Winter 1995
Ratings Game
Score 1: The Philadelphia Eagles may have beaten the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night, Oct. 2, but a town meeting on Charlotte’s ABC affiliate, WSOC-TV, beat them both.
Who says television ratings suffer when a station airs public journalism programs in prime time?
Mike Kronley bet otherwise. The WSOC news director scheduled the third Carolina Crime Solutions town meeting the same time as two NFL games.
The topic? Charlotte’s Wingate community, a pocket of 550 residents beset by violent crime, high school dropouts, teen pregnancies and high unemployment.
The final score: The half-hour program topped the ratings for the Eagles-49ers game on the Fox network and tied the ratings for the Buffalo Bills-Chicago Bears game on NBC.
“We think we’re doing pretty good journalism and it’s nice to know the market is responding by watching,” Kronley said.
Score 2: The Oct. 25 debate between Sen. Ted Kennedy and GOP challenger Mitt Romney snared more than 2.1 million viewers — and eye-popping ratings.
The hour-long debate on WCVB (Channel 5), WBZ (Channel 4) and WHDH (Channel 7) earned a 42.3 rating. That not only outranked the 1994 Super Bowl game (Dallas vs. Buffalo with 38.7 rating), it also outdrew the O.J. Simpson car chase (41.7 rating).
The debate was sponsored by the Boston Globe, a partner in NPR’s Election Project, and the Boston Herald.
