Who's on first? What's on second? And I don't know what's on Channel 9.

That could be viewers' reaction to the long-awaited changes arriving on WCPO-TV this week.

Channel 9 will unveil a new set, new morning team, new weekend team, new graphics, and new names for the 11 p.m. and 5-7 a.m. newscasts.

But the biggest news could be that veteran anchor Carol Williams will return permanently to the 11 p.m. news, reuniting the former No. 1 team of Clyde Gray, Ms. Williams, Dennis Janson and Pete Delkus.

"We're working on it. It depends on if they can make some accommodations, a few more days off," says Ms. Williams, who was the primary co-anchor from 1986 to 1997, when she requested day hours to raise her daughter, now 11. Ms. Williams, a single mother, says she expects to sign a new contract to do the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. news within days.

Channel 9 viewers get their first peek at the new look in promotional spots tonight during ABC's Monday Night Football.

New set airs Tuesday

At 11 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 9 will broadcast the first newscast from the $500,000 set that has been under construction all month. Instead of 9 News at 11, the newscast will be called The Latest at 11.

Mr. Delkus will have a new weather center with 11 computer screens, and Mr. Janson will report sports standing at a movable martini glass-shaped podium.

Starting at 5 a.m. Wednesday, viewers will see a radically revamped morning show, as Channel 9 tries to become more competitive in TV's trendy growth area. (It's last in the ratings among the four local shows this month.) For the same reason, CBS will premiere a new version of The Early Show at 7 a.m. today with Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, Julie Chen and Rene Syler.

Morning changes on tap

Former sports reporter Kathrine Nero and comedian-turned-reporter Michael Flannery will replace Brian Patrick and Julie O'Neill on the retitled Good Morning, Tri-State (5-7 a.m.), immediately preceding ABC's Good Morning, America. (Channel 12, which switched from ABC to CBS in 1996, continues to call its Fountain Square-based early show Good Morning, Cincinnati.)

The expanded morning team also includes news reader Janell Walton, meteorologist Larry Handley, a roving reporter, traffic reporter Mary McConnell and Jennifer Crawford Steiner, who appears each morning to give away free tickets to viewers.

Ms. Nero and Mr. Flannery will host the show at a round cocktail table-like set in front of a floor-to-ceiling video screen. Ms. Walton will do news updates from the mobile martini-glass lectern.

"It's going to be the Good Morning, America format. It won't be just the news," says General Manager Bill Fee. "Morning radio on TV," is how News Director Bob Morford describes it.

Playing musical chairs

Who's on first every morning has touched off a massive game of musical chairs inside the station.

Mr. Patrick and Ms. O'Neill will move as a team to 6 and 11 p.m. weekends. Weekend co-anchor Andrea Canning, hired last winter, remains the 5:30 p.m. weekday co-anchor with David Rose.

Shawn Ley, weekend co-anchor for 21/2 years, will report full-time at 11 p.m. with Ms. Canning and Mr. Rose.

In the past month, Channel 9 has looked at various combinations for the morning show, with on-air tryouts by Mr. Janson, Mr. Rose and Ms. Nero.

It was decided that Mr. Janson, the dean of Cincinnati sportscasters, should be kept at 11 p.m. to reassemble what was the No. 1 anchor team in the 1990s.

"The fastest-growing day part is morning, and we wanted to examine all of our options for the morning team. But we didn't want to make a change that would negatively impact our 11 p.m. news," Mr. Fee says.

Ms. Nero, who has spent her career working nights covering sports, requested the change in hours. Then station managers heard Mr. Flannery filling in on the WKRQ-FM (101.9) morning show last month and paired them together. Mr. Flannery, the former Channel 19 Kids Club host (1990-95), started at Channel 9 in 1995 as the morning feature reporter.

The on-air auditions have prompted fans of Mr. Patrick and Ms. O'Neill to e-mail the station. Mr. Fee says they should not worry.

"We're keeping them together as a team. They're moving to 6 and 11 p.m. on the weekends, which I consider a promotion," Mr. Fee says.

Excited about the set

While I wanted to talk about people changes, Channel 9 managers preferred to talk about the new red, orange and wood set with moving plasma screens and wavy backdrops always in motion. They explained how the main anchor desk rotates, so the weather center can appear in the shot during bad storms. (And all the pieces easily come apart, so it can be moved into Channel 9's new studio, to be built by 2004 on the former Gilbert Avenue Natural History Museum site.)

"We invested very heavy on a new set. We could have saved a lot of money, and done just a one-shot studio," Mr. Fee says. "The most important thing is what this set is going to do for all our newscasts, and viewers will see it most in the morning."

Big investment

"This set helps us tell stories," says Mr. Morford, the former Channel 5 news director hired 18 months ago. The new set is evidence of Channel 9's "tremendous investment in its news product."

"I've always felt - even when I was at Channel 5 (1994-97) - that Channel 9 was the news leader in town. But it had lost it way, and sent some of its best people off to do other things than to do news," Mr. Morford says, referring to Jay Shatz's Around the House and Joe Webb's HomeTown features. (Both have left the station.) "Now everyone here has rallied around the news department."

Who's on which newscast may be confusing to loyal viewers, although it could be worse. Channel 9 resisted hiring new anchors from outside the station, Mr. Fee notes.

"You know this town. Continuity is important in this market. Change is not easy. It's difficult," Mr. Fee says.

"But our viewers won't see any new faces. They'll see people they know," he says. "And we hope all of these changes will be on (the air) for the next decade."

And then viewers will know who's on first in the morning, and what's on Channel 9.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com