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In her 1995 book Longitude, Dava Sobel breathed new life into the story of a long-forgotten invention — the sea clock, or chronometer — and the enormous scientific, economic and political impact it had on the 18th century.

Now television has taken on the equally daunting task of making Sobel's beautifully spare prose come alive on screen. "Longitude," starting 8 p.m. Sunday on A&E, does that and more. Not only is this 4-hour movie faithful to the book, it is an engaging drama in its own right, with endearing performances from Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon ("The Insider").

In 1714, Parliament passed the Longitude Act, offering a princely reward to the person who could give sailors a foolproof way to determine their east-west coordinates. No such method existed, so countless ships drifted off course, crashing onto unforeseen shores or wandering endlessly until their crews starved to death.

Gambon plays John Harrison, the village carpenter who built what was then the world's most accurate land clock. Harrison realized that if he could apply his knowledge to a precise portable timekeeper for maritime use, he'd win the longitude prize.

Little did he know that the effort would take the rest of his life. "Longitude" is the chronicle of that agonizing pursuit, which pitted Harrison and his son (played by Ian Hart) against their politically connected rivals, not to mention the elder Harrison's own stubborn pursuit of perfection.

But the movie's true genius is in telling a parallel story of the 20th-century Englishman who restored Harrison, and his clocks, to their rightful places in history. Irons plays Rupert Gould, a former naval officer who comes upon Harrison's rusted-out jewels in 1920 while recovering from a nervous breakdown. Sobel only touches on Gould's oddly engaging life in her book, but "Longitude" elevates him to the level of Harrison, cleverly synchronizing the two men's stories like a pair of quartz watches.

"Longitude" also introduces several female characters who are missing entirely from Sobel's account. The result must be called historical fiction, but it's worthwhile fiction and terrific history.

Hey, KRON: Don't underestimate Dino

I'm no programming genius. And I sure don't claim to understand every subtlety of the TV news business. (If I did, maybe I'd have a clue why Stone Phillips still has a job.) But I think I have a grip on the situation in San Francisco at KRON-TV — which is more than I can say for some of the people bailing out of there.

As you may have heard, the longtime NBC affiliate got a new owner last year. The owner outbid NBC for the station, paying an eye-popping $823 million. Soon after, NBC, smarting as only gigantic companies can smart after a setback, came to play hardball with the new owner over its affiliation deal with the network. Instead of offering to pay KRON to carry NBC programs — as had been the arrangement for the past 50 years — NBC demanded that KRON pay the network $10 million a year. If the station refused, NBC said it would look for a new affiliate. The new owner called NBC's bluff. Thus, when 2002 rolls around, KRON will be going it alone as an independent.

Understandably, shock waves pulsed through the KRON studios as news of NBC's impending exit spread. And apparently the tremors kept building, as anxious staffers wondered what would take the place of "ER" and "Law & Order" in driving viewers to their profitable and highly-rated newscasts.

On June 26, the day the new owner closed the deal on KRON, it named the station's new general manager: Kansas City's own Paul "Dino" Dinovitz, the longtime general manager of our ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV, and more recently, of NBC powerhouse KCRA-TV in Sacramento.

Reaction was swift. Five executives bolted KRON, including the top two news managers, who defected to rival KPIX-TV. And more may follow: A writer for the San Jose Mercury News detected on-air clues that KRON's top news anchor and sports guy "have one foot out the door."

Chronicle TV critic John Carman thinks the moves were no coincidence: "The final straw might have come 10 days ago, when (the new owner) announced that Paul 'Dino' Dinovitz, the president and general manager of two Sacramento TV stations, will become vice president and general manager of KRON on January 1." KRON insiders, wrote Carman, thought there was a perfectly good candidate from within their ranks.

The "final straw"? Am I detecting just a wee bit of resentment among these pampered San Francisco TV folk? Have they already made up their minds that no good can come from out of town? Or is it just a case of the No. 5 market looking down its nose at No. 19?

Whatever the case, it's obvious that several ex-KRON staffers — and perhaps a few still wavering inside — don't think very much of Dino Dinovitz. What kind of guy calls himself "Dino," anyway? Sure, he can take over a fabulously successful station and not run it into the ground. But what does he know about big-city television? What does he know about San Francisco, for that matter?

Valid questions all, and in time Dinovitz will be judged by his words and deeds at KRON, not on the speculation of panicky personnel. But for now, I offer a word to the wise: If anyone can guide KRON through the troubled waters ahead, it's Dino Dinovitz. Not only can he succeed in what is arguably the toughest general manager's job in the business, chances are very good he will succeed. And if he does, he will have pointed the way to a new model for broadcast television, one in which network affiliation is not required or, in some cases, even desirable.

Chances are that turnaround will look a lot like what Dinovitz did 15 years ago in Kansas City. In June 1985 Hearst hired him to take over KMBC, then mired in third place and still struggling to emerge from the fallout of an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by ex-anchorwoman Christine Craft. Though Craft lost her case, she gained national attention and KMBC got a major PR shiner in the process.

In 1987 Dinovitz hired a news director, Brian Bracco. He would still be there 11 years later when Dinovitz left for Sacramento. Together, the two men mapped out a new plan for Channel 9's news, one that emphasized human-interest stories and compelling images. The 10 p.m. news team was overhauled; they too were there, intact, at Dinovitz's departure. Also in 1987, Dinovitz outbid another station for the rights to "Oprah," and daytime ratings began their dramatic upswing. By 1989 KMBC was No. 1 in local news, and it has remained there since.

At the time of Dinovitz's leaving, I wrote: "Although its ratings of late have not been as strong, KMBC is still capable of drawing 30 percent of Kansas City households - an impressive figure in an era of cable TV and viewer fragmentation. As one rival general manager recently put it, 'They could bake a cake at 11 o'clock at night and still get a 25 share.'"

Dinovitz also reached out to his home town. For those of you who think we're just a white-bread hamlet in the flyover, Kansas City has a fast-growing immigrant population and is home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. So it's significant that Dinovitz, along with two former Kansas City mayors and the head of the local electric company, helped found Harmony, the area's leading promoter of diversity in the community. I've asked black Kansas Citians which TV stations they think cover their neighborhoods best; KMBC was always highly regarded during the Dinovitz years.

To review, then, here's what KRON is up against in the years ahead: 1. The impending loss of viewers in droves when NBC programming goes away. 2. A newsroom left unstable by the exits of key managers and possibly top anchors. 3. Negative perceptions of the station, fueled by a protracted legal battle and skeptical outside news coverage during the transition. 4. The daunting task every GM must face, but especially in the high-tech Bay Area, of holding onto viewers as their news and entertainment choices grow. 5. Serving a community that seems to grow larger and more diverse by the minute.

Faced with that laundry list, how would your GM do? Dino Dinovitz has seen it all, done it all, and lived to tell about it. He may only stand 5-foot-5, San Francisco — but don't sell Dino short.

***

A postscript. An anonymous KRON staffer sent this note to the News Blues Web site a year ago, days after the station had gone on the auction block: "Some welcome the prospect of change in a news department where the only on-air change in five years has been the re-formatting of the 11pm show by teasing the headlines ... Local and national stories are being overlooked because of the preoccupation with covering one's rear-end instead of the news. We were the only station in town that didn't send anyone to the JFK Jr. story. If one of the networks buys KRON, local programming is sure to fall. One has only to look at the other O&O stations around the country. They keep body count to a minimum by producing a couple of public affairs programs, and filling the non-network time slots with syndicated shows. Whoever is left standing after the station is purchased will welcome the change."

On this date...

in 1997, angry Michigan housewife Terry Rakolta's boycott efforts against the Fox network finally pay off as the object of her wrath — the sitcom "Married ... With Children," comes to an end — after a mere 259 episodes.

July 8: in 1992, two months after the launch of MTV's "The Real World," Fox unveils its own saga of a group of sensitive Generation X-ers living in the same apartment complex. Jake, Matt, Alison, Jane, Sandy, Rhonda, Alison's new roommate Billy and reluctant building superintendent Michael are all struggling to fight against the tide but willing to lean on one another for support in the ho-hum, pre-Amanda world of "Melrose Place."

July 9: in 1988, "Facts of Life" actress Lisa Whelchel officially retires from acting to pursue a singing career. -- Tom Heald

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