RE: WCVB Preempts News For Infomercial

["Mike Fitzpatrick" <fitzradio@map.com>]

The show might have been a "make good". I know at WWLP-TV (Springfield)
we've had to preempt Wheel of Fortune for an Infomercial "Make good" from
the weekend past. Does WCVB get alot of advertising at noon? Maybe they get
more for the infomercial than what was sold for the newscast.

--MIKE

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Mark
> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2000 1:27 AM
> To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: WCVB Preempts News For Infomercial
>
>
> My father called me yesterday (Saturday 6/3) and mentioned in the
> course of
> conversation that WCVB preempted their Saturday 12 Noon news,airing an
> infomercial instead.He told me that shortly after the infomercial
> started a
> crawl ran across the bottom of the screen indicating that the Noon news
> would return next week.Channel 5 is the only Boston TV station to have a
> regularly scheduled 12 Noon newscast on the weekends
>
> .I find it quite surprising that WCVB's management would OK blowing off a
> newscast in favor of a paid program.If I were the news director,I'd
> certainly be more than livid.Given the fact that Channel 5's news ratings
> have been slipping of late,having people tune in to watch the news only to
> find that George Forman is hawking his grill or Regis Philbin  is helping
> to sell  Time Life CD's(I don't know what was being sold in place of the
> news Saturday) certainly won't help in the ratings.It's possible some of
> the folks who tuned in to watch the news Saturday at Noon may not
> come back
> in the future as they may think they've canned the weekend Noon
> news,despite the crawl on the screen indicating otherwise.
>
> Their new slogan should be "News Center 5,Coverage You Can Count On,If No
> One Buys The Airtime First." <g>
>
> Mark Watson
>
>
>
>
>