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Spring Rubber

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Its New York sister station WNYW has early evening newscasts that gs up against four stations at 5:00 and 6:00 (WABC, WNBC, WCBS and WPIX). The only difference there is that WNYW had a nine-year headstart over WPIX at 5:00 and a 12-year headstart over 11 at 6:00.

 

Even more to the point, WFLD competes with WLS, WMAQ, WBBM and WGN from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. weekdays. The performance of WFLD's morning program (as with its other newscasts) has more to do with management issues in the news department and the continuing musical chairs of talent. Remember too, that WJZY launched a 6:00 p.m. newscast only a few months after its news departmemt started, and that station (even with its shift toward a more traditional format) is in the ratings basement like WFLD is.

I'm not sure what your point is. Are you trying to argue that they should be adding newscasts?

 

I will say that the examples of WNYW and WFLD are not the same. Two COMPLETELY different markets/stations. WFLD's brand isn't as strong as WGN/WLS/WMAQ, so why add newscasts when most people aren't even tuning in to the newscasts they already offer?

 

You could argue that WGN adding newscasts is/was a good idea because they have such a strong presence/brand that viewers would be more inclined to tune in.

 

Also, all stations compete in the morning. If i'm not mistaken, isn't WFLD at the bottom of the barrel ratings wise there as well?

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I'm not sure what your point is. Are you trying to argue that they should be adding newscasts?

 

I will say that the examples of WNYW and WFLD are not the same. Two COMPLETELY different markets/stations. WFLD's brand isn't as strong as WGN/WLS/WMAQ, so why add newscasts when most people aren't even tuning in to the newscasts they already offer?

 

You could argue that WGN adding newscasts is/was a good idea because they have such a strong presence/brand that viewers would be more inclined to tune in.

 

Also, all stations compete in the morning. If i'm not mistaken, isn't WFLD at the bottom of the barrel ratings wise there as well?

In essence, as pointed by the WJZY example, I'm saying stations don't really care where they place in the ratings. Even last place stations have added newscasts in recent years, so whether WFLD gets trounced by its longer-established competition if it enters the early evening arena doesn't matter much nowadays compared to when they tried The TEN late last decade. Many stations feel they can garner better advertising revenue (particularly with political ad dollars) if they produce more local news, viewership is important but those that don't get strong ratings have legroom to work on building them.

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In essence, as pointed by the WJZY example, I'm saying stations don't really care where they place in the ratings. Even last place stations have added newscasts in recent years, so whether WFLD gets trounced by its longer-established competition if it enters the early evening arena doesn't matter much nowadays compared to when they tried The TEN late last decade. Many stations feel they can garner better advertising revenue (particularly with political ad dollars) if they produce more local news, viewership is important but those that don't get strong ratings have legroom to work on building them.

Gotcha. I agree to a certain point, but then you would have to look at what ratings a new newscast would garner vs. the program it is replacing. Granted that a station can keep all ad-revenue from a newscast vs. a syndie program, even if the syndie does perform better. A lot of factors to consider for sure.

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On this story on my blog, I explained how other stations in Chicago added or expanded more local newscasts ever since the last time WFLD 32 did that.

Then you know those political ad dollars are about to be very hot... I don't know if this lasts beyond the election given what 32 is in the market...

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Mike just made his on-air debut, top of the 7 o'clock hour. They had some fun with it, teasing a "big surprise" and acting like they were trying to find someone in the building who could give Tammie Souza a break on this busy weather morning. Great to see him, hasn't skipped a beat - it looks and feels like I'm watching Channel 7. Maybe he'll help their numbers, it got me to watch anyway. (Tammie's sticking around for now at least, sharing the duties. They're alternating between the two of them thus far).

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Good Lord, they want that person to do everything. Where the hell are they planning on putting this person? I mean, they want someone that can be a morning host and meteorologist, so the new weekend show would be obvious (apparently Mark Strehl's prospects aren't looking good), but why the mention of being the back-up to the chief? Perhaps they're looking for someone to do the early shift before Mike and serve in a Demetrius Ivory-type role. I wonder if there's any chance that Bellis is going somewhere.

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Good Lord, they want that person to do everything. Where the hell are they planning on putting this person? I mean, they want someone that can be a morning host and meteorologist, so the new weekend show would be obvious (apparently Mark Strehl's prospects aren't looking good), but why the mention of being the back-up to the chief? Perhaps they're looking for someone to do the early shift before Mike and serve in a Demetrius Ivory-type role. I wonder if there's any chance that Bellis is going somewhere.

We can guess that whoever backs him up now isn't getting it done to their satisfaction...

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They unofficially announced that Strehl is fronting 'Good Day Chicago: Weekend Edition' which starts this Saturday. Not sure who (if anyone at all) will be joining him. I'm guessing that they could have Natalie and George working a Tues.-Sat. or Sun.-Thurs. shift in addition to this new news/weather/social media anchor serving as the third 'co-host' during the week (which is how things are set up from 7A-10A with Corey, Darlene and Richard).

 

It's unclear as to why this new person would serve as a primary sub for Bill @ Noon/Nine unless everyone else is off, sick, etc... Who knows?

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