Noel Holston: Rod Grams' Unlikely Comeback

Rod Grams, who lost his U. S. Senate reelection bid last November, returned to his roots today, announcing that he will become lead anchor on the early morning newscast at KTIV-4, the NBC affiliate in Sioux City Iowa, the nation's 144th largest media market. Grams, who was a news anchor at KMSP-9, before quitting in 1992 to run for a U.S. House seat, said in a prepared statement: "I'm returning to my first love, reading stories on television."

Rumors have circulated for weeks that Grams was angling for an anchor position at a Twin Cities' station, but his efforts were rebuffed, according to local media insiders. Upon being told of Grams' plans, WCCO-4 news director, Ted Canova, said that he wished him the best of luck and was sorry that things didn't work out locally. "We were approached by Grams through his agent in January," said Canova, "and they proposed either an a.m. anchor slot, or a co-anchoring arrangement with Bill Carlson on our Midday news. Our feeling was that after spending the last eight years in Washington D.C., Grams was too far removed from the pop culture mainstream, which makes up more and more of our newscast. We had to ask ourselves: 'Is Rod Grams really a credible source for the latest news about Survivor, or the VH-1 entertainment updates that we're now running regularly from our newest corporate partner, Viacom?'"

Scott Libin, KSTP-5 news director, seconded that concern, saying that some of the disparaging campaign remarks that Grams made about Senator Dayton's wealth could come back to haunt the station. "I realize that the former senator belittled Dayton's millionaire status in the heat of battle," said Libin, "but anyone wondering why we passed on Grams, has to realize that ABC's number one program, and our main hope for growing our newscast ratings, is 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' If viewers of that show realize that we have someone who is 'anti-millionaire' anchoring our news, what does that say about our commitment to their financial aspirations? Also, we spend a lot of time on our newscasts promoting the Minnesota Vikings, because we broadcast their pre-season and 'Monday Night Football' games. Grams was never known for identifying with the Vikings in the way, that say Arne Carlson supports the Gophers, or Jesse Ventura backs the Timberwolves."

KARE-11 news director, Tom Linder, expressed reservations about Grams' ability to remain neutral while delivering political news. "Frankly," said Linder, "we were concerned that while reading a story about Senator Dayton, Grams might be inclined to go negative, the way he did during the campaign. Our newscast is noted for being more upbeat, more family-friendly than our competitors, so we had to weigh the consequences of Grams reverting to attack-ad mode. Something like that might have an emotionally jarring effect on a suburban mom, the target demographic that we've worked so hard to cultivate, and one that incidentally, voted overwhelmingly against Rod in the last election."

Steve Schier, who heads the Political Science Department at Carleton College and is a regular commentator on Twin Cities' television, said that he understands the logic behind that thinking, and believes that the Sioux City market might be more reflective of Grams' political constituency "The only place that Grams made a respectable showing was out-state," said Schier, "and from what I can tell, Sioux City is much closer to the out-state sensibility than the Twin Cities is. Rod isn't carrying as much baggage down there. For the folks in Sioux City, he's just another former TV anchor who happened to be a one-term senator. And as we learned from his campaign commercials, he grew up on a farm."

While the size of the Sioux City market - 144th largest with 150,000 households - pales in comparison to the Twin Cities market - 14th largest with 1.5 million households - Grams is no stranger to small markets. His resume includes stints at KFBB-TV in Great Falls, Montana,(187), WSAU-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin, (136), and WIFR-TV in Rockford, Illinois, (135).

Sources close to Grams say that he feels a sense of relief being out of both the Washington D. C. pressure cooker and the big city ratings wars. According to a former colleague at KMSP-9, Grams never considered returning to his local alma-mater: "We all know that KMSP lags far behind the other three stations in ratings, and Grams had no interest in following-up his election defeat by trying to restart his broadcasting career at a perennial ratings laggard. My feeling is that Rod would rather be a fig fish in a small pond at this point in his career. Besides, KMSP by putting him in the anchor seat would be sending a loser message to viewers, many of whom are already sensitive about being identified with the Twin Cities' lowest-rated commercial newscast.

Budd Rugg, media columnist for Twin Cities' Web site, Cursor.org, agrees that Grams could make a splash in Sioux City. Writing about the ten months he spent pursuing media celebrities in the "Siouxland Empire," Mr. Rugg said in a recent column: "There is absolutely no media worth losing sleep over anywhere in Iowa, South Dakota, or Nebraska." He thinks that given that dearth of big-name media types, Grams might be a ratings magnet south of the border. "He has that 'Heartland je ne sais quoi,' which may not be something that Twin Citians understand," said Rugg, "but of course, Iowa viewers know it when they see it."

Reached for comment about her son's latest career move, Audrey Grams, who was recently hired as a political commentator on TPT's "Almanac," was less sanguine about Rod's return to a minor-market anchoring position. Said Mrs. Grams: "Sioux City. Uff Da!"

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