Fox Makes Case for WWOR at FCC
TV-Station Owner Defends WWOR's Public Service to N.J. at FCC Forum
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/27/2007 6:35:00 PM EST
At the Federal Communications Commission's license-renewal forum on its public service to New Jersey, Fox-owned WWOR-TV New York (licensed to Secaucus, N.J.) will offer up a laundry list of efforts to serve its community of license.
According to talking points for the hearing, those include its nightly, seven-day-a-week 10 p.m. newscast; hourly news updates between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., weekly public-affairs shows New Jersey Now (formerly Ask Congress) and Real Talk; more than 20,000 public-service announcements over the past two years; sports -- "free, over-the-air broadcasts of the New Jersey Nets and New York Giants (whose stadiums are in New Jersey)"; its 110,000 square feet of office space in Secaucus; an apprenticeship program; and employees' participation in various events.
Several groups have challenged the station's license on the grounds that Fox should not be able to continue to own a TV station and newspaper (New York Post) in the same market, and because it has not done enough to serve New Jersey.
WWOR even invoked synergy with a newspaper -- not the Post -- to make its case for local service, citing a partnership with local paper The Record on "extensive" political coverage.
"Fox Television Stations, licensee of television station WWOR-TV Secaucus, N.J., has paid close attention to community needs and provided exemplary service to the residents of northern New Jersey since it acquired WWOR-TV in 2001," Fox argued.
