KTLA changes O.J. tune

By RAY RICHMOND

KTLA, which virtually owned the O.J. Simpson story during his criminal trial with its mega-rated gavel-to-gavel coverage, appears to have decided that it will now cover Simpson and his civil trial fallout only grudgingly.

That became clear Monday afternoon, when KTLA was the last station to cut live to the announcement of the jury's punitive damage award of $25 million to the Brown and Goldman families --- and the first station to sign off some 25 minutes later. It stayed with the story less than a half-hour before cutting away to "Blossom," the only local VHF station to ignore the live press conference with jurors.

Coincidentally or not, Channel 5 ranked dead last in the ratings between 1:30 and 2 p.m., averaging a minuscule 1.2 for the two quarter-hours.

What gives? KTLA news director David Goldberg said his strategy was quite simple and stems from his opinion that viewers have had enough of O.J.

"I think people are worn out with the story," he said. "We did a poll in November that told us 71% of respondents didn't care about the story anymore." Upon looking up the results, however, Goldberg corrected that the number was actually 67% admitting that they "weren't following the second trial closely."

But is that grounds to pass up the opportunity to cover live the first words of Simpson's civil trial jury when your station never left the first trial for even a moment?

"We felt like our resources and airtime were better used elsewhere," Goldberg said.

It must have been one heck of a "Blossom."