Family Matters
Good Day Oregon and Ken Ackerman prepare for a new day without Laura Stephenson

Note the strategically placed flowers on the set, and you might guess why Good Day Oregon is seeking a co-host. The bouquets screen Laura Stephenson's expanding waistline, a sure sign of her expanding family. On May 20 she will sign off to prepare for the July birth of her third child.

Whoever replaces her won't be a temporary fill-in, but a full co-host alongside Ken Ackerman. It's a big change: The minivan mom and the SUV single guy have been Good Day Oregon's starting lineup since the show debuted in August, 1996.

"I'm gone for good," Stephenson says, having pondered and put aside the idea of a maternity leave. "I've already had my tears about it. 

"I did it for the consistency of the show. I'd be letting people down if I said I'd be back."

Good Day Oregon must now duplicate the successful chemistry experiment that matched Ackerman and Stephenson. It will be a hard act to follow; the pair clearly has fun and earns results together, whether sharing a table outside Grand Central Baking Company on Hawthorne or chatting in their well-upholstered studio chairs.

As an expectant mom in her mid-30s, Stephenson is concerned about her unborn baby's health. She doesn't want to know in advance if it's a boy or girl; experience has taught her "it's temperament you care about, not gender." That and her husband's busy surgical practice mean she'll step off the career path. For how long, she doesn't know.

She hopes this isn't the last you'll see of her on KPTV. "If things go well, in the next year I'll be doing a little of this and a little of that."

Ackerman acknowledges, "It will be a sad day when she leaves. It won't be the same show."

Not that Good Day is hurting for familiar faces: Andy Carson, Tony Martinez and Kathy Smith remain as charter members of the on-air team. "Personality is what we have to sell," notes Ackerman. The show works because "everyone has their own personality and nobody tries to be somebody else."

The show's appeal is three-fold, he says: "It's local, it's not East Coast and it's not three-hours-old news" as on the national morning shows it competes against.

Ackerman, a Washington native known for his deft comedic touch as a reporter, says, "The producers let us do whatever we want. If it doesn't work, we don't do it again."

Stephenson says, "You have to admit this is a really good job. There is never a bad day. We sit together for two hours and play off each other."

It's worth remembering the huge risk KPTV took in swapping weekday kiddy cartoons for an hour of local news and two hours of local talk. "You have to have a thick skin to come in and do something new," notes Stephenson. The gamble has paid off with solid growth in the ratings for what can now be called a morning franchise. The show was designed so that anyone could tune in for 20 minutes and catch news, weather and a feature, but the ratings suggest most viewers are sticking around longer.

As a hard-news journalist since her college days, Stephenson had to make some changes for the light and friendly tone of the morning show. She does catch herself asking, "Why am I wearing bunny ears?" for an Easter segment.

As he watches his partner's family grow, Ackerman feels the family urge himself. He says, "Kids aren't inhibited at all. They tell you what's on their minds. I've wanted kids in the worst way. I've been ready for eight years."

Stephenson teases him about this on the air, saying "A lot of people think you're pretty cute."

For now, however, his extended family consists of a Shar-pei named Chloe.

Not that single life isn't an adventure. Since it's May sweeps, Ackerman will heed the call of the wild and go skydiving on Wednesday, cameras and all. (He's already heard the bad skydiving jokes, so don't bother.) It's the type of unusual live story Good Day prides itself on pursuing.

"In the news business people always tell you, 'I can't,'" says Stephenson, making it clear that this show is one to say,. "I can."

BY ERIK H. BERGMAN