The Raycom-owned CBS-affiliate either edged out or at least tied its competition for viewers in the highly sought after 25-to-54 age demographic in most of the news competition. Journal Broadcast Group’s ABC-affiliate KGUN 9 had a strong showing, particulaly at 10 p.m., where it bounced back into a close second-place finish.
Taking the big hit this time around was NBC-affiliate KVOA 4, which fell to third-place finishes in each of the weekday time slots it goes up against the other two stations. KVOA is owned by Cordillera Communications, the broadcast division of a family-owned newspaper company in Charleston, S.C., named Evening Post Publishing.
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Elsewhere worth noting, the first ratings for the relaunched 9 p.m. newscast on CW-affiliate KWBA 58/cable 8 were less than stellar. Nielsen said it couldn’t calculate that anyone in the 25-54 age group watched the newscast and among all households only about 0.3 percent checked it out. The 9 p.m. newscast on Belo-owned Fox-affiliate KMSB 11, didn’t seem to be much affected by its new competition, with ratings about what they were a year ago.
The KWBA newscast is really mostly a repeat of the 6 p.m. newscast that aired on KGUN 9.
Next sweeps postponed
For those who look forward to ratings sweeps periods because of the better programming they usually bring, you should know that with all of the confusion expected to surround the federally-mandated conversion to digital broadcasts as of Feb. 17, Nielsen Media Research says it will postpone its usual February sweeps period to run from March 5 to April 1 this year.
Down to the wire
It’s moot now, but negotiators at the corporate headquarters of Cox Communications in Atlanta and KOLD 13’s parent Raycom in Montgomery, Ala., reached an agreement only about 24 hours before a deadline that would have removed the station’s signal from the cable system at midnight Dec. 31.
Similar issues were happening elsewhere between TV stations and cable companies, including a case in Phoenix, but in most of those cases, the two sides were coming to new agreements as it got down to the wire, just as happened in Tucson.
The issue didn’t affect KOLD on Comcast nor any other Tucson TV stations.
Tim & Willy get new gig
Here’s something that might take you back: Tim Hattrick and Willy D. Loon — a.k.a. Tim and Willy — whose morning radio show started out in Tucson in 1990 on KRQ 93.7-FM before they moved to Phoenix and went country, are coming back on the air — in Phoenix.
Starting Thursday (Jan. 8) the morning duo will be on a station that bills itself as “Camel Country,” KMLE 107.9-FM. That’s the same station the two went to work for in 1993 after leaving Tucson. After a four-year run there, they jumped over to another country station in Phoenix, KNIX, where they were for 10 years. The two have been off the air for about year after they and KNIX management couldn’t agree on the length of a new contract.
KNIX is owned by Clear Channel Communications. KMLE is owned by CBS and, if you try hard enough, the signal can be picked up in at least some parts of Tucson. They are funny.
LP&G marks 15 years
LP&G marketing, advertising and public relations is celebrating 15 years in business in Tucson.
And what does any good marketing and public relations firm do? It talks about all the good things its clients do. In this case, itself.
In those 15 years LP&G has:
• Opened 9,531 client jobs
• Written 3,156 press releases
• Worked with 225 clients
• Won 106 awards, including one Emmy
• Donated 3,255 pro bono hours
• Been interrupted 13,641 times by passing trains
That last one is directly tied to the fact that LP&G’s offices are in the Historic Depot, 400 N. Toole Ave., Suite 280.
Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.
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