Most communities have a citywide access channel on cable. You know, it's the one that runs the city council meetings and programs about whose on the council and so forth. Los Angeles, though, is lucky -- it has two. They are referred to as LA CityView 35 and LA36. Two weeks ago we took a look at LA CityView 35 and it's mission. You can find that story in our FROM THE FIELD Archives. This week, we turn our attention to LA36 -- LA's other city channel

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From Steve Kindred

I really enjoyed reading the article by my friend Brian Jordan, and find him an extremely qualified and valuable link to reporters in the field. But I disagree with his description of himself and others as de facto Assignment Editors.

The Assignment Editor's job is to decide what stories go on the air,..the newsmaker's is to pitch stories,..and help coordinate the coverage as requested by the stations.

Also, It's terrific to have seven County Fire PIO's, but remember that there are 14 million people in the area,..and PIO assignments vary from city to city. In the city of Los Angeles, the five field PIO's for the fire department were all re-assigned to cut the budget.

This means the incident commanders in the field have to handle the complexities of putting out a fire while at the same time providing vital information to the public through the news media. I'm proud to say that after some lobbying by the RTNA (Radio-TV News Association), the L-A City Council decided not to gut the PIO's at the LAPD, t he Press Relations bureau on the sixth floor of Parker Center.

Mayor Jim Hahn was behind both the fire department and LAPD proposals. He apparently doesn't understand how important these people are to public safety. When the next big firestorm comes into the city of L-A,...or we have another Northridge earthquake, he will.

About the Author
Steve Kindred has just celebrated 14 years at KFWB where he is currently an anchor and city hall reporter.