Within the last year or so KRQE, the CBS affliate in Albuquerque, which had long been dead last in the ratings started winning the timeslots across the board, thanks in part to hiring a bunch of popular anchors who use to be on other stations and some hard-hitting investigative reports spurring local interest. I was wondering how many times a 3rd-place station is able to get out of the rut its stuck in and hit #1, or make the marked more competitive.
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What 3rd-place stations were able to make comebacks?
- Thread starter genius
- Start date
In my neck-of-the-woods, it would have to be WTHR in Indy. This was one of the Crosley owned stations and the reason they sold it was because they thought they would never be a decent player in local news. They sold it to Dispatch in the mid-70s and it took a many years, but they rose to #2 in the mid-90s and were #1 just a few years later. They lost the ABC affiliation in the late 70s and gained NBC which ended up being the best thing that ever happened to them, especially once NBC regained dominanhce in the late 80s.
adam95 said:
The only claim to fame that WLWI ever had was that they gave David Letterman his start in TV. He was the weekend weatherman there in the early '70s. Beyond that, it was probably one of the worst big-market stations in the country.
Another worst-to-first station was KTVK Phoenix, a local joke until the mid '80s when they did a complete turnaround with their newscasts. Unfortunately, since they were sold to Belo a few years ago, they've pretty well returned to their old putrid self, although still better than they were in the '70s and they're not last in the ratings like they used to be.
Philadelphia's WPVI was behind KYW and WCAU in the early 70's.
Few remember a time when Channel 6 was in third place.
In Virginia's Hampton Roads area, WAVY's 6pm news was acutally fourth behind reruns of Wonder Woman.
And WTAR [now WTKR] was one of the top rated newscasts in the country.
It's possible, but reverals of fortune take two things... lots of patience, and lots of money.
Few remember a time when Channel 6 was in third place.
In Virginia's Hampton Roads area, WAVY's 6pm news was acutally fourth behind reruns of Wonder Woman.
And WTAR [now WTKR] was one of the top rated newscasts in the country.
It's possible, but reverals of fortune take two things... lots of patience, and lots of money.
Neil Rattigan said:
That was back when WAVY's news was known as "Eyewitness News". It wasn't until they dropped that name around 1980/1981, started calling their news "The Daily News" that things picked up for WAVY though it wasn't overnight.
For some reason there seems to be this "curse" with the name Eyewitness News in Virginia. The stations that used that name, for one reason or another just can't get the viewers. In Norfolk, years after WAVY dropped it WTKR picked it up "channel 3 Eyewitness News". It failed so bad that WTKR dropped it within two years, if that.
Richmond's then WXEX ( today's WRIC ) for much of the 70s and 80s had their own "Eyewitness News" and despite good music and the fact they had their own chopper back in the early 80s ( though I heard from a few it was never used ), WXEX always remained in third place behind the other local channels. Today I think some of their news ranks in second place, others in third.
Roanoke's WSLS-TV for a time in 1985/1986 they too used "Eyewitness News" and as was the case in Norfolk ( Hampton Roads ) and Richmond, it failed there too.
Then there was Martinsburg, West Virginia's infamous WYVN FOX 60. When that station was in bankruptcy and faced with going dark, Benchmark Communications wanted to buy the station, move the studios and business offices from Martinsburg to nearby Winchester, VA ( but keep the tower and transmitter in Martinsburg ). One of their press releases said at the time that there was a plan to re-name their news..yeah you guessed it....EYEWITNESS NEWS !! Alas, within weeks of that announcement, Benchmark dropped their plans to pick up WYVN and soon that station went dark.
With such a track record I have doubts we will see any station in Virginia use Eyewitness News anytime soon.
C
chuckydoll
Guest
Neil Rattigan said:
Action News began in the late 60's when 6ABC was still known as WFIL-TV. The show was a smash out of the box -- and it paved the way for stations elsewhere to use the same format.
If Channel 6 fell to 2nd it would have been in the mid-70s when Jessica Savitch & Co. were at KYW-3.
Without Action News and all the money it brought in Capital Cities would not have had the gumption to take over ABC.
K
KML0224
Guest
WRIC-TV is still licensed to Petersburg, VA. A similar stigma exists here with our ABC affiliate, WTNH-TV/DT channel 8 (D 10) of New Haven. They're nearly always in third place in Hartford County (includes Hartford, New Britain, Bristol and Enfield). However, they show their dominance in New Haven County (includes Meriden, Waterbury and New Haven).
The fate of channel 8 in Petersburg is partly a function of tradition. The station has always been licensed to Petersburg but has always been Richmond oriented. The biggest problem for many years was their transmitter location in a swamp about 25 miles SE of Richmond. 6 and 12 transmitted from within the city of Richmond, and this in an area where almost everyone used rabbit ears until cable came along. The result, 8 was snowy and ghosty in Richmond while 6 and 12 (especially 6) came in clearly, even in color. About 1970, Nationwide Innsurance purchased channel 8 (then WXEX-TV). WXEX had recently lost its NBC affiliation to 12, and its horrible Petersburg studios had burned to the ground. Nationwide built a showplace colonial styled studio in a very rundown section of Petersburg. I think at the time, the FCC would not have allowed them to have the main studio in Richmond. Eventually(I think by the end of the 70s), they were able to build a new transmitter site in Richmond which probably provided the best signal of any station to the metro Richmond area ( all of the Richmond DT transmitters, except 12, are now located at that site). Even with their signal problems,during the 50s and 60s and into the 70s, 8 had been the #2 station in Richmond. Powerful channel 6 was dominant, and 12 had its own signal and network problems. About 1968, Jefferson Pilot bought WRVA/12 and started making improvements, both to the signal and program content. Over a number of years, 12, now known as WWBT, rose from third place to a dominant #1, especially in news. WTVR/6 owned by Park Broadcasting and now Raycom, settled into 2nd place, protected only by their CBS affiliation and tradition. Meanwhile, channel 8 was purchased by Young Broadcasting who finally suceeded in moving the studios to a very high profile location on Midlothian Turnpike (right down the street from WWBT) in Richmond. Apparently, they walked away from the beautiful Petersburg building which remains deserted to this day. To celebrate, channel 8 was renamed WRIC-TV. My understanding is their news is pretty much neck and neck with 6, with 12 way ahead. Neither 6 or 8 have been willing to spend the big bucks that 12 spent to build a major news operation, and it shows in the ratings. I will say that WRIC/8 puts on a good, professional newscast, quite appropriate for a medium market station, but they don't have the resources, such as helicopters or street reorters, that WWBT has.
WIAT in Birmingham has been slowly turning around, I hear it won a couple timeslots last year.
Other sttations I know of that been 3rd place then turned 'round are WHDH BoSton, although they are very tabloid-ish, and WDJT and WKRC Cincy. Stations that went from good to bad are WEWS(Cleveland) WBTV(Charlotte), WRGB(Albany) & KMGH Denver.
Other sttations I know of that been 3rd place then turned 'round are WHDH BoSton, although they are very tabloid-ish, and WDJT and WKRC Cincy. Stations that went from good to bad are WEWS(Cleveland) WBTV(Charlotte), WRGB(Albany) & KMGH Denver.
fortmill said:
When Nationwide bought WXEX, they also had control of Richmond's WLEE-AM 1480 which I believe at the time was that city's number one radio station. WLEE was the Richmond version of New York City's Musicradio 77 WABC. Still remembered today. I have heard that WLEE and WXEX were sister stations even before Natiowide. Come to think of it I think it was mentioned on the Virginia board ( on the old radio-Info site ) that there was even an attempt to re-name channel 8 to WLEE-TV. That would made sense since both channel 6 and channel 12 both had radio ( WTVR-AM & FM and WRVA AM & FM ). But FCC rules at the time as I remember reading this, didn't allow it. However WXEX did get a lot of promotion on WLEE radio though.
Remembering WXEX in the 70s and into the early 80s, WXEX's news to me seemed to be a bit, well not exactly on the same level as quality as say as WTVR and WWBT were. For most the 70s both WTVR and WWBT offered news during the midday while WXEX did not. And for awhile in the 70s, WXEX didn't even do news at all on the weekends. In the mornings I can remember when WTVR and WWBT both offered morning newscasts while WXEX stuck with Jim Bakker or some religious show.
And today that tradition somewhat continues as WRIC, the last time I was in Richmond still only offers a half-hour local newscast in the evening while WTVR and WWBT have long since expanded to starting their news at 5. I think WWBT even does news at 4 now last I heard.
Interesting that Channel 8 didn't necessarily favor Petersburg,
especially when I consider that Roanoke/Lynchburg divides up
pretty much on the basis of where you live; if you live near
U.S. 29 (Lynchburg, Danville) you're probably watching WSET's
news, but if you live near U.S. 220 (Roanoke, Martinsville) you're
probably watching WDBJ or (less likely) WSLS.
And WWBT does have a 4 PM newscast, as does sister station
WCSC in Charleston, SC. I can remember that for years WTVR
had a 7 PM newscast; those have proliferated to some degree in
recent years, so I wonder if it's time to bring it back.
especially when I consider that Roanoke/Lynchburg divides up
pretty much on the basis of where you live; if you live near
U.S. 29 (Lynchburg, Danville) you're probably watching WSET's
news, but if you live near U.S. 220 (Roanoke, Martinsville) you're
probably watching WDBJ or (less likely) WSLS.
And WWBT does have a 4 PM newscast, as does sister station
WCSC in Charleston, SC. I can remember that for years WTVR
had a 7 PM newscast; those have proliferated to some degree in
recent years, so I wonder if it's time to bring it back.
J
jwgreek8606
Guest
WFTV in Orlando was in third place until Bob Jordan came in 1976 as news anchor and news director and made the station #1 and Central Florida's News Leader by hiring well known anchors like weatherman Danny Treanor, Sportscaster Mike James, Newsman Bob Opsahl, etc.
bpatrick said:
I'm sure its a case of WXEX/WRIC went to where the money is. Richmond is a far bigger city than Petersburg for one ( around 180,000-200,000 for Richmond compared to say around 50,000 for Petersburg ). Unlike say Roanoke-Lynchburg-Danville where all those cities are more/less are in same ballpark as far as population goes. Last I heard Roanoke has about 94,000 and Lynchburg I think was around 60,000 or so. Not really a big difference there.
You really can't compare the Richmond/Petersburg and Roanoke/Lynchburg TV markets. Back in the 1960s, Roanoke Lynchburg was the largest TV market in the state, surpassing even Tidewater, but a combination of stagnant population and a reduction in size of the market by Neilsen, led to big reductions in the ranking of the the Roanoke market. But since the Roanoke market remains very large geographically and is very mountinous, it was impossible for all three VHFs to serve the entire market until cable and satelite became dominant. In the 1980s, 13 finally moved to a mountaintop transmitter closer to the center of the market and served areas like the New River Valley for the first time. Therefore, 13 has always concentrated on the eastern part of the market and 7 and 10 concentrated on the western area. Roanoke is about 60 miles from Lynchburg, over mountainous terrain whereas Richmond is 22 miles from Petersburg over flat terrain. Richmond and Petersburg share the same metro area, which is now well over a million people. Roanoke and Lynchburg metros, if they can be called that, are separate. Roanoke and Lynchburg stations make an effort to cover all the smaller towns in their market, such as Danville, South Boston, Blacksburg, Galax, even Wytheville----I'm sure its at least 150 miles from Wytheville to South Boston and even further culturally. ROanoke stations, for example do 5 different weather forecasts for their coverage area, whereas Richmond stations do only one---for the metro area. So coverage of the Richmond stations has always been concentrated in a very small geographic area. And Petersburg is a very small city, pop-32,000 and falling fast, in a big sea of people, all of whom are oriented towards Richmond. Even residents of Petersburg consider Richmond their home city. I-95 gets them to downtown Richmond in 20 minutes and I-295, which also passes through Petersburg, will carry them to many suburban Richmond locations.
B
BoscoGoldBear
Guest
dustintv said:
I had wanted to mention what is now WHDH, but because of schedule constraints I wasn't able to - until now. My earliest memories of what was WNAC was when it was basically Boston's movie station, always putting in a movie right after lunch in mid-afternoons (until Peter Wiggins was kind enough to put in those retro schedules I wasn't exactly certain of what time the movie started). 7 had an Academy Award as part of its graphics as the flashing lights (?) rolled to the left, then the video faded into film as the rolling flashing lights turned into snow. My first 7 reruns were Dennis The Menace (sponsored by Sunkist oranges), 77 Sunset Strip and McHale's Navy, while Girl Talk (didn't know the title but did know who Virginia Graham was) and Gypsy Rose Lee were part of the morning lineup. My first ABC kids shows were The Beatles, King Kong and Magilla Gorilla (the latter on a weekday morning!), while my first dose of ABC prime time was most of the Thursday night schedule: Batman (replaced by Second Hundred Years - later rerun in prime time when I had a grasp of the TV controls), Bewitched, The Flying Nun, That Girl and Peyton Place, followed by a movie which aired under the title "After Peyton Theater." Oh yeah, Sundays were always a movie tripleheader (or quadrupleheader) because my parents felt like quieting us 3 kids (then aged 5, 4 and not even 2 at the time), followed by Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The FBI and ABC's Sunday movie.
WNAC was always the third choice in our (and most) household(s), even after the forced affiliate switch by CBS because they wanted no part of WCVB's planned prime time premptions. It's amazing how much WNAC wanted to dump movies and syndicated programming once it became CBS (how they immediately picked up What's My Line from WHDH/WCVB, I have no idea). Naturally 7 did well enough in prime time with Archie Bunker, J.J. Evans, J.R. Ewing and them Duke boys, but stayed in third place otherwise. (?!?!?) BTW, the current tabloidish 7 News began while they were still with CBS for a year and a half, and it had NO impact on the ratings! It wasn't until WBZ's Westinghouse/CBS owners made the flip to CBS when 7 suddenly had the ratings improvements, including #1 many times at 11 at night.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch 7 News!
You're right about WHDH. I went to school in Boston and remember WNEV/WHDH struggling all through the 80's. Remember the fanfare of Tom Ellis paired with Robin Young. Later, they branded as "The New England News" complete with Paul Revere galloping through the countryside. The anchors were Tom Ellis, Diane Willis, and Kate Sullivan. They had several bureaus in newspaper offices throughout Mass and NH. From time to time, Kate Sullivan would be live at malls throughout the region.
B
Bob1370
Guest
Some years ago WIVB, Channel 4 in Buffalo, the oldest station in the market, had fallen to the bottom of the three station news battle, behind WKBW-TV (channel 7, ABC) and WGR-TV (Channel 2, NBC). Even at that, no one had less than 20% of the audience, so everyone made money--but 4 lagged behind in the 70s after its original anchor team first aged, then gradually retired and they spun through a series of successors without really settling on anyone long term. Bad luck played a role too--back about 1979-80 when they brought in an anchor who started to make gains and get some traction, Bob Koop, he was sidelined by serious illness after a few years and ultimately passed away. But finally, a combination of ownership chaos at Channel 2, retirement of most of the key personalities at Channel 7 and success in recruiting a few key people at Channel 4 has allowed WIVB to get back on top during the last 6-7 years.
Channel 4 basically proved that slow-and-steady ultimately won the race back to the top. When they stopped panicking even in the face of setbacks and losses, they started to move up.
Channel 4 basically proved that slow-and-steady ultimately won the race back to the top. When they stopped panicking even in the face of setbacks and losses, they started to move up.
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