Through the Wire

Charging into the Pentagon as the Defense Department's top spokesperson will involve considerable financial sacrifice on the part of Victoria (Torie) Clarke, who was the National Cable Television Association's media queen under former president Decker Anstrom. Pentagon brass are certainly well-paid, compared to the 24 folks who just spent 11 days on Hainan Island as involuntary guests of the Chinese government. But it appears from her financial disclosure form that Clarke's decision to leave the top D.C. job at Hill & Knowlton will involve about a 60 percent drop in salary (assuming the DOD job pays about $125,000 per year). Clarke — nominated by President Bush on April 5 — is slated to appear before the Senate Armed Service Committee on April 24 for her confirmation hearing as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

It's a destination, it's a research facility, it's a revenue source! The CBS Television Network last week announced the opening of "Television City" at the MGM Grand hotel-/casino in Las Vegas. Designed and supervised by CBS TV executive vice president of research and planning David Poltrack — and managed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Parks unit — Television City will serve as an attraction at which consumers can use computer kiosks to interact with various Viacom networks' Web sites; view 46 Sony Corp. monitors, a video wall and a theater with HDTV; and buy spinoff merchandise at a retail store. CBS and its sister cable networks will also be able to use the location to test upcoming programs and conduct focus-group research for interested advertisers and sponsors.

Instead of policing the AOL Time Warner Inc. merger itself, the Federal Trade Commission decided to hire Dale Hatfield to do the job. Hatfield, a network technologist who retired from the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year, will hold the title of monitor-trustee for a five-year stint overseeing whether AOL Time Warner is playing fair with those competing Internet Service Providers that seek access to Time Warner Cable systems. What's a job like that pay? The FTC, pressed to disclose Hatfield's compensation under a Freedom of Information Act request, decided to keep his salary information confidential — even though Hatfield is effectively serving as a proxy for the federal government. The agency released his employment agreement, but ran a magic marker over the real news. The FTC said Hatfield's compensation was exempt from disclosure for the simple reason that AOL Time Warner must pick up that tab.

Notoriously cost-conscious EchoStar Communications Corp. chairman Charlie Ergen continues to spread the wealth among his employees with a stock plan tied to the successful launch of the direct-broadcast-satellite service provider's EchoStar VI satellite last July. Called the EchoStar 2000 Launch Bonus Plan, this incentive plan would give eligible employees 10 shares of EchoStar stock, worth about $300. In a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it plans to issue about 41,500 Class A common shares as a result of the plan. The frugal Ergen — who has required traveling EchoStar employees to double up on hotel rooms to save money — has been offering such stock awards ever since the launch of its first satellite in 1995. Adjusting for splits, an EchoStar employee in good standing since 1995 would possess about 400 shares of company stock under the launch-incentive plan. Based on its April 18 close, those shares would be worth about $12,720. Ergen, one of the lowest paid executives of a major corporation — he ties most of his wealth to his control of 50.2 percent of EchoStar stock — received a $750,000 bonus last year, part of which was for the EchoStar VI launch, according to the company's annual proxy statement.

Cheers has been in syndication for years since last call sounded for its 11-year NBC run. But viewers will have an extra inducement to tune in this fall, when the series begins its seven-year exclusive stint on Nick at Nite. Paramount Television Group and producer Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions are sharing the costs of digitally remastering the sitcom's 275 episodes. Those efforts will remove the dirt, scratches and other defects that marred the images of Sam, Diane, Carla and their bar patrons as they toiled in syndication. The studio will use the camera negative and employ state-of-the-art technology to transfer the film to high-definition masters. Each witticism will be enhanced, too, since the studios said that audio would be restored and new mixes created in Dolby stereo surround sound. Executives hope the work will "invigorate the brand" as it moves into its exclusive cable window.

ESPN Inc. may have found a way to generate new youth-appeal sports for its networks' schedules. As part of ESPN's annual "SportsFigures Challenge," students competing for $90,000 in college scholarships had to create a new sport in a 250-word essay, while incorporating math and physics principles. Asked if Armstrong Cable Co., Grove City, Pa., might shoot a segment for its local-origination channel on its winner's idea — "quergaball," in which in-line skaters throw balls at a goal while navigating a half-pipe — marketing coordinator Joan Kocan told The Wire, "I'd love to." She called the sport "a candidate for ESPN2." At ESPN, vice president of affiliate marketing E.J. Conlin said the network at a May meeting would discuss a possible special demonstrating such sports as "time diving," in which skydivers compete to land in the fastest time (submitted via Cox Communications Inc., Edmond, Okla.). These offbeat student creations probably couldn't fare much worse than the XFL on NBC.