`Almost Live': Don't Be Fooled By Kiro's 7 P.M. News

Maybe KIRO-TV should call its 7 p.m. newscast ``Almost Live.''

In a move that takes the usual standards and practices of local news one step further from immediacy, certain on-set segments with anchors Gary Justice and Aaron Brown that appear during KIRO's early-evening broadcast are usually taped more than an hour in advance.

The ``Finally'' segment Justice reads to close each night's show? It might seem live. But it's Memorex, Ella.

``There's no deception here,'' said Channel 7 news director John Lippman. ``Certain elements are live. Certain elements are on tape. In that way it's no different from any other broadcast on television.''

He's right, to a point. Taped material in local newscasts is nothing new.

Most stories from the field are recorded and edited on videotape. Also, it's not uncommon for interviews between an anchor and, say, a politician or author with a tight schedule to be taped on the news set. Such segments are normally introduced with some acknowledgement that it took place earlier.

But at KIRO, the pre-recorded material goes further. Roll the tape. Watch closely as Justice and Brown sit side by side at the set to wrap up the 7 o'clock show, say goodnight and thank us for watching. There's no graphic that says ``recorded earlier''; only the unusually crowded newsroom in the background might tip you off that the scene was likely staged at 6:30 or so.

Memorex strikes again.

The technique comes close to one that KIRO's sister station in Salt Lake City found deceptive enough to warrant a complaint to the FCC when a competitor tried it six years ago.

The competitor, an NBC affiliate, was using pre-taped segments featuring its Washington, D.C., reporter as if the reporter were talking live on a satellite link. At times, the taped segments would even have the reporter tossing back to the Salt Lake City anchors, using their first names as outcues (``back to you, Brigham and Bart'').

KSL-TV, owned by the same company as KIRO, took the unusual step of firing off an angry letter to the FCC, which investigated and sent KSL's competitor a ``letter of admonition.'' The competitor stopped the practice.

Lippman said KIRO avoids the personalized tosses that were the crux of KSL's complaint.

FCC regulations stipulate: ``Any taped, filmed or recorded program material in which time is of special significance, or by which an affirmative attempt is made to create the impression that it is occuring simultaneously with the broadcast, shall be announced at the beginning as taped, filmed, or recorded.''

Complaints of videotape fraud are rare - an FCC spokesman could recall ``maybe three'' in the 3 1/2 years he had worked at the agency.

Other examples of taped material that might seem live abound. For West Coast affiliates,

the network morning shows and evening newscasts almost always amount to taped rebroadcasts fed by ABC, CBS and NBC. Also, the early-morning newscasts of KING, KIRO and KOMO use sports reports recorded by the evening sports anchors the night before.

``If you're going to tar us,'' said Lippman, ``tar everybody.''

KIRO began putting its evening news anchors on tape earlier this year, after the station dropped the syndicated USA Today TV news show in January and expanded its 7 o'clock report to fill the vacant 7:30 to 8 pm slot.

In an era when actors are re-creating news events, maybe this latest electronic sleight-of-hand matters little. Maybe it matters most of all to the KOMO staffers who, Brown says, regularly telephone the KIRO newsroom with their version of ``do you have Prince Albert in a can?'' prank calls.

Probably it does matter, if only a little, to anyone irked by TV news' tendency to bend reality for the sake of packaging.

But it doesn't bother Brown or Justice, the principals in KIRO's nightly ``recorded-live'' teleplay.

``If there were something about this that compromised our news values,'' said Justice, ``I wouldn't do it.''

Nashville connection

KOMO-TV's news anchor-trade deficit with Nashville is about to be balanced.

John Seigenthaler, a reporter and weekend anchor at the CBS affiliate in Nashville, Tenn., soon will be shouldering the same responsibilities at Channel 4. He plans to report for work in April; a date is yet to be set for his first appearance as weekend co-anchor with Emily Langlie.

KOMO's last major transaction with Nashville came in 1986. That summer, KOMO showed the door to anchor Jeff McAtee, who - holy coincidence, Batman - wound up as main anchor at the same Nashville station where Seigenthaler works.

Seigenthaler broke into TV news as a writer at Nashville's public television station. Stints as a writer and producer at commercial stations in Nashville followed. At WSMV, Seigenthaler stepped out from behind the camera.

During his 3 1/2 years there, he won several reporting awards. Among them: a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for a series of programs on race relations in the South and an American Bar Association award for a documentary on the death penalty.

Nice honors. And check out those bloodlines.

Seigenthaler's father, John L. Seigenthaler, publishes Nashville's morning newspaper The Tennessean; he also serves as editorial director for USA Today.