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The ratings are black and white. KCCITV, Channel 8, is far in the lead, with nearly twice as many viewers for its 10 p.m. weekday broadcast as WHO-TV, Channel 13. WOI-TV, Channel 5 trails far behind, a distant third.
Trying to judge news quality on such a clear-cut scale would be like walking into quicksand wearing cement sneakers undoable. Making the scene even muddier is the soon-to-be-added KDSM news program. The stations agree there is plenty of room for a fourth competitor.
Ratings leads aren't stopping Des Moines from nurturing a fiercely competitive news environment, in which each station had notable successes. Remember recycling enthusiast and political darling Winifred Skinner? WOI was the first to do a profile on the can-collecting senior, according to Allen Sandubrae, vice president of news for Capital Communications, which owns the station.
Images of a burning house in Polk City captured by Chopper 13 are still vivid in many viewers' minds. Other stations' news teams were forced to park a mile and a half away from the scene.
A KCCI investigative team went undercover and found discrimination in bars after the death of Charles Lovelady.
"It's very definitely a three-station race, and it's going to grow," says KCCI News Director Dave Busiek. "I can only tell you what viewers say when traveling around the country. They say it's great to come home and see the quality of news coverage here."
AND NOW TO THE NEWS WITH KCCI
At the top of the ratings, flying high without the aid of a helicopter, is KCCI 8, one of the top-rated CBS affiliates in the nation.
After 21 years at the station, Busiek seems comfortable, even calm in the newsroom he now directs. But first impressions aren't anything. His earth-toned suit is rumpled from a day's effort. It's 3:00 in the afternoon, and he still has more than three hours at the office, and some calls to make at home.
"I'm never relaxed," he says. Like any story-hungry reporter, his tone is most passionate when describing the nerve-wracking moments on the job.
"We want to be the first on the scene, and the first on the air," he says. Two weeks ago, when an airplane crashed at the Des Moines Airport, the...