At a time when local TV news departments
are pouring huge sums of money into new hires, snazzy graphics, and
aggressive ad campaigns, former news anchor Ron Oliveira is standing up for
Andy Griffith reruns.
Oliveira, the popular Channel 24 anchor who jumped the news ship last year
to launch KNVA (Channel 54, Cable 12), is perfectly thrilled with his new life
as co-owner and general manager of Austin’s newest independent station. KNVA,
which until January carried only weather radar reports, offers a lineup of old
sit-coms like Hogan’s Heroes and The Beverly Hillbillies, and
that bitchin’ adventure show, Hawaii Five-O. The station also carries
Wednesday night programming from the equally new Warner Bros. Television
Network.
Oliveira may be immersed in the business of syndicated reruns, but once a
news hound, always a news hound. Oliveira is intensely interested in what other
TV stations are doing to prepare for what many consider to be revolutionary
changes in the local television industry, as the local Fox and CBS affiliates
trade networks, and KVUE and KXAN hope to take advantage and move into the lead
position.
In the face of all these changes, Oliveira expects his entertainment
station to seriously compete with the local news channels – not to lure viewers
away from the news, but to build an audience of folks who don’t give a twit
about current events.
“We’re looking for those non-news viewers,” Oliveira, with 18 years in the
news business, says unapologetically. “And believe me, there’s a huge market
out there for people who don’t want to watch the news. Shows like Andy
Griffith, Fresh Prince, Hogan’s Heroes – these are programs that you can
watch with your child or your grandmother.”
At 39, Oliveira has that fresh-faced look that appeals to TV viewers. At
Channel 24, his presence was a good match for friend and former co-anchor, Judy
Maggio. The pair could survive on-air snafus with professional cuteness – like
the time Maggio’s coughing fit forced her off the set; the same night, a
studio light exploded with a loud bang, startling the bejeezus out of
Oliveira.
In his new role, Oliveira is drawing on an earlier success running a
television station in Brownsville which he and his partners took from bankrupt
status to a #7 ranking in prime time in the mid 1980s. Meanwhile, Oliveira and
his partners were plodding diligently toward securing a construction permit for
KNVA through the Federal Communications Commission. No one expected the process
to take 10 years. Oliveira and his partners, Mark Goldberg and the Goldberg
family’s Twenty First Century Corp. in Houston, had to fight tooth and nail to
fend off 10 other competing applicants, an appeal by one of the losing parties,
and the economic slump of the late 1980s. Those hurdles cleared, they finally
pulled the deal together a year ago.
All of those delays were, in effect, a blessing in disguise, Oliveira
acknowledges now. A new station on the block might not have survived in Austin
five or six years ago. “Last year the economy started recovering and
advertisers were coming back with a vengeance,” he said. “We decided then it
was a very, very viable option to proceed with our plans.”
Oliveira worked out a license-management agreement with KXAN Channel 36,
allowing the two stations to operate out of the same building on Martin Luther
King Jr. Blvd. They share engineering and technical staff, but they each have
their own sales force and compete for advertisers.
Still to come on KNVA is a lineup of community programming during times
more desirable than the typical 3am slots. Liz Carpenter also has pitched the
idea of a book show on KNVA with book reviews and interviews with local
authors. Oliveira thinks the show is a good idea as long as there are plenty of
visuals to hold viewers’ attention.
“That’s one of many possibilities that we’re going to be looking at over
the next few months,” Oliveira said. “But let us build our market with what
we’re doing now. Within a couple of years, you’ll be seeing a lot more local
programming.”
Will a newscast be in the lineup? Not likely, he says. “For a market this
size, four news stations are quite enough. From a business standpoint, that’s
why we’re doing what we’re doing. While the other stations are fighting it out
and spending a ton of money on hiring talent, we know there’s going to be
somebody out there who’ll always watch us.”
Family entertainment aside, Oliveira still misses the gritty business of
news. “I miss the big stories, especially when they’re of the caliber of the
Oklahoma City bombing. But I’ve got a regular life now and I’m getting a lot of
personal satisfaction out of being a husband and father,” he says of his wife,
Lourdes, and their three children.
“I miss the news,” he says again. “But when I think of what I have now, I
don’t miss itthat much.” – A.S.
This article appears in June 16 • 1995 and June 16 • 1995 (Cover).