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thursday, november 30, 1978
umbers game proving 1011 'strong'
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By Kent Warneke
When talking in terms of athletics, when
one has a proven, winning combination,
one does not make any unnecessary
changes.
When talking in terms of television
stations, the same thing applies and KOLN-TVKGIN-TV
has had that winning com
bination for the past 10 years.
Based on national ratings, during the
past 10 years KOLN-TVKGIN-TV (Chan
nels 1011) has had their 10 pjn. news
show rated first or second nationally every
year in terms of local share of TV audi
ence. 1011 Strong, as their image campaign
presents them, is owned by Fetzer Broad
casting Company, which consists of four
stations, one in Kalamazoo, Mich., and the
others being KOLN based in Lincoln,
KGIN in Grand Island and KMEG in Sioux
City, la. John E. Fetzer is owner of Fetzer
Broadcasting Co., and also of the pro foot
ball Detroit Lions, and purchased 1011
Strong soon after its birth on February 18,
1953.
1011 Strong is a CBS-affiliated, com
mercial television station that employs 118
people.
Paul Jensen, station manager of 1011
Strong said he feels that there are defin
ite reasons behind their station's long
standing success.
Matter of habit
"The first reason I think is due to habit
and a low rate of turnover at our station.
When people get used to watching certain
broadcasters, it's hard for them to switch
and we've had the same broadcasters for a
long time," Jensen said, "But, of course,
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Photo by Bob Pearson
you need people that are acceptable to the
viewers in the beginning to form these
habits and we feel that we certainly have
them."
"Another part of our success is that
while other news stations have been chang
ing their format as time passes, we have
stuck with our original format because we
feel we've got a winner. We still have our
weather first, then local and national news
and follow up with sports and we're going
to stay that way because it's been success
ful in the past and it still is," Jensen said.
However, staying with the original for
mat doesn't mean that changes have not
taken place at 1011 Strong.
"We've done a lot of things to upgrade
our coverage and content in our station,"
Jensen said, "In fact we were second in the
state of Nebraska to use the new electronic
news gathering equipment, or what every
body knows as mini-cams."
"We usually receive an average around
50 to 60 percent of the audience in our
viewing area, which is a 79-county area in
northern Kansas and Nebraska and includes
Lincoln, Kearney, Hastings, Grand Island,
North Platte and Columbus, and we're not
satisfied unless we receive approximately
that percentage, while most other stations
around us are satisfied with say 35 per
cent," Jensen said.
"Every news station in the country has
their critics and we've got ours and they
ask why we haven't gone to more of the in
depth series-type stories, but we feel that
we have such a large area to cover that we
can't afford to do a piece that would take
say two minutes of air time that only the
Lincoln community would be interested in,
we've got to remember that 80 percent of
our audience is outside of Lancaster
county."
Selling time
According to Jensen, selling time is
basically commercials and advertisements,
whether on a national-network basis or
through our local sales department. When
you become an affiliate of one of the three
major networks part of the affiliation is the
agreement on the rate of money received
for commercials," he said.
"Of all the money received from these
commercials by the network, two-thirds of
that goes for production of the commer
cials and furnishing the finished product to
the affiliate," Jensen said, "The other one
third of the revenue is divided up by the
affiliates across the country."
"The top rates for us are between 7
and 10 pjn. or the prime-time view-.,
ing, and right now our rate if $825 an
hour. For other viewing time, the rate is
cut in half and then we still only receive
one-third of the total," Jensen said.
The hourly rates agreed upon by the
affiliates varies from area to area, as New
York City has a higher hourly rate than
Grand Island or Lincoln as they would
have more viewers watching the commer
cials and there are also some exceptions
where no revenue is received at all by the
affiliates as in the case of pro football.
"When the bidding for broadcasting
rights got to be so atrocious, it came down
to making a bid and not expecting to make
a profit or not making a bid at all," Jensen
said, "We (the affiliates) ultimately, almost
unanimously agreed on televising football
even without the revenue."
"Advertising has changed tremendously
within the past years," Jensen said, "You
don't find any more advertisers solely
sponsoring shows, now it's more that three
or four advertisers buy participation spots
in a show."
Affiliation with a major network is a
key to success for a television station,
something that is next to impossible to get
at this point of time.
"It isn't easy to reach an affiliation
agreement with a network, most of the
markets have been defined by the FCC
(Federal Communications Commission),"
Jensen said, "And although most of the
channels operably are filled today and few
new agreements reached, there still can be
a lot of moving and switching around by
the affiliate and the network."
Abundance of programs
'The obvious main advantage when
you're an affiliate is that you have an
abundance of programs available to you. IF
you don't have an affiliation, then you are
forced to purchase programming or
develop your own local programs and in
most all cases, no local station is going to
have the budget available for that, where a
national network does," Jensen said.
"We're not bound in any way to tele
vise a set amount of network programming,
but there's an unwritten rule in our
industry that you should show a reasonable
amount of the network's programming,
and besides you should want to because
you have the exclusive rights to that pro
gramming," Jensen said.
For special events, such as national
elections, an affiliation with a network is
the only way to be able to televise these
events, said Jensen.
"We're more than happy with our agree
ment with CBS," Jensen said, "Of course
we wish that they could be ranked higher
in the ratings this year, but we're not going
to be just fair-weather friends. CBS is a
proven product, we have confidence in
them and they had been ranked Number 1
for an unprecedented 18 years in the
recent past."
Deb Kneip McDermott, director of
public relations-promotions at 1011
Strong said that a day of work for a re
porter is not a routine job.
"We get all kinds of press releases from
all over and then our assignment editor
assigns a story to all of the reporters and
they follow that up unless something else
comes up more important which usually
happens," McDermott said.
Gimmick
"With the advent of mini-cams the news
gathering job has taken much less time
than when film was used," McDermott
said. "However, part of the image of the
mini-cam is just a gimmick. A lot of
stations are claiming live mini-cam reports
when, although they do have the capacity
to do it live, most reports are just filmed
live and then shown during the regular
news shows."
1011 Strong, besides carrying large
amounts of network shows carries a size
able amount of locally-produced shows.
The Morning Show, a news, music and
variety type show is televised from 7
to 8 a.m. every morning with Romper
Room, a pre-school orientated show,
broadcast 9 to 9:30 ajn.
A five-minute news magazine is broad
cast at 10:55 weekdays and then there is
the noon report .which concentrates on
farm market reports, news and weather.
The Kalamity Kate show is on 3 : 30 during
the afternoons and the 6 and 10 news
reports rounds up the daily local program
ming. Thursdays at 6:30 pjn. a magazine type
show is televised with varying topics. The
Bob Devaney Prediction Show, The Joe
Cipriano Show or The Tom Osborne Show
are shown at 10:30 on Sunday nights
during the appropriate season. For Child
ren Only seen on Sunday mornings from
7:30 to 9:30 concludes 1011 Strong's
local programming.
"Leta Powel Drake, who is Kalamity
Kate and has been with the station since
January of 1961 has recently been named
Director of Talent Development and Local
Children Programs," McDermott said.
"Leta works very hard to get the best
programming for children, shows that can
be educational," McDermott said, "Last
year Leta Produced Quid Kids and this
year will be featuring a show called Double
Trouble. "
"She has put in extensive work with
muscular dystrophy and driven all over the
state on her own time and money to help
raise funds," McDermott said. "She feels
that children are very important and tries
to get programming that is educational for
them."
News most important
However the name of the game for any
television station is their news program
ming and it's no different for 1011
Strong.
"Traditionally our most important piece
of programming is our news and we do
more of it and devote more time to it than
any other kind," station manager Jensen
said.
"There is a certain amount of prestige
when you are the leader in the news rating,
for as the news goes, so goes the program
ming," Jensen said.
"1011 Strong is a business, just like
Gateway or any other store, and our chore
is to get people to turn to our channels,"
Jensen said. "The challenge is to find the
programming that works so well so that
advertising rates are sufficient to pay the
bills and yet make a profit and we feel that
we've done a good job with that."