Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Making News : Savannah Style



Tonight is the premiere of the TV Guide channel's reality program "Making News : Savannah Style" series that follows a local TV station (usually during the Spring season) to see what they are doing and usually see how they are trying to beat their competition. Last season, they focused on KOSA in the Midland/Odessa market. They were undergoing some changes in management and also they were trying to beat the their competitor KWES (NewsWest 9). It was really cool to see the behind the scenes action at a local news station.

This season it is based in Savannah, GA at ABC Affiliate WJCL. They have faced some problems of their own : They have a new owner, their General Manager of the station was sent to prison, they are the lowest ranked ABC affiliate. They have a lot of problems they they need to work on. Their current General Manager wrote about why they wanted to be on the "Making News" series here. Basically, they have all of these issues and are the worst station ever and how could it go wrong by having somebody come and document their struggle to become a better news station.

They are in the 97th largest TV market, which is a bit of change from the Midland/Odessa market which is #157. If you notice in the picture above, it says the 198th best local news station, this is referring to overall ABC affiliates nationwide.

I watched Making News : Texas Style last summer and it was very entertaining. You get to learn about what happens behind the scenes at a TV station and which is something that the average viewer does not get to see. It is definitely worth checking out if you have digital cable.

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