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February Sweep Wrap-Up
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
Thanks to the Olympics, the February ratings sweep was quite a bore as far as the late (9, 10pm) newscasts were concerned.
Viewing-wise, on a Monday-Friday and a Monday thru Sunday basis; Channel 5's 10pm show was the most-watched among adults thanks to the highly-rated Olympics lead-in. Channel 7 really wasn't too far behind, which is a testament to their strength. Channel 9 came in a very distant 3rd place, with Channel 2 then Channel 32 bringing up the rear.
As for special sweeps stories that stations trot out during the rating periods, February was a bit tame. I tracked most of the stories this sweep (check out the attached Excel file) and the sensationalism we are used to was generally tempered. Maybe this was because NBC's Olympics ran until 11pm and the competition didn't want to use their "A" material? Considering I didn't see a Chuck Goudie report on Channel 7 until the last 2 days of the sweep, I suspect this is so.
Channel 2 spent the month talking about food safety. Yawn! No new news here, but give them an "A" for effort...instructing viewers about food safety is a great idea. It just wasn't sexy enough to pull in more viewers than normal.
Channel 7 had a mix of light & heavy topics. Excellent stories about household mold, running red lights, 911 problems, energy drinks, a church teaching finance and terrorism. Cotton candy stories about PreFab singing groups, zip codes & unclaimed money.
Channel 9's stories ranged from profiling Chicago's candy shops to families of murder victims.
Channel 32 flexed its muscle with Mark Saxenmeyer taking no prisoners in stories about a college course on the Simpsons, Porn in Chicago and an update on Chicago's "Temptation Island" couple. Larry Yellen exposed unusable fire escapes, problems with e-911 and a secret underground lottery.
Channel 5 ran tons of Olympic stories as well as some hard-hitting stuff on shoddy rape investigations, bridal salon & auto dealer fraud, secret lawyer deals and a secret underground lottery.
Hey wait...didn't Channel 32 do a story about a "Shadow Lottery"? Yeah. In a very weird case, Channel 32's Larry Yellen exposed an underground lottery among city employees on February 11th. On February 12th, Channel 5's Dave Savini exposed the same underground lottery among city employees. Same story, two stations. I bet there's an interesting tale behind all that! Advantage to Yellen for getting the story out first!
I kid Mark Saxenmeyer above...he's one heck of a tenacious reporter who would probably scare the crap out of me if I were a story subject. So what if he got a few puff pieces for the sweep? He also did a great piece about an Arab kids show that teaches terror.
Where's the Logic?
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
Last issue I railed against Channel 32 for using their Sunday newscasts as a dumping ground for out-of-market taped pieces. Though 32 is the station that is most obviously coasting on Sunday, they are not alone by a long shot.
Funny thing is...Sunday should be the night where everyone puts forth their best effort.
Why?
Taking a look at adult viewing during the February rating period; Sunday night was the top late news viewing night, with Friday & Saturday as the lowest-viewed night. This rang true for most stations, with a few odd exceptions: Channel 9's top night was Monday & Channel 2's was Tuesday while Channel 5's worst nights were Tuesday & Wednesday. So, if Sunday night is the night where the most people are watching news, then doesn't it make sense to put your #1 team on a Sunday thru Thursday schedule? It sure does. ESPN knew this 10 years ago when they switched SportsCenter to a Sunday thru Thursday schedule.
What's up with our local newscasts? The answer probably has to do with "star" anchors who wouldn't dream of working on a Sunday...despite having that Friday off. Yet does it make any sense to have Byron Harlan introducing stale out-of-market packages on the night of the week where Channel 32 gets the most news viewers?
Not bloody likely!
Next time someone moans about declining news viewership, they should think about their refusal to put their best product on the air on the night where the most people would see it. Illogical.
Investigative Story Idea
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
I mailed a check to the Secretary of State's office to renew my license plates. We are all being re-plated and since I have vanity plates, I thought I'd give Jesse White's Tumblers some extra time to pound out my plate. My registration expires at the end of March, so I mailed the check out when I got the notice at the beginning of February.
Two weeks after I mailed the check, I got a "temporary" sticker to put on my plates because they would not be ready in the six weeks before my plates expired. Anyone else find this weird? First we have a guy who wasn't competent enough to run the Secretary of State's office raise the license fees to astronomical proportions for his "Illinois First" pet pork program. Now his successor, a guy who spent most of his time on this project of re-plating everyone, can't seem to get it right either? Two questions have to be asked: Why are all the Illinois Secretaries of State so piss-poor when it comes to managing the office? And where is all of this money going?
My hypothesis is that after law enforcement noticed that the new plates were quite difficult to read at night, Jesse had to ram though some quick design changes that put everything behind schedule. Notice that on newer plates, the red letters are darker with a black outline and the blue gradient background is lighter than the plates that first came out?
Maybe it's me. I still don't understand why I can't get my plate on time considering the ransom the state is charging me for it. I now see these "T" stickers everywhere and wonder why none of the news media is getting to the bottom of it.
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