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THE LOCAL MEDIA ARENA IN THE TWIN CITIES HISTORICALLY HAS BEEN FIERCELY competitive and dynamic, and 2003 was no exception, particularly in the local television business. KARE-TV, Gannett Broadcasting's NBC affiliate, maintained its longstanding position as the top-ranked station in both ratings and revenue in the No. 14 television market in the nation. BIA Financial Network estimates KARE took in $81.3 million in revenue in 2002, compared to its closest competitor, Viacom's CBS owned-andoperated WCCO-TV, which generated an estimated $62.4 million.
December 12, 2003, marked the last day for Paul Magers, KARE's popular veteran anchor, who left for KCBS-TV, CBS' O&O in Los Angeles. KARE president and general manager John Remes promoted Frank Vascellaro as Magers' replacement at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. Vascellaro had been the morning co-anchor. KARE's weekend sports anchor Tim McNiff replaced Vascellaro in the mornings and sports reporter Eric Perkins replaced McNiff. Reporter Amy Hockert was promoted to Saturday-morning news co-anchor.
Rival stations see the departure of the popular, award-winning journalist as an opportunity to cut into KARE's lead.
One of those stations is WCCO, which has made a dramatic comeback under new management. Ed Piette, who had been vp/gm of St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting's ABC affiliate KSTP-TV and sister Independent station KSTC-Ty jumped to the same post at WCCO last july. Piette has made a number of changes at the station, which had been slumping in the ratings. he reinstated veteran station anchor Bill Carlson to his noon post last October, reversing a December 2002 management decision to pull Carlson from the anchor desk (he continued to serve as the station's entertainment reporter). Piette says Carlson's reinstatement has increased ratings at noon by about 10 percent since his return.
Piette has also added new staffers, including the hire of Trey Fabacher as WCCO station manager. Fabacher had worked for Piette at KSTP as general sales manager. Piette also installed Jeff Kiernan as WCCO's new news director last October. Kiernan had been news director at WTMJ, Journal Broadcasting Group's NBC affiliate in Milwaukee. Finally, Tom Bourassa is WCCO's new gsm. Bourassa had been local sales manager at the Time Warner Cable-managed local cable interconnect, Interconnect of the Twin Cities.
In the November sweeps, WCCO won the 5 and 6 p.m....