My name is Bill Redeker, I'm a television news reporter for KABC television.
My job is to gather film news stories for Channel 7 Los Angeles.
When I get to the studio in the morning, I have no idea for the most part what I'm going to be
doing that particular day. I've read the newspaper, before I come in I listen to the radio on the way
in. I'm fairly diligent about trying to keep up with what is going on in the city that particular
day. But when you arrive in the studio, when you meet the assignment editor, it's anything. You know,
I ask him, what's going on today? And he says, well, you know, take your pick or here's what,
what is going on. So what are we doing? Oh, the Queen Mary financial. I heard about that this
morning. There's the articles on it. There's a backgrounder on the Queen Mary. I get into it back in about 1970. Do a documentary on it. Okay, you've got a contact down there that you know of? Yeah. All right, great.
Many of the stories that I'm assigned involve quite a bit of research, reviewing past newspaper stories and extensive use of the telephone. The phone is essential in not only gathering the information about the story, but also setting up the interviews. Sometimes setting up a story or an interview can take as long as filming the story itself.
4-1-0-1, please. Right. Sandy Bill Redeker, Channel 7 News. How are you this morning? My God, you're infamous or infamous, rather. Yeah, quite a write up in the Times this morning. Well, you know, yeah, it was, as a matter of fact. We'd like to come down and talk to you about the situation.
And I had talked to Paul Bessler over at the News Bureau, and he said you'd probably be more than willing to do that. I mean, not that you're advocating it, but that you wouldn't stand in our way, certainly. Yeah. Right. Apparently the crux of the issue is the single operator business. That's what I'm not putting words in your mouth. I'm just analyzing it, and that sounds what it is, you know, from looking at the article and whatnot.
Yeah.
Well, I'd like to talk to both of you about it, I think. What time is best for you this morning after 10 o'clock? 11 o'clock, 11.30? Why don't we set it up for about 11 if that's okay?
The relationship between a reporter and the crew that he works with, the cameraman, the soundman, the film editor, the writer, everybody, is essential to making that reporter either come off credible or non-credible. A good crew, a good cameraman can really make your piece. A bad one can destroy it. So it's a very tight relationship that you work under.
We've got the Long Beach Queen Mary story, the financially distraught Mary. There'll be a lot of visual in it. One interview. I don't see it as being a very difficult story. You might have to take portable lights inside. And that's about it. Our first interview is set for 11 o'clock.
There are several different types of news stories that we cover. I generally cover either hard feature stories that have news value or spot news stories, stories that break while you are on the scene covering them. But for the most part, hard feature stories, stories that you can have an overview on, stories that you can research.
And the camp, is it? All the way down, down the stairs. Tell the girls you already want to see the mannequin. Okay, thanks.
A couple of things that I just wanted to go over with you briefly before we begin the interview is an assessment of what financial shape the ship is in right now, taking us all the way back to when it was first brought here in 67. As I recall, the city paid about $3 million for it. I don't know what the final budget cost has been since then.
Your area of expertise then covers what? Specifically the museum tour. Okay, but you are the one that submitted this report, right? Yeah, but only from our standpoint. Which has to do with the tour and tour end of it. And generally speaking, you know, it can be said that the financial development of the ship has not been what everyone hoped to have it be. I mean, that's known.
Okay, I have some of that information which I will cover in my voice track over the film, but I want you to talk, in the interviewer, we will talk about anyway, about what sort of problems you've had with the tour end of it that you know about. Why those problems you feel have existed and what the solution is to it. That sort of thing.
Okay, alright, let's do it. First of all, what sort of problems has the ship experienced, especially those mentioned in your report? We've had gradual declining paid attendance for the last two years.
Why are all of these problems occurring? Why has this been happening? It isn't anything new. It's been happening since 1967. What has led up to all of this?
The closest thing I can think of is that you have a ship with four captains instead of one and this doesn't work very well. Is that the solution to replace those four captains with one? That's what all of us involved feel is correct.
Alright, fine. You have a cover shot already, right? Yeah, okay, he's going to move around behind you and shoot some questions of me asking you that I've already done so you don't have to answer them because you already have answered them, but it's a film cutting technique which will enable the question to be placed in front of your response. Okay?
It'll only take a second there. Sure, it's fine. It's fine. No problem. Does the four captains and one make sense to you? Sure.
Yeah. The problems that the ship is now experiencing are nothing new. They've been going on since it was brought here eight years ago. What is the problem? I'm sorry, I've got to get... No, these are the ones that I've already done during the interview. It's just a matter of...
No, that's okay. You just stand there because he's filming me. Okay. The Queen Mary's problems are nothing new. They've been with the ship since it was brought here about eight years ago. What needs to be done to clear it up?
That's what. And so on and so forth, I guess. That's all I need. Okay. I'm going to turn you over to Channel 4 now. They're waiting for you, so thank you very much. What do you want to do? Do you want to go inside or do you want to go out?
Well, I need some visual shots. He wasn't that good of an interviewer. I probably won't need that much, and so we're going to have to rely quite a bit on the visual stuff. He's going to get somebody to give us a tour. We'll go around and pick up a lot of different visual things, and I'll have to write the thing.
Because television is a visual medium, a visual avenue of telling the news, you have to seek out pictures that will reflect what you are saying in your copy. You have to be able to tell the story visually. So when you are doing a story, you look for visual representation of what the story is about.
It's necessary to show, for instance, the exterior of the story, the exterior of the location that you are shooting, to at least put in perspective what it is you are talking about.
Give me another shot looking down this way, where you see tour entrances and see all this empty parkway.
Yeah.
Back in 1934, it cost $30 million to build the Queen Mary. Before the jet aid, she paid for herself as a passenger ship. But today, nearly $60 million later, she is a financial loser. And no matter how many management changes are made, it will take time and public interest to keep her financially afloat.
Bill Redeker, Channel 7 Eyewitness News, Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Let's do it again. It cost about $30 million to build the Queen Mary. Before the jet aid, she paid for herself as a passenger ship. But now, $60 million later, she is a money loser.
Okay.
Hold it.
You know it's going to go off again too.
Yeah, I'll call them later.
Let's try it again.
Yeah.
If you see any immigration people going across the roofs looking down through the ducts, that would be a good shot also. I saw a couple when we first got here, but I don't see any now. But if you do see them, be sure you get it.
There's a whole bunch of them, yeah.
Does that way get you some height? Would it help if we moved around to this side and filmed from that side?
Let's try it.
The biggest factor to deal with in television news is time. That limitation cheats the audience out of part of the story.
That doesn't mean that we're doing a bad job. It just means that we're sometimes doing a very incomplete job. So all we can expect to give them is a feeling for what went on, hopefully accurately.
Give them a little sense of the mood, what the importance is to them as an individual viewer, and that's about it.
Is there any way my cameraman could get up a little height and look down on this? There's nothing to stand on. They won't let us pass the gate.
Well, I guess so. It won't be too long, will it?
No, not at all.
This guy will let you stand on his cart. Will you get some elevation and get a better shot of him? Okay. He's going to come right over here.
Okay, thank you.
Great.
Pick up a shot of the owner over there in the brown cardigan.
He's the one that was yelling at us.
You work here, don't you?
Yeah, occasionally.
Do you know if they had illegal aliens here?
I don't know what the guy is, mister. I'm bad. I just work here. I ain't check nobody's papers to see what they got. That's about my job. I'm hamming nails.
There's no doubt that accuracy often suffers in television news because of the time and the deadlines involved in trying to crank out one, two, three, sometimes even four stories a day.
That doesn't necessarily always happen to me as far as a large number of stories every day.
But even in getting one or two stories out, if you have that deadline, your accuracy is going to suffer. You can't make the additional phone calls you might need.
You can't do the additional filming that you want to do. You can't spend the time polishing the copy, making things succinct that you want to say. It's difficult.
It looks like a plumbing and heating guy. I don't know, but you should have unspec anyway.
Oh, is it immigration? You got him, right? Okay. I can't read from this far out.
Marty, we've only got about three or four things left. You can hold back on the shooting.
All we need to do is get an interview with the federal people, interview hopefully with the owner of the place, the buses, the trucks coming out, and then a close because we've already shot enough.
You get the buses coming in? No, we're going to get them coming out. Here come the federal guys now.
You talk to us at all about what's been happening here? Who's going to be able to talk to us?
You have to talk to the assistant district director or the district director. Is he here? No, sir.
Let's talk to one of the owners. Can we talk to you?
We're on public property, Erwin.
The classic line in referring to the problems that you have with time is, it's a hurry up and wait business.
Hurry up and get over there and cover that story because it's happening now, but once you get there, wait around and wait around and wait around until you can interview somebody or fill out the story.
Can you explain what the extent of the raid was this morning?
It's not considered a raid. It's a survey.
What is a survey?
Where we go and try to ascertain those people that are illegally in the United States.
I'll have a right to remain in the United States the majority of the time.
They have been clear that they are illegals in the factory.
But some of them are not?
Very few. Some we've already processed and under our controls and we're hearing to be coming up shortly.
Isn't it true that this place has its payday tomorrow?
I don't know. I have no idea. I didn't ask management. I guess so.
Any indication that management may have turned it in so that he does not have to pay them?
No. No. Definitely not. Why would he sacrifice all the money?
Well, he doesn't have to pay them then, does he?
Oh yes, he sure does. He sure does.
Writing the story is probably the most time-consuming element of any television news story.
You can go out and film without too many problems. Sure, you have the interruptions.
You can interview. Yeah, that takes some thought, some consideration.
But to succinctly put down on paper in a minute and a half what you want to tell, that requires time.
It requires a lot of thought. I think that's one of the most difficult parts of it.
What is it you need? I've got to record this thing. I'm getting a lot of static. 642 to 74.
I'm working on it. I've just got to get a crew.
Leland Makahara, are you back there? Can you come around to the desk, please?
You and your sound person. See you back there.
I'll be around here in a minute.
When I first arrived in this market, in this television station, I was told that they were going to fire me
after two or three nights because I did not live up to what they expected.
I wasn't forceful enough in my delivery. Well, I frankly wasn't very good at what they wanted.
I thought that I did a credible job as a news reporter,
but I wasn't hammering out the copy in the style, in the tone, and the intonation that they wanted.
Tell me when you're rolling. They wanted me to shout a little bit more than I was.
I was told it wasn't a matter of shouting, it was a matter of communicating.
Well, to me it seemed like shouting because I'd never pronounced and thrown the copy like that before,
but if it gets the communication process between you and the viewer going, I can't disagree with it.
13 percent. Normally crowded tour groups now accommodate only a handful of spectators.
Other tourism sites in Southern California did well this summer, so the trade here is healthy, but no one—
Pick up.
Other tourism sites in Southern California did well this summer, so the trade is healthy here,
but no— Pick up again.
Sometimes I wonder if we hype copy too much, if we punch it out too much,
if we make every story seem like it's the end of the world.
And I don't like that because I believe in perspective of a news story,
and if you can't put the thing into some sort of relative sanity, then you're misleading people.
That's it. Cut.
Thank you much. I've got to really run on this thing.
Thank you much. See you later.
He will take time and public interest to keep her financially afloat.
Bill Redeker, Channel 7 Eyewitness News on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Kind of long, huh?
I was thinking maybe you can cover the first part of that with some other visual.
A tour group, it was incredible.
In this shop, we have a writer that, because of the union regulations,
that must be present when a film package is being glued together in the editing room,
along with the reporter if he's doing it live on the set.
You've got to talk to that writer. The writer's got to talk back to you.
You've got to be communicating about what you're trying to tell in that story,
or he's going to go off in one direction, you're going to go another direction.
That's one before that.
It can't be. It goes down to proper matter and goes—
Oh, keep going, keep going. There's another bit that we do where we're on the side.
The best thing that a film editor can do for you is reflect what you are trying to do in your story.
If he sees the story differently than you, then you better talk about it,
and you should take his input, because sometimes he will point out things that you don't see as a reporter,
and in that respect, a good film editor like a good film cameraman can make or break a story.
We're relying on one another.
Split what up? The shots of the ship?
Save the sound for him at six o'clock to make at least that part a little different.
I'm trimming out some of the copy, too, but the rest will be the same all the way down.
Trimming my own copy.
That's right. You're going to get me into trouble. You're going to stay all right.
No, no, no, no. All right.
Then get us up on board, but so far that dream hasn't been fully realized.
The rate is financially sinking.
I see a little money in that sort of thing. That's another five seconds.
Revenues are down, and the reason is simple.
There was a time when television news occupied 15 minutes of the broadcast day,
then it was developed to a half an hour, then to an hour.
Now we have two hours of local news to fill every day.
There's probably enough news in Los Angeles to market this size to fill two hours of local news,
but there isn't the staff size to cover it, so we don't.
There's a lot of rehashing on the 6 o'clock from stories in the 5 o'clock.
Why are we at two hours?
Well, because news has become very, very marketable in the last few years.
That's why there are two hours of it.
News is a moneymaker. Management knows that.
How about you drop that last segment?
You can make it as long as the film supports it.
I'll bring you back the mats.
The general manager of the television station has begun to assume more of a role in news department decision making.
Before, that wasn't the case. It was a very autonomous operation.
The news director, the news department was completely separate from the general manager,
the individual that controls the entire operation.
To me, that was healthier than what it is today.
We're seeing more and more control by management.
It's not overwhelming, but there are signs of it, and that bothers me,
because I don't think it's going to change until you do get rid of the commercial end of it,
until you have a fully non-sponsored news program.
Do I have to worry about everything?
Okay, go crank that out.
Each show has a producer who is responsible for organizing the events in the show.
Most of them are writers or have been writers.
Their job, more than anything else, is to direct traffic,
get the input from the field, from the reporters and from the writers.
But their job is to plug it all into one hour-long program,
and time it out.
Calls are made back and forth to ensure that the thing somehow fits,
but it never does.
Stories are dropped and added on during the course of an hour show.
But you're naive to assume that television news isn't, in fact, part entertainment.
It's part of television. It has pizzazz. It is a visual medium. It has sound.
Lights go on. People talk. Images flash before viewers' eyes.
That's taken away from a lot of the journalistic implications that television news used to have.
It's dangerous in so much that we're worrying more about production these days
than we are about content of a story.
If we don't have the pictures to represent what we're saying,
we're going to have to drop that.
The man's sound bite, the amount of time that he takes to say something on film,
is too long, but it's important we have to cut him down.
We haven't got the time.
Oh, well, good luck.
You're always aware that you are in a show business environment,
from the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to the make-up chair,
the amount of people to have on the stage, running around, the cameras, the placement.
Everything is geared towards a fast-paced show.
Tonight, Jeff Smith brings us a California person who can teach you bingo
and step over a toehold all in one day.
Let's see.
Three, two, one.
Hop on, cure him.
The Secret Service reveals details on a plot to kill President Ford and others.
And the parents of a girl being kept alive by machines plead for her dignified death.
Walk on.
I need this more.
Okay, we're gonna do stuff. We are gonna do it.
We're gonna intro Bill. Bill, you're the first scene.
This is Channel 7's Eyewitness News with Judd Hambrick, Christine Lund,
Eddie Alexander, Dr. George, and the entire Eyewitness News team.
Good evening. I'm Judd Hambrick. Here's what's happening at 5 o'clock.
In this, the entertainment capital of the world, a major attraction is in trouble tonight.
In this case, that also spells trouble for an entire city.
Bill Redeker is here to tell us why.
Bill?
Judd, eight years ago, when the Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach,
city fathers figured they had struck it rich.
Here was a tourist attraction that could return a handsome profit.
So, they spent money, investing about $60 million in all.
But so far, their investment has not paid off.
And today, the Queen Mary is in serious financial trouble.
Revenues are down here, and the reason is simple.
Fewer and fewer people are coming to visit the boat.
Fewer people are spending their tourist dollars on the attraction.
Attendance this summer dropped nearly 13 percent.
Normally crowded tour groups now accommodate only a handful of spectators.
The 50 merchants on board are also suffering.
In fact, some restaurants have closed for a few days a week.
The ship's associate director blames bad management.
He says too many directors are running the place,
and that has resulted in bad financial decisions.
The ship developed with three operators on board,
which was not the original plan, but it developed that way.
And plus the city department, which takes care of the maintenance and so on.
The closest thing I can think of is that you have a ship with four captains
instead of one, and this just doesn't work very well.
No matter how hard we work, we barely keep our heads above water,
and we all feel that if it came under one management,
that the ship could develop in a proper manner.
Back in 1934, it cost $30 million to build the Queen Mary.
Before the jet age, she paid for herself as a passenger ship.
But today, nearly $60 million later, she is a financial loser.
And no matter how many management changes are made,
it will take time and public interest to keep her financially afloat.
Bill Redeker, Channel 7 Eyewitness News on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Coming up next on Eyewitness News,
here on what it costs each of us to pay for white-collar crime.
Two minutes.
Pretty pictures again.
Stand by, here we go.
Five, four, three, two, one.
The illegal alien question surfaced again today in the Los Angeles area.
Igniting the fuse was an immigration service raid in the South Bay area,
and our Bill Redeker was there.
Immigration agents picked up more than 350 illegal aliens at the Fundstride shoe company
near Marina Del Rey early this morning.
It was a big operation, requiring the entire immigration criminal division.
This was the second time in two months that Fundstride had been caught,
and company management was not willing to talk to us about it.
Can we talk to you at all about this?
Tomorrow is payday here.
Some speculated that the raid might benefit the employer
because he wouldn't have to pay the workers their wages.
But immigration officials say that's not true.
Isn't it true that this place has its payday tomorrow?
I don't know, I have no idea.
I didn't ask management, I guess so.
Any indication that management may have turned it in
so that he does not have to pay them?
No, no, definitely not.
Why would he sacrifice all the money?
He doesn't have to pay them then, does he?
Oh yes, he sure does.
What happens to the owner now?
Nothing right now, unless we can, nothing.
He's not fined or penalized?
No.
Why not?
Well, we have to wait for a bill to be passed.
But today's bust will hurt this employer, at least temporarily,
because for the time being he has lost 90% of his workforce.
Bill Redeker, Channel 7 Eyewitness News in Venice.
Being a television news reporter is tremendously frustrating at times,
but there is also the reward of being able to do a lot of things
that a lot of people can't do.
You have access to knowledge, you meet people, you travel,
you have the creative ability of being able to write your material,
see a film, cutting it, producing it, put it on the air,
and it pays pretty well too.
But the biggest factor is that it's just a desire.
If you like to learn, if you like to grow, if you like to experience,
television news affords you that opportunity.
I can't think of anything else that I would rather be doing.
That's your basic clean show.
Nice job, fellas.