Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 06, 2008 at 12:11:00:
ABC owns election night
WLS dominated area ratings, and Magers deftly nailed Obama's 'grim determination'
Change has come to America, as President-elect Barack Obama emphatically announced Tuesday night. But there was little or no change in the relative ranking of Chicago television stations in the ratings for their coverage of one of the most important nights in our nation's -- and Chicago's -- history. With a 17.6 rating and 25 share, ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 was the undisputed victor in the ratings for the 10 p.m. hour when Chicagoans first learned one of their own soon would become the 44th president of the United States.
"I'm humbled and in awe that so many people once again chose to turn to our station to watch the news unfold," said WLS President and General Manager Emily Barr, who indicated her station mapped out its coverage knowing this could be the biggest local news night ever in Chicago.
And as has typically been the case in the local news ratings war, NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 was the second most-watched station at 10 p.m. with an 11.7 rating and 17 share. But in something of a departure from how things usually shake out locally, cable news channel CNN, which incessantly insists it has the best political team on television (a dubious assertion if you ask us), was third at 10 p.m. in the Chicago market, outpulling several other local stations, including CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, whose news ratings remained where they have been for some time now -- in the dumpster.
WBBM was in seventh place at 10 p.m. with a lowly 4.3 rating and a 6 share. For the record, Tribune Co.'s WGN-Channel 9 and Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 were fifth and sixth, respectively.
WFLD was crowing that its special 5 and 6 p.m. news shows on Tuesday beat the regular early newscasts on both WBBM and WGN.
WLS got the job done again Tuesday with the smartly executed nuts-and-bolts reporting that has kept the station at the top of the news heap in Chicago. Most local TV outlets opted to cover Obama's big victory via a slew of reporters in Grant Park, which appeared to be the teeming epicenter of the universe at the moment Obama was declared president-elect.
But unlike most local outlets, WMAQ stayed with the NBC network feed for the first half-hour at 10 p.m. WMAQ Station Manager Frank Whittaker said his station went that route because he knew NBC planned to show immediate reaction to Obama's victory around the globe. "I think it was important to see the faces of people all over the world and how they responded to the historic news," added Whittaker.
Managers at local TV stations generally agreed the night's toughest challenge was deploying a large number of news crews at one time and then delivering their input to viewers in a smooth, comprehensive, comprehendable fashion. We noticed remote audio feeds at several stations briefly faltered at times, but Barr said that was because some 200 broadcast trucks were in or near Grant Park trying to use the same wireless frequencies at once -- a broadcasting problem rarely encountered hereabouts.
Though it wasn't readily apparent to viewers, local on-air talent and crews earned their pay Tuesday night to get all the Grant Park crowd reaction and on-site interviews. Every TV crew had to enter and exit the park at the same checkpoints the rest of the public used and then lug cameras and other equipment to the park's far-flung reaches.
But one thing was especially apparent to us about the local news coverage after Obama's memorable victory speech at 11 p.m.: His moving address seemed to inspire an unusually high degree of eloquence and insight among local reporters and anchors.
Kudos, in particular, to WLS co-anchor Ron Magers for noting the tone of "grim determination" that seemed to drown out any hint of elation in Obama's voice as he spoke to hundreds of thousands of admiring supporters.
(Lewis Lazare, Chicago Sun-Times)