A whole new stage for Tony Ventrella

Tony Ventrella already has this much going in his new job as co-anchor of "Q13 Morning News":

He won't be pretending to make love on a bed at KIRO-TV anymore while startled children watch.

Now that you're awake, I'll explain.

The peripatetic Ventrella — journalist, essayist, inspirational speaker and community-theater enthusiast — undertakes a major switch in lifestyle as well as employment today when he starts working alongside Christine Chen from 6 to 9 a.m. on KCPQ-TV.

To accomplish this, Ventrella must rise at 4 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. That's a radical shift from his former gig doing nightly sports on KIRO, but he's not complaining. The new schedule will let him work with fellow actors at the Rosehill Players' theater in Mukilteo instead of rehearsing at KIRO between evening newscasts.

The latter wasn't easy. Once, while occupying a makeshift bed on KIRO's news set in preparation for a scene from the romance "Same Time, Next Year," Ventrella and his co-star looked up to observe a group of kids watching from the station's gallery window.

"First I thought, 'Oh, no!' " he said. "Then I ran after them to explain."

For Ventrella, the past few weeks could be titled, "Different Time, Next Year." It would make a twisty play.

Last year, he was sports director at KIRO and secretly contemplating a run at the 8th District congressional seat occupied by Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue. Ventrella, a Democrat, planned to resign from KIRO, then raise money as a candidate.

The politics didn't work out. But other reasons, like the diminished role of sports reporting and the feeling he was getting stale, made him quit KIRO at the end of May, anyway.

He expected to concentrate on his inspirational speaking company, Positive Energy Productions.

Then, out of the blue, KCPQ news director Todd Mokhtari called with the irresistible proposition to co-host "Q13 Morning News."

Ventrella said the chief factor that drew him was the newscast's "attempt to get it local."

"I've seen more effort here in the past few weeks to pursue a range of stories that really are about neighborhoods and people and personality than I see anywhere else," he said, adding, "Of course, the other stations here don't have the time. Their goal is to get through 55-60 stories in an hour."

Q13's morning news positions itself as a provider of Western Washington-based content — breaking stories, the arts, business, community activities and sports — that contrasts with nationally focused rivals "Good Morning, America," "Today" and "The Early Show."

The concept of offering viewers a local alternative seems solid. But the show, launched in January 2000, got off to a wildly uneven start. It lately has experienced some reinvention under a new executive producer, KOMO-TV veteran Tracy Record.

Record has dropped the newscast's in-studio, extended interview segments in favor of livelier, compact, field-based reporting. Special features — such as music from up-and-coming local bands — are dispersed across the three hours instead of confined to a single block of time.

She also increased the staff's capacity to follow live news, and gave more prominence to key assets like meteorologist Walter Kelley, whom Record calls "a third anchor."

One constant has been Q13's markedly informal feel. It should suit Ventrella, known for his improvisational style and opinionated banter. And his depth of knowledge about the region, coupled with a determination to use it, will help counter perceptions that KCPQ is run by a bunch of outsiders lacking local credibility.

Still, one might wonder if a 58-year-old grandfather is the right image for a station where the K often seems to stand for "kewl" and the network, Fox, has long specialized in attracting hip, irreverent — read 18 to 34 — demographics.

Record doesn't see a contradiction.

"First, Tony is pretty darned ageless," she said. "He can be kidlike, and he certainly doesn't come off like Walter Cronkite."

Furthermore, she said, "The morning news audience is older than the late news audience. And Fox's median-age viewer is mid-30s, anyway.

"Tony's hire isn't a conscious way to say 'Hi there, older viewer,' but KCPQ has lots of people in their 30s and 40s watching."

Ventrella replaces the youthful Peter Alexander, who will remain as a reporter and weekend anchor.

Record and Ventrella aren't the only — or even the latest — importation of veteran Seattle talent to KCPQ. Christine Chen previously was co-anchor at KSTW-TV.

And last Thursday, KCPQ anointed Bill Kaczaraba as the news director to succeed Todd Mokhtari. Kaczaraba comes from a similar position at NorthWest Cable News. (Mokhtari is resigning for personal reasons.)

The station's deal with Ventrella is open-ended; that is, no long-term commitments. "If it works and they like who I am, great," he said. "If not, then I'll take my cake home and eat it myself."

Ventrella explains his decision easily when I ask why a person in the twilight of his career, with so many other options, would want to get up at dawn.

"My twilight," he responded, "is gonna be when I drop dead."

Notes: ABC is re-running episodes of USA Network's hilarious one-hour cable series "Monk," starring Tony Shalhoub as the world's first obsessive-compulsive detective. A desperate network's losses are our gain: If you don't have cable, catch four episodes of this hit series on Tuesdays starting at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KOMO.

Kay McFadden: 206-382-8888 or kmcfadden@seattletimes.com.