Former TV-50 GM embarks on new career

<p>Career broadcaster John Burgess couldn't be prouder of his and his wife Darla's two children and three grandkids. But his heart swells and hurts also for his other baby.</p><p>It was KFTY, the North Bay television station that was 30 years old when new owners released Burgess and his staff of 10 in late September, gave the operation a new name and switched it to Spanish-language programing.</p><p>“I have no ill feelings. I hope they do well,” said Burgess, a 1971 Montgomery High grad. </p><p>He's witnessed tectonic changes to the radio and TV industry since he took his first job as a reporter — alongside pros Merle Ross, Jim Grady and the late Terry McElhatton and Reg Lester — at Santa Rosa radio station KSRO in 1976.</p><p>Through the past two decades as news director and then station manager at the former KFTY/Channel 50, Burgess survived a series of ownership and format changes — until the station's recent purchase by Una Vez Mas, an affiliate of Mexico-based Azteca America.</p><p>His toughest day at the station was the Friday of Jan. 26, 2007. He carried out instructions by then-owner Clear Channel Communications to shut down the news department and discharge longtime anchor Ed Beebout, now a communications professor at Sonoma State University; reporter Curtiss Kim, now co-anchor of the KSRO morning news, and the rest of the 13-person News 50 team.</p><p>“I felt terrible for the people. You know, it ended friendships,” Burgess said. </p><p>The elimination of the news operation by giant Clear Channel, which a short while later sold the pared-down station to High Plains Broadcasting of Kansas, for the most part put an end to KFTY's once-proud role in Sonoma County civic affairs.</p><p>The station first went on the air in 1972 and quickly attracted eager young broadcasters who honed their craft and went on to bigger markets. Among the Channel 50 pioneers were Jon Miller, now the longtime play-by-play voice of the San Francisco Giants, and Stan Atkinson, who would become one of the Sacramento area's best-known TV reporters and anchors. </p><p>But that first attempt to establish a local TV station in Santa Rosa, an effort led by Atkinson and partner Kit Spier, formerly a KNBC-Los Angeles executive, was under-financed and lasted only a year. Nothing more happened until 1981, when Wishard Brown, who'd owned Marin County's Independent Journal newspaper, revived Channel 50 with an eye to making it a local news authority.</p><p>KFTY – Take 2 -- went live in a former Mendocino Avenue furniture store in May 1981 with broadcaster Jim Johnson, now an independent insurance and investment broker in Santa Rosa, as general manager. Bob Sherwood, formerly of KGO-TV, was the station's first news director and Rod Sherry, then a veteran KPIX anchor, was the weekend anchor.</p><p>Through the ‘80s, the local news operation expanded and became a training ground for more future big-market broadcasters such as Bill Martin, the veteran KTVU meteorologist.</p><p>News 50 adopted the slogan, “We do it twice, every night,” upon expanding its weeknight reports to 7:30 and 10:30 p.m.</p><p>While KFTY grew and thrived as a source of local news and community programming, Burgess advanced in the radio news business. After reporting for KSRO for a few years in the late 1970s, Burgess moved to Washington State and worked as a radio reporter, anchor and then mid-level manager in the Seattle market.</p><p>In 1987, he came home to Santa Rosa and to KSRO, where he became news/program director and helped General Manager Frank McLaurin make the ambitious switch from music and news to a news/talk format.</p><p>As with Channel 50, KSRO grew and enjoyed good times in the ‘80s. Burgess helped McLaurin launch an expansive and exciting time for KSRO. The still-popular John Ash/Steve Garner food show began and the news was reported by future large-market journalists who included Larry Chiaroni and Tim Ryan, both now with KCBS.</p><p>In 1990, big changes at KFTY presented Burgess the opportunity to switch from radio to television. Channel 50 owner Brown sold the station to Gary Heck, owner of Korbel Champagne Cellars, and Heck replaced general manager Johnson with Burgess.</p><p>For the next 17 years at KFTY/Channel 50, until the news department was eliminated in 2007, Burgess oversaw an independent station that covered and promoted its community. It televised the Luther Burbank Rose Parade, simulcast the Schools Plus telethon with Sonoma County's cable company and donated video services to local causes.</p><p>“We weren't always perfect. But I really felt that we mattered,” Burgess said.</p><p>On-air talent included anchor Beebout and reporters Kim, Pam Cook, who went on to KTVU, and Sebastopol-reared Marla Tellez, who's currently co-anchoring NBC Bay Area News at 11 a.m. </p><p>Burgess survived several sales of the station, including the one to High Plains Broadcasting of Kansas that followed the decision by Clear Channel to eliminate the news operation. When High Plains took over KFTY, it struck a deal for Newport Television of Missouri.</p><p>Most local programming had disappeared when Newport earlier this year made KFTY an affiliate of the Me-TV Network that broadcast oldies such as “I Love Lucy,” “Peter Gunn,” “MASH,” and “Perry Mason.” Burgess said the retro format was surprisingly popular with viewers and advertisers.</p><p>But it didn't last long, giving way in late September to Spanish-language programming.</p><p>Burgess didn't last long either. His departure ended a run of 21 years with the former KFTY — it is now called KEMO and appears on Channel 31 on the Comcast cable and on Channel 50 on satellite systems.</p><p>The end of KFTY and of his career in broadcasting is a solemn occasion to Burgess, but he's also counting blessings. He said it was great run, and he's grateful that Sonoma State University has agreed to keep Channel 50's videotape archives.</p><p>Burgess is moving on; he has accepted an offer by longtime friend Jim McBride, a financial adviser, to become a partner in launching Money Matters Sonoma County, a hyper-local business and investments website.</p><p>“The timing is perfect for me,” Burgess said.</p><p>It wasn't his idea, at three years short of 60, to leave the business he loves, the business of telling stories on the radio and TV. But if the broadcast news business taught him anything it was that, like it or not, things happen.</p>