Many things have changed in Knoxville TV since Margie left Channel 6 and went back to Channel 10 in '79..
After leading the market for years, Channel 10's dominance is eroding slowly..
They no longer are the number one station at 5 PM (that goes to WATE.. Channel 6 is number one at 5 because of the Oprah lead-out)..
The Nielsen's over the past year, show the gap tightening between WBIR and WATE at 6.. WBIR doesn't win 6 as handily as they used to; it is much smaller now. Over the past 3 years, there has been a lot of sampling between stations at 6.. nobody knows why it's happening.. WBIR (specifically Gannett) has been trying to stop it, but people have definitely been sampling the other stations.
11 PM is clearly WBIR's, even though the Nielsen ratings show, NBC Primetime sucks..
The morning's are also WBIR's, because of the Today Show lead-in.
The mornings and the 11 are all well and good, but those are not the money-making shows..
TV stations base their entire advertising rate schedule on the 6 o'clock.. that's the bread-and-butter show..
But, watch out for the 11 PM show.. Nielsen statistics show, if a number 2 station starts building an audience, it always starts with the 11 first, then spreads to the other shows.. You gotta have a network with a hot prime-time lineup.
With that reasoning, you'd think Fox would do better than it does. As of last week (ending 3/20/09) CBS is number one (11.1 million viewers), Fox is number two (10.9 million), ABC is number 3 (8.3 million), then NBC (6.1 million). But Fox Knoxville outsources its news to WATE, and doesn't have a its own presence in the DMA, which explains why WATE is number 2 in the market. The fact that NBC is the 4th place network, but its Knoxville affiliate is number one at 6 and 11 is proof that people don't watch the news.. they watch the people who DELIVER the news. The news study and survey groups prove this beyond a doubt, because that's what participants tell the study people (I've actually read some of their comments).
As you can see by all the answers above (and probably the ones to follow), people don't really care what the news is, or how stations covered it.. they only care about WHO delivers it to them on the air. They'll say they don't, but deep down, they do. It's true in Knoxville, and many other cities. If people are used to an anchor (or if the females are "eye-candy"), they tend to watch that particular station, no matter WHAT they're reporting. In a way, it's sad.. it doesn't compliment reporters who bring back moving and compelling stories, photographers who bend over backwards to get pictures that are visually interesting, and producers who promote those good stories. Nobody will ever see those Emmy-award winning stories, because they're always watching so-and-so on the other station.
Here's another factor.. watch out for the "furlough-cutback" effect now. Every station in Knoxville has cut back on services and coverage (they'll tell you their product is not suffering because of it--that's a load and they're shoveling with both hands).. it's hit everybody's bottom line.. coverage has suffered from one station's furloughed employees, another station's bankruptcy, another station's cutbacks.
Things have changed since the days of Edie and Bill, and the glory days of Sam, Mike and Margie. If you've never heard of those people, look them up. They were all very classy people, and well-liked by Knoxville viewers by the reasons above.
