"Local" news coverage of the NH Primary

[Dan Billings]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert A Whitaker" <sid.whitaker@unh.edu>
To: "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>
Cc: "boston-radio-interest" <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: "Local" news coverage of the NH Primary


> This arrangement pays off for everyone because it saves corporate and the
other
> stations the expense of each station sending more people, more equipment,
and
> renting more space. Gannett is big on teamwork and sharing resources.

That makes sense.  Not something I had considered.

> Second, let's not forget WCSH is only 35 miles from New Hampshire; the
northern
> 1/3rd of the state is part of the Portland/Lewiston DMA. WCSH has tens of
> thousands of viewers in New Hampshire, from Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester in
the
> seacoast to Laconia in the Lakes Region, much of the Concord area, and the
> entire northern part of the state, where it is the primary NBC service.
> There are people watching who are interested.

I would buy that reasoning if WCSH usually covered NH politics as if it was
part of the local coverage area.  NH had a hot Senate race last year that
helped decide control of the US Senate and an open race for Governor.
WCSH's coverage of those races was sporadic, at best.  My guess is the
combined coverage of NH politics in the whole year of 2002 all added
together did not equal the coverage of in the last week of the NH primary.

> Third, what's happening in NH is important, Mainers do care, and yes, they
are
> talking about what's going on. What's wrong with trying to exceed viewers'
> expectations? I hear a lot of complaints about stations curtailing
political
> news coverage, running more fluffy J-Lo and Ben stories, and all but
ignoring
> serious political issues.

Maine has a huge budget problem.  Today, the Governor proposed reinstating a
discredited hospital tax and match scheme that was part of Maine's budget
problems in the early 1990's.  The story was not covered by WCSH tonight.  I
am the last person to argue against political coverage, but how about
covering things that viewers can't get on the network news or the cable
networks?

> Sid Whitaker
> former WCSH-TV reporter

 aka Robert A Whitaker now that he's an academic.  ;-)  And guess where he
is spending his time these days?  ;-)

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine