WBBM-TV continues to struggle in the ratings

This week's issue of Crain's Chicago Business details the continuing ratings struggle of CBS-owned WBBM-TV. Joe Ahern, who helped rocket competing WLS-TV into a ratings powerhouse in the '80's and '90's, is finding it a difficult task to repeat the same feat at WBBM.

At issue is the station's poorly-rated newscasts, which places behind not only ABC-owned WLS and NBC-owned WMAQ-TV in the time period, but also CW affiliate WGN-TV and Fox-owned WFLD-TV in a few time periods. The newscasts aren't delivering viewers to CBS' prime-time lineup, which ranked behind other CBS-owned stations and CBS affiliates in most major markets.

At a time when formerly moribund Tiffany network affiliates such as CBS-owned KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and New Vision Broadcasting's WIAT in Birmingham, Ala. are finally starting to show some life, WBBM continues to go downward. In fact, one week last month, WIAT drew higher ratings in prime than WBBM did. Yes, that WIAT - Channel 42, or the former WBMG-TV, whose 10 p.m newscasts once finished behind reruns of Sanford & Son and The Andy Griffith Show.

Shows that are talked about most in Chicago are Dancing With The Stars and Desperate Housewives; CBS programming such as Survivor are hardly talked about at all.

To be fair, CBS prime-time traditionally has not fared well in Chicago. In the 1986-87 season for example, WLS' prime lineup was number one despite the fact that ABC finished a distant third in the ratings with a schedule that featured such sinkers as The Charmings and Life With Lucy (Lucille Ball's comeback sitcom - and you thought Cavemen was bad.) CBS, which finished second behind a dominant NBC nationally, finished a distant third in Chicago.

In May 2007, WBBM finished fourth in total-day ratings, just like it did in the May 1987 book.

WLS still has The Oprah Winfrey Show, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy! in its lineup - the very same lineup the station had when Ahern ran the station. And now, like then, WLS dominates the ratings, and not even the introduction of the Local People Meters in 2005 - which measures demographic information on an overnight basis - has changed that.

Thanks to corporate cousin CBS, the station has upgraded its afternoon lineup, which once showcased outdated programs such as Real TV and Hard Copy and reruns of Who's the Boss? The station currently runs Rachael Ray, Judge Judy and Dr. Phil in early fringe. However, that syndicated lineup has not delivered viewers to its newscasts, particularly at 6 and 10 p.m.

Also not helping the station's image is last summer's fiasco involving former WMAQ-TV anchor Amy Jacobson, in which WBBM secretly taped her in the backyard of Craig Stebic's house in a swimsuit. Mr. Stebic, of course, is the husband of Amy Stebic, who has been missing for several months.

Add to that the station's over-the-air signal woes and a channel number on Comcast even higher than PBS affiliate WYIN in Northwest Indiana and you have a recipe for disaster.

The situation is just as bad now as it was in the early 1970's, when the station's newscasts were fourth in the ratings (the average share was 8), and Walter Jacobson and Bill Kurtis came in the door with the working newsroom as a backdrop, the minicams and ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and changed everything. But those two and any new revolutionary concepts aren't walking through that newsroom door anytime soon.

But what is coming is a brand new street-side studio at State and Washington, which is set to open next year. The station hopes that the new studio will be a promotional platform for everything CBS, including its local news programming (no word on whether or not if the newscasts will be shot in HD when the new studio becomes operable.) WBBM has been broadcasting at its McClurg Court studios since 1956.

And on the good side, the station has increased its share of revenues and its' 10 p.m. newscast no longer finishes behind entertainment programming in households.

CBS management apparently is willing to be patient with Ahern and the rest of station management, particularly with the new studio coming. But are they really being patient? Or are they writing WBBM off as a lost cause? After all, an O&O group is the most profitable of any part of the network. Only time - and from the look of things, a whole lot of it - will tell.