Atlanta News First

[ATLNewsExpert 177]

A bit delayed in posting this but in his first "state of Gray" address, President Howell said in research Gray has done, a year ago WGCL/WPCH had a 9% first preference rate amongst Atlanta resident's. Under Gray and Atlanta News First, WANF/WPCH have have grown to a 24% first preference rate! Expand upon that, take that how you will!

[TheRolyPoly 1800]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:12 AM, ATLNewsExpert said:

A bit delayed in posting this but in his first "state of Gray" address, President Howell said in research Gray has done, a year ago WGCL/WPCH had a 9% first preference rate amongst Atlanta resident's. Under Gray and Atlanta News First, WANF/WPCH have have grown to a 24% first preference rate! Expand upon that, take that how you will!

 

If they grow like that into year two and three... ANF could really theaten WSB-TV's longtime dominant decades-long #1 status.

[Myron Falwell 3894]

46/17 could literally have unchanged ratings and yet is proving to be a runaway success targeting viewers less likely to watch OTA or want to watch news at unconventional times.

 

Nielsen ratings matter less and less with the rise of streaming.

[Megatron81 132]

WANF hires WXMI Fox17 anchor Doug Reardon I don't know if this is the right place to put it in or not. I don't know if Doug has started at WANF or not his last week at Fox17 was Feb 3.

[RaleighTVBOI1 31]

On 2/7/2023 at 12:39 PM, atlnewsfan03 said:

We can see that Gray is putting forth the effort to make WANF a competitive local station.  We didn't see Tribune (during the WGNX era) and Meredith (during the WGCL era) doing much investing in the station.

Tribune had originally wanted the station to be an affiliate of the now defunct WB network, but settled with CBS in an 11th hour deal as CBS wanted a station viewers were more familiar with and had a functioning news operation.  They weren't very motivated in adding additional newscasts outside of Noon, 6PM, & 11PM.

Meredith, while they may have added morning, 5PM, & 4PM newscasts on main station, and prime-time newscast on WPCH (Peachtree TV), they're remembered for the failed Clear News experiment, to the the back-and-forth between CBS Atlanta and CBS 46 brandings, and being a revolving door station when it came to retaining on-air talents.

Gray, which is Atlanta-based, sees potential with adding 9AM, 3PM, and 7PM newscasts to the main station, and adding 7-9AM newscast and expanding prime-time news on WPCH, and not relying too heavily on CBS.  WANF has potential to beat WXIA (known as 11Alive), which has seen better days, and some may even jokingly refer to as "11Dead".  WAGA (Fox 5) and WSB (Channel 2 Action News) are the top 2 stations.

They could challenge in a battle for #2. It’s possible, because of the audiences they want.

On 2/7/2023 at 11:42 AM, BluesNews said:

Why does CBS still own WUPA? That’s a question for the theologians. But the same question can be asked of KSTW, WTOG, and others as well. And if CBS pulls their CW affiliations from said stations, it’s not an automatic that they’re going to be actively seeking CBS affiliations for those. Heck, they could run them as 24/7 linear CBS News stations. They could do a number of things, but I think we can’t speculate about what hasn’t happened yet.

 

The LIV Golf situation could make that happen faster. 

[Breaking News 751]

On 2/15/2023 at 6:16 AM, TheRolyPoly said:

 

If they grow like that into year two and three... ANF could really theaten WSB-TV's longtime dominant decades-long #1 status.

Sure and you have a bridge in Arizona to sell. WSB still commands 50% of the audience share in last year ratings WSB won every newscast. When it was WGCL it tied with WXIA or beat WXIA.  You definitely have to slaughter WXIA and WAGA to take on the 800lb gorilla. They will beat WXIA for sure, but they have their work to touch WAGA. 

[MediaZone4K 943]

9 hours ago, Breaking News said:

Sure and you have a bridge in Arizona to sell. WSB still commands 50% of the audience share in last year ratings WSB won every newscast. When it was WGCL it tied with WXIA or beat WXIA.  You definitely have to slaughter WXIA and WAGA to take on the 800lb gorilla. They will beat WXIA for sure, but they have their work to touch WAGA. 

Maybe they can beat 11 Alive but Fox 5 and Channel 2 have better looking and smoother flowing newscasts than ANF. 

[Breaking News 751]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:44 AM, bpatrick said:

Regardless of whether or not CBS goes somewhere else, I plan to drop dead if WANF passes WXIA for third place in Atlanta news.  I haven't seen WANF's new look, but my gut tells me to keep an eye on the battle for third between the two.  For me the last good newscast on 11 Alive was "Pro News" in the mid-'70s; Virgil Dominic lived up to the newscast's name.

46 has passed 11 many times in the last 15 years.  When CBS' primetime was hot in 2005ish- 2009/10. When CSI was the lead-in into the 11pm news.  Then WGCL 11pm was beating WXIA.  When WGCL put a morning news back on and called it "Better Mornings" it was neck to neck with WXIA in the mornings. 

As Gannett became TEGNA and 11 changed so much due to the company mandates. 11 saw it audience shrink.  Despite changes in ownership and call letters GCL/ANF.

[Adam MadMan 172]

Broadcasting & Cable recently did an article about the news stations in Atlanta. It mentions that WANF is still in fourth place in both total viewers and the 25-54 demographic.

[GoldenShine9 1374]

They only mentioned at 11 pm, although CBS affiliates are typically very weak - even powerhouse ones - in the morning. It's surprisingly close overall between all of them, but WANF is way behind in the demo. Either they skew young or old.

[Georgie56 2697]

Sports director Fred Kalil is retiring.

[Breaking News 751]

Once again WSB on top with over 50% of the audience share. In Feb 2023 WANF beat WXIA. 

Meanwhile in 2022  WGCL  & WXIA were neck to neck or GCL was beating them. With WXIA ownership imperil it caused

their stations to somewhat flat-line.  

 

[nycnewsjunkie 885]

29 minutes ago, Breaking News said:

Once again WSB on top with over 50% of the audience share. In Feb 2023 WANF beat WXIA. 

Meanwhile in 2022  WGCL  & WXIA were neck to neck or GCL was beating them. With WXIA ownership imperil it caused

their stations to somewhat flat-line.  

 

With all due respect, I doubt their ownership situation had anything to do with their ratings. Most viewers don’t know or care which station group is being sold to whom. I’d attribute it to WANF gaining traction in the market with their new product.

[Myron Falwell 3894]

16 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

With all due respect, I doubt their ownership situation had anything to do with their ratings. Most viewers don’t know or care which station group is being sold to whom. I’d attribute it to WANF gaining traction in the market with their new product.

I’d pay more attention to WSB, now under the control of a disinterested private equity firm and with little incentive to have the station progress from being perpetually stuck in 1993.

[carolinanews4 239]

20 hours ago, Breaking News said:

With WXIA ownership imperil it caused their stations to somewhat flat line.  

 

With respect, according to these numbers WXIA has held fairly consistent. They went from 9% share of news viewers in the demo to 8%. Since WSB states the figures are rounded, that could mean WXIA had an 8.6% share in June 2022 and an 8.4% share in February 2023. A decrease to be sure, but hardly a huge stumbling.

 

As for the supposed gains for WANF, they aren't reflected in these numbers. WANF's performance held steady with WGCL's share. Very slight increase for WPCH. While I like WANF's new approach, it hasn't moved the needle...yet. 

[mrschimpf 1527]

6 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

I’d pay more attention to WSB, now under the control of a disinterested private equity firm and with little incentive to have the station progress from being perpetually stuck in 1993.

If you've only watch WSB to be informed about Atlanta since 1991, you probably have never wavered from North Georgia being a worst place to live than the actual country of Georgia, everybody is ripping you off and Clark Howard is a one-man army protecting Atlantans from fraud, and that the Olympics never happened and the Georgia Dome never existed, much less MBS; graphics also got really annoyed about having to change the state flag graphic even once.

 

They have, and will never, change, and the day they become 'ABC2' will be on par with the moment General Sherman entered the city limits.

 

(I'm exaggerating but when I look at WSOC's current 2002 weather graphics I feel physical pain and Cox has more a true art department than a graphics department)