CHANNEL 4 NEWS TEAM “HELPS OUT”

If you noticed a dip in the quality of Channel 4’s newscasts beginning in the first week of February, it might be because the station’s former news director, Wayne Thomas, has siphoned off some of KDFW’s management to help him through labor strife in St. Louis.

Thomas, general manager of the Times-Mirror Corporation’s KTVI in St. Louis, called on Wayne Nelson, producer of Channel 4’s 6 o’clock newscast, and Jack Cunningham, KDFW’s head of photography, to act as cameramen in St. Louis.

The Times-Mirror Corporation, which owns both Channel 4 and the Dallas Times Herald, couldn’t agree with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1257 in St. Louis about who could operate certain equipment. The station’s 64 engineers and cameramen continued to work under their expired contract while mediators tried to settle the dispute.

But members of the IBEW walked out when Thomas told them the new conditions under which they would have to work. The station called the union’s action a strike; the union said it was being locked out, since it believes that working under the station’s new conditions would amount to accepting a new contract.

One of KTVI’s weekly anchors, Susan Kidd, honored the picket lines. A majority of St. Louis aldermen approved a resolution not to give interviews to KTVI’s newspeople. The mayor had to give two press conferences about the city’s efforts to clean up a record-setting snowstorm – one for KTVI, and one for the rest of St. Louis’ news-people, who chose to walk out rather than stay in the same room with people they considered union-busters.