During those four weeks, KVOA ran a promotion giving away $500 each weekday in gas or grocery money to viewers who registered on its website using codewords announced on its 10 p.m. newscast.
According to Nielsen’s ratings, the gambit earned KVOA 4’s 10 p.m. newscast viewers in just 456 households more than were watching in the previous ratings in March. What’s worse, the estimated 29,642 households was down from 36,171 households where sets were tuned to KVOA’s 10 p.m. newscasts a year ago.
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CBS-affiliate KOLD 13 continues to rank No. 1 among 25-to-54 year-old viewers.
In fact KOLD’s ratings were strong enough in these latest ratings to have at least one precedent-setter: the CBS “Early Show” from 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. weekdays eked into the No. 2 spot ahead of ABC’s Good Morning America” among 25-to-54 year-old viewers. That has never happened in this market since CBS started a morning news show to replace “Captain Kangaroo” in 1984.
Elsewhere, KGUN 9’s newscast finished No. 3 across the board, with ratings that were generally flat compared to a year ago except at 10 p.m., which was down 15 percent from a year ago.
Also noteworthy, the idea of watching a 9 p.m. newscast is catching on. According to these latest Nielsen ratings, an average of 11,600 viewers ages 25-to-54 tune in to KMSB’s Fox 11 News at 9 p.m., which makes it the seventh highest most-watched local newscast in the market. And, with those kinds of numbers, it would rank either No. 1 or No. 2 in any other news time slot, except at 10 p.m.
NBC falls to No. 4
For those who remember the days when prime time programming on NBC ruled the roost, the May Nielsen ratings now clearly show that in Tucson, it has sunk to No. 4, averaging less than 9 percent of the households watching prime time. That’s about half the numbers watching CBS on KOLD 13, about two-thirds of the numbers for ABC on KGUN 9, and 13 percent behind Fox on KMSB 11. The NBC numbers are still about 10 times better than the numbers watching either the CW on KWBA 58/cable 8 or My TV on KTTU 18.
Fire at Fox 11
Viewers didn’t even notice on-air, but there was a fire early the morning of June 22 in a storage/prop room at Fox-affiliate KMSB 11. It apparently started when an older piece of equipment had some sort of electrical short. Fortunately, the room was built to be an airtight video storage vault and, as such, the fire never really got going but there was significant smoke damage and some electrical issues.
Things were put back together enough for the station to do its 9 p.m. newscast that from the studio. The station estimates damages were about $100,000.
Jack Jacobson’s book
A new book by local TV pioneer Jack Jacobson, who died in March, is due to go on sale soon. It’s supposed to be released in July but no specific date. The book is titled “Introducing...The Sky Blazers: The Adventures of a Special Band of Troops Who Entertained the Allied Forces During World War II.” Amazon.com is offering pre-order sales of the book for $17.79, a 34 percent discount off the cover price.
The book is about Jacobson’s own story of how he and a buddy were in New York playing clubs and looking for their big show business break until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The two of them enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. and persuaded a general to let them perform as a morale booster for their fellow soldiers while stationed in north Africa. That led to the formation of the first Combat Special Services Entertainment Unit, a 15-piece troupe of comics, singers, and musicians called the Sky Blazers who performed for 2½ years during World War II for troops stationed in the Middle East, England and France.
Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.
Comments
Martha wrote on Jul 7, 2009 2:07 PM:
Retired Guy wrote on Jul 1, 2009 6:42 PM:
Downtown Denizen wrote on Jun 30, 2009 2:08 PM:
I pay so little attention to TV that I didn't even know they were doing a give away. KVOA is the worst, tied with KGUN. "
Morning glory wrote on Jun 26, 2009 3:44 PM: