Fanfare for two uncommon broadcasters; TV news here owes much to Dorsey and McDonald

You could practically chart the history of Kansas City television news through the careers of Claude Dorsey and Mike McDonald. Dorsey, who passed away last week at the age of 86, was KMBC's first news anchor. Later, as Channel 9's news director, he made it the city's dominant news station. McDonald, whose last day at WDAF is today, restored Channel 4 to broadcast excellence in the late 1970s and kept it there while surviving some of the most brutal conditions a TV station has ever faced. The two never competed as news directors - Dorsey left his post in 1977 and McDonald was promoted the following year - but it's probably just as well. For those who knew them say that each was a man uniquely suited for his era. The year was 1939. Just two years before, CBS had begun airing Edward R. Murrow's reports from gloomy London, launching the age of broadcast journalism. Claude Dorsey was fresh out of the University of Kansas when KMBC radio hired him. Dorsey became KMBC news director in 1951 and, when the TV station signed on in 1953, added the same duties there. Running two news departments in those days wasn't hard. In 1960, when Jim Overbay joined Channel 9, he looked around the newsroom and counted just seven other employees besides himself. WDAF was king of the airwaves until the mid-1960s, at which point the station's new owners began to spend less on its newscasts while its rivals began to spend more. KMBC's owner, Metromedia, was part of a wave of progressive-minded station groups that realized local news could be more than just a public service - the news could make money. Big money. Claude Dorsey got his orders to start building a competitive newsroom. Overbay, who became Dorsey's assistant news director, said KMBC was the first to hire full-time newscast producers. Dorsey pepped up the look and feel of Channel 9 news. He assigned more human-interest stories and began pushing the crime and fire news further down in the newscast. And, said Overbay, "there weren't any consultants telling us to do it." The list of people Dorsey hired reads like a who's who of Kansas City TV: Charles Gray, Fred Broski, Don Fortune, Cheryl Jones, Len Dawson, Stan Carmack, Bob Werly. And, in 1968, a small-town newspaper editor named Larry Moore. "He basically taught me to cover the news," Moore said this week. "But he also taught me that, more than just covering the news, you had to be involved in the community." Moore recalled being called in for a lengthy meeting with Dorsey after Moore tried to skip an appearance at a United Way luncheon. "Someday," Dorsey told him, "you'll find that a United Way meeting is as important to your job as covering the news." "Wiser words were never spoken," Moore said. After resigning as news director, Dorsey remained the official voice of the station, delivering its on-air editorials into the 1980s and writing them well into the 1990s. Longevity bestowed on him the status of elder stateman, and he looked and acted the part. No one ever recalls seeing Dorsey without a jacket, shirt and tie on. "He was very much a gentleman," said broadcast historian William James Ryan. "He had a lot of respect from all the newspeople around town." "We don't see many people like Claude Dorsey today," said Overbay, who went on to serve 12 years as KCTV's news director. "I don't think I ever once heard him raise his voice or utter a four-letter word." No one will ever say that about Mike McDonald. But then, McDonald may have needed more fire in the belly to survive two terms as WDAF's news director, from 1978 to 1988 and 1990 to 2002. The station was languishing in third place in local news before McDonald's demanding leadership style turned its fortunes around. In the late 1970s, WDAF's new general manager, Earl Beall, promoted McDonald, who had joined the station in 1973, and gave him the resources needed to grab the mantle back from Channel 9. McDonald hired or promoted young talent - including future institutions Phil Witt and Frank Boal - and pushed them relentlessly to do their best. "Mike usually preferred using the stick to the carrot," said one of his hires, anchorman Bob Thill. McDonald promoted Cynthia Smith from weather girl to the anchor desk. Scripts were typed on carbon copies back then, and McDonald always got the green copy. "I used to dread going into work in the mornings," Smith recalled, "because I would see that green paper sitting on my typewriter and his blue pencil marks all over it." But the lessons took hold, and McDonald stopped leaving the green sheets on her desk. "He could be intimidating, no question," Smith said. "But he was the best teacher I ever had." In 1994 the mid-sized broadcaster that owned WDAF was swallowed up by a global media company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and Channel 4 became a Fox station. With the loss of hours of NBC programs, McDonald was told to ramp up the number of newscasts. WDAF now broadcasts about 50 hours per week of news, believed to be the most anywhere in the country. Walk into Channel 4's midtown studios and, where the framed pictures of four lead anchors once hung, there are more than a dozen. "There's no doubt personalities are still important," McDonald said. "What's changed is that the audience is putting equal emphasis on content and the availability of that content." McDonald will also be remembered for his role in the aftermath of an abduction and murder at Crown Center in 1994. A tourist had taken a video of the kidnapping and sold it to WDAF. When Jackson County prosecutors demanded the tape, McDonald refused. This resulted in a bizarre standoff: Police blockaded the entrance to Channel 4, preventing anyone from coming or going while a judge issued a search warrant. Inside, McDonald debated constitutional law with Ted Koppel on "Nightline" - airing on a different station. WDAF later sued the county, but a judge ruled against the station. By then McDonald was mired in the transition to Fox and a bigger news department. In an interview this week he said he wished he'd had time to appeal the ruling because "there were some unrecognized merits on our side." Since the transition McDonald has become more of a CEO, delegating day-to-day functions to a layer of executive producers. He said it has gotten progressively harder to instill his core values in young hires. He has told friends he would like to retire someday and teach. And now it seems he has the perfect excuse: to avoid a family conflict of interest. His wife, Cheryl, who is general sales manager for WDAF, is rumored to be the front-runner for the general manager's job. What advice would McDonald give to his successor - who, if recent history is any guide, will probably be hired from out of town? Know your audience, he said: "The defining characteristic of the Kansas City audience is that they're sincere. You can't fool them with a lot of bells and whistles or tabloid stories." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Claude Dorsey; Mike McDonald @ART:Photos (2) CORRECTION: In a report in today's FYI section, the full name of WDAF-TV vice president for sales Cheryl Kerns McDonald was omitted. She is the wife of outgoing WDAF vice president for news Mike McDonald. The FYI section is printed in advance.