Channels 2, 9 combine in old digs. (Up Front).

For employees of KCBS-TV (Channel 2), the age of television duopoly was supposed to be their ticket out of an aging Hollywood broadcast facility and into more modern digs -- perhaps next to the glamorous Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue.

Instead, they're staying put at the creaky, 64-year-old Columbia Square building on Sunset Boulevard -- to be joined by KCAL-TV (Channel 9) as a result of Viacom Inc.'s $650-million purchase of the local independent station.

"This station is kind of a dumpy old building... kind of a dreary place," said one KCBS employee, who along with others at the station had been hoping to transfer to the newer KCAL facilities adjacent to Paramount. (KCAL, formerly KHJ-TV, is housed in a historic building that was an NBC facility in the 1930s.)

Don Corsini, head of Viacom's local duopoly, says that the move is only temporary. A permanent home for KCAL and KCBS will be built at the CBS Studio Center, where the stations will be based within a couple of years, he said.

Corsini admits that Channel 9's facilities were renovated in 1990 and are "a little bit more updated." But moving KCBS to Paramount would have required the leasing of another studio, he said. "Logistically and financially it made a lot of sense to move into the lot on Channel 2."

However, he couldn't explain why Viacom was consolidating the two stations now instead of waiting until the Studio City site is finished. "That's a good question. I don't have the answer," he said. "It's what the company wanted to do."

In anticipation of KCAL's arrival, work is under way at Columbia Square, which houses KCBS and two Viacom-owned radio stations -- KCBS-FM (93.1) and at KNX-AM (1070), which has been in the building since its grand opening in 1938.

Office space will be reconfigured and the KCBS newsroom expanded to make room for the KCAL staff. In addition, KCBS-FM will be moving to CBS Television City on Beverly Boulevard.

The two TV stations are already sharing one master control, run Out of KCBS, and several departments, including finance, sales and human resources, will be merged in August. The KCAL news staff is expected to move in September; the news departments will share an assignment desk and a newsroom.

To provide parking for the employees moving to Columbia Square, sources said CBS is considering leasing space from the nearby Hollywood Palladium.

"Some people are not excited," said one KCBS staffer. "People will be working in a lot more cramped quarters."

KCAL's move might be postponed until December, so as not to interfere with the November sweeps ratings period, said one source. Both news operations already have been placed under the control of KCAL News Director Nancy Bauer Gonzales and the stations are actively promoting each other's newscasts.

Another major development for the local CBS news operation is the addition of anchor Laura Diaz to the KCBS news team. For years a star anchor at rival KABC-TV (Channel 7), which consistently beats out KCBS in the ratings, Diaz will begin appearing on Channel 2 in September.

Home to Jack Benny

The storied CBS broadcast operation has seen better times -- going back to 1937, when Columbia Broadcasting System Inc. began building a West Coast headquarters on Sunset Boulevard. The site was the former home of the Al Christie Studios, considered by many to be the birthplace of the motion picture industry. The large, boxy building was designed by Swiss-American architect William Lescaze.

Columbia Square became home to several popular radio programs, including "The Burns and Allen Show" and "The Edgar Bergen Show." Crowds waited outside for a chance to see Steve Allen, Jack Benny and Rosemary Clooney perform.

Columbia Square has seen some changes over the past 64 years, including the removal of a ground-floor restaurant and introduction of a television station, but it has basically remained the same. Once considered among the most modern of broadcast facilities, the 120,000-square-foot property at 6121 Sunset Blvd. has become a faded image of the past.

"I see it as a very special building, I really do," said George Nicholaw, vice president and general manager of KNX since 1967. "It stands today as a really unusual architectural treasure."

While two other major networks, General Electric Co.'s NBC and News Corp.'s Fox, also have local duopolies, Viacom likely will become the first to bring its two stations together under one roof. NBC, which recently bought Telemundo Communications Inc., plans to eventually move Spanish-language KVEA-TV (Channel 52) into the KNBC-TV (Channel 4) facility in Burbank. Thus far, no plans have been announced to move Fox stations KTTV-TV (Channel 11) and KCOP-TV (Channel 13) into one building.