BOWING IN, BOWING OUT AT CHANNEL4

T V lords giveth and taketh, hireth and fireth, spendeth and economizeth.

At KNBC Channel 4, Jess Marlow cometh, others goeth.

In a streamlining and cost-cutting move, NBC-owned KNBC has eliminated the jobs of a number of employees in several areas, including those of some of its news department executives. After Dec. 31, poof!

The big three networks are adjusting to leaner economic times, and the Channel 4 job-cutting is part of an industrywide trend that has hit hardest at CBS and ABC.

NBC has acknowledged plans for its own job cuts but has declined to give a figure. Asked to comment on a report that 200 to 300 of its employees will be trimmed, Curt Block, NBC vice president of public relations for the East Coast, said: “300 is on the high side.”

Block said that NBC layoffs are presently occurring only at the network’s owned-and-operated stations. At WNBC in New York, for example, 18 employees were reported laid off, many of them senior staff with jobs similar to those being eliminated at Channel 4 in Los Angeles.

The exact number of those being dispatched at Channel 4 isn’t available. That’s because the station isn’t saying.

“Yes, there are some layoffs at KNBC-TV,” said John H. Rohrbeck, Channel 4 vice president and general manager, in a terse prepared statement. “We regret very much that these layoffs are occurring because of national economic conditions within our industry.” Channel 4 said Rohrbeck would not comment further.

There were unconfirmed rumors at Channel 4 that the present job cuts were only the first wave. The only on-air job eliminated is that of veteran editorial director Jim Foy.

According to Channel 4 sources, victims of news department cuts include Ed Adler, manager of news programs; Helen Johnson, producer of the weekly “News Conference” program, and some of the station’s political coverage; Rosalind Banbury, the associate producer of “News Conference” and news executive editor Anne Kaestner, who produced some of Channel 4’s recent election coverage.

Most of those eliminated are longtime Channel 4 employees. “It’s as if they drew a a line and for the most part everybody with a certain number of years was let go,” a Channel 4 insider said.

Adler and Johnson, who were told of their new status Monday when each returned from vacation, have a combined Channel 4 tenure of more than 40 years. Kaestner is a 12-year veteran.

Also leaving is Bob Kennedy, the station’s advertising and promotion director, a Channel 4 employee for 29 years. Some clerical jobs also were trimmed.

In searching for new jobs, the Channel 4 departees will face a market glutted in part by job seekers trimmed in the massive CBS and ABC cuts.

Not all the Channel 4 news is about forced departures, however.

The station’s cost-cutting obviously doesn’t apply to high-priced Jess Marlow. On Monday, Marlow is scheduled to make a loudly promoted return to Channel 4 in his new role as commentator.

Marlow has been at home the last couple months awaiting the expiration of his news anchor contract with KCBS Channel 2. He left Channel 2 when the station insisted on halving his $700,000 salary to match his diminished anchor duties, and said he also disagreed with a softened news format that Channel 2 was to briefly test with disastrous results.

The irony of the coming of Marlow and the going of others is impossible to miss.

This is no knock against Marlow, who adds class instead of gloss to any newscast he’s on. No one can blame him for making the best deal for himself that he can.

It’s unlikely Marlow’s Channel 4 pay matches his salary at Channel 2. Even if it were merely half, though, that amount could pay the combined salaries of the six ousted Channel 4 employees mentioned in this column, probably with change to spare.

Although Marlow is a serious journalist, KNBC is buying his celebrity, not his journalism. So this episode reflects a TV news given: Those having the least to do with putting out a news program usually are the biggest priority.

And to the others, happy holidays.