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Local promo showcase: Fox4's "Where the Locals Go"

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Loading up on local news hours seemed very chancy when Fox stunned the TV industry by buying a big bunch of major market CBS affiliate stations back in 1995.

The idea has proven to be visionary, with D-FW’s Fox4 among those prospering in two big “dayparts” -- weekday mornings from 7 to 9 a.m. and all week at 9 p.m.

In each case, local news goes against network programming on principal broadcast rivals NBC5, CBS11 and Gannet8 (the market’s ABC affiliate). Those stations get only small windows of locally sold ad space from their networks while Fox4 rakes in all of the revenue from commercial time sold during its newscasts.

Fox4’s 9 p.m. news is competitive on most nights with competing network entertainment programming. And on nights of bad weather, other “breaking news” or a big lead-in boost from Fox programming, it regularly wins its time period. As it did on both Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4’s Good Day is the market’s biggest cash cow, though. In the four-week November “sweeps” ratings period, Good Day tied NBC’s Today for the most total viewers in those hours while handily beating the Peacock, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning where it really counts. That would be among 25-to-54-year-old viewers, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Good Day also won the November “sweeps” in the 6 to 7 a.m. hour, where its competitors likewise are delivering homegrown news programs before giving way to their networks. That’s when the real differentiation kicks in. And a new Fox4 promo (which you can see below) cleverly accentuates the differences between watching “outdated” network news from New York that’s “an hour old by the time you see it.”

That’s a reference to the difference between Eastern and Central time zones. Fox4 then seals the deal with the slogan, ”Good Day is where the locals go.”

Station managers at NBC5, Gannett8 and CBS11 all would love to be in Fox4’s position. Only it would take a dose of truth serum for them to admit it. Their hands are tied anyway, with NBC5 and CBS11 owned-and-operated properties of their networks while Gannett8 isn’t about to risk the loss of its ABC affiliation by dropping Good Morning America in favor of locally produced morning programming.

So after some rocky early years, Fox4 is very happy to have all those revenue-enhancing local news hours instead of network programming. And Good Day is the program that stirs the drink, butters the bread, frosts the cake, etc. Here’s the promo:



Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net