Posted by chicagomedia.org on May 22, 2009 at 10:38:46:
ABC7 dominates news, beats competing stations
Beat every local station in every time slot where it competes
May 22, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE | Chicago Sun-Times Media & Marketing columnist
There's a reason WLS-Channel 7 hasn't experienced the carnage that has decimated news staffs and badly damaged morale at just about every other television station in Chicago in recent months.
The reason is right there in the May ratings book released Thursday. To say that WLS trounced the competition is to engage in gross understatement. WLS won against every station in every time slot where it offers competing newscasts, even at the very early hour of 5 a.m., where a year ago it was behind Tribune Broadcasting's WGN-Channel 9 in that time slot. Now WLS posted a 2.3 rating there, compared to WGN's 2 rating.
WLS also is way ahead of its closest competitor, WMAQ-Channel 5, at 10 p.m., where the most newscast ad dollars are typically generated. WLS' late news pulled a 10.1 rating Monday through Friday, while the best WMAQ could do was a 6.4. WBBM-Channel 2 still isn't making as much headway as we're sure its leaders Bruno Cohen and Jeff Kiernan would like. The station wound up with a 4.8 rating -- a distant third at 10 p.m. Of the two stations competing head-to-head with hour-long 9 p.m. newscasts, WGN's 5.4 rating easily surpassed WFLD-Channel 32's lowly 3.3 rating. (WFLD's 10 p.m. rating was even smaller, at 1.5.)
With ratings so much stronger than any of her competitors, WLS General Manager Emily Barr is in an enviable position. Though she concedes her station's ad revenue is down from what it was a year ago as a result of the economic malaise and a slump in ad buys in local TV markets, Barr still is in much better shape than her counterparts at other Chicago TV stations. She can charge a premium for her ad time because her ratings are so dominant. That premium has helped her avoid layoffs so far, and she doesn't anticipate that there will be any.
"I don't think laying off people would necessarily help us now," said Barr, who nonetheless said the station is working hard to contain costs everywhere else. Prudence, even when you're on top of the heap, seems to be Barr's policy.
And Barr now has another advantage that she can potentially use to good effect, namely the news-gathering consortium that began a couple of weeks ago that has WLS' four major competitors in Chicago in bed together shooting pool news footage for each station to use as it sees fit on its various newscasts. The venture could ultimately drive more news viewers to the fiercely independent WLS.
Last call at WNUA
It's over. Sources say morning show on-air hosts at WNUA-FM (95.5) were told to do their final show today. But Clear Channel Communications executives kept WNUA staff entirely in the dark about what the new format will be.
As discussed here, rumors of the new format have ranged from country to gospel, and Clear Channel switched its San Francisco smooth jazz station to a mix of classic hits and classic rock. Stay tuned.