What would you do in your market if you had the clout?

[bmasters1981]

If you had your way, what would you do in your market?

What I would do in mine:

1. Bring back Eyewitness News to channel 7. That Seven on Your Side stuff is getting somewhat old, at least to me.

2. Get a dedicated ABC station for this market (Greenville-Spartanburg) so that we no longer have to be tethered to 13-WLOS in Asheville, which has an unhealthy (albeit understandable) focus on WNC news.

 

[arnoldevns]

Dallas-Fort Worth market:

Rebuild the news staffs at all the affiliates. (they've all had deep staff cuts in the past 5 years)

Put more news resources in the suburbs. (there's way too much focus on Dallas)

Put a 24/7 local news channel of some kind on someone's subchannel. (could be a rebroadcast of newscasts with traffic and weather updates 24/7 in some way along with live news events, maybe some simple talk shows and other exclusive programming)

Put more national subchannels on the air and promote the idea of cutting cable. (this market has so many stations we could put nearly all of them on the air)

Put one of the local newscasts in a sidewalk studio in Sundance Square in Downtown Fort Worth. (so many more people there than WFAA has with Victory Park in Dallas)

 

[FreddyE1977]

1. Get rid of these long blocks of paid programming. It seems they are becoming more and more numerous.
The dustiest rerun of almost anything would be an improvement.

2. Cut the local newscasts to an hour or two in the morning, and half an hour at 6 and 11.
Not enough legitimate news happens in my town to fill up an hour or more every day. I would
in particular scrap the all-morning news blocks that run on weekends.

3. Expand local sports coverage on the newscasts back to the length and prominence it had
in the 1980's.

4. Use my best judgment to run locally-produced or syndicated programming in place of network
shows that are proving to be absolute stinkbombs and/or offensive in some manor.

5. Get rid of the mind-destroying bilge like Jerry Springer and all of his imitators. Again, the
dustiest kinescopes from the DuMont Network would be an improvement.

6. Quit beating us over the head with sanctimonious promotional campaigns that imply that
you are somehow better than your viewers. (the long-running KDKA-TV "For Kids Sake"
campaign comes to mind as a particularly egregious example).

7. Restore some political balance to the programming on the PBS affiliate. Give us a sense
that the half of us who are not liberals are getting some value out of our tax money that
is going to subsidize you.

 

[Darth_vader]

Actually put a 24-hour 7-day weather subchannel on KGW's allegedly 24-hour 7-day weather subchannel. Wouldn't that be a novel concept?

Put more national subchannels on the air and promote the idea of dropping pay-cable. This market has so many empty channels we could put nearly all of them on the air. (Just taking the liberty, tested.)

Rebroadcast the local public/community access channels over the air, especially for those without reliable (or any) QAM access or in areas out of range of the cable company (LOTS of those outside VanCamas.) What good are community access channels if the community can't access them?

 

[AKA]

First, I'd put tighter restrictions on duopolies and LMAs. Here in the Chico-Redding, CA market, the CBS affiliate (KHSL-TV) operates the NBC affiliate (KNVN) under an LMA. Both stations share news departments (even simulcasting newscasts at 5 am, 11 pm and on weekends). The result is the worst, most bland newscasts I've ever seen. Competitor KRCR (ABC affiliate) isn't much better.

I moved down here five years ago from Spokane, so maybe I'm not getting the whole picture, but it seems like the stations here "gave up" at some point, probably when the NBC and CBS stations entered into their LMA. Maybe if the stations here were all under unique ownership and management (the Fox and MNTV affiliates are also a duopoly), there would be more competition, yielding better product.

I would also try and reincorporate local programming back into the mix. I believe locally-produced shows are a very important aspect of television history that, across the country, has been lost to "progress" in the past 30-40 years.

Finally, I'd give stations a deadline to upgrade completely to high-definition (news broadcasts and syndicated shows).

 

[KeithE4]

1. Get rid of these long blocks of paid programming. It seems they are becoming more and more numerous. The dustiest rerun of almost anything would be an improvement.

Commercial television stations exist to make money. Period. Infomercials generate revenue. Ancient reruns don't.

2. Cut the local newscasts to an hour or two in the morning, and half an hour at 6 and 11. Not enough legitimate news happens in my town to fill up an hour or more every day. I would in particular scrap the all-morning news blocks that run on weekends.

Scrap the weekend shows, and you'll get more infomercials outside of the E/I requirements. Sorry, but the days of Bugs Bunny cartoons on TV is over.

3. Expand local sports coverage on the newscasts back to the length and prominence it had in the 1980's.

Not a chance. Teams want rights fees from everyone - that means cable-only. Local sports PxP other than the network-controlled NFL is just about dead in most markets, with only a few games in each market at most (wait until Tribune comes out of bankruptcy and WGN is sold - No Cubs for you!).

4. Use my best judgment to run locally-produced or syndicated programming in place of network shows that are proving to be absolute stinkbombs and/or offensive in some manor.

The networks will become a moot point in the next few years, especially in the smaller markets (You think Fox really cares about losing Twin Falls, or being on a subchannel in Terre Haute or an LPTV in Lima?).

Syndicated programming is expensive. I think station groups will go with programming produced in-house and shown group-wide if Scripps is successful with its new programming. They'll have to, otherwise TV stations will start going the way of AM radio.

5. Get rid of the mind-destroying bilge like Jerry Springer and all of his imitators. Again, the dustiest kinescopes from the DuMont Network would be an improvement.

As long as people live in trailer parks, there will be plenty of viewers for Springer and his ilk. ;D

6. Quit beating us over the head with sanctimonious promotional campaigns that imply that you are somehow better than your viewers. (the long-running KDKA-TV "For Kids Sake" campaign comes to mind as a particularly egregious example).

They want you to think that they care, I guess. Maybe these things look good to the FCC and parents' councils.

7. Restore some political balance to the programming on the PBS affiliate. Give us a sense that the half of us who are not liberals are getting some value out of our tax money that is going to subsidize you.

Most PBS stations are either owned by colleges/universities or state governments. Either way, they're your tax dollars at work. And you didn't like William F. Buckley, John McLaughlin, or Louis Rukeyser? No liberals in that bunch. The myth that PBS is hard-core liberal/Democrat is just that - much of which is due to Bill Moyers' former ties to LBJ 45 years ago.

 

[gregg75]

ATLANTA:
WUPA 69 dumps the CW and goes independent
WATL 36 dumps MNT and goes indepedent
low powers WTBS 26 and WANN 32 somehow go full power (or switch with 69 and 36)

 

[anotherguyTN]

In Jackson, TN:

On WBBJ I'd drop 7.2, which is usually nothiing but a repeat of 7.1 (ABC) with occasional secondary audio, but usually there's no real difference. Then I'd adjust the bitrate to make Me-TV a full time subchannel instead of just filler for the CBS subchannel on 7.3.

On WJKT (Fox) I'd replace Cool TV with Antenna TV on 16.2.

ON WLJT (PBS) I'd bring back The Red Green Show and also add Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Mr. Bean.

Finally I'd dump ALL infomercials and trash talk. Even dead air would be better than that.

 

[charlestondxman]

Charleston: I like Charleston's TV market. All 3 TV stations are pretty good at what they do, and act like they're much larger than the 98th market. I wish though, they had a few things.

Hopefully Charleston grows a few pegs in the next few years so we don't have as many inexperienced reporters.

Charleston needs a weekend morning newscast. After 11:30 on Friday night, there's no news until 6pm on Saturday night.

 

[RadioDaze]

Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville

1. (In the analog days) Move the channel 28/Durham allocation to Chapel Hill as NCE and return the channel 4 allocation to Durham as commercial to allow for a competitive NBC or Fox affiliate on VHF.

2. More standalone stations and less duopolies or news sharing agreements.

3. Separate Raleigh-Durham from Fayetteville with either separate affiliates or via digital subchannels. I realize this would negatively affect our market ranking, but Fayetteville doesn't have many cultural ties to Raleigh and Durham besides sharing TV stations.

 

[LKellerIII]

First, I'd put tighter restrictions on duopolies and LMAs. Here in the Chico-Redding, CA market, the CBS affiliate (KHSL-TV) operates the NBC affiliate (KNVN) under an LMA. Both stations share news departments (even simulcasting newscasts at 5 am, 11 pm and on weekends). The result is the worst, most bland newscasts I've ever seen. Competitor KRCR (ABC affiliate) isn't much better.

In a market that size (194,600 TV households, over a very large geographical area), I'm not sure you can expect too much. I have friends who live near Redding, so I spend a couple weeks a year up there, and have for close to 30 years. If it's any consolation to you, the news programming there is much better and more professional than it used to be a couple decades ago when it was laughably amateurish...one camera pointed at some young just-out-of college anchor who was hoping to step up to the "big time." I remember when KRCR had an 'interns-on-the-air' feeling to it, and the Chico CBS affiliate didn't exist...or wasn't available to Redding residents, many miles away, in any case.

 

[nathannah]

In Milwaukee;

1. WTMJ/NBC needs to get back to being a good news operation run by a newspaper owner. Going tabloid and repetitive with six hours of news a day, along with an image which suggests the conservative hosts on their radio side get some newscast and reporter casting input has ruined their image completely. Also, get some syndicated programming people actually watch rather than watch solely for mocking value. And just stop with the charade and merge your Green Bay NBC station in as a gloried full-power translator already. We know you really just want to cut out that terrible news operation with how much you go to Milwaukee for sports and weather, so just stop stringing your employees there along and put them out of their misery so they can move on with their careers.
2. WISN/ABC is doing fine, but get the HD upgrade finished already. We had to stand 3:3 SD weather warnings for years during Lost and Grey's, I don't want to see image quality on field video that makes my local public access station look awesome.
3. WDJT/CBS is doing everything right with programming and news, but they need to issue a challenge to the big stations in town. Double down on good talent when their contracts are over, and keep covering good stories rather than the 'who cares' car accident stories everyone else runs.
4. Better luck for the Sinclair duopoly (WCGV/WVTV) once they eventually get their new studios and HD syndication capability. It's one of the better duopolies in the chain but Weigel is overwhelming them in the market just by how many subchannel networks they have, and their schedules are stuck with crap corporate foists upon them.
5. MPTV/PBS, we really don't need two audio channels devoted to jazz and classical music, or a poor quality version of Local Accuweather. Just give us 1080i video on your stations, please. WITI in 720p should not have better video quality than your version of 720p.
6. Finally, when Armando Montelongo and other 'hotel ballroom hustler' infomercial kings come to town...just turn down their infomercials. Please. You keep talking about how these people are ripoffs in your newscasts and then you carry their garbage anyways, which monopolizes every late night slot in the market? That's what you'd find if you looked up "double standard" in the dictionary.

 

[bmasters1981]

Thanks for all the responses! You all have made some good points. This WSPA promo from the 80s illustrates very well why I would bring Eyewitness News back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihDvU08rWM

 

[spencerkarter85]

For Greenville, SC: For WHNS 21, I would regain Wendy Williams. Other stations add shows that are unseen in this market like Til Death, Ugly Betty, Punk'd, Cash Cab, etc. Get WSPA 7 to do weekday morning newscasts starting at 4:30am just like WYFF 4 and WLOS 13. Plus get WLOS 13 to clear ABC's Litton's Weekend Adventure programming block on Saturday mornings. Plus add a Antenna TV and Bounce TV subchannel on one of the stations. Get SCETV/PBS out of Columbia, SC to bring back Nightly Business Report, Are You Being Served?, and Keeping Up Appearances. We need a real indie station besides WGGS 16 after WNEG 32 became non-commercial WUGA last year despite having inadequate signal and pay-TV coverage in it's market. And GSP should stop being more Paid-Programming Happy and air uncleared syndie shows as well. And air less 4x3 local commercials and more 16x9 HD commercials. Plus just for laughs, WYFF 4 needs to bring back the Arrow 4 logo (used during it's WFBC years to WYFF from red/blue from 1974-86 to gold from 1986-91)! Seen in this video from late 1990 on channel 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2VLaePnfc That's what I call a classic logo you dig!

For Augusta, GA: They need MyNetworkTV and CW stations to be on a HD primary channel instead of SD digital subchannels.

For Columbia, SC: They need to clear Jeremy Kyle Show in Columbia!

For Charleston, SC: Get WCBD 2 to do HD news. Get WTAT 24 to have their own news division just like WHNS in Greenville, SC. Plus get WCIV 4 to do news at noon, five and five-thirty. Get their CW station on primary HD channel instead of SD digital subchannel. I agree with the poster said about Charleston SC doing weekend morning news. Plus get WTAT 24/WMMP 36 to have HD syndicated shows in true HD.

 

[ding12]

3. Separate Raleigh-Durham from Fayetteville with either separate affiliates or via digital subchannels. I realize this would negatively affect our market ranking, but Fayetteville doesn't have many cultural ties to Raleigh and Durham besides sharing TV stations.

That would hurt Raleigh-Durham as you pointed. While cultural may not be strong, I think it does have valid economic ties even if not commutership.

I've been to Fayetteville and it's a lot cheaper and not so incovenient to fly through RDU than FAY to reach there. RDU also had 16,000 avg. daily seats on departures to domestic airports while FAY had less than 1,000. No doubt Research Triangle Parks helps alot of that, but it could be the main carriers (including low cost carriers) prefer serving RDU at FAY's expense (given the paltry service there) and making RDU a gateway to a greater area than just the MSA.

I think it is a greater association than Philadelphia and Allentown. ABE is economically and culturally just as tied to New York as it is to Philadelphia now, and independent on its own merit as well - with people not commuting to either region. There is state commonality between ABE and Philadelphia, and the broadcast stations being able to reach there, but IMO it's weak.

 

[FreddyE1977]

7. Restore some political balance to the programming on the PBS affiliate. Give us a sense that the half of us who are not liberals are getting some value out of our tax money that is going to subsidize you.

Most PBS stations are either owned by colleges/universities or state governments. Either way, they're your tax dollars at work. And you didn't like William F. Buckley, John McLaughlin, or Louis Rukeyser? No liberals in that bunch. The myth that PBS is hard-core liberal/Democrat is just that - much of which is due to Bill Moyers' former ties to LBJ 45 years ago.

Those are your examples of Conservatives on PBS? Two are dead and the third one is pretty much retired.
Let them offer a slot to Mark Steyn or Walter Williams or somebody and then get back to me on that.

They also have an annoying tendency to wrap the liberal perspective on issues like Global Warming throughout
every piece of programming that they have. This is the reason I do not contribute to PBS or NPR stations.
They make is abundantly clear to me that my point of view is not welcome there.

Which is fine if they are owned and funded by a university or a non-profit corporation. I just don't like my
tax money going to that. If Limbaugh one day moves to NPR I'm sure you'd understand within the first five
seconds.

Although you did give me a pretty good punch line. "How do you spot the Conservative on PBS?
He's the guy who's dead!" ;D

 

[w9wi]

In Milwaukee;

5. MPTV/PBS, we really don't need two audio channels devoted to jazz and classical music, or a poor quality version of Local Accuweather. Just give us 1080i video on your stations, please. WITI in 720p should not have better video quality than your version of 720p.

I wouldn't blame the radio channels for that. They compress pretty well & don't really occupy much bandwidth to begin with. The weather & other video channels, on the other hand, are indeed using a fair bit of space.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Another thought on my earlier post: I'd also drop all courtroom shows and most reality shows.

 

[Ultimajock]

Those are your examples of Conservatives on PBS? Two are dead and the third one is pretty much retired.

...producing and hosting two weekly half-hour shows (The McLaughlin Group and McLaughlin One On One) hardly qualifies as anything near "retirement"...

 

[mgsports]

Lake of the Ozarks it's own CW/PBS and so on.
KSHB Action Weather Plus it's own Channel and make it KSHB Action News and also in HD.
Metro Weather,Sports HD and 2,KMCI HD/Live Well Network,Ion Life/Qubo on Comcast
Bounce TV on the Cable Systems here in KC area because not yet only on Digital Antenna.
Daily Buzz more live Newscast on KMCI.
A National Channel out of Orlando.