Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 2/19: Chaos at 'CVB...and CBC

[MikeHemeon@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/20/99 12:21:11 AM Central Standard Time,
fybush@world.std.com writes:

<< NERW sees the times changing at
 channel 5, anyway; our trip to Western Massachusetts earlier this week
 (about which more later) gave us the chance to see WCVB on cable, and
 we were sorry to see the "mayhem and violence factor" in abundance on
 a station that once shunned such a focus for its newscasts.  (Thanks,
 WHDH!) >>

Perhaps that is what the masses want. Sponsors put their major bucks behind
the number one station and sometimes the number two.  News is one of the most
expensive and manpower intensive endeavors within a station. It also brings in
most of a station's revenue and supplies most of the jobs. The days of "a
license to print money" are over. 

An average TV station today is no more than a local newschannel with a master
control to run "the other stuff". The news department in the majority of
stations controls the engineering spending. The larger stations have their own
News Dept Chief Engineer. 

TV is becoming what radio has become and will follow the same decline radio
has suffered by removal of ownership caps that is currently under debate in
Washington.

Mike

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