Station chiefs get axed at Infinity's AM news outlets.

Infinity Broadcasting Corp. has fired the longtime general managers of both of its local AM radio news stations.

George Nicholaw, vice president and general manager of KNX-AM (1070) for 36 years and a familiar voice to Los Angeles radio listeners with his on-air editorials, was given his walking papers early last week, as was Roger Nadel, the general manager of KFWB-AM (980) since 1996.

In celebrating its 35th anniversary in April, KNX called Nicholaw, 75, the longest-tenured general manager of a news format station in the United States. He came to Los Angeles in 1967 to establish the all-news format at KNX for CBS.

Nicholaw guided KNX's coverage of the Watergate hearings--one of the few local commercial stations to carry the proceedings--and its exclusive live coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial.

Reached at KNX on the eve of his final day, Nicholaw said he hadn't given much thought to his next move because "my leaving wasn't planned."

"KNX has been a very successful station and my relationship with the people here has been a very positive one. It's been a great thrill seeing all of the journalism awards our people have won," Nicholaw said.

The moves came less than two weeks after Infinity named former KFI-AM (640) vice president of programming David Hall to the new post of vice president AM programming for its Los Angeles cluster, and about six weeks after it named Pat Duffy, former general manager at its KRTH-FM (101.1) station, vice president and market manager for its local news stations.

Hall most recently served as vice president of programming at Clear Channel Communication Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks, which distributes Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and other national radio personalities.

According to union sources and others who spoke on background, rumors had been rampant that changes were afoot at KFWB and KNX since Duffy and Hall were hired.

Reached at KFWB, Hall declined to comment, referring calls to Duffy. Duffy did not return repeated calls.

Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for Viacom Inc.-owned Infinity, which operates seven radio stations in the L.A. market, confirmed the firings but otherwise declined comment.

Neither Nicholaw nor Nadel returned calls seeking comment.

Close competition

Both KFWB and KNX are primarily news stations, although Infinity has sought to establish some distinction between the two in the past year by moving KFWB towards sports coverage. The most recent baseball season was the first for KFWB in a five-year pact to serve as the Dodgers' flagship station, and it recently signed a deal with Westwood One Inc. to carry up to three games a week from the National Football League, including Monday Night Football.

Last month, Duffy told the Business Journal that "It's a complicated thing owning two news stations and we want to make sure they are on the right track and not competing against each other."

David Twedell, a business agent for the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, which represents about 40 on-air employees at the two stations, said the union has requested a meeting with management to discuss the changes, which were not formally announced.

"We found out initially through the rumor mill. They still haven't given us any formal notification," Twedell said. "The most obvious concern is that the new management team is going to be led by David Hall, who has a background in talk radio. So we are concerned that there could be a format change at one of the two stations."

Hall was responsible for a switch to talk at KFI when he arrived in 1991 and was given much of the credit for reversing the fortunes of the station, which was the highest ranked AM outlet in Los Angeles in the most recent Arbitron Inc. ratings period. KFI has retained part of its news operation since switching to talk.

"A number of the reporters at both stations look positively at David Hall's track record and look forward to his contributions at the stations in terms of improving ratings," Twedell said. "They're hopeful."

Both KFWB and KNX have seen their ratings slide in recent years. In the spring ratings period, KNX earned a 1.9 rating to place it 23rd among local radio stations. That rating was down from a 2.3 in the year-earlier period.

KFWB has performed worse, earning just a 1.5 rating in the spring period to place it 26th in the market. In the year-earlier period, KFWB had garnered a 1.8 rating.

Nicholaw began his radio career in the 1950s in Salinas and took a television job at CBS' Television City in Los Angeles in 1955, according to the KNX Web site, which still posted his bio last week. He worked for radio stations in Chicago and New York before joining KNX in 1967.

Among the more memorable events in his long career, Nicholaw said, was the station's coverage of the Simpson trial, the 1971 and 1994 earthquakes, the Los Angeles riots, the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and Watergate.

Nadel worked at KFWB in the 1970s and 1980s before leaving Los Angeles to head a station in Detroit for several years. He returned to KFWB in 1996.