Posted by Bud on April 04, 2010 at 07:31:25:
Good news, bad news for Fox 32 News
WFLD-Channel 32's impressive win on Wednesday of a prestigious Peabody Award for its coverage of the fatal beating of Fenger High School student Derrion Albert gave way Thursday to the release of the March Nielsen TV ratings book -- a sobering reminder of how far WFLD still has to go to turn around its flagship 9 p.m. hourlong newscast.
As it has for many months, WFLD, with a 3.1 rating Monday through Friday, wound up dead last in the hotly contested local late news competition.
WFLD's March number is actually down from a 3.7 a year ago, despite the presence of the popular "American Idol" in Fox's prime time program lineup and the start of a significant revamp of just about every aspect of WFLD's news product -- from content to presentation to talent -- now being spearheaded by general manager Michael Renda and news director Carol Fowler.
It's still too early to know if Renda and Fowler will succeed, but some observers believe the station must find a way to overcome a brand image problem before the ratings can begin to take off. The Fox network, after all, is known for airing some fairly racy prime time programming.
"It's not the news content that's our problem. It's a branding problem that's holding us back," said one station insider.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and with Jay Leno as the follow instead of the lead-in to its 10 p.m. news, WMAQ-Channel 5 finished solidly in second place in the ratings with a 6.1, down, however, a few notches from the 6.7 it registered a year ago.
WBBM-Channel 2's momentum at 10 p.m. appears to have stalled a bit, as the station was in third place with a 5.2, up a few notches from its 4.8 a year ago.
And the folks at WGN-Channel 9 had to settle for fourth place in March with a 4.5 rating, down from a 5.3 a year ago. Though WGN no longer has to contend with Jay Leno possibly siphoning off viewers from its 9 p.m. newscast, the station still is battling the growth in popularity of a lot of this season's network prime time programming.
Of course, the only constant in the ratings appears to be WLS-Channel 7, which sits once more at the top of heap. It's 10 p.m. newscast scored a 9.5 Monday through Friday, down slightly from a 9.7 a year ago.
Webb off to New York
Classic rock-formatted WLUP-FM (97.9) afternoon drive host Eddie Webb has gotten his big break.
After a two-and-a-half-year stint with the station, he is leaving the Loop for New York, where he will be based to host a new nationally syndicated classic rock show being developed jointly by Westwood One and VH1 that is set to launch May 24.
"It's a great break for Eddie," said WLUP general manager Marv Nyren, who also indicated the Loop has first dibs on Webb's show here in Chicago. Nyren said he will make a decision about whether to pick it up after he listens to the pilot.
Webb's departure has precipitated some changes in WLUP's talent lineup. WLUP's current morning drive host John Kempf will shift to afternoon drive, which Nyren indicated is the time slot when more listeners now tune in to stations like the Loop.
"Afternoons are the new morning drive," said Nyren.
And the station's evening host Pete McMurray will move to the morning drive slot.
All of these talent shifts will officially kick in on April 19. If Nyren picks up Webb's new classic rock show, that will become the Loop's new evening programming.
New gig for Woolman
Todd Woolman has been named executive producer of "Good Day Chicago," WFLD's marathon five-hour weekday morning show. Effective immediately, Woolman will oversee all editorial content.
Previously, Woolman served for seven years as the assistant news director at WBBM-Channel 2, where he worked with current WFLD news director Carol Fowler. Woolman becomes the latest of several former WBBM talent and executives to follow Fowler to WFLD.
Former WBBM political reporter Mike Flannery just announced he would jump from WBBM to WFLD, where he could be on air as early as June 1.
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STATION BY STATION
March Late News Nielsen Ratings for Chicago Market (Monday through Friday)
Late news lead-in '10 March '10 March '09
WLS-Channel 7 6.0 9.5 9.7
WMAQ-Channel 5 5.8 6.1 6.7
WBBM-Channel 2 7.3 5.2 4.8
WGN-Channel 9 1.6 4.5 5.3
WFLD-Channel 32 7.0 3.1 3.7