Jase 818 Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 From Lewis Lazare- http://www.reelchica...appoint-ratings "With a couple of days left to go in the July Nielsen ratings book, last-place WFLD’s late 9 p.m. news is doing considerably worse than it was a year ago. The newscast’s rating is — stunningly — down 32 percent from its already low rating a year ago. To be fair, at least two other local stations showed some decline in their July late news numbers, but nothing as steep as that at WFLD. Top-rated WLS-Channel 7’s 10 p.m. news suffered a 7.6 percent falloff year over year in July, but is still well ahead of the pack. And second-place WMAQ-Channel 5 dropped 6.9 percent, while WBBM-Channel 2 was flat year over year. Only WGN-Channel 9’s late news could boast of a modest uptick, with a 2.3 percent jump in the ratings year over year in July."-- LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abric 157 Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 WFLD - the bastard child of the Fox O&Os. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Can I be WFLD's next GM? Sure, I have no experience operating a TV station, but, well, look who they've got in there now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 743 Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 You can't really call yourself "The Most Powerful Name in Local News" when you're the bottom feeder of the market. How did things go so wrong for WFLD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase 818 Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 You can't really call yourself "The Most Powerful Name in Local News" when you're the bottom feeder of the market. How did things go so wrong for WFLD? Poor decisions by station management. It's as if their sole purpose is to completely destroy both stations (WFLD/WPWR). Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Poor decisions by station management. It's as if their sole purpose is to completely destroy both stations (WFLD/WPWR). Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. What really gets me is how higher up executives/management at FOX are allowing this to continue.. Almost anywhere else at any other station owned by any other network/company, WFLD's management would have been thrown out a LONG time ago.. I too have never seen anything like this ever happen to any station in this country. To answer the question of how things could go so wrong for WFLD.. Fowler was put into place and given free reign. More of the same old same old hire your friends/buddies/people you know/drinking buddies that is very common in Chicago media. The known WFLD veterans that kept the station afloat were all shown the door. Yes, the station wasn't number 1 with them but they were still a very profitable station making money. The poorly planned out execution of experimentations/trials.. The constant changing of formats and styles. The shitloads of technical problems. Nobody knowing what the hell they're doing.. The list goes on and on.. It ultimately started with the station's own management. However, you can't blame station's own management anymore. Everyone knows and can see their capabilities. People need to start looking at FOX network executives/management who are still allowing the ship to sink even deeper.. Higher up needs to open their eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw-804 190 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Down 32%. To quote fellow member Abric a few months ago: "Message to WFLD: It's over. Give up. Surrender." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevieboy247 42 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Down 32%. To quote fellow member Abric a few months ago: "Message to WFLD: It's over. Give up. Surrender." They're better off either having another station produce their newscasts, or just cancelling them outright. Either way, I really don't see WFLD having a News Department much longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWUpdate 1290 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I'm wondering, could the Fox O&O look, which is based so closely on the instantly recognizable Fox News Channel graphics and overall style, be hurting WFLD in such an overwhelmingly progressive, Democratic city (Obama's hometown and all)? Even if WFLD itself is politically balanced, and I have no reason to believe it's not, I wonder if the "Fox News" brand and style carries just too many negative connotations in many Chicagoans' minds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24994J 5275 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I'm wondering, could the Fox O&O look, which is based so closely on the instantly recognizable Fox News Channel graphics and overall style, be hurting WFLD in such an overwhelmingly progressive, Democratic city (Obama's hometown and all)? Even if WFLD itself is politically balanced, and I have no reason to believe it's not, I wonder if the "Fox News" brand and style carries just too many negative connotations in many Chicagoans' minds. Anything's possible, but there are far deeper issues than just the FNC association...they didn't have these problems even a year and a half ago, after the O&O look was in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I'm wondering, could the Fox O&O look, which is based so closely on the instantly recognizable Fox News Channel graphics and overall style, be hurting WFLD in such an overwhelmingly progressive, Democratic city (Obama's hometown and all)? Even if WFLD itself is politically balanced, and I have no reason to believe it's not, I wonder if the "Fox News" brand and style carries just too many negative connotations in many Chicagoans' minds. Absolutely not. WFLD's/FOX O&O look has absolutely nothing to do with their horrible ratings. If you were to actually watch WFLD newscasts regularly the past couple years, you can easily see what's causing the horrible ratings. No question. Maybe the multiple tickers used on the morning news could be hurting but the look in general, I would absolutely say no. Plus, FOX News Channel is rated extremely high in the Chicago market. I think they may even beat out NY and LA here. As for Chicago being "overwhelmingly progressive".. That's the biggest crock of sh*t I have ever heard. Yes, Chicago is extremely democratic/liberal but would not say progressive. I'm going to keep discussion clean around here so I won't get anymore into it. Chicago is the home of the pay to play, hiring people you know (including family), and overpaying people for unnecessary jobs. People getting jobs because of race, etc. As for WFLD being "balanced", they are balanced towards the actual city of Chicago itself. One thing I give the other stations in Chicago (especially WBBM and WGN) credit for is that they have news and stories that also focus on all the other parts of the market like all the surburbs and beyond. WFLD only focuses on the city itself. Most of the news viewers in the market don't live within the city limits of Chicago and are sick of hearing about the same old problems the city itself is having. People out where I live could care less about how sh*tty schools are in the city and about barbaric savages that keep shooting at each other. The majority of people in the Chicago market don't care about interviews and discussions on how to solve the city of Chicago's problems. The station needs to wake up and start giving the news that viewers look for in TV news. Yes, report on the news happening in the city but don't forget the viewers in the rest of the market.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detroiter313 178 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 How many Fox O&O's (or Fox affiliates) do you know besides WFLD has seen ratings drop that low on any market?, or is WFLD the only one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase 818 Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 How many Fox O&O's (or Fox affiliates) do you know besides WFLD has seen ratings drop that low on any market?, or is WFLD the only one? I don't think any other FOX O&Os (or Fox affiliates) have seen a decline as massive as 32% coupled with monthly declines lasting over a year. I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjohnson 15 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Yet, FOX in their infinite wisdom sold "small market" KTVI back in 2006, a station that is routinely in the top 3. Discounting trends in local news viewership dropping nationwide, KTVI is still one the most watched FOX stations, even during news parts. What I can't understand is how a FOX station, let alone an O&O could be this badly managed. Further, is WFLD still making money for FOX with it's ratings down 32 percent from last year? I think if you compared WFLD with WXLV or KDNL (two of the worst run ABC stations on earth), those stations could beat WFLD. That sad thing is, I worry that I'm not exaggerating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essentials 0 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Here's the real deal on WFLD. Pat Mullen and Andrew Finlayson lost there status because of the Barz/Suppelsa debacle. It had nothing to do with ratings. In fact ratings were 80% better under their regime. The 9pm faired better when Goldblatt was there as well. Fowler did what she always does to save her self - she blamed others for the station's failings. She also has no issue cutting budgets and firing , lying , getting sued , union busting. Renda was not the ratings guru FOX conveyed to the media. In Philly the FOX station capitolized on the mendte/lane scandal. Mendte's wife was a FOX anchor. Once the scandal ended FOX Philly went back to mediocre ratings. Fowler / Renda were told to adopt a new format and make sure it works. It has failed miserable. But before the change the dynamic dud had a year to improve ratings under a regular format. They kept failing. In fact WFLD has had bad ratings for 25 months straight. Then Fowler/Renda decided to shake things up on the Titanic to once again deflect blame of the bad ratings. They moved anchor teams around drastically. Now no one is watching. Even managers at competing stations is wondering what the heck is going on there. GDC is being obliterated by the competition especially at 7 - 10 WGN has made insane gains. Partly because viewers have fled FOX also there content has improved. WFLD is the bottom feeder of all the FOX stations. Dead last in morning , noon ,and night. LA comes in second followed by Boston then Renda's Philly dump. Other stations are thriving with the new formats. So what happens when the argument Fowler/Renda gave to NY to save and slash people's jobs? It becomes an empty argument. Fowler's track record at 2 should be any reason never to hire. Lawsuits, bad ratings , bad moral. But when Renda inherited her she was just into a 3 year deal. FOX will not pay you to sit on the beach for 3 years. NB was onto something when they leaked she was about to fired along with the Boston and LA ND's. But it was stopped. The reason , no one to go there. The reason they have also not been fired , let them finish out there contracts. That's the FOX way if they can not find a new place to put you. Renda is using station money to remodel the newsroom. he's also finishing a project started by Mullen. Corporate is not pitching in a dime. Fowler is trying to finish the AFTRA deal which will make anchors run prompter and have talent shoot and edit pieces. But bottom line is when their deals are up so is there time in the market. TV News is a business. With FOX it better be a money making ratings improving business. WFLD is not and these two have had almost 3 years to change it. The litmus test for changes is 6 months. Also hurting them is the talent they brought in. Flannery, Davlantes, Cannellis , Sirrott, Bellis, Souza, Hasbrouck. It has all failed and contributed to making things worse. NY now has to find a solid new management group. Turn around specialists. Which they will. In Philly they did not replace the ND there with another FOX ND. For the first time in years they realized the station group does not have solid nd"s to move around anymore which is why an outsider was brought in. Change is coming to WFLD but not until next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
first on fox 18 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Fun wrap-up. It was like reading 100 tweets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
312newswannabe 7 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 what was the suppelsa debacle? I'm just now warming up to him on WGN. I like Micah, but I miss the days of Steve and Allison at 9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase 818 Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 what was the suppelsa debacle? I'm just now warming up to him on WGN. I like Micah, but I miss the days of Steve and Allison at 9. I wouldn't call it a debacle. Suppelsa wanted to do a morning radio show (as news anchor) and WFLD/Mullen wasn't going for that. He was their star anchor and relied heavily on him. They felt him doing both radio and TV wasn't going to work and thus they couldn't reach an agreement. I believe that was the only sticking point between the two parties. Suppelsa was in-between TV jobs when he took the radio job (WGN-TV came a calling a few months later) and after 2 1/2 yrs of doing both, he quit the radio job to devote his full attention to TV. The Barz thing was a tough one because you had your principal female anchor saying he rubbed up on her at a party. Who do you side with? Your longtime anchor or the guy who acts like a jerk every so often? Barz sued WFLD for wrongful termination, but an arbitrator sides with WFLD. Mullen quits months after hiring Fowler as ND (Jan./Feb. 2009) and Finlayson (Fowler's predecessor) was promoted to director of online content and business development for the Fox Television Stations. Renda succeeded Mullen as GM in Sept. 2009. And from that point on, WFLD has been in a death spiral.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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