
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997          TAG: 9702260058

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:  111 lines

A FAST-PACED ``PILOT 13 NEWS'' DEBUTS ON LNC CHANNEL

IT'S MONDAY NIGHT. The clock on the wall in the newsroom says 9:51. In exactly nine minutes, Local News on Cable will launch ``Pilot 13 News'' from The Virginian-Pilot in downtown Norfolk.

So, where is LaSalle Blanks, who was plucked from the snows of upstate New York to anchor the 10 p.m. broadcast in the midst of working reporters and editors in The Pilot's sweaty newsroom?

Not to worry.

Here's Blanks now with his TV makeup on. He applied it at the WVEC studios a few blocks from The Pilot because the lighting's better there. He's already put his script on the TelePrompTer.

Joe Miracle and Daniel Larsen from WVEC's engineering department flick on the TV lights and the TV field camera adapted to work in the newsroom as Blanks arrives. He drove himself from the WVEC studios.

What if he has a flat? A fender bender that delays him?

Memo to LNC general manager Ed Power: Arrange a limo for Blanks.

With his makeup done, the script typed in great big letters, the lights on, and the camera running, all Blanks has to do is put on his game face. He slips into the jacket of his dark blue suit, makes sure he can hear producer Richard C. Splitstone through the hunk of plastic in his ear, and goes to work reading the news of the night.

But not before he clears his throat. Then he does it again. And again.

I counted nine times.

``Two and half minutes to the show,'' shouts Larsen.

This grand experiment involving local media giants - a live 10 p.m. weeknight newcast resulting from the merging of The Pilot, WVEC and Cox Communications in LNC - is seconds away from unfolding.

Blanks said he's a bit nervous, which is a good thing in his mind. He doesn't want to be blase about helping to make TV history. Nervous but cool. That's Blanks, who is still in his 20s.

If he were not cool, would he be able to waltz into The Pilot's newsroom at air time minus nine minutes, clear his pipes a few times, and then sail smoothly into ``Pilot News 13'' as if he's done it for ages?

Mike Lewis and Barbara Ciara, co-anchors in the WVEC studios, open ``Pilot News 13'' by promising a story you'll see only on this broadcast and read in Tuesday morning's Pilot. It's about bingo, the state gaming commission and proposed changes in investigating possible fraud.

There's talk of allowing kids as young as 16 to play.

Ciara tosses the newscast to Blanks in the Pilot newsroom, who is ready.

``Bingo is big business in Virginia.''

Blanks brings in a reporter from the Pilot, June Arney, to give the piece some punch. But she's on and off camera in a twinkling of an eye. Come back, June.

And her name on screen is misspelled. ``Arnee.'' Memo to producer Splitstone: On the Pilot, we hate errors like that and work hard to avoid them. It's a program we call Continuous Improvement.

I hope The Pilot's presence grows on this newscast. If it doesn't, what's the point of plunking Blanks down in the newsroom? Take away that ``The Virginian-Pilot'' sign seen faintly over his shoulder, and he could be anywhere.

With the soft focus the producer is using when Blanks is on camera, the background is out of focus. Fuzzy. If you can't see the reporters and editors slaving away at their computer terminals in the background, where is that ``Front Page'' atmosphere we've been promised?

If this is a broadcast originating in a newsroom full of people facing a deadline, I want to smell ink.

If it were up to me, I'd close ``Pilot 13 News'' with a shot of the presses rolling.

It was a nice touch to hear Blanks at the close of the newscast promote the next day's Pilot by saying, ``Read all about it.''

Do not get the impression I'm dissatisfied with ``Pilot 13 News,'' because I'm not. This newscast is watchable, more so than any other 30-minute slice of local news around here. But I wish Ciara would stop sounding so sorrowful when she reports bad news.

Hey, Barb. You're a pro. Give it to us straight. We can handle it.

``The Sports Buzz'' feature, borrowed from an idea introduced to The Pilot's sports section by copy editor Dave Lewis works well on TV. WVEC's Scott Cash kind of buzzes around the day's sports happenings as if he were an MTV VJ doing local sports.

When it's not buzzing, ``Pilot 13 News'' is zipping along, with even the usually folksy weather guy, Jeff Lawson, bringing his report up a beat or two.

On the premiere ``Pilot 13 News,'' the producer sent reporter Priscila Monti over to Scope to pick up a little early buzz on Old Dominion U. men's basketball before Cash jumped in with both sneakers. Nice touch. Zip. Buzz. I like it.

Producer Splitstone is newly arrived from Seattle. WVEC also assigned reporter Rebecca Schramm to the ``Pilot 13 News.''

Or is that ``Rebekka'' Schramm? It's spelled one way in the story announcing her appointment, another way on-screen during ``Pilot 13 News.'' Memo No. 2 to Power: Have Blanks' limo driver deliver personnel rosters to the WVEC control room.

Also good: Blanks reporting on neighborhood stories such as the remaking of East Ocean View in Norfolk. This brings the newscast closer to the viewers. I'd like to see stories about potholes, and what's taking so long to get them filled in.

LNC is around-the-clock local news featuring simulcasts of WVEC-produced newscasts, the 10 p.m. news buzz live, and reruns the rest of time. On opening day, there were scads of PSAs - public service announcements - where you usually see commercials. If I learn nothing else from LNC, it's that you waste 40 gallons a week by letting the water run when you're brushing your teeth.

Can I confess something here? I miss the commercials. MEMO: LNC will begin running on Channel 8 on Cox cable in Chesapeake on

Saturday. A story in the Sunday Daily Break incorrectly stated that it

would premiere in Chesapeake at the same time as other Hampton Roads

cities. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

BETH BERGMAN

The Virginian-Pilot

Lasalle Banks rehearses for his exclusive report on bingo and the

state gaming commission from the Pilot's newsroom.