Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Decline and Fall of The Local News Stations

For years, after scanning the local newspaper, I used to tune into Newschannel 34 for my 6:30 fix of local news and weather. When son was in school, I would turn to them first for the scrolling school closings during winter storms.

One Monday about a month ago, I tuned in, only to find everyone I knew was gone. And, the weather (the first thing broadcast as the news show went on the air) was not even the weather in Binghamton. It was the weather in Elmira, an hour west of here. Then, the news proceeded and the first "article" was about something going in in Corning. Corning is even further west.

I then remembered reading an article in the newspaper (yes, I still read the newspaper) over the weekend about the mass firing "to reduce costs". So let me get this straight. Our metropolitan area of around 100,000. now gets its morning news from Elmira, which is an hour away, has very little to do with us, and...let's see, Elmira's population is about 30,000. Corning's population is around 10,000.

Guess what, Newschannel 34. I now listen to our CBS affiliate, seemingly the only 6:30 am news that is related to our area.

One further memo to the news stations: if I hear one more story about Michael Jackson, I may swear off TV all together.

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