8. Panelists discuss progress of growing minority presence in TV marketplace

9. High marks given to preview of the game-show "Trump Card"

17. Tele-Communications Inc. announces plans to spin off cable programming interests and some cable systems into a separate firm

Other stories of interest include: Non-commercial station KQEC-TV 32 in San Francisco would not, as previously planned, be part of a joint venture with then-NBC affiliate KRON-TV 4 (the station had been put up for sale after owner KQED {on channel 9} had its license to run KQEC revoked in 1988); Viacom International chairman Ralph Baruch issuing a response to the comments by NBC's Bob Wright; a panel moderated by "Murphy Brown" star Candice Bergen noting how many prime-time shows aren't given time to develop an audience before being canceled; announcement of SportsChannel Bay Area (set to launch on May 2 and featuring mainly Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants baseball); HBO winning 31 of the 82 awards at the cable-oriented ACE Awards; FOX CEO Barry Diller assures INTV that the FOX affiliates would remain associated with the independent station association for the foreseeable future (for all intents and purposes; the FOX affiliates in the early days were still run largely as independents); General Motors announcing they're scaling back prime-time buys for the 2nd quarter of 1990; CBS Sports predicts modest profits for 1990, largely based on Super Bowl XXIV (however, CBS' newly-acquired {and trouble-plagued} baseball coverage ended up losing $36-$45 million in 1990}); Virginia's Supreme Court rules against a 2-year experiment in having cameras in Virginia courtrooms; Ileen Maisel named senior vice-president of Paramount's newly-launched European division; ESPN hiring WAGA-TV 5 sports anchor Robin Roberts in what marked the start of Roberts' lengthy run at ESPN and eventually corporate sibling ABC (including her current long-running role as co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America"); the death of former "Sesame Street" cast member Northern Calloway (included in a larger-than-normal obituary section) on January 9 at the age of 41 and after Calloway's character of David Robinson (who became the owner of Mr. Hooper's Store after the latter character's actor, Will Lee, died from cancer in late 1982) was written off as having moved to Florida following Calloway's firing in 1989 {Calloway - subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder - had gotten into several legal scrapes; with the incident that ended Calloway's tenure [and his character's relationship with Sonia Monzano's character of Maria - resulting in Maria's character dating and eventually marrying Emilio Delgado's Luis Rodriguez character] involving Calloway biting music coordinator Danny Epstein during an argument; with Calloway having previously been arrested for assaulting Tennessee Performing Arts Center marketing director Mary Stagaman in 1980 and showing up - and proposing to - cast member Alison Bartlett {who played Gina} at Bartlett's high school; with Calloway's criminal record causing him to have to stay behind when the rest of the "Sesame Street" cast filmed "Follow That Bird" in Canada}); new FOX Children's Network president Margaret Loesch announces $18 million budget for "Peter Pan and the Pirates"; ABC pulling the plug on "Free Spirit"; more bad news for "The Pat Sajak Show" as St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV-TV 4 becomes the latest affiliate to drop the show, replacing it (as several other CBS affiliates had) with "The Arsenio Hall Show" and ABC outbidding CBS for the College Football Association package of college football games beginning in 1991