Numbers battle rages on for local news stations

The great thing about Nielsen ratings is you can slice them any way you want, as local TV stations proved once again following the season-ending May ratings "sweep." Who won mornings? Depends on who's slicing. The nice people over at KMBC, Channel 9, point out in a neatly typed press release that their "First News" was "the market leader between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m." What's more, their early-bird newscast from 5 to 6 "dominated during May." But wait. "Fox 4 Morning News ... was No. 1," proclaims a dueling press release from WDAF, Channel 4. How can this be? Simple: Fox 4 just took a bigger slice of the pie. By using the Nielsen rating for the entire four-hour period from 5 to 9 a.m., WDAF declared itself the winner in local morning news. Of course, WDAF is the only station in town with a four-hour local morning newscast, so it's kind of hard to imagine the scenario in which they lose that one. (KMBC and KCTV are obliged to carry lower-rated network shows from 7 to 9 a.m.) WDAF's press release also brags that Fox 4 "is now the most watched television station in Kansas City," based on the average audience for the entire broadcast day. That piece of pie is so big that - if it were actual pie - you'd need a forklift to pick it up. Before you put down the paper and head for the icebox, I'll switch metaphors. It wasn't long ago that KCTV, Channel 5, was taking the ratings elevator down to the ground floor. A useful metaphor, since most of the station's management left the building last year. Now their fresh-faced replacements have arrived, and guess which button they're punching. "Up" is a word that appears 20 times on KCTV's rundown of the May sweep. Noon news? Up. Daytime programs? Up again. Morning news? Up, up, up! The morning gains are especially welcome at KCTV, which started airing a newscast for insomniacs at 4:30 a.m. in December. Even though it still loses that time period to a Fox 4 repeat of "Cops" (something Channel 9 not-so-nicely pointed out in its press release), KCTV's morning audience is finally trending upward. Also riding the up elevator was Fox 4, which noted that it was "the only local station to see growth in its 10 p.m. newscast." Other items from the May sweep: The queen of the courtroom edged out the queen of talk, as "Judge Judy" on Fox 4 pulled in 16 percent of the audience from 4 to 5 p.m. "Oprah" got 15 percent. KMBC can't wait for Oprah Winfrey's favorite family therapist to get his own talk show this fall. Dr. Phil McGraw, who as a teen-ager used to race hot-rods through downtown Kansas City, takes over for that clunker "Jerry Springer" at 3 p.m. ("Springer" is moving to mornings). "Dr. Phil" should deliver a larger and more compatible audience to "Oprah" at 4. No thanks to Oprah, KMBC came roaring back at 5 p.m. with a newscast that - the press release, please - "out-delivered the 10 p.m. newscasts on WDAF, KCTV and KSHB." Yep, KMBC's 9.2 rating at 5 is higher than the 9.0 rating for KCTV at 10. One rating point represents about 8,500 households in the Kansas City viewing area. As usual, KMBC also won handily at 6 and 10 p.m. "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," which boosted the fortunes of NBC affiliates across the country during its six-year run, never caught on in Kansas City. NBC 41 finally lost patience with "Rosie" and moved it from 4 p.m. to 2 p.m. It finished the May sweep with a 2.0 rating - not much lower than the 2.2 rating "Rosie" averaged five years ago at 4 p.m. The lack of a decent afternoon lead-in has been a continual source of frustration to the newsies at NBC 41. With help from NBC's prime-time lineup, the station's 10 p.m. newscast routinely finishes in third place or better. But the 5 p.m. news, which is preceded by the aptly named "Weakest Link," runs a distant fourth. And "NBC 41 News at 6" actually finished fifth behind repeats of "Everybody Loves Raymond" on KSMO, Channel 62. By the same token, a strong local newscast can help the show that follows it. Just ask Jay Leno; thanks to NBC 41's growing presence at 10, "The Tonight Show" has gone from fourth to second place at 10:35 p.m., behind "Seinfeld" on KMBC. Sadly, "Tonight" may also have gained by not having to follow "Kansas City Crossroads." NBC 41's acclaimed five-minute local history segment was airing at 10:30 p.m. until February (it's now seen during newscasts on Friday and Sunday). The more things change ... The two highest-rated programs on KMCI, Channel 38, in May were the repeats of "The Simpsons" that start at 6 p.m. Those were also the two most popular programs on KMCI nearly six years ago, when it became "38 Family Greats." And the two highest-rated shows on Pax TV's KPXE, Channel 50, were repeats of "Diagnosis Murder" and ... "Bonanza." Today's 1 p.m. "Bonanza" rerun is an episode titled "Square Deal Sam" that first aired Nov. 8, 1964 - before either KCTV general manager Kirk Black or KSHB news director Laura Clark were born. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV BarnWeb site at www.tvbarn.com