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Localism and Independence at Viacom Television Stations Group Stations Executive Summary Viacom Television Stations Group (VTSG) comprises 35 full-service television stations in some 27 markets around the country whose central focus is service to the local community. Sixteen of these stations are affiliated with the CBS Network, 18 with the UPN Network and one is independent. Each station is managed and operated by a local team that is committed to serving its local community by broadcasting programming covering local public affairs, local emergencies, local politics and local civics and culture. In addition, off-air, VTSG stations and their employees are actively involved in community activities and community events by participating in and donating to thousands of community and charitable events. The following nearly 200 pages contain only highlights of the ways in which VTSG stations serve their local communities. For example, with respect to local news, the summary shows that VTSG dedicates hundreds of hours of airtime each week and spends hundreds of millions of dollars providing its viewers with high quality local news, in addition to the hundreds of hours of national CBS News aired each week on VTSG stations affiliated with the CBS Network. Specific examples of local news commitments include: • WCBS-TV (CBS), New York, NY, airs 30.5 hours of local news per week, representing about 19% of its weekly programming schedule. It spends more than $40 million annually producing its local newscasts. • KCBS (CBS) and KCAL (Ind.), Los Angeles, CA, air about 34 hours and 30 hours, respectively, of local news per week, representing on average about 19% of each station’s broadcast week. • WBBM-TV (CBS), Chicago, IL, broadcasts 30 hours of local news each week, a one-third increase over the previous year. • KYW (CBS) and WPSG (UPN), Philadelphia, PA, together offer about 47 hours of local news each week. KYW’s news department alone is staffed with 159 employees, and it plans to increase that number in 2005 with the addition of even more news programming. • KPIX-TV (CBS), San Francisco, CA, provides some 27 hours of local news each week, in addition to 30-second News on the Hour updates each day. The station’s news staff alone has 125 full-time and another 25 part-time employees. • WBZ-TV (CBS) and WSBK-TV (UPN), Boston, MA, together broadcast some 41 hours of local news each week. WSBK-TV provides viewers in the market with The Morning News, which offers local news as an alternative to national network morning shows offered on other Boston stations, and The Nightcast at 10, which airs evening news at an earlier hour. • KTVT (CBS), Dallas, TX, airs about 30 hours of local news per week. Just this year, the station created an editorial board to solicit and present editorials on important local issues. • WCCO-TV (CBS), Minneapolis, MN, provides 27 hours of local news each week, and dedicates individual reporters to covering local education, local politics and local consumer issues, as well as a medical team to cover health issues. • WFOR-TV (CBS) and WBFS (UPN), Miami, FL, have invested more than $15 million in their local news and together air nearly 40 hours per week of local news. WBFS just added a daily two-hour morning news programming this fall. • KCNC (CBS), Denver, CO, airs 34.5 hours, or 20% of its weekly program schedule, to local news. KCNC has a critic at-large, who offers periodic commentaries on significant issues. • KMAX-TV (UPN), Sacramento, CA, airs local news coverage through its morning show, Good Day, Sacramento, which airs five hours per day on weekdays and, most recently, six additional hours on weekends. KMAX-TV is also in the process of providing this programming in Spanish over its SAP channel. • KDKA-TV (CBS), Pittsburgh, PA, airs nearly 40 hours of local news each week, more than any other Pittsburgh station and representing some 30% of its programming schedule. • WJZ-TV (CBS), Baltimore, MD, offers about 35 hours, or nearly 21% of its program schedule, of local news each week. WJZ-TV spends more than $12 million each year on its local newscasts and has 112 employees dedicated to news product. It added a one-hour Saturday morning newscast just this fall. • KUTV (CBS), Salt Lake City, UT, provides about 38 hours of local news each week. Over the past several months, the station has added 30 minutes of news to the weekday morning show and a new weekend morning news hour on Saturday and Sunday. • KEYE-TV (CBS), Austin, TX, invests more than a quarter of its operational expenses to local news product. Just last month, it launched weekend morning news programs, for a weekly total of 23 hours of local news per week. • WFRV-TV (CBS), Green Bay, WI, dedicates more than a quarter of its annual expenses to its local news, and provides 46.5 hours of local news each week. Just this year, the station added a one-hour Saturday newscast. VTSG stations are equipped and staffed to provide their communities with critical emergency-related programming. Stations have invested tens of millions of dollars in acquiring ENG microwave, satellite trucks and helicopters to enable them to gather local news on the scene and to cover local natural and other disasters. VTSG stations also have purchased and installed costly weather systems, including Doppler radar, to track and report local weather events. As an example of what these investments mean for local viewers, in Los Angeles, KCBS (CBS) and KCAL (Ind.) have continued to abide by their goal of being first on the air and last off the air with emergency-related news, most recently this past summer when the station provided comprehensive coverage of the fires in north Los Angeles County. At WBBM-TV (CBS) in Chicago, this investment paid off just this past spring, when a series of tornadoes hit downstate, inflicting extensive damage to the small Illinois town of Utica. The station’s weather anchor was on air with continuous coverage of the weather emergency. And the investment in newsgathering and weather equipment enabled WFOR-TV (CBS) and WBFS (UPN) this fall to provide wall-to- wall coverage of the four hurricanes that threatened or struck their Miami-area viewing communities. This coverage included up-to-date information about area closures, evacuation orders and live reports from local and state governments, as well as on-the-scene reports. The VTSG Miami stations own some of the most technically advanced weather reporting equipment in the area, which allows their team of meteorologists to pinpoint exact areas of weather disturbances so that they can keep their viewers informed and prepared. VTSG stations round out their local news and emergency programming with coverage of local public affairs, politics, and local civic and cultural events. Examples of VTSG’s commitment to local public affairs include KPIX-TV (CBS), San Francisco, which produces a daily half-hour local program Evening Magazine, airing at 7 p.m. and celebrating the people and places of the Bay area. The show is rebroadcast on sister station KBHK-TV (UPN). WBZ-TV (CBS) in Boston produces and airs Centro, a regularly scheduled news interview broadcast segment providing an in-depth exploration of issues of concern to the Latino community. VTSG stations affiliated with the UPN network are committed to regular coverage of local public affairs with programs featuring local community leaders, health care professionals and educators, such as: Focus Atlanta, aired each week on WUPA; Street Beat, produced by and aired each week on WKBD-TV in Detroit; NW Inside Out, aired weekly on KSTW in Seattle; Bayside, aired each week on WTOG in Tampa, FL; Indiana Focus, locally produced and aired each week on WNDY-TV in Indiana; The Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show, a program focusing on issues significant to the area’s local African American community and aired on WNPA in Pittsburgh; Focus on South Florida, aired on WTVX in West Palm Beach ; Spotlight, produced by and aired on WWHO-TV in Columbus, OH; Studio UPN Live!, broadcast each week on WGNT-TV in Norfolk, VA; Crescent City Magazine, broadcast each week on WUPL-TV; and Oklahoma Close Up, produced by and aired on KAUT in Oklahoma City. With respect to political programming, VTSG has renewed its pledge to devote five full minutes each night to political coverage on all local evening news broadcasts, a pledge also made and fulfilled during the 2000 election season. In addition, VTSG stations on a regular basis provide their viewers with hours of substantive political coverage -- from extended profiles on candidates to breaking news from the campaign trail to in-depth analysis of the issues facing voters. Many stations also sponsor and air live debates between candidates. For example, WCBS (CBS) hosted, co-produced (with CBS News and the New York Times) and broadcast the 2004 Democratic Candidates Presidential Debate. KYW-TV (CBS) and WPSG-TV (UPN) in Philadelphia, aired the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Senatorial Debates this past April and October. KDKA-TV (CBS) in Pittsburgh is the only station in its market to regularly cover local politics –and with a full-time political analyst. It is also the one station in the market which regularly airs political debates –and in highly viewed time periods. KUTV (CBS) in Salt Lake City gives wide coverage to debates for local candidates and on referendum issues. In late September, the station taped and aired a 30-minute debate between candidates for the Second Congressional District, which was later broadcast by C-SPAN. This debate was followed by a live, half-hour debate between candidates running for Salt Lake County Mayor.