BusinessReport.com

When WVLA (NBC 33) and sister station WGMB (Fox 44) launched nightly local newscasts earlier this year, industry veterans wondered what the stations’ corporate parents were up to. Investing all that money in local news didn’t seem to make sense, given that Communication Corp. of America and White Knight Broadcasting—the Galloway family companies that own the two stations among others—have been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since last June.

Now the move is starting to make sense. The 9 p.m. news that airs on WGMB also is being shown in two other markets around the state, essentially enabling the Galloway-owned stations to break into local news in three markets at a fraction of what it would cost to start up three independent news operations.

The show, Fox News Louisiana, is customized for each market in which it airs, which means it’s not entirely live if you’re watching it outside of the Baton Rouge viewing area. Currently, those other markets include Lafayette and Shreveport, but corporate officials hope to have it on the air in Alexandria later this summer and eventually several other small markets around the state.

Logistically, customizing the show for several different markets is a challenge.

Produced locally at the Perkins Road studios of WVLA and WGMB, the show is anchored by former CNN sports anchor Jeff Beimfohr and includes sportscaster Chris Mycoskie and meteorologist Nelson Robinson, who stays plenty busy also forecasting the weather for WVLA’s three nightly shows.

Beimfohr pre-records a “like-live” news block—the first 15 minutes of the newscast—for the stations outside the Baton Rouge area. The segments are digitally edited with stories that were pre-recorded earlier in the day by local reporters and photographers in the smaller markets. They’re fed back to those stations and aired while the Baton Rouge newscast is airing live. The smaller markets join the Baton Rouge newscast live for the sports and weather segments, which are reported with a somewhat generic, statewide slant.

“The anchor segments are really the only part of the shows that aren’t local,” says Steve Pruitt, president of Communications Corp. of America, WGMB’s parent company.

The move has been a smart one from a financial perspective, attracting new investors to the Galloway companies, which Pruitt expects will emerge from bankruptcy early this fall. It’s also in keeping with a growing trend around the country, which some don’t necessarily see as a good thing.

“They’re finding ways to give us more but not necessarily better quality information,” says Dave Kurpius, assistant dean of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communications. “What does this mean for citizens, and how can television be a meaningful part of the democratic process?”

Kurpius says there are no easy answers. But Pruitt maintains that Fox News Louisiana is able to offer viewers a new, different kind of product they won’t see anywhere else.

“We have a really good product, and we’re able to do it efficiently,” Pruitt says. “We’re able to break statewide stories and have real reach across the state.”

WRKF fund drive

Listeners of local public radio might have noticed that WRKF’s recent spring fund drive took up less on-air solicitation time than usual. Station management tried a strategy that focused less on annoying listeners with incessant pleas to call in and more time trying to reach them through direct mail and e-mail.

Station manager Dave Gordon, who came to WRKF several months ago, suggested trimming the days of on-air begging by two days, trimming it to eight, something that other public radio stations around the country did some time ago. Though some board members were initially reluctant, they agreed to go along with it.

So did it work?

“Some of us were hoping we’d do better,” says board chairman Robert Bowsher, who says the station raised about $150,000. “But on balance we did about the same as last year, so we’ll probably stick with that format again next year. It’s a lot less painful.”