Remote patrol weekend

The seventh installment of "Livelyhood," the Peabody-worthy PBS series devoted to the changing American workscape, will debut at 6 p.m. Saturday on Channel 19. Tape it, watch it, show it at church: It's that good a show. Comedian Will Durst, a remarkably mild-mannered giant of a man, is our host. Durst earned notoriety earlier this year when, as a phone-a-friend on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," he gave the wrong answer and cost his friend $218,000. That's more money than the working stiffs we meet on "Livelyhood" probably make combined. This edition focuses on the night shift and the people who deprive themselves of sleep in search of an extra paycheck, a chance to move up the career ladder, or just to breathe the cold, damp air of freedom. These aren't folks who complain about slow commutes or long lines at the store. Heck, one of them - an emergency-room nurse - says she'd stay up all night even if she didn't have a night job. We get up at 2:28 a.m. with CNN anchor Carol Lin; drop in on a 24-hour kindergarten in Las Vegas; watch Internet gurus play video games and billiards at 4 a.m. - on company time, no less. There are great insights here, like the nighttime radio host who says he's glad he doesn't have to take calls from angry daytime listeners. But don't think this is all just earnest rah-rah for labor. There's a light touch to "Livelyhood" that's evident in the details. Listen for a particularly inspired use of the "Mod Squad" theme. >>>

Remote patrol

For the past two years, I've considered "Rude Awakening" to be Showtime's version of "Arli$$" - an unfunny adult comedy that some misguided soul saw the need to bring to pay cable. It makes fun of alcohol and drug abuse on a weekly basis, but the real sin is having three utterly unlikable leads: Sherilyn Fenn as the unrepentant druggie (but tidied up, without the bad teeth or hollowed-out eyes), Lynn Redgrave as her boozy mommie dearest and Jonathan Penner as the ex-flame who got a lot less interesting after he sobered up. But third season premiere at 9 tonight really turned me around. Part of it has to do with a new cast member: Mario Van Peebles as an old friend of Penner's who is separating from his wife. Through Van Peebles (who, unlike Penner, can act), we not only find a compassionate character, but a carrier of compassion, someone whose words make us care more about these other knuckleheads. Also, "Rude Awakening" appears to be getting away from the cheap sitcom laughs that made it so cringeworthy in the past. It's not that addiction is no laughing matter; anybody who says that has never mined the dark humor of a 12-step meeting. But without the human drama of addiction and recovery, we won't care, let alone laugh. "Rude Awakening" seems finally to be learning that lesson. @ART CAPTION:The 'Rude' crew (clockwise from left): Lynn Redgrave, Mario Van Peebles, Jonathan Penner and Sherilyn Fenn. @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Remote patrol

The adage that youth is wasted on the young just doesn't hold true for the "Class of 2000," featured at 7 tonight on TNN. This cavalcade of ambitious teen-age and 20-something country music stars includes 16-year-old starlet Jessica Andrews, 17-year-old veteran Alecia Elliott, the Clark Family Experience (six siblings, ages 16 to 26) and Plus One, an all-male quintet whose oldest member is 21. Taped this spring at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville - where most of these artists couldn't get served - "Class of 2000" is hosted by LeAnn Rimes, who got her big break at age 13, and young film hunk Andrew Keegan. Also tonight (at 9), Showtime unveils the TV-series version of the 1997 film "Soul Food." Eriq LaSalle of "ER" directed the premiere episode, which tracks the fortunes of three sisters in a tightly knit black family in Chicago. @ART CAPTION:Rimes and Keegan as the hosts of 'Class of 2000' @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Remote patrol

All this week, Showtime unveils new shows and fresh episodes of returning shows. At 9 tonight it's "Beggars and Choosers," the comedy TV critics are supposed to care about because it was created by the late, great NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff and brought to fruition by his widow, Lilly. Not coincidentally, some of the highlights of tonight's second-season premiere revolve around the marriage of TV executive Brian Kerwin and Isabella Hoffmann. Those moments, however, don't salvage the strained office comedy that takes place behind the scenes at a failing third-place TV network. In one scene, Kerwin's vapid lieutenants argue about which one passed on "The Sopranos" - a show that just happens to be on Showtime's rival, HBO. While I appreciate little insider jokes like this, I thought the ones on "The Larry Sanders Show" were a lot sharper, crueller and funnier. Alas for Showtime, that too was an HBO series. @ART CAPTION:Tuc Watkins (left), Charlotte Ross and Brian Kerwin in 'Beggars and Choosers' @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Remote patrol

MTV's newest cartoon, "Spy Groove" (9:30 tonight), poses the pop-culture question: Does Generation Y need its own Bond spoof? Does the world need another spy show, period? This bubblegum-colored series offers one up anyway. Our heroes are the ultra-generic Agent No. 1 and Agent No. 2 (their actual names). This week their job is to save Miami from imminent doom. But like nearly every animated show these days, "Spy Groove" is less story line than pop-culture mural. There are tributes to Charlie's Angels, the "Batman" TV series and director John Waters (he's the obvious inspiration for tonight's villain). This thing has the shelf life of strawberries - jokes about Ricky Martin and Steven Seagal, for starters - which means five years from now we'll still be watching reruns of "Daria" and "Beavis and Butt-Head," but not this. @ART CAPTION:Kickin' a groove with Agent No. 1 (left) and Agent No. 2. @ART:Photo (color) >>>

TV's educational efforts get so-so grades

Good morning, parents! Time for a Monday morning pop quiz about your children and their constant companion, the television set. Here goes. 1. Every local TV station airs at least how much educational TV per week? (a) one hour, (b) three hours, (c) seven hours, (d) 168 hours. 2. An example of an educational TV show: (a) "Oprah," (b) "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," (c) "7th Heaven," (d) "NBA Inside Stuff." 3. In a recent national poll, which of the following statements worried parents the most? (a) Television increases my kids' interest in sex. (b) TV increases their materialism. (c) TV decreases the time they spend reading. (d) "Millionaire" reduces the complexity of life to a set of multiple-choice questions. The correct, and perhaps surprising, answers are (b), (d) and (c). If you got the first two wrong, you're normal. The vast majority of parents are clueless on matters of educational TV, at least concerning the commercial TV stations, which are held to a higher standard than their cable or PBS counterparts. That's one of the findings of a new report being released today by the Walter Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The report also confirms the increasing importance of computers and the Internet for American families. Among the other findings: Children ages 2-17 spend an average of nearly 6 1/2 hours per day consuming media. Only 71 minutes of that total is spent with a book or newspaper. Almost half of families with children now have a TV, VCR, video-game machine and a computer at home. Three-fourths of computer-equipped families have online access, yet parents are much more worried about what their kids see on TV than what they find on the Internet. More than half of kids ages 8-16 have a TV in their bedroom. Of these, only 27 percent have a V-chip or other device that blocks out shows their parents might find objectionable. Only 11 percent of kids have Internet access in their bedrooms. Only 50 percent of parents surveyed were aware of the V-chip system, compared with 70 percent three years ago. The report also reiterated what other studies have found about the ratings that are seen at the start of virtually every show on television. When asked to identify the TV rating of a show their children watched, only 16 percent of adults got even one of 10 right. Overall, only 39 percent of parents used the ratings. By contrast, 80 percent of the same parents regularly use the MPAA ratings when selecting movies appropriate for their children. The MPAA ratings were created in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association of America, under the guidance of Jack Valenti, who also authored the TV ratings. "The MPAA ratings are very highly publicized and parents are comfortable with them, whereas the TV ratings aren't promoted, and it's hard to find them," said Emory H. Woodward, one of the co-authors of the Annenberg report. "The two ratings are very similar. They were pioneered by the same person. I can't imagine why, with equal promotion, the TV parental guidelines won't have the same success." The guidelines requiring commercial TV stations to set aside part of their schedules for educational programming were passed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1996. The commission's reform centered on the "three-hour rule," meaning three hours per week of high-quality, violence-free, educational fare. If a station didn't meet that quota, it would have a harder time getting its broadcast license renewed. But what qualified programs to be called "educational"? When would they be scheduled? How heavily should they be promoted? These crucial questions were left up to individual stations to decide. To get the answers, the Annenberg researchers analyzed "educational" shows currently on the air. They added in results from parent-and-child focus groups and from a national poll of 1,235 parents and 416 children conducted this spring by Roper Starch Worldwide. What all this told them about the impact of the three-hour rule, the researchers wrote, "is not encouraging." First, instead of acquiring brain-building shows that teach traditional skills - like "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and "Popular Mechanics for Kids" - stations more often went with nature or sports shows that had softer educational value but higher viewer appeal. The Annenberg researchers, working with an advisory panel of educators, gave high marks to the math and science shows, but programs with vague "pro-social" messages were nearly all rated "minimally" or "moderately" educational. Second, stations scheduled their educational programs in the early morning hours on weekends. Viewership is much higher in the hours after school and in prime time. And many stations did not aggressively promote the shows as educational, just as they did not promote the V-chip or the TV ratings. Each show qualifying under the three-hour rule displays a telltale "E/I"' logo (for "educational/informational") at the beginning of each episode. Yet the Annenberg Center study found only one in three parents could identify the logo. It's unclear how often, if ever, broadcasters air public-service announcements promoting the "E/I" logo, but a report earlier this year found that the four broadcast networks had devoted an average of 90 seconds per week to promoting the V-chip. The result, say Annenberg researchers, is parents can't tell which shows are "educational" and which are merely family-friendly. Seventy percent of parents, for example, guessed that "Millionaire" was an educational program. American Trivia 101 it may be, but the popular ABC game show doesn't count toward a station's three-hour quota. More than 70 percent of parents also thought "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "7th Heaven" were not only entertaining but actually taught lessons. And, frankly, who's to say they don't - especially when compared to an "educational" show like "Saved by the Bell"? To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:How educational are they? @ART:Graphic @ART CREDIT:The Kansas City Star >>>

Warning system still in a fog

The good news is that Kansas City's cable override system for tornado warnings is working again. The bad news is that the warnings still obliterate every TV signal in their path, including those of channels 4, 5, 9 and 41 - stations that presumably would be on the air covering the same storm. After Time Warner Cable's override system failed a routine test in May, city and cable officials combed the entire line that connects the emergency switch at City Hall with the cable company. They finally located a bent pin in a telephone jack at Time Warner Cable's end. Problem solved. Well, not quite. If you were watching Time Warner Cable on the afternoon of June 9, you know exactly when the warning system was tested. At that moment every channel turned to snow, and the audio suddenly buzzed with the disembodied, over modulated voice of the city official doing the test. This is what has broadcasters hopping mad. The idea that their six-figure Doppler radar systems and their well-paid weather people could be silenced - by a bureaucrat! "The idea of covering over Channel 9 with some sort of canned cable announcement is ridiculous," said KMBC, Channel 9, general manager C. Wayne Godsey. And potentially dangerous: During a tornado in Detroit last month, a faulty cable override blew out all local channels in 80,000 homes served by Time Warner Cable for 20 minutes. "It should be a concern to every citizen in the country because eventually lives are going to be lost," said Donald Hicks, the executive vice president of the Missouri Broadcasters Association. "Television and radio broadcasters invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment. In some cases the equipment is superior to the National Weather Service. To have that overridden in Kansas City, by information that's at best 30 minutes old - that's not a public service. That's a public disservice." Who gave cities the power to silence entire cable systems with the flip of a switch? It was the Federal Communications Commission, as part of a 1998 overhaul of its emergency preparedness guidelines. It's up to each community to request the new override equipment. Lee's Summit, Leavenworth and the two Kansas Citys are among those that have. When the switch is flipped, only cable subscribers in the affected community lose their channels. It's a cheap-and-dirty approach, as even Time Warner officials will concede. More sophisticated gear - something that would knock out the audio but not the video - would cost more money. Officials say the real purpose of local cable override isn't to horn in during severe storms, but to announce civil emergencies, like a toxic waste spill or (in Leavenworth's case) a jailbreak. Mike Karl, emergency manager for Kansas City, said he tries to keep announcements under 30 seconds. But because he gets bulletins from the National Weather Service "two minutes before the other stations have it," he wouldn't hesitate to use the cable override, he said, if he thought it would help Kansas Citians. "It's all about money," said a spokesman with the National Association of Broadcasters. "Cable doesn't want to install the (more expensive) equipment. In our view, this is the fault of the FCC for not understanding this issue." The feds beg to differ. "Some TV stations are excellent with weather," said a commission spokesman. "Others are not quite there all the time. It's best to handle this on a case-by-case basis." Scripps merger halted An industry magazine reported this week that E.W. Scripps Co., owner of channels 38 and 41, nearly merged with another broadcast group two weeks ago before calling it off. Broadcasting & Cable said the marriage of Scripps and LIN Television of Providence, R.I., would have created the 14th largest TV group in the country. (Scripps is currently 18th and LIN 24th.) You can blame this one on the FCC, too. A source told the magazine that Scripps backed out of the deal after the feds hinted that in the future they would be more lenient toward companies that owned both newspapers and TV stations. That means Scripps probably will be allowed to buy stations in cities where it owns papers - making it a much more lucrative company than it is now. And the winners KMBC, WDAF and KSHB took home Kansas City Press Club Heart of America awards for 1999 earlier this month. Channel 9 was recognized for best single newscast, photojournalism and public service project. Channel 4 claimed first place in breaking news coverage, feature story and sports. Channel 41 won in a competitive general-reporting category and in investigative reporting. The awards were judged by the Milwaukee (Wis.) Press Club. If you're wondering why no trophies went to KCTV, Channel 5, it's because the station didn't submit any entries. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com >>>

Remote patrol weekend

On paper, tonight's "Dateline NBC" (8, Channel 41) wouldn't seem worthy of a full hour of network TV time. It's about people whose medical claims were denied because the insurance company pulled a bureaucratic fast one. But by the end of this carefully explained report, it's clear this is much more than another story about patients up against a faceless and heartless insurance system. The maneuver is called a "paper review" and, as correspondent John Larson explains, few regulators he spoke to even knew it existed. Larson reports that insurance companies routinely use outside firms to review suspicious medical claims. They're called paper reviews because the doctor never sees the patient while conducting the review. Which can be a problem - especially when the doctor isn't a doctor, but a free-lance journalist filling in a few blanks from a template supplied by the review firm. Factor in a very slippery company president and two hard-luck cases of claim denial and you've got a surprisingly gripping hour of TV. @ART CAPTION:Larson @ART:Photo >>>

Remote patrol

"Turn Ben Stein On," as the title of this talk show suggests, and it may be hard to turn him off. A new set of shows featuring the self-absorbed game-show host debuts at 9:30 tonight on Comedy Central. Stein's guest is Drew Carey, who usually would have a lot to talk about except he's competing every step of the way with the host. Tonight hear Ben wax about a long-ago job at the Commerce Department, the virtues of flying first class, compliments paid to him by cute German girls and his childhood dream of running General Motors. Then hear him ask Carey such questions as, "Would you rather be a TV star or a Marine?" Also tonight A&E brings the Emmy-winning ABC series "Murder One" back to television at 8. The show's 23 first-season episodes will air Thursdays, including a never-before-seen episode Aug. 10. @ART CAPTION:Carey (left) with Stein @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Remote patrol

Can it be? Can the oldest survivor of them all - the hale but gruff ex-Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch - last yet another hour on the summer smash hit "Survivor" (7 tonight, Channel 5)? We'll find out. Already, 72-year-old Rudy can be proud, because he's outlasted 65-year-old Regis Philbin in his time period. Last week ABC yanked its Wednesday edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" after taking two straight beatings from "Survivor" in the Nielsen ratings. Others are taking notice of "Millionaire's" sudden change in fortunes. Last week David Letterman even had a "Top Ten Signs Regis Is Getting Nervous," which included, "Yells at slow contestants, 'Hurry up, Einstein, people are reaching for their clickers' " and "To pass $1,000 mark, players must eat handful of grubs." @ART CAPTION:Boesch @ART:Photo >>>

Newscast not for the weak or slow

AUSTIN, Texas - It's 2:50 p.m. and News 8 Austin reporter Haley Stavinoha has just arrived in an editing bay to assemble her next can-we-get-it-by-3:15 masterpiece. Stavinoha was up at the crack of dawn to drive 45 miles south of Austin to shoot a story about a juvenile boot camp. Now she's staring intently at the screen of a Pentium computer, electronically slicing and dicing her video of young toughs in fatigues doing push-ups.

At any other station in town, two-thirds of Stavinoha's job would be done by others. But at News 8 Austin, a 24-hour local news service of Time Warner Cable, the reporter does everything. She shoots herself talking into the camera. She edits her own piece and composes the on-screen graphics. She's a one-woman band.

Stavinoha came here from the CBS affiliate in Amarillo. There she had a photographer and could focus on her writing. Here she shoots - several stories a day sometimes - then edits and only then has time to tap out a few words on her editing terminal.

A common mantra in local cable-news circles is "twice the work, half the pay," so jobs at News 8 Austin tend to attract the young and inexperienced. An exception is Bob Branson. He's seated at the anchor's desk at the south end of News 8 Austin's state-of-the-art newsroom.

At a traditional station - he's worked at several around Texas - Branson would be assembling the 5 p.m. news right now. But here, the news is always on. So when Stavinoha's story arrives at 3:20, a few minutes late, her introduction and tagline are fed into the TelePrompTer, and Branson reads them right away. A director makes a video sandwich out of his words and her pictures, and the story slides into the computerized news rotation. It will air several times that afternoon. Stavinoha and her young colleagues are loading up on experience here.

And News 8 Austin's low-key, community-minded approach gives everyone a respite from the blood-and-guts of traditional TV news. "I think they work harder than their counterparts," says News 8 Austin general manager Brian Benschoter. "But if you want to go home feeling good about what you do, this is the place."

**Related story:** Nonstop news

Remote patrol

A terrific installment of "Crime Stories" (9 p.m., Court TV) tells the complicated and ultimately irresolvable story of the 1998 Wichita kidnapping case that involved four countries, three little boys, two faiths and one very unhappy marriage. Rhonda and Naji Shakhtur were a young couple when they faced the dilemma every interfaith couple confronts: How do we raise our children to respect the religious traditions of both parents? That question then got tangled in the family's declining fortunes. Once the family emigrated from Kansas to Jordan, where Islamic law and custom prevail, things took several turns for the worse. The first act of tonight's program is expertly scripted like a spy thriller as Rhonda tries to undo her mistake and return to Wichita. The legal drama that plays out afterward is no less riveting. It's an enlightening and, in some ways, morally ambiguous story about the rights of nations, religions, families and women. >>>

Nonstop news; Cable TV and online services keep the updates coming 24 hours a day

Time was when the news came to us at appointed hours: with the delivery of the morning paper or the 6 and 10 p.m. news on TV. But to people like Steve De Gennaro, any time is a good time for news. An information-systems manager for Stowers Institute and a self-described news junkie, De Gennaro logs on his computer at 6 each morning. By 7 he's scanned the online editions of more than a dozen newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Asbury Park Press (he's a New Jersey native) and this newspaper. Recently he added another notable bookmark to his Web browser: the Kansas City Channel of KMBC, Channel 9. That's notable because, until this year, the Web sites of Kansas City's local TV stations were practically dormant.

"The local news used to be four, five days old sometimes," De Gennaro said. In recent months, however, KMBC, KCTV, Channel 5 and KSHB, Channel 41, have invested heavily to turn their Web sites into full-service news kiosks that can be accessed "on demand," whenever and wherever people want the latest news, sports and weather. The operative word here is news-on-demand - and broadcasters aren't the only ones catching on to it.

In other cities, cable TV operators are launching their own 24-hour local news channels. These community CNN's specialize in news from around town, even around the corner. In Austin, Texas, Time Warner Cable is kitchen-testing an inexpensive new model for 24-hour cable news that it hopes eventually to launch in other Time Warner markets, including Kansas City. "The concept of news-on-demand is a cultural development we've been seeing for some time," said Steven Ackermann, executive news director of Texas Cable News. Indeed, one in three Americans is going online for news at least once a week, and 15 percent go there daily according to a just-released survey from the Pew Research Center.

And that, says Pew, accounts for the next statistic: Only 56 percent of people now watch local broadcast TV news regularly, down from 77 percent in 1993. In the face of this growing disinterest, TV stations are going to the Internet in the hope of connecting with their communities in new ways. When KMBC launched its Web site a few years back, De Gennaro wasn't impressed. But he changed his mind last month after seeing the redesigned site at www.kansascitychannel.com (or the much simpler kmbc.com). It's teeming with news stories - local, national and world - as well as entertainment news and up-to-the-minute sports.

"Web sites used to be an afterthought at most stations," said Channel 9 general manager C. Wayne Godsey. "But this is set up the way it should be." De Gennaro agrees. He says it offers him the best of both worlds, with all of the content he wants and none of the hype. "I'm not being led on for half an hour to get to this sports story," De Gennaro said. "This way I can control the commercials. I determine the content."

Like the sites on channels 5 and 41, the KMBC site attaches video footage to many of its stories. The video is usually taken from reports after they air. (Video can be viewed with a free software player; it helps to have a high-speed Internet connection supplied by Time Warner Cable, Comcast or various DSL providers in the Kansas City area.) KMBC's improved Web site is the result of a partnership between the station's owner and a dot-com specialist - Minnesota-based Internet Broadcasting Systems, or IBS.

Here's how it works: Web-site staff are at work in the KMBC newsroom from 5 a.m. to midnight. Using e-mail, they stay in contact with Minneapolis, where national editors gather stories from wire services and the 20 or so other IBS affiliates. The local editors also answer e-mail from users of the site, and monitor a discussion board (sample topic: "Tell Us What You Think About Gas Prices").

At KCTV, a similar arrangement with Internet company FasTV allows producers to turn Channel 5's newscasts into on-line on-demand text and video. Investigative reporter Stan Cramer has a big presence on the front page, as does health news, Doppler radar and "Crimestoppers." There's a section for KCTV's popular "Speakers Corner" series, and once football season begins in earnest, the broadcast home of the Chiefs promises "information and interaction you can't get anywhere else" on its Web site. The KCTV site also has a community section with a searchable events calendar and free classified ads.

Channel 41's Web site also lets users browse the various stories that aired on recent newscasts, then read the text of the story and watch the video. KSHB's site is mostly maintained offsite, by an Internet company called Zatso, though KSHB staff are on the phone throughout the day with Zatso editors in the Bay Area. Local cable news While Internet-based news is still relatively new, local cable news has been around since 1986, when it was introduced on Long Island, N.Y. Since then more than 30 such channels have sprung up around the country.

Today, even though local cable news is not in every community, an amazing 29 percent of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center say they watch a local cable news channel regularly. To understand their growing popularity, consider the local cable news channel that Time Warner Cable hatched last fall in Austin, Texas. News 8 Austin deliberately takes the soft-sell approach to news. No teasers; no "special reports" on "potential dangers" in your home. Just one story after another, in a seemingly endless cycle that is updated around the clock. And when it comes to covering "breaking news" live, News 8 Austin will cover everything from school board meetings to ribbon-cutting ceremonies, parades and fun runs. "

People ask, 'Gosh, isn't this (job) boring?"' said News 8 Austin's general manager Brian Benschoter. But like several other senior staffers, he's a refugee from broadcast news. "What's missing here is all the teases, the fake immediacy. When that's all peeled away, what you have is - the news."

Like most local cable news outlets, News 8 Austin is staffed mostly by recent college graduates and run on a shoestring. Reporters are required to run camera on their own stories, something almost unheard of in broadcast news. They also churn out stories in quantities that would make most broadcast reporters dizzy. But they're making an impact.

A survey of 21 local cable-news channels by Rocky Mountain Media Watch found that these outlets carried, on average, 15 percent less advertising and 20 percent more news. Moreover, the news was likely to be less violent and more substantive than the news on local broadcast stations. The goal, according to Benschoter, is to make News 8 Austin so indispensable that people will subscribe to cable just to have it. It's not offered to satellite or broadcast TV. Time Warner officials in Kansas City have already applied for a 24-hour news franchise of their own. But last week, their corporate bosses in Connecticut would say only that it was Time Warner's plan "to have a channel in every market where we have a major presence."

**Related story:** Newscast not for the weak or slow

Remote patrol

Comedy Central's "premiere week" continues tonight with a new "Strangers With Candy" (9 p.m.). Amy Sedaris returns as Jerri Blank, a 40-something high school student and ex-drug addict, in what is probably the strangest sitcom on TV. Tonight's episode is the first of a two-parter in which Jerri joins a cult. There are several effective running gags here, one involving school principal Blackman (Greg Hollimon), who has his own Leninish cult of personality. That's followed by "The League of Gentlemen" (9:30 p.m.), a British import and the object of a perplexing (to me) level of positive buzz. Three men perform all the major roles (including women's) on this show, situated in the screwball English village of Royston Vasey. There are exactly two big laughs in this half-hour show. The rest is mirthless dialogue that obviously was designed to sound as bizarre as possible. The result, to my ear, is rehashed Python with dirty jokes mixed in. Also all this week on cable, E! welcomes celebrity guest hosts to its long-running, and currently host-less, "Talk Soup" (7 p.m., E!). Kevin Nealon, last seen on "Saturday Night Live," leads off the week. Jennie Garth, Ben Stein, Harland Williams and Cybill Shepherd will drop by later. >>>

Remote patrol weekend

Is it me or does it seem like ABC is squirreling away this year's ALMA Awards? The ALMAs, sponsored by the National Council of La Raza, is the only televised English-language program honoring Hispanic achievements in the arts. It's typically taped in April and shown in May. But this year's broadcast is airing 8 p.m. Saturday on Channel 9, making it the latest and arguably most obscure airdate since they were renamed the ALMA awards in 1998. (By comparison, the Essence Awards, honoring black achievement, aired on Fox in May, right at the end of the TV season.) The entertainers of the year - no surprise here - are Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez. As usual, several pairings of Hispanic and non-Hispanic performers highlight this year's presentation, including rockers Beck and Ozomatli and singers Jon Secada and Reba McEntire. >>>

Remote patrol

There are awards shows and then there are TV variety shows not so well-disguised as awards shows. "The TNN Music Awards" (7 p.m., TNN) clearly falls into the latter category. With a new sponsor (Country Weekly magazine) but the same old host (comedian Jeff Foxworthy), this awards show will present about as many musical numbers as trophies. Among those set to perform: Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers, Faith Hill, Lonestar, Clint Black, Jo Dee Messina, the Wilkinsons and Mark Wills. The show airs live. Also tonight, "VH1 Legends" (9 p.m., VH1) profiles Neil Young, a recording artist who has all the hardware he needs. That's followed at 10 by "Silver & Gold," a new concert film based on Young's recent CD of the same name. @ART CAPTION:Neil Young @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Remote patrol

As Regis Philbin and his "$64,000 Question" remake have proven, the best game-show concepts are usually the oldest. Now comes another case in point: Lifetime's "Who Knows You Best?" (8 and 8:30 a.m.), in which "The Newlywed Game" meets "The Girlfriends." The concept couldn't be simpler. Two women who've known each other for years are asked to predict how the other would respond to various questions. The questions run from the mundane ("ice cream or fat-free yogurt?") to the embarrassing ("During which presidential administration did X lose her virginity?"). Three teams compete; the pair that score the most points play in a lightning round. The prizes aren't much, either - certainly no $1 million jackpot. But "Who Knows You Best?" is highly watchable nonetheless, thanks to contestants who don't take themselves too seriously and a great host, Gina St. John, who's deft with the ad libs. >>>

Oh, rats!; Mission Hills man admits his 'Survivor' strategy backfired

Andersen would like you to know two things: He really didn't mean it when he told his fellow "Survivor" contestants to kick him off the island. And there's nothing wrong with washing your shirt in a cooking pot. As a television audience of more than 18 million looked on Wednesday night, Andersen said his farewell to "Survivor," the tropical adventure game show that has riveted America and made sudden celebrities out of the 16 castaways competing for the show's $1 million prize. It was a night they won't soon forget. While we watched, they bit the heads off fat, squirming, beetle larvae, then ate the remains. The first team that stopped eating the live 3-inch delicacies had to vote one of their clan out of the game. It was also an odd night. For two episodes of "Survivor," Andersen, a retired contractor from Mission Hills, had been shown toiling nonstop on the team's camp. He took on strenuous tasks, putting up the fort practically by himself. He was resourceful, helping to make a campfire without matches and finding the island's water hole. Then he stunned his teammates by telling them that their "strategy" should be to send him home - a request they reluctantly granted. Why, B.B., why? That was the question that came up again and again on Thursday, as Andersen made the talk-show rounds in New York to discuss the previous night's episode. (Remember, "Survivor" was filmed in March and April, with the outcomes kept secret until air time. So Andersen has been off the island for more than two months.) "That was an impulsive statement at the time," Andersen said on a cell phone from New York in between interviews. "After reflecting on it I realized I was too hasty." Hasty - and perhaps driven to distraction by some of his teammates. Andersen clearly thought they weren't pulling their weight around the island and said so on camera. Frequently. Andersen seemed particularly contemptuous of Ramona, a 28-year-old biochemist from New Jersey who was frequently sick in the first days after the contestants were dropped on the island off the coast of Malayasian Borneo. In last week's episode, Ramona was often seen resting in a shady area, an image the show's producers liked to contrast with that of Andersen slaving away under the hot sun. He called her "the laziest member" of the team. "I sort of precipitated some of that myself," Andersen said. "In hindsight, I wasn't as gentle as I should've been with some people. But I perceived it - and I think rightly so - as a life-and-death situation, (as if) we were all there by ourselves. Not all the people felt that way. They were lackadaisical because they knew CBS wouldn't let them die." Other nonrealistic aspects of the so-called "reality" program bothered Andersen. When the rival camp failed to get a fire going the first night on the island, CBS gave them matches. "Which didn't make me too happy," he said. His beef wasn't with the network or "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett ("he has more integrity than anyone I've known in my life," Andersen said). Rather, it was with the "lack of a work ethic" among the castaways, most of whom were half his age of 64 or younger. Then there was that argument on Wednesday's "Survivor" over his decision to wash his dirty shirt in the camp's soup kettle. "You need to sterilize your cookware," Andersen explained, "otherwise 10 minutes after we set down the pot we (would) have bugs or rats in it." By boiling water in it, he got out the germs - and cleaned his shirt in the bargain. In hindsight, Andersen admits he bailed from the competition too soon. He called his brief stay on the "Survivor" island "one of the highlights of my life mainly because I've met a lot of interesting, good people." Looking ahead, Andersen, who is married and has an 11-year-old daughter, is eager to resume his real-life adventures. He's heading off to Mexico soon, with another expedition planned over the winter. "Next January or February we'll go down to South America on our motorcycles and just drive around a while," Andersen said. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:B.B. Andersen @ART CAPTION:Below: Some of the survivors eat a meal of rice on Pulau Tiga. @ART CAPTION:Above: Sixty-four-year-old B.B. Andersen, a retired contractor from Mission Hills, practically put up his team's island fort by himself. @ART CREDIT:MONTY BRINTON/CBS @ART:Photos (3, color and b/w) >>>

Remote patrol

As Regis Philbin and his "$64,000 Question" remake have proven, the best game-show concepts are usually the oldest. Now comes another case in point: Lifetime's "Who Knows You Best?" (8 and 8:30 a.m.), in which "The Newlywed Game" meets "The Girlfriends." The concept couldn't be simpler. Two women who've known each other for years are asked to predict how the other would respond to various questions. The questions run from the mundane ("ice cream or fat-free yogurt?") to the embarrassing ("During which presidential administration did X lose her virginity?"). Three teams compete; the pair that score the most points play in a lightning round. The prizes aren't much, either - certainly no $1 million jackpot. But "Who Knows You Best?" is highly watchable nonetheless, thanks to contestants who don't take themselves too seriously and a great host, Gina St. John, who's deft with the ad libs. >>>

New technology gives old format a home; KC radio isn't in the mood for easy-listening, but cable and Web are

Since KFEZ-AM (1340) dropped its easy-listening "Music of Your Life" last month for a contemporary Christian format, dozens of older listeners have called or written in expressing their consternation. "The worst thing to happen to me in 70 years," wrote chiropractor Thomas Wright of Merriam. "My car and home radio have become silent," echoed Ted Geisert, 76, of Overland Park, who wishes "some radio executive out there (would) understand that there is a large audience waiting for a return to this kind of programming." But whether Glenn Miller, Peggy Lee and Ol' Blue Eyes will be back on Kansas City radio anytime soon isn't clear. Jones Radio Network, the company that syndicates the "Music of Your Life" service to more than 200 radio stations, is in talks with at least two local stations. A spokesman for the Englewood, Colo.-based company declined to name the interested stations. But she added, "Tell (your readers) to stay tuned and it will be there shortly." Sure. And if we wait a little longer, we'll also get a real progressive-rock station and a "24-hour news channel" that actually does 24-hour news. But thanks to technology, you have other ways of tuning in your favorite music sounds. These are alternatives not just for ex-listeners of KFEZ (now renamed KCKN), but for anyone frustrated with the mediocrity and lack of choices on Kansas City's airwaves. The cheapest and most accessible - provided you have a home computer and online access - is Internet radio. Through your Web browser you can listen to thousands of radio stations around the world. Yahoo Broadcast (www.broadcast.com) and Real Networks (www.real.com) have links to many of them. At www.musicofyourlife.com you can hear the same programming KFEZ used to carry in streaming audio. Of course, you also get Wink Martindale and all those commercials, too. To do your listening this way, your computer must be capable of playing audio files from the Internet. Free versions of Real's RealPlayer and Microsoft's Windows Media-Player (www.microsoft.com) are available at their Web sites. And while it's not mandatory, it helps to have high-speed Internet access from a cable or DSL provider. More than 15,000 area homes do. For listeners who subscribe to cable or satellite TV, there's another inexpensive solution. Time Warner Cable and Comcast offer Music Choice, a terrific audio service with dozens of different music channels, including "Big Band," "Singers & Standards" and "Easy Listening." Unlike the syndicated "Music of Your Life," these services are commercial-free and are delivered with rich, CD-quality sound. You can listen through your TV set or pipe it into your stereo system. Time Warner Cable includes Music Choice on its digital cable service ($7.20/month), as does Comcast ($9.95/month). The two leading satellite-TV providers, DirecTV and EchoStar, also offer high-quality audio channels including big band, standards and elevator music. OK, but you want this in your car as well. You've played your Henry Mancini tapes to death. You'd like some variety. Help is on the way. It's called digital satellite radio. With a small antenna and a modified AM/FM tuner, you'll be able to pull in 100 music and information stations in CD-quality sound. And their signals won't fade out anywhere in the continental United States. XM Radio and Sirius, the companies planning to offer satellite radio, hope to be on the air in 2001. Subscriptions will run about $10 a month, and several home and car radio manufacturers have announced they will make satellite radio receivers. If this had been six months ago, I also would've steered easy-listening fans to Topeka's KTOP-AM (1490). Alas, it too dumped the format in January in favor of "classic country." This raises the question: What is happening to all the nostalgia stations? Are they dying off? Are their listeners dying off? Not at all, say industry insiders I spoke to this week. (KFEZ co-owner Bill Johnson didn't return a phone call seeking comment.) The kind of music KFEZ used to play can reach a sizable niche audience. But because most of those listeners are 55 or older, they make a tough sell to advertisers, many of whom favor listeners ages 18-54. For years KFEZ has consistently lagged far behind the leading Kansas City radio stations in ratings. It ranked 19th in the winter Arbitron ratings, the most recent quarter for which ratings are available. KFEZ had only about half as many listeners as the 18th-place station, WHB-AM (810). And sports-talk WHB had something KFEZ didn't: young male listeners. Advertisers love young male listeners. Tough luck for old male listeners like Bill Zimmer, 80, of Kansas City, Kan. "They're not destitute for Christian stations around here; there's five or six of them," Zimmer said. "Now I'm stuck with cassettes." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:An artist's rendition of the digital satellite car radio, which may be on the market by 2001 @ART:Graphic (color illustration) @ART CREDIT:XM Satellite Radio Inc. >>>