Ever since media behemoth Hearst-argyle purchased Manchester?s WMUR, speculation about new programming has been rampant. This week the station, New Hampshire?s largest, announced the first changes in what management calls an ongoing restructuring process.
WMUR 5/31/01 ROGERS
Ever since media behemoth Hearst-argyle purchased Manchester?s WMUR, speculation about new programming has been rampant. This week the station, New Hampshire?s largest, announced the first changes in what management calls an ongoing restructuring process. NHPR?s Josh Rogers reports.
According to its positioning statement, nobody knows New Hampshire like WMUR-TV. General Manager Jeff Bartlett says it?s such insight, and not just the bottom line, that informs channel 9?s announced changes. These include the launch of a New Hampshire edition of Chronicle, the soft news magazine that?s been a fixture on Boston TV for 25 years?. And the replacement of the daily 9am and 4pm news hours with syndicated talk shows. Bartlett believes the changes will strengthen WMUR?soverall programming, and says he?s particularly excited by the launch of chronicle
It?s the king of programming that isn?t done much frankly because of the resources it takes, across the country. So, we?re really happy to be able to do a show like that with the help of cob, who have pioneered that type of news magazine very successfully for decades.
WCVB?s chronicle has indeed enjoyed a strong track record ? critically and commercially. Boston Globe Media critic Mark Jurkowitz says its long run has flouted market trends.
It?s not a game show, it?s not a talk show?it doesn?t lead with Robert Downey Jr. latest Drug bust?.and it?s a littlie old fashioned in many ways. It?s mastered something that?s very tricky in TV, which is sense of place. It?s a show designed to make you feel at home, to make you feel good about NE England. As programming goes it?s good programming and it?s surprisingly successful programming.
Also successful, albeit devoid of any sense of place, are the shows slated to supplant 9?s cancelled news offerings. Sally Jesse Raphael, and talk powerhouse Oprah Winfrey?..
Bite?.
WMUR?s rationale for adding Sally and Oprah to the WMUR fold, boils down to numbers. Station manager Jeff Bartlett says the cancelled newscasts ever enjoyed a wide viewership, he says they were a necessity of a bygone time when former programmers lacked the wherewithal that comes with being part of the 28 station the Hearst ?Argyle network.
They had difficulty getting programming. Because of the resources of Hearst, we don?t have that problem anymore. We have something to put in there instead of stretching the resources very thin in order to fill up the 9ine and the four.
Bartlett?s logic is supported by local advertisers. Sylvia Kalid, media director of Manchester?s Tracey Edwards agency says the jettisoned news slots never held much appeal for her clients. And She believes the new programming, which will mirror the schedules of Boston?s WCVB was crafted with advertisers very much in mind.
There whole premise, and their long term goal is to tie in regional advertisers and say ?you can now get this market and that market and we?ll tie in a package for you.
The Globe?s Mark jurkowitz says such strategies are commonplace in an ever more consolidated mass media, but he says they could, if overplayed, end up spoiling what made channel 9 attractive in the first place.
On the one hand, you have the impulse to syngergize and share programming, on the other you have this very unique and powerful entity that was created with some very distinctive local programming and an extremely heavy dose of news.
While WMUR isn?t yet talking, there?s a chance that moiré ¯f that prized local programming may be on the way out. Some speculate a reduction in locally produced Sunday morning news shows are all but a sure thing. Jeff Bartlett would neither confirm or deny?..but says more changes are being considered.
We?re looking at everything and trying to find the best combination of programs that are available to us and make sense, and serve the viewers?.So were looking at everything.
WMUR?s planned changes will take effect September 10th.
