WFLA Launching 7 PM News
Using the Olympics as a springboard, Media General’s WFLA Tampa launches a 7 p.m. newscast a week from today (7/30). WFLA is moving syndie staple ET to 7:30 to make room for the news.
“It’s really about serving our audience,” GM Brad Moses tells me. “There’s an untapped need for a 7 p.m. news from a broadcast station in this market.”
It may not be the most scientific measurement, but Moses says that when he looks out his office window at 6 p.m., the roads are full of cars–indicating, to him, the need for a later local news in early evenings.
“It’s the right news at the right time,” he says.
Moses says WFLA will add a few staffers for the newscast.
Parent MG is of course much closer to a pure-play broadcaster now that all but one newspaper has been sold. The stations stand to benefit from that.
Sister property TBO.com lays out the competition at 7 p.m. in DMA No. 14.
Blondy commented:
It's a relief to find soemnoe who can explain things so well
Eric commented:
I could see WFLA keeping 'Daytime' on at 10AM... maybe airing 4th hour of 'Today' at 11AM... midday newscast at Noon... 'Days of our Lives' at 1PM. I could picture Media General rolling out a new stations group graphics package, and retiring the current graphics package. I could also picture WFLA getting a new news set, which the Tampa Bay station really needs.
I'm aware that NBC will be airing daytime Olympic coverage from 10AM-5PM... resulting the 4th hour of 'Today', 'Days of our Lives', midday local newscasts, and syndicated shows on the NBC affiliates being pre-empted for 2 weeks.