MONDAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1988 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE P-7 i TELEVISION Women hit top at local stations, especially at WNOL Last year, a man filed a com plaint with the Equal Employ ment Opportunity Commission alleging discriminatory hiring practices at WNOL-TV. He had been interviewed for a position in the sales department but was passed over for a woman. Earlier this year, another man who had been passed over for a sales job at WNOL decided not to file a formal complaint, but he did call me to object. “If you’re not wearing skirts and high heels,” he groused, “you don’t have a prayer in that place. It’s an all-girls club.” Well, not quite. But Channel 38 does have twice as many women in management-level po sitions as men. In addition to general manager Madelyn Bon not, women are holding down jobs as WNOL’s general sales manager, national sales manager, business manager, promotions manager and traffic manager. Men have the top administrative positions in engineering, produc tion and programming. Overall, the station has 50 per cent more female employees than males. Out of 41 people on the payroll, 25 are women. “It’s really just a coincidence,” says Bonnot. “I honestly look for the best people for each position. It just so happens that in this market, many of the most qual ified applicants are women. “We have to be different,” she says. “We’re fifth in this market in overall ratings. We’re the youngest commercial station in the city. And we have the small est staff. So we have to be crea tive and gutsy and energetic. And we have to attract those same qualities in the people we hire.” It has happened that many of the women Bonnot has inter viewed have possessed those qualities — qualities, she says, that many women needed to keep pace early in their careers, when the work force was overwhelm ingly male. When Bonnot started out as an account representative at WDSU in the ’70s, she says, she was one of only three female salespersons in local television. Now, she estimates, the work force in broadcast sales here is 60-65 percent female. “Things have changed pretty dramatically here,” she says. “And we’re a reflection of that.” Bonnot once was an advocate of that change, having served as a chapter president of American Women in Radio and Television. “I was into promoting women in the business, but it’s not some thing I feel a need to do any more,” she says. “That would be a contradiction to my saying that we’re just looking for the best people, regardless of gender.” Bonnot isn’t the only one who has found that women often are the best candidates. Women fill high-ranking sales jobs at all the stations. And then some. WDSU has a female station manager, news director and marketing di rector. WWL has a female mar keting director. WVUE has a female program director. WGNO has a female promotions director. WYES has a female program manager. WLAE has a female marketing director and used to have a female general manager of its own, until Peggy Laborde jumped to Channel 12 to do local production. “This all started happening during the last five years or so,” Bonnot says. “Women who started out at the bottom finally are making their way to the top. “We just happen to have more of them than most stations.” Though many of WNOL’s cli ents notice the difference, not ev eryone has nice things to say about it, Bonnot still meets with syndicators who shake her hand and blurt out, “You^re not what I expected.” And she says that people who work at other stations have been known to crack, “So, how are things over at W- PMS?” Bonnot laughs about it, but it ' bothers her that “remarks like ' that sound kind of negative, and . I’m real proud of what we’re . accomplishing here — the women and the men.” Another person who says he’s . proud of it is John Trinder, the ; executive vice president of TVX- Communications, WNOL’s par ent company. Two of TVX’s 12 stations have female general managers — the other is in Ra-~ leigh, N.C. — and another has a female chief engineer. - “We’re not trying to be pro-' gressive,” Trinder says. “We’re; just trying to hire good people.” > He says that he wasn’t even ; aware the Channel 38 staff is 60. percent female. “But they’re; doing an awfully good job,” he ! says. “Maybe they should go to * 70 percent.” ;