Former CBS newsman Ike Pappas has formed...

Former CBS newsman Ike Pappas has formed his own television production company and plans to hire reporters, producers and technicians who, like himself, lost their jobs in network layoffs. Pappas says the company, based in an office next door to his former CBS News bureau in downtown Washington, is developing network-quality news programming for independent TV and radio stations as well as video presentations for industry, trade associations and government. The company’s name is Ike Pappas Network Productions. Pappas, who worked at CBS for 23 years before he was laid off nearly a year ago, is one of four full-time employees and the only on-air talent at the company so far. Pappas was among more than 200 people cut from the CBS news operation in March, 1987, when the network trimmed its $300-million annual news budget by about 10%.