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The lights are out in the Ch. 22 news department. WVNY-TV pulled the plug last week. After giving it the old college try for four years, and pumping a lot of money into the effort, our local ABC affiliate's TV news just wasn't selling. No matter how hard they tried, Ch. 22 couldn't get more than a 2 percent share in the Nielsen ratings.
What's the lesson here, folks?
Maybe it's that the way to beat Ch. 3 (CBS) and Ch. 5 (NBC) is not to be Ch. 3-Lite or Ch. 5-lite, but rather to be something completely different.
Ch. 22 produced a newscast that was a cookie-cutter version of what local news is around the country. It could have been Topeka or Toledo or Ft. Myers, Florida -- only the local place names were different.
Ch. 22's great contribution to the market was "Weather First." That policy dictated that the second story every night was the weather report.
Give me a break.
The only local talent Ch. 22 put on air was two-time right-wing Republican gubernatorial loser Ruth Dwyer as an "investigative reporter."
Give me a break.
If ever Ch. 22 takes another shot at local news, and we dearly hope they do, it should go for something different. WGOP, er, sorry, WCAX has carved out its niche as the champion of conservative Republican politics and politicians. Owner Stuart "Red" Martin has long been a generous financial contributor to Republican causes and candidates.
Last week, when the U.S. House told IBM to take a hike and rallied behind Rep. Bernie Sanders' amendment on cash-balance pensions, it was big news in the national press. But on WCAX it was a four-sentence read-over buried between the weather and sports. Not even a sound-bite from the hero of the day?
Given the fact that Vermonters flock to the polls to overwhelmingly support candidates like Sanders and Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords, why not cover the news from the perspective of most Vermonters?
The demise of Ch. 22's news effort leaves a vacuum. One wonders whether a progressive TV news operation that counters Ch. 3's conservative slant wouldn't hit pay dirt?
P.S. Bernie Sanders tells Seven Days his once-a-week radio show on WDEV-AM and FM is...