READYING ‘AMERICAN ALMANAC’ : CONNIE CHUNG: NOW SHE CAN SLEEP IN

NEW YORK —  Connie Chung is an up-and-comer at NBC News. She’s just glad she doesn’t have to get up and come in at 4 o’clock in the morning anymore. For the next two months, Chung will be relieved of her duties as anchor of “NBC News at Sunrise” so she can prepare for her role on the new prime-time magazine show, “American Almanac,” which premieres in August.

That’s fine with her, because although she likes “Sunrise,” she hates the hours and needs her sleep. “I’ve always been a 12-hour person,” she says. “I’ve always loved to sleep. I can just put the head down and be gone, easily.”

Chung, 38, has brought her garment bag to lunch because right after, she’s flying to Washington to be with her husband of six months, Maury Povich, a local TV personality. They have a weekend marriage, though that may change with her new schedule.

A veteran of hard knocks in the news biz, Chung can handle anybody. However, she cannot always handle being pooped. “I’ve got to wake up or otherwise I’m going to keel over!” she says suddenly in the middle of lunch. “Oh, here’s a little stimulant.” She takes out a cigarette and puffs on it strenuously.

Chung, the first-generation daughter of Chinese-born parents who fled that country in 1944 and now live in Washington, is known as a flinty and persistent pro. She’s proud of the fact that with her as anchor, “NBC News at Sunrise” has usually beaten the very-early news shows on other networks. She either wins or ties with ABC.

“We’re No. 1--absolutely,” she says. “When the show first started, they were No. 3, rock bottom. I took it all the way up.”

Why do people pick her show over the others? “At first I thought it was because people were watching Bill Cosby (also on NBC) and going to sleep at 8:30 and then getting 10 hours of sleep, you know, and then in the morning they turn on the TV, and I’m there. Then I thought, well, maybe they’re watching David Letterman and getting only five hours of sleep.

“But really, I think there are a couple of reasons. Gerry Solomon, the executive producer, sort of tailored a program for me. You know how when Dan Rather took over, there was that whole theory that the program wasn’t his and had to be tailored to him? Gerry really put together a program that really works for me.”

For the next two months, it will have to work for Anne Garrels, John Dancy and other NBC correspondents who’ll take turns subbing for Chung.

Chung threw herself into the task of making the show a hit. She noticed that some network affiliates were not carrying “NBC News at Sunrise.” They were carrying something else in that time slot. Chung got a little list of the offending stations and took it with her to an affiliates convention, where she had executives of those stations pointed out to her.

“I collared them and I said, ‘You’ve got to take our program, it’s really terrific--you know, hard news, nice quick pace, very informative,’ ” Chung recalls. “This was last May (1984). And by this past fall, all of them came through.” She gloats. “It was terrific.”

When it is suggested to her that maybe the reason most people watch her program is that she’s so pleasing to look at early in the morning, she just laughs and says “Moi?” with mock incredulity.

In her eventful career--an anchor at KCBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles and a stint with CBS News in Washington--Chung’s most celebrated adventure occurred at last year’s Democratic convention, when her floor reporter’s battery pack started to smoke and Sen. John Glenn of Ohio gallantly rescued her.

“It was hilarious,” she recalls, “because I was about to interview him, and was leading him into camera position, when one of the delegates looked at me and went, ‘Hoooo, hoooo!’ There was smoke billowing from my battery pack. I looked down and saw all the smoke and thought maybe something was on fire on the floor, so I moved to the side and the smoke came with me.

“Anyway, the battery pack is attached with a military buckle, and I couldn’t get it loose, and so Glenn, having the right stuff, goes like this and just yanked all the wires right off.”

She recalls her reaction in the kind of high, squeaky voice she thinks she used at the time: “Oh thank you, Mr. Glenn! Oh Mr. Glenn, you saved my life! Oh thank you, thank you!”

Was Glenn proud of himself? “Oh yeah,” says Chung. “His aide said, ‘Oh, he saves people’s lives all the time.”’