s just a step one saying ■' this product is a little differenL” ; Kirby said he was generally •; happy with the people he inherited when he moved here. .j “They’ve never gotten the level of dollar support necessary to do a competitive newscast with 4 and • 5,” Kirby said. “All (new owner) - Gannett has to do is give them more equipment, more people and more opportunities.” □