Reporter to retire from job at KCTV; Change in routine led to Gosa's exit

One of Kansas City's longest-serving broadcast reporters and a pioneer for local minority journalists is retiring from KCTV, Channel 5. Geri Gosa, who has worked 29 years as a general assignment reporter for KCTV, will leave the station after this weekend. Earlier this year Channel 5 news director Regent Ducas had moved Gosa from weekdays to a Wednesday-through-Sunday routine. That, in part, prompted her decision. "With all of the changes going on here, it was a good time," Gosa said. KCTV has been under pressure to revive advertising revenues by appealing to younger viewers. Its newscasts generally rate third or fourth in advertiser-friendly age groups, such as men in their 30s. Many of the station's veteran reporters and anchors left last summer when parent company Meredith Corp. offered an early-retirement package. Gosa, however, declined the package. In an interview Friday, she said it was not financially enticing enough for her to have quit last year. A story in Friday's edition of The Call reported that Gosa had been forced out of her position and that she had been given 60 days' notice. Ducas called the report nonsense, noting that retirement was Gosa's idea and that she and Ducas had been discussing it throughout August. Gosa also denied these details in The Call story. The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists has been closely monitoring KCTV's handling of its minority talent. The group's president, Anita Parran, wrote general manager Kirk Black earlier this year following Ducas' decision to assign Gosa and former weeknight anchor Dee Griffin to less prestigious weekend positions. Parran said the association had expressed concern about Griffin and Gosa. She said Black had replied, citing unspecified "business reasons" for moving Griffin and Gosa. "There wasn't a lot of detail" in Black's letter, Parran said, "but we were glad that he at least acknowledged our concerns." Black was on vacation and could not be reached for comment Friday. In 1997 the association honored Gosa and Kansas City Star religion editor Helen Gray with the group's first lifetime achievement awards. Gosa and Gray once were colleagues at The Star, where Gosa worked after graduating from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg. In Gosa's last story for the newspaper, in December 1972, she reported on the declining health of Harry S. Truman; her first story for KCTV was on Truman's funeral. In a business that can be notoriously fickle toward talent, particularly female talent, Gosa's longevity earned her accolades and respect. "Someone came up to me just the other day and said they wanted to be like me," Gosa said. "That's wonderful. I guess it's because I've been visible so long." Her immediate plans include "some serious volunteer work" and indulging in her favorite pastime. "I'm going to shoot a lot of pool," she said. "I think more people know me around town from shooting pool than from television." Gosa is the second on-air talent to leave KCTV this month. Krista Klaus' last day was Aug. 7. She cited family reasons, Ducas said. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:Gosa @ART:Photo

Working poor deserve a better special

You'd be surprised how many books cross the TV critic's desk. No fewer than six are sitting on mine as I write, including reissues of Farewell, My Lovely (to promote an upcoming Raymond Chandler marathon on Turner Classic Movies) and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (soon to be "an A&E Original Movie," the cover says). I'm also in receipt of The Psychology of "The Sopranos": Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family, which reminds me to remind you that they really are coming back. Soon. I promise. A&E did not send along the books featured in "Wage Slaves: Not Getting By in America," its two-hour special at 8 tonight. In this case the books are better than the show, though I'm glad to see Bill Kurtis covering the often-overlooked scandal of the "working poor," those millions of Americans who struggle to support their families on $7-an-hour jobs. The working poor live in what author Barbara Ehrenreich calls a "state of chronic desperation," battered by the "relentless low-level punishment" of spending hours on their feet, taking orders, ringing up sales, fluffing pillows, scrubbing sinks. Ehrenreich found out how physically and mentally demanding such employment could be when she spent two years in various minimum-wage positions while trying to make ends meet. The result was a splendid book, Nickel and Dimed, on which "Wage Slaves" is largely based. Besides Ehrenreich, the program features another writer, Eric Schlosser. His book Fast Food Nation cast a searing light on the restaurant industry, which profits off unskilled labor like few others. Schlosser's and Ehrenreich's books are both in paperback and worth reading; their authors have so much more to say than they do here. Much of "Wage Slaves" is spent triple-underscoring the plight of wage slaves. Less time is spent probing how they could be set free. Worse, an entire segment is frittered away pointlessly blaming welfare reform for the problem. Peter Edelman, that old liberal warhorse, gets plenty of camera time to denounce welfare-to-work schemes, while the dissenting view isn't given to an actual welfare-reform advocate like Mickey Kaus, but puzzlingly to arch-conservative Walter Williams. Williams probably never met a government program he liked. Anyway, solving the problem of the working poor has little to do with welfare and more to do with a living wage, universal health care, the earned income credit, things that aren't so easy to explain on television. Perhaps inevitably, "Wage Slaves" has reduced a complex issue to familiar conflicts (left vs. right) and familiar narratives (Americans down on their luck). Still, I'm hopeful that at least a few viewers will be sufficiently stirred by what they see here to check out the recommended reading. The quicker clicker "The Anna Nicole Smith Show," new episodes airing 9 p.m. Sunday, E!. By promoting and rerunning this "reality" show almost nonstop, E! hasn't generated a hit so much as a disturbing feedback loop in which critics' legitimate concerns about the star's well-being are drowned out by the obnoxious "Anna Nicole" jingle, which every few seconds coos, "You're so outrageous!" Thing is, she's not. "Anna Nicole" doesn't resemble "The Osbournes," to which it is often compared, so much as the atrophying "Jerry Springer," with its jaded, well-rehearsed performers mixing it up on cue. As for Anna, her slurred, babylike speech suggests either substance abuse or brain damage - either way, watching makes you her enabler. "Trigger Happy TV," 9:30 p.m., Comedy Central. In this frenetic import, British funnyman Dom Joly carries "Candid Camera" to extremes. He simply throws one absurdist gag after another on the screen: walking a stuffed dog through a park, conversing loudly on an enormous cell phone, going ballistic in yoga class, and so on. Joly usually works alone, though sometimes he ropes in an unsuspecting passerby, like the poor chap who appears in the opening to this week's episode. It's a brilliant stunt that pays off in a matter of seconds, so don't be late. "The Guns of Will Sonnett," 3 a.m. weekdays, KMCI. This Aaron Spelling-Danny Thomas production that aired from 1967 to 1969 was recently added to Channel 38's graveyard shift. Walter Brennan, still terrific in his 70s, played an aging gunslinger who roamed the West looking for an on-the-lam son. Dack Rambo played Brennan's grandson-sidekick. Tape this show while you can; Channel 38 plans to shelve it next month. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. RECOMMENDED SHOWS "Wage Slaves," 8 tonight, A&E. Still worth seeing despite my reservations (see today's column). "Trigger Happy TV," 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Comedy Central. "Guns of Will Sonnett," 3 a.m. overnights, KMCI, Channel 38. Aaron Barnhart's TV column moves to Tuesday beginning Sept. 3. His "recommended shows" will continue to appear here.

Recommended shows

"Candice Checks It Out" (8:30 p.m. Sunday, Oxygen, Channel 73, Time Warner Cable). Candice Bergen drops in on thrill-seeking women in this edition of a slick new show, her second for the Oxygen channel. And she indeed checks it out, joining a brash street luger on a high-speed ride I wouldn't dare try. I haven't seen Candice this unhinged since her guest-host days on the original "Saturday Night Live." "30 Seconds to Fame" (7 p.m. Wednesday, Fox 4). I love this little mixed-nuts talent show with a new act every half minute. You get the screaming aria without the buildup, and the two jokes that kill without the 20 that don't. Besides, how long do you need to watch a woman on stilts jumping rope?

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.

KCPT slashes staff, show; Key sources of funding dry up

Crunched by severe shortfalls in fund raising, government support and viewership, public television station KCPT on Thursday made even deeper cuts in its work force and local programming. Station president Bill Reed said four staffers were laid off and five vacant positions eliminated in the second round of reductions this year at KCPT, which, like other public television stations, has been hit hard by the slowing economy and the Sept. 11 attacks. With Thursday's news, KCPT has eliminated 26 positions, or 27 percent of its staff, so far this year. Also announced Thursday was the cancellation of the popular public-affairs series "Ruckus," which joins two occasional programs that were canceled earlier in the year. For Reed, who has been a public television executive for 35 years, Thursday's announcement culminated what he called "the toughest year of my professional life." "When you have to fire someone for performance, it's hard," Reed said. "But when you have to lay off hard-working and loyal employees because of budget shortfalls - I've never had to do that before." Those affected say the cutbacks caught them by surprise. "This was the first I had any inkling of it," said Mike Shanin, the KMBZ newscaster and host of "Ruckus," which recently marked its seventh anniversary. "I'm disappointed that this happened," Shanin said, "but I understand the factors that were involved." For the station's top managers, however, Thursday's announcement was something they saw coming for months. By January it had become clear that pledge money and government grants would fall far short of the $8.7 million needed to meet the 2002 budget. In March, 16 persons were laid off and the position of vice president for marketing and development was eliminated when that person resigned. At that point the board reduced the budget to $8.3 million. Now, with the last major pledge drive of the fiscal year set to begin this weekend, Reed said he is looking at an even lower figure, perhaps $8.1 million. With Thursday's reductions, KCPT will have an operating budget in 2003 of just $7.1 million. Its outreach programs in Missouri and Kansas public schools will be sliced by more than $100,000. The advertising budget will be zero. Voice-overs that had been done by an outside announcer will be handled in-house. KCPT Magazine will become a bimonthly. The station will not subscribe to Nielsen ratings. The most visible change, though, will be the loss of local programs. Though Reed emphasized that "Ruckus" is on temporary hiatus, he could not say when it might return. ("Kansas City Week in Review," which has sufficient underwriting, will remain on the air.) In addition, the station's newly formed endowment for local programming, named for former KCPT producer John Masterman, is on hold for lack of funds. KCPT has funding partners for a number of specials, including election-related programming. Its adult education program KC REACHE is not affected. The occasional "Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" will go on. "I don't want people to feel we're shutting down operations, because we're not," said Reed. "I'm hoping that many of these are temporary changes until we can get the cash flow going again." That cash comes from a multitude of sources. Unfortunately for KCPT - and many other public TV stations nationwide - several key sources dried up all at once: The Sept. 11 attacks affected charitable giving to nonprofit organizations, including public television. KCPT's membership rolls are down 10 percent this year, which is crucial because member giving is by far the station's No. 1 source of support. The state of Missouri's own budget woes affected Channel 19. The station was expecting a $250,000 payment this summer from the state's permanent trust fund for the arts. That money was withheld as Missouri tried to make ends meet. The Sept. 11 attacks also wiped out a September 2001 pledge weekend, which station officials expected to raise $150,000. Ironically, Channel 19's recent capital campaign - the most successful in its history - probably had a short-term effect on membership. Nonprofit experts say it's not uncommon for an organization to see a falloff in annual giving after a highly publicized capital drive. The economic slowdown caused local companies to scale back their underwriting and their gifts to KCPT's fund-raising auctions. PBS failed to deliver on a promise, made last year by its president, Pat Mitchell, to increase viewership and membership at its member stations. Ratings for KCPT are down, and public TV stations are losing members across the country. All this has added up to a terrible year for public TV. So far this summer Chicago's WTTW-TV has cut 15 jobs, KERA-TV in Dallas is down 36 positions, and South Carolina ETV has eliminated 13 jobs. In Topeka, KTWU general manager Eugene Williams said he anticipates no layoffs or budget reductions, thanks to pledge drives this year that helped the station meet its budget. Going forward, however, he said modest pay raises would be the only increases next year. "We're just being real conservative in the way we plan," Williams said. Over on public broadcasting's other medium, however, it has been a very different story since Sept. 11. Public radio listenership is up. So are memberships and giving. Stations like KCUR-FM (89.3) are hiring people and adding local programs, not the opposite. KCUR and KTWU have one major advantage over Channel 19: They're located on the campuses of universities, which absorb many operating and personnel expenses. But clearly, listeners are responding to the unique voice of National Public Radio and KCUR's locally produced news, talk and music programs. The station's spring fund-raising drive goal was an ambitious $300,000. Listeners pledged $330,000. "I think it's because there's not much out on the radio dial that's like us," said general manager Patricia Deal Cahill. "Our listeners appreciated our in-depth coverage (of Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism) instead of the same pictures of an airplane and a building." - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:KCPT revenues @ART:Graphic @ART CREDIT:GENTRY MULLEN/The Kansas City Star

Video wars; Couch potatoes have more choices than ever; luckily, it's hard to make a bad one>Digital battle waging in the home theater

Remember when shopping for television sets meant deciding between the 19-inch and 27-inch model? When stepping up to better video meant chucking the cable TV and buying a satellite dish? How 1996. Thanks to technological innovation and falling prices, consumers today are being tempted by dozens of gizmos designed to make their TV watching more enjoyable. Home theater - that erstwhile luxury of videophiles - has become affordable to the masses. DVDs and TiVo have ganged up to make your VCR virtually obsolete. That's the good news. Now the rub: All these choices have made buying a TV as brain-racking as buying a PC. Do you go for widescreen or stick with the square-shaped projection set? Is progressive-scan DVD worth the extra money? If you can afford only one, do you get SurroundSound or a digital video recorder? And where do you keep all the remotes? Despite, or perhaps because of, all the choices, viewers are upgrading their TVs. Around Kansas City, dealers and installers of home theater systems report brisk sales. At least one dealer, George Wilson of Independence Audio & Video, traces the upswing to the 9/11 attacks, when people began stocking up on cocoon comforts. The market has even reeled in some reluctant buyers. Carole Damon of south Kansas City decided to trade in her 35-inch TV for a projection TV "in lieu of getting bifocals." Though she wasn't keen on spending a four-figure sum on a TV, Damon now admits she's loving it. Recently she added a nifty device to her new system - and this one didn't cost anything. Time Warner Cable selected some of its customers, including Damon and her two children, to beta-test a new video-on-demand system. Damon was told that the system, called On Demand, would be more convenient than pay-per-view - which she rarely used - because she could order the movie whenever she liked and start watching immediately. On Demand also lets Damon pause, fast-forward and rewind through a movie just like a DVD. Best of all, because the movie comes through her digital cable box, there's no video to return. On Demand is rolling out to all Time Warner Cable homes this month, so Damon will have to pony up $4 for each movie she wants to watch from now on. But as she sees it, she still saves money compared with the four-mile drive to the video store. "We have pretty much kept Blockbuster in business over the years with late fees," she says. Other consumers, like Carol Plummer of Overland Park, not only want convenience but a premium picture. For $1,900 - hundreds more than Damon paid for her big screen - Plummer bought an HDTV, or high-definition television, set. Compared with conventional displays, HDTV sets have more lines of video, so they produce sharper pictures. Plummer also sprang for a progressive-scan DVD player, which can cost twice as much as standard DVD players but is optimal for HDTV sets. Next Plummer traded in her old cable box for one that carries high-definition versions of HBO, Showtime and other channels. She recently caught an HDTV program airing on KCPT's digital Channel 18 and declared the picture quality "absolutely fantastic." High-definition TV is one of those things consumers have been hearing about for years. But most people haven't seen HDTV, except for a fleeting glance while passing through an electronics showroom. In fact, most of what airs on the high-def channels of HBO and Showtime isn't high-definition. So is buying a high-def system worth the added expense if there's not much HDTV to watch? Just ask Maurice Rosga, owner of a sleek, 69-inch Sony widescreen high-definition TV that comes with a stack of components 5 feet high. It's a home theater fit for a king. Rosga had it built into the framework of his custom-designed, 6,600-square-foot home in south Overland Park last year. Speakers throw booming SurroundSound to the back of his huge entertainment room. When Rosga watches the "Saving Private Ryan" DVD on his system, he says, "It's like the bullets are flying right by your ears." Rosga could have added a special $800 satellite box from DirecTV to get HDTV channels. Compared with the $40,000 he spent installing video into his home, $800 more was a pittance. Yet Rosga said no to HDTV - on his dealer's advice. "He said it's not ready," Rosga says. "And I don't like to waste money." In fact, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates that of the 3 million "HDTV-ready" sets in the United States, only 400,000 have the receiver needed for HDTV (extra cost: $250-$500). "Most people are using their high-definition sets to watch DVDs or play video games," says Sean Wargo, a senior analyst for the association. But is that a bad thing? DVDs may not be high-def, but they still look great on high-def screens. With their all-digital picture, durable format and only-on-DVD "extras," they have replaced HDTV as the killer app of digital video. More than 30 million U.S. households have DVD players. Compared with watching a movie on HBO, "the DVD is just a little sharper and clearer," says Mark Rosenau of Olathe, who owns a 92-inch projection set. They're about to get even more so. A trade publication last week reported that industry officials are hammering out the agreements that would have HD-DVD - that's high-definition DVD - players and discs ready by Christmas 2003. By then there should be a lot more HDTV programming on network television as well. The government recently obtained voluntary pledges from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The networks promise they will offer substantial amounts of HDTV or other unique digital programming starting this fall. Discovery is starting an all-HDTV channel, and HDNet, which was formerly available only to DirecTV subscribers, is now being offered to cable companies. Which means it is unlikely that HDTV is headed for the same fate as Betamax tape and the laser disc - well-known losers from previous video wars. There is one video war, however, that seems destined to drag on, and the battleground will be your coffee table. It's the war of the remote controls. Every new video device comes with its own remote, and more often than not it's incompatible with your other remotes. "It's rather confusing," says Carol Plummer, who now has three. Carl Roscoe, whose family has been selling TVs for 53 years, got so fed up with remotes that he started supplying some of his customers with a custom-programmed controller device. Every time the cable company re-jiggers its channel lineup, Roscoe has to send a techie out to dozens of homes to re-program the remotes. Some of Roscoe's customers, like Rosga, are still fending for themselves. His home theater came with an armload of remotes, including one that operates his 300-DVD changer. Even though he had only six discs loaded into the changer, Rosga couldn't get the remote to bring up "Saving Private Ryan" and its ear-popping battle effects. So we watched the new "Ocean's Eleven" DVD instead. The picture is spectacular. And the sound! It's like the martinis are flying right by your ears. To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. Coming attractions: DTV and HDTV Perhaps the least-understood yet most vital part of the video revolution is digital television, also known as DTV. Broadcasters already have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on DTV, yet few Americans have actually seen it. But someday we'll all be watching DTV; the government is ordering broadcasters to make the switch. DTV is a fundamentally different way of transmitting TV signals. The current method, in use since the 1940s, involves sending out sound waves in the form of analog signals. By contrast, DTV uses digital data - computer code - to make a TV signal far more versatile and colorful than anything you're watching now. There are many uses for DTV. The three best known: High-definition television. HDTV (not to be confused with DTV) creates images that are exquisitely sharp and lifelike, almost three-dimensional. HDTV also features a widescreen picture (what, you thought the DVD industry invented that?) and pulse-quickening Dolby 5.1 SurroundSound. Multicasting. Currently an entire broadcast frequency (6 megahertz) is needed to send out one TV channel. With DTV, broadcasters can squeeze several channels into that same space. WDAF-DT, as its digital channel is known, could split its signal to let baseball fans choose which of three games they want to watch. Datacasting. It's not only the picture: Broadcasters can embed all kinds of information into the DTV signal. A press of the remote might someday download "extras" related to, say, an "Alias" episode on KMBC-DT. There are 18 DTV formats, and stations can switch as they go - multicasting by day, airing HDTV by night. Right now, though, most DTV signals are barely on the air. KCPT-DT has been on since the late 1990s, but four other Kansas City stations just got their DTV signals going. And four others aren't even that far along. Worse, because there's a dearth of DTV programming available, these stations (with the occasional exception of KCPT) merely simulcast their regular channels in standard-definition video. These DTV stations are playing to an audience that is absurdly small. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates only 400,000 homes in the United States are actually equipped to tune in DTV signals. Based on that figure, probably less than 10,000 Kansas City area homes are able to watch DTV. This has created what the government's chief media regulator calls a "classic chicken-and-egg problem": People don't want DTV until there are DTV programs to watch, but broadcasters don't want to produce shows for DTV until there are more viewers. KMBC general manager C. Wayne Godsey says he is excited about DTV but adds: "We rely on people being able to receive that signal. Right now they can't." But there is good news, at least for those who own home theater systems: More high-definition DTV is on its way. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox have agreed to offer some of their most popular programs in HDTV, in addition to HBO, Showtime, Discovery and an all-high-definition channel called HDNet. (NBC affiliate KSHB and CBS affiliate KCTV won't have their DTV signals on the air until later this year.) If you already own a DTV-ready set, the easiest way to pull in these new channels is through a high-definition digital cable box. Time Warner Cable has distributed 1,600 of these boxes in recent months. Unfortunately Comcast won't be offering them locally until late this year or, more likely, 2003. The next-easiest route is to buy a high-definition satellite system from DirecTV or Dish Network. You could even put up rabbit ears and pull the DTV signals out of the air. Your dealer can help you decide which method works best for you. Finally, what if you don't own a DTV set and have no interest in widescreen this or digital that? Well, one day you'll have DTV, too. At a meeting today in Washington, federal officials are expected to pass a rule requiring every TV set sold in the United States to have a DTV receiver built in, starting in 2006. Video wars Digital Widescreen ($1,800 and up) The new standard in home theater More DVDs are being formatted for widescreen Someday HDTV will look great on it Until then, though, regular TV is either stretched or squished to fit VS Regular Big Screen ($1,000 to $1,400) Better value than widescreen Makes everyday TV shows look huge! Will show its age as more video goes widescreen Manufacturers starting to phase them out HDTV 5 times the resolution of regular DTV Dolby 5.1 surround sound Could revolutionize TV sports But many shows look fine in regular definition VS DTV Still better than today's garden-variety TV signals Multicasting offers more program choices But you can't use HDTV at the same time DVRs ($300 to $450) Save shows without the fuss of videotaping Pause and rewind live TV Set it once, catch every episode of your favorite show Pricey, and must fork over activation fee too VS VOD (Pay as you go) Movies, TV shows downloaded at touch of remote No new equipment; uses your digital cable box Nothing to return or rewind Selection of programs limited High-def cable HD cable box no extra charge from Time Warner Unlike satellite, cable carries local stations in HDTV Comcast customers out of luck for now Most movies not high-def; DVDs just as good VS High-def satellite DirecTV is only service carrying all-high-def HDNet EchoStar has 5 HD channels; plans 12 once it merges with DirecTV That is, IF it merges with DirecTV DVD ($60 and up) Big improvement over videotape Still a better value than progressive scan Save your money for HD-DVD VS Progressive Scan DVD ($120 and up) Much closer to film quality than regular DVD Smoother video, sharper freeze frames If you don't have a digital TV set, don't bother Surroundsound ($120 and up) Once a pricey add-on, now affordable Essential to the DVD experience Most family rooms designed poorly for SurroundSound VS Plain Old TV sound This one's a no-brainer. Just keep it down after midnight, OK? @ART CAPTION:Video wars @ART:Graphic (color) @ART CREDIT:Designed by JOHN SOPINSKI/The Kansas City Star @ART CREDIT:Reported by AARON BARNHART/The Kansas City Star @ART CREDIT:Source: Area stores, Dealtime.com @ART CREDIT:Graphics by JOHN C. SOPINSKI/The Kansas City Star

Take note

'Millionaire' tryouts The daytime version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which will be launched this fall, is coming to Kansas City Friday in search of contestants. Tryouts will be from 7 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Town Pavilion downtown. There is no sign-up - just show up. Hopefuls will be escorted into a testing room in groups of 50 to 100 to take a 10-minute written quiz. Results will be determined quickly and select players will be asked to stay for a short interview. Contestants will be notified by postcard. Meredith Vieira is the host of the syndicated "Millionaire," which will air weeknights on KSHB, Channel 41. @ART CAPTION:Vieira @ART:Photo

Channel 4's news director will leave post on Friday

Mike McDonald, who served as news director at WDAF, Channel 4, for 22 of the past 24 years, confirmed Tuesday that he is retiring. McDonald, 58, said his last day at Channel 4 is Friday. "The time's right," McDonald said. "We had a great May (ratings) book, and our major players are (contractually) committed." His departure leaves WDAF without a permanent general manager or news director. The station is being run by Thermal Stewart, its vice president for business, until a successor to Stan Knott is named. McDonald, a graduate of the University of Missouri, started as a photographer in 1965 at Channel 2 in St. Joseph. Before arriving at WDAF in 1973, he worked at stations in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Miami; and Louisville. He was named news director by then-general manager Earl Beall in 1978 and served until 1988, when he left to accept the news director's job at KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. Two years later, he was back at Channel 4. McDonald's wife, Cheryl Kerns McDonald, who is WDAF's vice president for sales, will not be retiring, he said. She was not available for comment. To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.

What a strange trip 'Mai's America' is

It's hard to know where to begin with "Mai's America," the astonishing film appearing this week as part of the PBS documentary series "P.O.V." (10 p.m. Sunday, Channel 19). This most unlikely story about a Vietnamese exchange student in the Deep South is by turns hilarious, voyeuristic, wise, bizarre and sadly ironic. The film starts out odd and gets odder. Having been something of a spoiled child in Vietnam, Mai flies halfway across the world to board with an unemployed couple who live - and smoke - in a single-wide trailer in Mississippi with their depressive daughter. Inevitably, there are whimsical cross-cultural encounters, the kind that undoubtedly happen to every exchange student but never seem to make it onto the home video. Like the time an African-American friend reads to Mai from a joke book titled You Know You're Black When ... and then has to explain the joke. At first Mai is so good-natured, she doesn't have to be told to laugh. Yet around her host family, she reveals to us, "sometimes I just laugh because I don't know what to say." The family's unhappiness may be magnified by the bright and optimistic child in their midst. Mai says, "I pretend to be happy," in hopes they will cheer up, but she adds, "It doesn't work." Happiness is the leitmotif of "Mai's America." Her new country is founded on the pusuit of happiness, yet Mai sees so little of it - including in herself. Pressures start to weigh her down. She expresses discomfort with her gender. She visits gay bars with a cross-dresser and experiments with crewcuts and unisex clothing. "I don't think I'll ever be a traditional Vietnamese woman," she says. Her lifelong tension with her mother actually gets worse once she leaves home, as Mom expects her daughter to get a college degree in the United States and start sending money home. "In Vietnam it takes so much time to make one dollar," Mai says ruefully, "and in America it takes so little time to spend it." Filmmaker Marlo Poras followed Mai for two years, and her film overflows with telling observations. Some are caught by her astute photographic eye, but most spring from the mind of Mai, a young woman with amazingly grown-up insights into herself and those around her. I read a fellow television scribe complaining recently that he thought there were "too many" reality shows on NBC this summer. Funny, but no one ever complains that there are too many sports programs on ESPN. Viewers have a different agenda: They've turned such reality fare as "Crime & Punishment" and "Dog Eat Dog" into modest hits for NBC. Perhaps that's why the genre seems so pervasive - nothing's getting canceled. But NBC's success and that of "American Idol" on Fox have unfortunately overshadowed some compelling summer fare over on ABC, which has aired an intense courtroom series in "State v.," a worthy follow to "Nightline" in "Up Close," and a gripping real-life drama, "Houston Medical." Now comes "ICU: Arkansas Children's Hospital," a top-flight successor to "Houston Medical" and produced, like the rest of ABC's reality shows, by its news division. The opening hour, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 9, is more than just another unscripted display of raw medical muscle by dedicated professionals. "ICU" is a model for the news documentary of the future, a fine-tuning of the familiar Discovery channel format that extracts an even greater emotional wallop from its inherently dramatic stories. Voiceovers are used sparingly in favor of screen text that interferes less with the story while moving things along more quickly. At the outset we watch as an infant receives a new heart, a procedure that seems to draw out in agonizing detail yet is over by the first commercial break. And so it goes for surgeon Jonathan Drummond-Webb and his hard-driving staff at Arkansas Children's Hospital, half of whom seem to race in triathlons on their off hours. Drummond-Webb, a bleary-eyed native South African, is a competitor who expects to save every child he operates on. "The (kids) that make it fade into obscurity," he says. "The ones that don't (make it) come back to haunt you. ... It keeps you humble and it keeps you honest." You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. RECOMMENDED SHOWS "Our Town: Parkville," 7 and 8 p.m. Thursday, KCPT. What a great idea: Give camcorders to two dozen people and let them tell the story of the place where they live. Here's hoping this is just the first of many such specials on towns to come. "P.O.V.," 10 p.m. Sunday, KCPT. Reviewed in today's column. "ICU," 9 p.m. Wednesday, ABC (Channel 9). Reviewed in today's column.