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13 WHAM NEWS on CW 16
- Thread starter dmott3
- Start date
Yes, it's fairly new... WHAM has only owned the CW affiliate for a year, maybe two. (WHAM acquired the formerly cable-only affiliation from Time Warner when they launched their digital channel, 13.2, allowing the CW to get over-the-air exposure, even if only on DT.)
Also consider, it's not very often that your 5-6:30 weekday news gets pre-empted by network coverage. Having a second channel lets a station remain somewhat competitive, rather than sitting back and letting their competition get a "news monopoly" for the day (NBC did not have network football Friday). I say somewhat, because you have to consider the fact that you'll still miss viewers who don't have cable or a digital TV, but that issue will be a thing of the past come 2009.
Some might ask why bother with news at all, if you can't have it on your primary channel. After all, that day will probably be "thrown out" of the sweeps since it wasn't normal programming. But I think it's a matter of the brand recognition. There are many viewers who probably would rather see the news instead of a football game involving a local rivalry that doesn't interest anyone outside of Texas. By offering news on a secondary channel, at least you still have a chance to reach out to your loyal audience. Anytime you're pre-empted and the competition isn't, it's a chance for that station to steal those viewers away. So even though that very day may not matter for the ratings, you've gotta remember the long-term effects.
On a side note, you may or may not have noticed WHAM has already been using the CW as a platform to extend their morning newscast. From 5-7am, the show is on both 13 and 13.2. But once Good Morning America takes over the airways on 13, WHAM continues for another two hours of local news on 13.2.
As more and more stations get into digital multicasting, I think this is something we can expect to see more often. I'm almost surprised the major networks themselves aren't already offering secondary networks to rerun prime-time programming in alternate timeslots for folks who missed their favorite shows at the original time. Say you missed last night's ER... you could catch it Saturday at 8 or Tuesday at 3. Would be a boon for those who don't want to pay for DVR service, or for when the DVR messes up (which isn't all that uncommon).
Also consider, it's not very often that your 5-6:30 weekday news gets pre-empted by network coverage. Having a second channel lets a station remain somewhat competitive, rather than sitting back and letting their competition get a "news monopoly" for the day (NBC did not have network football Friday). I say somewhat, because you have to consider the fact that you'll still miss viewers who don't have cable or a digital TV, but that issue will be a thing of the past come 2009.
Some might ask why bother with news at all, if you can't have it on your primary channel. After all, that day will probably be "thrown out" of the sweeps since it wasn't normal programming. But I think it's a matter of the brand recognition. There are many viewers who probably would rather see the news instead of a football game involving a local rivalry that doesn't interest anyone outside of Texas. By offering news on a secondary channel, at least you still have a chance to reach out to your loyal audience. Anytime you're pre-empted and the competition isn't, it's a chance for that station to steal those viewers away. So even though that very day may not matter for the ratings, you've gotta remember the long-term effects.
On a side note, you may or may not have noticed WHAM has already been using the CW as a platform to extend their morning newscast. From 5-7am, the show is on both 13 and 13.2. But once Good Morning America takes over the airways on 13, WHAM continues for another two hours of local news on 13.2.
As more and more stations get into digital multicasting, I think this is something we can expect to see more often. I'm almost surprised the major networks themselves aren't already offering secondary networks to rerun prime-time programming in alternate timeslots for folks who missed their favorite shows at the original time. Say you missed last night's ER... you could catch it Saturday at 8 or Tuesday at 3. Would be a boon for those who don't want to pay for DVR service, or for when the DVR messes up (which isn't all that uncommon).
With the exception of retirees’, housewives, and people working second-shift jobs, who is home at 9am weekday mornings to watch the news? I personally would like to see just how many viewers WHAM TV has on CW 16 during that time slot. I can’t believe it’s that many.
What I would really like to see is a locally produced WEEKEND morning newscast. I know that WHEC had AM Live Saturday/Sunday until about 2001 or 2002, but it was cut from their budget. WSTM in Syracuse started one of their own a couple years ago and have since expanded it to 4 hours. R News can be handy, but not everyone has cable.
I'm still waiting for WHAM to start doing a 10PM newscast on 16. Voice of Reason, I know a lot people who don't leave for work and school until around 8ish, so I imagine the hour between 7 and 8 does get some viewers, if they know that WHAM has news on 16. So yes those ratings would be interesting to see.
And Mr. Allen that's an excellent question--why doesn't Rochester have a weekend morning newscast? Both WSTM and WSYR have ones in Syracuse. WIVB in Buffalo has one on both Saturdays and Sundays while WGRZ does a Saturday morning newscast(WKBW doesn't have any.) WTEN, WNYT, and WRGB all have ones for both Saturdays and Sundays. Even WKTV in Utica has weekend morning newscasts on both days. Yet outside of R News there is nothing here in Rochester, unless you count WHEC's Rochester in Focus program.
Hey whatever happened to "Eye on Rochester"?
And Mr. Allen that's an excellent question--why doesn't Rochester have a weekend morning newscast? Both WSTM and WSYR have ones in Syracuse. WIVB in Buffalo has one on both Saturdays and Sundays while WGRZ does a Saturday morning newscast(WKBW doesn't have any.) WTEN, WNYT, and WRGB all have ones for both Saturdays and Sundays. Even WKTV in Utica has weekend morning newscasts on both days. Yet outside of R News there is nothing here in Rochester, unless you count WHEC's Rochester in Focus program.
Hey whatever happened to "Eye on Rochester"?
The Voice of Reason said:
That's still quite a few people. Dustin also had a good point about many jobs and schools not starting until 8 or 9am. People don't like to get up any earlier than they have to. Local news until 8 or 9 would probably do quite well in many markets, if it weren't for network morning shows taking over at 7:00.
Also consider, that the staff required to run an "extension" of the morning show is usually there anyway, to perform the local cut-ins during Good Morning America. Rather than paying them to sit around doing nothing between those cut-ins, it's a more efficient use of their time. Even if the ratings are modest, it's an opportunity for revenues to increase, with little or no added expense.
Jack Allen said:
Pulling off a weekend morning show can be a little tougher, because it usually does involve hiring more people. Yes, you can get a full-time weekend morning anchor who turns some stories after their own show, and then goes onto report 3 days during the week. But the production end of it's not so simple. The weekday production crew usually gets a full shift out of working the morning and noon shows, but there are no noon shows on weekends. Once the weekend morning show is over, there's usually nothing for production to do. No station would hire people for an 8-hour shift which consists of 2 hours of news, followed by 6 hours of sitting around just for the sake of a full-time shift. Maybe in smaller markets where there is no dedicated "creative services" department, and your production crew is also in charge of menial tasks like commercial dubs or actually producing commercials, promos, and so forth. But in larger markets, you're typically looking at a part-time crew behind the scenes. People who aren't as "accountable" if they often oversleep, call-in sick or chronically show up late... people who are likely ready to jump ship for anything that pays more or offers them full-time status.
Maybe the stations in Rochester don't feel there's enough of a demand for weekend morning news. With so many other markets jumping on the bandwagon, you'd have to assume the topic of weekend morning news comes up in any viewer surveys or sample groups the stations conduct... and people might not be expressing a desire for it. Or maybe WHEC's failure with a weekend morning show has soured everyone on attempting anything similar. After all, if it were remarkably successful, they wouldn't have needed to cut it from the budget. Nobody in their right mind shuts down a profitable product.
It could also be a matter of programming. If a station airs its required "educational/informative childrens programming" during the timeslots surrounding the network's morning news, then putting a local morning news on the air means finding a new timeslot for the E/I programs. Even if that's not the case, something's still being displaced. You have to consider whether a local weekend morning news would get better ratings than whatever currently holds those timeslots. And since you're bringing on staff that's on the clock JUST for that show, the ratings do have to be pretty impressive, moreso than what would be required from weekday shows from 7-9am or at 10pm.
The main reason you don’t see a local weekend morning show on Rochester TV is most likely tied in to the cost of such a program. The last thing broadcasting companies are doing in this day and age is hiring more people; the opposite is true. How many articles have we read about stations, both radio and TV, that have cut staff?
Makes You Wonder
In Buffalo, two stations are doing weekend morning shows. Channel 2 expanded to the weekends after watching Channel 4 reap both ratings and revenue benefits.
What people are paid for producing a morning show is peanuts compared to the opportunity to own all the revenue for that block of time. There's nothing that says that you have to bring in full-timers to do the show, or that those full-timers wouldn't be there in some capacity anyway. If the show also fullfills public service/public affairs commitments, that's a bonus.
You sometimes have to spend a little to make a lot. If your salespeople are good, locally produced product can bring in more profit than the spate of infomercials and syndicated programming that usually infest weekend mornings.
In Buffalo, two stations are doing weekend morning shows. Channel 2 expanded to the weekends after watching Channel 4 reap both ratings and revenue benefits.
What people are paid for producing a morning show is peanuts compared to the opportunity to own all the revenue for that block of time. There's nothing that says that you have to bring in full-timers to do the show, or that those full-timers wouldn't be there in some capacity anyway. If the show also fullfills public service/public affairs commitments, that's a bonus.
You sometimes have to spend a little to make a lot. If your salespeople are good, locally produced product can bring in more profit than the spate of infomercials and syndicated programming that usually infest weekend mornings.
I can't speak for the way they do it now, but when I was at R News a decade ago (that long? really?), weekends were staffed by staggering most of the fulltimers' shifts. I worked Sunday-Thursday for most of my time as a reporter. Most of our "weekend" crew did the same. Our weekend anchors worked three weekdays as reporters.
That works already for most of the weekend evening shows; no reason it can't work for mornings, too, assuming enough staff exists in the first place to pull it off (he said, with a glance toward Humboldt Street...)
That works already for most of the weekend evening shows; no reason it can't work for mornings, too, assuming enough staff exists in the first place to pull it off (he said, with a glance toward Humboldt Street...)
Don’t forget individual and union contracts. If say Channels 10 or 13 wanted to start a weekend morning show, wouldn’t those stations have to renegotiate contracts, especially for on-air talent?
Granted those stations could re-assign current anchors to a weekend shift, or use regular reporters as anchors, but then again the issue of contracts arises.
Since I never worked in a union shop I freely admit my ignorance when it comes to such matters. But someone who worked in a union shop once told me that she got more money when she anchored news, than when she was just a street reporter.
Granted those stations could re-assign current anchors to a weekend shift, or use regular reporters as anchors, but then again the issue of contracts arises.
Since I never worked in a union shop I freely admit my ignorance when it comes to such matters. But someone who worked in a union shop once told me that she got more money when she anchored news, than when she was just a street reporter.
As far as renegotiating contracts goes... the only person that might be affected is the person who becomes the anchor. Even though rotating schedules work for the night shift (it's easy to have a weekend night anchor maintain that schedule with 3 days of nightside reporting during the week), most smaller and medium markets only have one morning reporter, if that. That means you have to decide if you're going to sacrifice your morning reporter 2 weekdays so they can anchor... or whether to have a dayside (9-6) reporter shift to the early morning shift for the 2 weekend days. Usually it's the latter, unless you're in a large-enough market to have 2 weekday morning reporters; one who can anchor weekends and report 3 days a week, and one who can report weekends and 3 days a week.
Usually a newsroom has more reporters than any other position, so it's relatively easy to slide a reporter into a staggered schedule where they do 3 weekdays and the weekend. Besides, reporters will do anything to get on TV... there aren't many who would work any crazy shift as long as they can get on TV, especially if it's a reporter trying to break into anchoring.
But when it comes to directors and producers, you usually have your full-timers working the week, and the weekend is all part-timers. Good producers and directors can be hard to find, and no station is going to "punish" one by making them work a crazy schedule that includes weekends. Fortunately, some stations are pretty lucky at finding folks who don't mind working part-time on the weekends. But at other places, it's a revolving door of relatively green people looking to jump to a full-time weekday shift ASAP, whether its at your station or the competition. And once a good person leaves, you never know if you'll find a replacement who's just as good, or if you'll be stuck "settling" for someone who's not-so-great, but you're desperate to just fill the position so your full-timers don't have to get jerked around with fill-in shifts anymore.
Usually a newsroom has more reporters than any other position, so it's relatively easy to slide a reporter into a staggered schedule where they do 3 weekdays and the weekend. Besides, reporters will do anything to get on TV... there aren't many who would work any crazy shift as long as they can get on TV, especially if it's a reporter trying to break into anchoring.
But when it comes to directors and producers, you usually have your full-timers working the week, and the weekend is all part-timers. Good producers and directors can be hard to find, and no station is going to "punish" one by making them work a crazy schedule that includes weekends. Fortunately, some stations are pretty lucky at finding folks who don't mind working part-time on the weekends. But at other places, it's a revolving door of relatively green people looking to jump to a full-time weekday shift ASAP, whether its at your station or the competition. And once a good person leaves, you never know if you'll find a replacement who's just as good, or if you'll be stuck "settling" for someone who's not-so-great, but you're desperate to just fill the position so your full-timers don't have to get jerked around with fill-in shifts anymore.
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