For the first time ever, Nielsen ratings are meaningful in Charlottesville, and it looks like NBC29 is tough to beat. During sweeps, the longtime local station had an average of 11,886 viewers. WCAV (CBS) had just 656, and WVAW (ABC) just 534. The 6pm newscast numbers are particularly strong — 32,000 viewers for NBC29, 499 for WCAV and 354 for WVAW (showing only Seinfeld at that time).
The general manager of the two upstart stations points out, rightly, that they’ve only been around for six months, and haven’t had a chance to make any proper headway in the market just yet. I’d figured that there’d be a certain number of disaffected WVIR viewers looking to get their news elsewhere, but I thought there’d be more than 500. The good news, though, is that advertising on the two new stations is really cheap.
Lisa Provence had the skinny in the soon-to-be last week’s Hook.
I was excited about getting some new stations in town, but I gotta admit that I NEVER NEVER NEVER watch CBS 19. Not because of content, or their local news. It’s their sound. They need to bring in a sound engineer to fix their signal – it comes through with a lot of weirdness (could be an Adelphia thing, because God knows THEY haven’t learned how to deliver a decent signal). It actually sounds like it may be out of phase, either all or some channels, and it plays total hell with my home theater. It’s just not listenable – I’ve A/B’d it with CBS 6, and there’s a very noticeable difference. I’ve even tried it in simple stereo, and get the same wacky sound. If they fix that, I’d watch that station.
It’s not as bad on the ol’ mono bedroom TV, so I do watch their news. It’s so much better than NBC 29, but that Bo Kane dude needs to hire a makeup consultant or something – he looks rather like a well-prepared cadaver at times. CBS 19’s anchors are much more professional IMHO. Their ratings will catch up in time. Since CBS is the “most-watched” network, once people find it their numbers will probably be just fine. All they need to do to get me to watch is fix the freakin’ sound.
I’d watch the other two channels more often however they need to work on boosting their signal. I don’t pay for cable or satelite (yet) so I only get NBC 29 with any regularity and CBS 19 even more sporatically. As for the C’ville ABC channel… I think unless you live within 9 miles of the station you can’t recieve it (unless of course you pay for cable or satelite- but then if anyone’s doing that then why are they watching any of the local channels?).