Double Duty

Rick Blangiardi defends Emmis Corp.'s TV duopoly in Hawaii

Perhaps it was the years he spent coaching University of Hawaii football, but Rick Blangiardi doesn't mind butting heads with local media organizations. Last year, he became senior vice president and general manager of KHON and KGMB television stations, both owned by Indiana-based Emmis Communications Corp. Since then, Blangiardi has taken hits from the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii Chapter, who oppose Emmis' "duopoly" in the Islands' small television market.

It's a controversy that pervades media markets across the country. For the past decade, the Federal Communications Commission has prohibited ownership of more than one TV station ranked among the top four in any market. Locally, Emmis has owned both KHON (No. 1) and KGMB (No. 4) since 2000. The company operated under a series of temporary waivers while the FCC reviewed this rule.

In June, the FCC voted to uphold that policy but adopted a waiver process for smaller markets. The regulatory body will judge whether each situation, including Emmis', is beneficial for its local community.

After a seven-year absence, KHON returns to the Top 250 list this year. The station squeaks in at No. 250, reporting 2002 sales of $16 million.

The Anchorman: Rick Blangiardi holds down the fort at KHON and KGMB news stations. Photo: Ronen Zilberman

Do you have a clearer picture now of how the FCC ruling will affect Emmis locally?
I got a couple e-mails from various attorneys and other company people. It's gonna take awhile for us to figure out exactly what the guidelines say.

Emmis has magazine, TV and radio outlets across the nation. The recent FCC ruling also opened the door for local newspapers to own television stations.
I'm not a big fan of newspapers owning television stations.

How about the other way around?
I'm not a big fan either way. I like competition in the marketplace. I also appreciate the concerns for diversity of editorial voice in the market.

It's interesting that you mention "a diversity of voices," because some media watchdogs argue that a duopoly is the exact opposite.
But I have yet to hear anybody substantiate one single instance since I arrived here last July [2002], where we've done something other than promote quality of news. The flak comes from people, I think, who are not only misinformed, but basically, crusaders for their own good.

Is there a difference, though, between a media company owning two TV stations and a media company owning a newspaper and a TV station?
I suppose. I don't know. I would tell you that I know what we currently have. We have two very distinct television stations. They have different business models, very different cultures.

They approach the news differently. Both have the responsibility to own the top story of the day. But how we report and the related sidebars, other kinds of stories we do - each newsroom is challenged to be as enterprising as possible, to uncover its own news. KGMB has a history of doing news a little bit longer format. [At KHON], because of our capabilities, it's a little more live and late-breaking.

If anything, the FCC ruling gives you some breathing room. Owning two stations certainly has its business advantages. Have you consolidated any backroom operations?
No, I'm not doing that. I understand how to do a duopoly. I was very involved with that in the [2002] sale of our company Telemundo to NBC. I looked at all things one can do in a consolidated environment. But the truth is, I don't have enough physical space here to move KGMB in any way.

Now, there is a possibility [we] could ultimately consolidate some things because of technology and other things, but we're not approaching that right now. I think we really need to know where we stand in the water. And I'm gonna approach whatever gets done, if we get the opportunity on any consolidation, with extreme sensitivity.

The stations have gotten criticism for sharing video footage of events. What's your response?
We've pooled our cameras a little for a couple things, because we weren't getting enough stuff done. We lacked resources. We provided some video with different editorial on it, which is what the networks have been doing for years. But nobody lost a job over it. All we did was provide more news on-air.
What I don't really get is stations subscribe to CNN, but no one complains when we all have the same CNN footage on the air. No one says anything about that. How come? I've been a pretty focused, dedicated broadcaster during that time, … so I take this thing very personally. I've paid my dues in this business.

How does journalism in Hawaii measure up to Mainland markets?
Because of the economics affecting the television market, the revenues have remained relatively flat for the past 20 years. It's dwindling the resources of television news operations.

As I said when I first got here, "What is it these people are trying to protect?" All the news stations were very much the same, kind of worn down. Good people have left the business or gone elsewhere. Some of the operators were notorious for hiring young, inexperienced reporters right out of school as a kind of training ground. While some of those people turned out to be very good, it wasn't quite the same thing as, say, in 1977, with KGMB and its newsroom at that time.

Where do you think Hawaii newscasts fell short?
They were doing a lot of institutional kind of reporting without real people or viewer benefits, government stuff. It was the numbers of stories in the newscast, just the pacing of the news. That fact that there was a fair amount of duplication in the early and late newscasts, so much so that you wouldn't give anybody incentive to tune in and see what was new at 10 o'clock. Because if they saw the news at 6, they thought they got it.

But nobody's looking here to do a "Mainland newscast." We're looking to do news that's relevant for the people of Hawaii. There's a real broad application of that. We're trying to be much more viewer-oriented than what was being done.

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