WBIN News Now @ 10 finally premiered

[kc1ih]

I’ve also noticed for a while that WMUR has added more Massachusetts stories, mostly for north of Boston. I think this started before Binnie bought 50, so it’s probably not in reaction to that competition, but perhaps they felt too many southern NH viewers were watching Boston newscasts because they wanted news from beyond the state line. Note that many people living in southern NH are formerly from the Boston area.

I’s also comment on that someone earlier described Derry as rural, if you’ve been there you’d know that it’s a pretty densely populated place, most people would call it suburban in terms of population density.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Here's the base of the "both sides of the fence" approach that Scott describes, IMHO:

1) Mr. Binnie, a former politician, wants to be a big influence in the NH political scene - especially with a presidential election coming up here.

2) Mr. Binnie appears to have a sizable ego (W"BIN"? Come on!), and probably likes it that he now owns a "Boston market" TV station, and wants to play in the Big City as well.

Again, as Scott put it, a recipe for obscurity.

And he's doing it all using an Iowa outsourcing operation. In that artlcle in the business paper, note that INN is hidden in the sentence. Their partners are THE BOSTON GLOBE, (inn), CNN, etc.

Does the WBIN operation employ local reporters to feed the Iowa folks? If so, how many?

 

[BRNout]

Depends where you're coming from. If you're in LA and you need to get to Bridgeport in a hurry, of course you're going to take a nonstop flight to JFK and then rent a car and drive the hour and change to Bridgeport. If you're going from Davenport to Derry, you're almost certainly going to fly from the Quad Cities Airport through Chicago to Logan. That much, I'd agree with.

There's certainly some degree of Derry-to-Boston commuting going on, at least judging by drivetime traffic on 93. There's some degree of Bridgeport-to-NYC commuting going on as well, though Bridgeport has a much larger local economy of its own (especially when you include the rest of southern Fairfield County in the mix) than does Derry.

For radio, Bridgeport is its own Arbitron market, separate from NYC - but three of the top ten stations in the Bridgeport ratings are NYC stations. Derry is just outside the Boston Arbitron market, but most of what's audible there comes from either Boston or Manchester.

For TV, Bridgeport is at the edge of the NYC Nielsen market, while Derry's solidly within the Boston Nielsen market, since that market includes most of New Hampshire.

And where WBIN is concerned, none of that really matters. Anyone who's actually watched the WBIN newscast (which I suspect excludes most of the participants in this thread) know that from 1000 miles away in Iowa, they're trying to play both sides of the fence: the news open includes both Boston and Manchester, the screen behind the anchor displays Boston landmarks, the weather forecasts are for both Boston and Manchester, the headline ticker at the bottom of the screen is Boston headlines from the Globe, and the stories come from both sides of the state line. Since the station's OTA signal is almost nonexistent, it's dependent on cable and satellite for most of its potential audience, and it's on cable across most of the market (including Boston proper) and on satellite across the entire market, from New Hampshire all the way out to Cape Cod.

One suspects that's a recipe for obscurity, in the end: the attempt to serve Boston dilutes the New Hampshire part of the product enough to guarantee WMUR continued leadership on that side of the border, and the newscast simply doesn't have the resources behind it to be a credible alternative to WFXT, WSBK/WBZ or WLVI/WHDH at 10 for viewers seeking a Boston newscast.

Oh Scott, talk about wanting to straddle both sides of the border!! But I respectfully disagree.

For one thing, we've gotten hung up on the station being in Derry. Yes, Derry is different (quite different) than Boston. But, the main service area of WBIN consists of Manchester, Nashua and Concord. That's always been the case. And, NH is not (and never will be) Massachusetts. Yes, NH residents have an interest in what goes on in the Bay State - but they are quite a different breed with (literally) a different culture. Which is why it is stupid to try to pretend like "Derry" is "Boston". It's not even close and any New Englander worth his salt knows that.

With respect to my analogy about Bridgeport/New York with Derry (or Manchester)/Boston, it's apt. Both locations are in other radio markets, yet share TV markets. When I lived in Concord, I was at the "edge" of the Boston market. Did it matter? No. I got Boston affiliates just as I would in Billerica.

As for the "40 miles is nothing" comment - that is true in most areas. But not in New England. Providence is 40 miles from Boston and you can't even get Boston TV on cable from there any more. Springfield is 28 miles from Hartford and you get very little Hartford TV in Springfield anymore. Not to mention that Springfield is still in Massachusetts and still has more in common with Worcester and Boston than with Hartford and New Haven. What is true in Ohio or Georgia or Texas as far as geographical distances are concerned are not true in New England.

Lastly, Davenport, IA is served by the Quad Cities Airport in Moline, IL. Nonstop flights from there tend to go to MSP, ATL, ORD, DTW and various destination in Florida. There is no nonstop to Boston. If you're flying from there to WBIN's studios, you'd look at Manchester (a 15 minute ride) as well as Boston (a 60+ minute ride) as you have to connect through a hub city anyway. Where you fly would depend on ticket price and schedule - geography would favor Manchester (which I've flown from hundreds of times). In that way, my Bridgeport analogy falls apart because flying to Bridgeport would more likely involve a trip through New York City since Bridgeport isn't blessed with a facility like MHT.

So I stand my ground on the my statement that Amanda Decker sounds downright ditzy when she is headed to Derry, yet claims to be in "Beantown". And I agree with Scott in that such a strategy is a recipe for failure. Nobody in Massachusetts is interested in New Hampshire news. And, Granite Staters who want news from Mass. will take a break from WMUR to get it from a Boston station.

 

[fybush]

If you're going from Davenport to Derry, you're almost certainly going to fly from the Quad Cities Airport through Chicago to Logan. That much, I'd agree with.

Oh Scott, talk about wanting to straddle both sides of the border!! But I respectfully disagree.

(snip)

Lastly, Davenport, IA is served by the Quad Cities Airport in Moline, IL. Nonstop flights from there tend to go to MSP, ATL, ORD, DTW and various destination in Florida. There is no nonstop to Boston. If you're flying from there to WBIN's studios, you'd look at Manchester (a 15 minute ride) as well as Boston (a 60+ minute ride) as you have to connect through a hub city anyway. Where you fly would depend on ticket price and schedule - geography would favor Manchester (which I've flown from hundreds of times). In that way, my Bridgeport analogy falls apart because flying to Bridgeport would more likely involve a trip through New York City since Bridgeport isn't blessed with a facility like MHT.

I'm thoroughly lost at this point as to where we agree and disagree.

As noted, I had already mentioned the Quad Cities Airport (MLI) above, I'll confess to not having realized how much commuter service now exists out of MHT - I didn't think you could do a one-stop MLI-MHT trip, but it turns out that you can indeed do so on United through Chicago or Delta through Detroit or Atlanta. It's not as cheap as MLI-BOS; you'd spend $390 or so for a round-trip ticket to MHT next month, versus $268 or so to BOS. (And the flights in and out of BOS are on full-size jets, while MHT gets commuter jet or turboprop service.)

No question that southern NH has a separate identity from Boston; from Davenport, it all kinda looks the same, I suppose.

 

[MCarney]

I think the point is that Binnie is not being honest with his audience. He promised a news organization focusing on New Hampshire but outsources and gets a newscast with one or two pieces from the area and more national/international news than most local stations provide. This whole New Hampshire 1 enterprise is dead on arrival. It now has no credibility, and gives WMUR the upper hand.

If he made a deal with NECN to produce a newscast and then proceded to build a news team over the course of 2012 he would have been much better off. At least NECN is capable of getting regional content. Having an outsourced newscast in and of itself is no shame, but trying to pass it off as your own product when the truth can easily be found out is not good.

 

[BRNout]

I'm thoroughly lost at this point as to where we agree and disagree.

LOL - probably more agreement than disagreement.

Either way, those pics you posted of the INN set in Davenport were great!

 

[dhett]

As for the "40 miles is nothing" comment - that is true in most areas. But not in New England. Providence is 40 miles from Boston and you can't even get Boston TV on cable from there any more. Springfield is 28 miles from Hartford and you get very little Hartford TV in Springfield anymore. Not to mention that Springfield is still in Massachusetts and still has more in common with Worcester and Boston than with Hartford and New Haven. What is true in Ohio or Georgia or Texas as far as geographical distances are concerned are not true in New England.

So I stand my ground on the my statement that Amanda Decker sounds downright ditzy when she is headed to Derry, yet claims to be in "Beantown".

That's the point I was trying to make: only in New England does 40 miles mean anything. As Amanda Decker isn't from there, and hasn't actually worked from there (if she ever does), I think she deserves a break. Yeah, a little research into local attitudes might have been a good idea, but I don't know - maybe nobody is allowed to make a mistake in New England, even if they're new.

 

[BRNout]

That's the point I was trying to make: only in New England does 40 miles mean anything. As Amanda Decker isn't from there, and hasn't actually worked from there (if she ever does), I think she deserves a break. Yeah, a little research into local attitudes might have been a good idea, but I don't know - maybe nobody is allowed to make a mistake in New England, even if they're new.

It's a dumb mistake. As a professional, she should take the time to get to know her new "market". The comment shows that she's done nothing of the sort. It made her look like an airhead.

Why would anyone get their news from someone like this when they can watch the established newscasts that feature reporters who clearly know their way around? This is a business where credibility is vital.

 

[iknowpeople]

Wow. This conversation really has devolved into what airport she landed in?

- Derry, and WBIN, are part of the Boston television market. They can serve whichever community they choose.

- Providence is 50 miles away, Derry is 41. Regardless - Providence is it's own television market, Derry (and Manchester New Hampshire) is not.

 

[BRNout]

Wow. This conversation really has devolved into what airport she landed in?

- Derry, and WBIN, are part of the Boston television market. They can serve whichever community they choose.

- Providence is 50 miles away, Derry is 41. Regardless - Providence is it's own television market, Derry (and Manchester New Hampshire) is not.

Actually, they're about the same 40 miles apart. And, in some ways, Derry is in an equally different media environment with a local WMUR that Boston doesn't have and is also in it's own radio market. Also, both Providence and Derry have one thing in common: they're not in Massachusetts. In New England that matters - and it seems to matter in other parts of the US too.

Now, in the case of WBIN, that (theoretically) didn't have to matter because it IS in the Boston television market. But it does matter because WBIN positions itself as a New Hampshire channel that serves Boston too. Had they positioned themselves as WNEU-60 (licensed to Merrimack, NH) did - as a Boston station that basically has little to do with New Hampshire - then our conversation would have a different tone. NBC/Telemundo positioned WNEU in such a way that few viewers even realize that they're licensed to New Hampshire. It's a Boston station, albeit a small one. Being the market's sole Telemundo affiliate, with a big corporate owner, they have been able to get away with that.

But, channel 50 has never positioned itself that way, historically. Even as the market's *My Network TV* affiliate, it always tried to have it both ways as a NH station and as a Boston station. They'd like to grab a big chunk of WMUR's NH audience while grabbing some MA viewers (who see them on cable) too. It's not hard to see what they're thinking: there's lots of top-notch competition in Boston while NH only has WMUR. Yet they haven't competed well in either marketplace. When they had a few news viewers in the WNDS days, the vast majority were from NH. As soon as Bay Staters (known by a different nickname to Granite Staters....) see a NH news story, out comes the remote. They have no interest at all unless the story is about a price increase at the State Liquor Store!

All this is a long-winded way of saying that it is silly to pretend that WBIN can be marketed as a "Boston" station. That will never fly with the public. Also, and we've discussed this before, southern New Hampshire is as close as it gets to being a different television market without actually being one. There are reasons (mostly financial) why this may never change - but culturally it is quite different. Basically as different as RI is from MA.

Had WBIN dedicated itself to ignoring it's New Hampshire roots and pretended to be a Boston station, perhaps the Amanda Decker "Beantown" comment wouldn't have been as laughable as it is.

 

[AmandaDecker]

Hello all! I'm glad you are watching the new newscast. Our format is very similar to the way network news gathers its information. We do operate from Davenport, Iowa, but all of our reporters are in Derry, Manchester and Boston, bringing you the news from your area.

And yes, I do know Derry is not Beantown. When I've visited the area, I've been in Boston each time, not New Hampshire.

 

[onair]

And yes, I do know Derry is not Beantown. When I've visited the area, I've been in Boston each time, not New Hampshire.

Then the first think you should know is no one from here calls Boston "Beantown"

 

[AmandaDecker]

Thank you for letting me know that. Honestly, it was a tweet for my younger sister who loves the name Beantown, and I would never call it Beantown on air. I'm quite shocked actually that this string of posts turned into which airport I used and which airport in the area is cheaper. I appreciate you sharing that information with me. Thanks!

 

[bg02445]

People on here seem to take things way too seriously. Hope you're enjoying covering our news.