Massive storms can be good for some media outlets, reports www.dcrtv.com. According to the website, it resulted in “gigantic ratings” for all-newser WTOP during the first week of February in the Portable People Meter radio ratings for the DC market. The period included 2/4 to 2/10, when two mammoth snowfalls hit the DC area. WTOP took substantial first place leads in all dayparts, often with more than twice the audience of second place WAMU. The full-week, age 12+ numbers: 1) WTOP [1st in all dayparts], 2) WAMU, 3) WIHT, 4) WETA-FM, WASH and WHUR, 7) WMMJ, 8) WMAL and WRQX, 10) WWDC.
In total, reports Paul Farhi in The Washington Post, some 539,000 people listened to WTOP at some point during the first storm on Saturday and Sunday, or slightly more than 27 percent of everyone listening to the radio on those two days, Arbitron estimated. For the week, some 1.49 million people tuned in, or 39 percent of the total local radio audience of 3.8 million. The bad news, the station reported that it eliminated about $140,000 worth of commercials over the four days of the storms to provide more coverage.
In an unrelated weather-related item, Bob Ryan, a stalwart at WRC-TV, has signed off after three decades at the station. There are a number of reports he will moving to WJLA-TV.
Also, of note, according to a piece on WJLA’s Leon Harris in WP, The Washington Post’s Sunday magazine, according to one survey, “some 222 (TV) stations across the country don’t bother to produce their own news anymore.” These stations, instead, have outsourced it to another station in the market. The piece, by Paul Farhi, noted, “Washington isn’t there – at least, not yet.”
Newsroom cuts are not limited to local stations, ABC News and CBS News both have had cuts recently. In the case of ABC News, there have been reports that as many as 400 positions will be eliminated. According to a note from ABC News president David Westin, obtained by TVNewser, Westin states, "[W]e anticipate that between now and the end of the year ABC News will undergo a fundamental transformation that will ultimately affect every corner of the enterprise."