Content area
Full text
Unlike some of its larger urban neighbors in upstate New York, the Albany-Schenectady-Troy market has been relatively stable in its local economy and population growth. The presence of the state government in the region helps to stabilize the economy making it less vulnerable to downturns in private industry.
The three cities in the so-called Capital Region are about 10 minutes apart, with the Hudson River separating Troy from Albany and Schenectady. The market is home to 15 colleges and universities, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Many graduating engineers have remained in the area and started up their own companies, giving rise to the area's other handle, "Tech Valley." The Capital Region actually has a long history as a technology center; General Electric was headquartered in Schenectady for many years, and the company still maintains a sizeable presence via several plants.
The market,which is about 150 miles north of New York City, enjoyed a strong uptick in political advertising this year from the hard-fought U.S. Senate contest between Hilary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio. "The Clinton-Lazio race was just huge," says Gail Tregea, associate media director for Arnold Worldwide in Albany, which handles local buys for McDonald's. "I placed a November buy in August and I had spots that didn't clear. The sellout situation in local TV has quieted down some, but it is still kind of tight."
The 56th-ranked Albany-SchenectadyTroy television market (507,000 TV households) was underserved for years, with only five stations. Over the past 15 months, the field has filled out with the launches of a WB affiliate and a UPN affiliate. Paxson Communications' WYPX is also a relative newcomer, with ratings as yet too low to register in the Nielsen Media Research ratings. Nielsen does not meter the market; while the ratings company has approached stations about installing meters, there has not been sufficient interest.
WEDG-TV, the most recent entry, last January became a UPN affiliate. The station is a joint venture of Clear Channel Communications, owner of Fox affiliate WXXA-TV, and Time Warner Cable, which carries WEDG on its systems in the area. WEDG previously was a secondary public broadcasting outlet (the market's primary PBS affiliate is WMHT-TV). Prior to the CC-Time Warner agreement to launch WEDG, UPN prorgramming had been...