ajc_trw said:
Unless they were simulcasting the same thing on two channels (which I'm guessing they were not) that also means they were running two news programs simultaneously. Things like this tend to raise the risk of on-air errors occurring.
Can't speak for the number of on-air errors -- I'm up in Syracuse, and we haven't had WWOR on the cable lineup this far away in many years, and I don't think we've ever had WNYW here. Used to watch both stations when I lived within the NYC television market, but that was only until the late 80s.
But, from what I've read in some recent reports from the industry trades, one of the conditions for WWOR's broadcast license was that the station continue to "serve" northern New Jersey, as Secaucus is the station's official community of license. So, for as long as WWOR had its own news, that newscast was produced at 9 Broadcast Plaza in Secaucus, with a separate studio and control room from WNYW. However, I understand that weather and sports were often (if not always) fed over from WNYW; I don't know if they had to be taped in advance, or if WNYW somehow had a separate studio and the two stations coordinated their "hit times" so the same talent wouldn't be needed on both stations simultaneously. Either way, it appeared that WWOR had its own studio and production crew, so I would assume on-air errors were not very common.
The station is in a tough situation. Since WWOR is licensed to Secaucus, it's obligated to "serve the public interest" to that community and to the rest of northern NJ first and foremost. But for years and years, even before Fox ownership, people have complained that WWOR doesn't put enough focus on NJ.
But here's the reality: Secaucus is not its own market; it's in the boundaries of the NYC market, so WWOR's ratings and revenue are based on how well it competes against
all of the stations in the
entire market. If they were to devote the entire newscast exclusively to stories about New Jersey, and even if every viewer in northern New Jersey watched WWOR, they'd still be lagging behind WNYW and WPIX.
Fox says this "Chasing New Jersey" show will still fulfill the obligation to serve NJ. Some people say it's not the same thing as having a traditional newscast.
As a viewer and a fan of local news, I agree that a live, local newscast is more appealing to watch.
But from the business standpoint, I can see where producing a canned "feature" show, that might only need 5 or 6 people to produce, can be more cost-effective than paying a couple dozen people just to produce a single, 30-minute newscast. Not to mention, with Fox owning two stations, the absence of WWOR's newscast can only help WNYW. (It can also help WPIX, but it certainly won't hurt WNYW.)
At the end of the day, I don't see the FCC getting itself into a position of ordering Fox to put a fully-fledged newscast back on WWOR. There are plenty of TV stations out there that don't do any local news, but they still meet the FCC's requirement for serving their local communities. I'm sure Fox could still find a way to meet those requirements even without "Chasing New Jersey." Instead of complaining about the lack of a full newscast, WWOR viewers concerned about NJ should be grateful that Fox launched that show, rather than just plugging in old sitcom reruns, like the Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate in my town does.
