Channel 9's new acquisition; Hires Bartel to help

WGN-Channel 9 is beefing up its investigative efforts. The station has hired away the well-respected investigative producer Marsha Bartel, 52, from WFLD-Channel 32, where she had been working on investigative pieces with reporter Dane Placko, whose contract was just renewed. Bartel's last day at WFLD was Monday. She starts at WGN on Sept. 7.

WGN's move to hire Bartel comes after a period when investigative reporting was apparently not a high priority at the station. But WGN lead anchor Mark Suppelsa said Tuesday he has been pushing for WGN to do more investigative work because he believes it will help attract viewers, and perhaps not coincidentally, help boost the station's late news ratings, which have been sinking in recent months. WGN is currently in third place in the late news ratings competition

Suppelsa said he encouraged WGN news director Greg Caputo to consider hiring Bartel, because Suppelsa has been impressed with Bartel's work since both were at WMAQ-Channel 5 in the early 1990s. Bartel was a producer with WMAQ's Unit 5 investigative team, which at the time included Peter Karl, Paul Hogan, Rich Samuels and Carol Marin. Suppelsa was not part of that investigative unit at Channel 5, but he said he wants to work directly with Bartel at Channel 9.

"I'd love to take the time to work on something with Marsha," said Suppelsa. Caputo did not respond to a request for comment.

Bartel said her passion in the TV news business is only investigative reporting. "It's all I've ever been interested in," said Bartel, who spent 10 years doing investigations at WMAQ, then 13 years at NBC, working for the network "Dateline" show. When she was axed during an NBC news department downsizing, Bartel briefly reunited with Suppelsa at WFLD, where he had moved from WMAQ. Suppelsa moved to WGN about a year after Bartel arrived at WFLD.

Shortly after exiting NBC, Bartel filed a breach-of-contract suit against the network claiming she was laid off because of concerns she had expressed about some of the investigative practices being used on "Dateline." The suit was dismissed, however, before it got to trial. Bartel now says she never expected to prevail in her lawsuit. "I just wanted to make sure my concerns about how investigations were being handled were made public," Bartel said.

Now that she is at Channel 9, Bartel said, it's possible she will work on some investigative pieces in conjunction with the Chicago Tribune. "We'll have to see how that relationship evolves," said Bartel, who believes it's important for good stories to get exposure in as many different media as possible. "The more people who see the stories, the better it is for everybody," she said

Bartel's move to WGN leaves WFLD suddenly without a key behind-the-scenes producer just as it is trying to put in place the final pieces of a revamped 9 p.m. newscast with more in-depth, longer stories. The pieces from Bartel and Placko were apparently to have been a key part of the new newscast. At the very least, Channel 9's hiring of Bartel signals it intends to aggressively counter WFLD's efforts to pull in news viewers during the 9 p.m. hour, when the two stations' newscasts compete head to head.

Photo: Mark Suppelsa