The local station beat outside of Chicago

Interesting tidbits from the world of broadcast TV:

- New Jersey residents aren't happy with New York area WWOR-TV and accuse the Fox-owned station of backpeddling on its commitment of public service and giving the residents of the state the short shrift. WWOR is the only commercial VHF station in New Jersey. The FCC will hold a hearing tonight in Newark regarding the station's license and to question whether or not the station has been serving New Jersey accurately.

WWOR has been accused of being nothing more than a dumping ground for programs that flopped on sister station WNYW-TV. WWOR has traditionally trailed its New-York based competitors in the ratings and has struggled even more so in recent years, with overall ratings often coming in behind Spanish-language television stations. Not helping was the closure of UPN and the arrival of My Network TV, whose telenovelas last year were ratings bombs.

WWOR has been based in New Jersey since the 1980's, when it was sold by RKO (remember them?) to MCA/Universal.

-Marc Berman's Programming Insider newsletter reported today that Judge Judy beat Oprah in New York Monday, with Judy earning a 6.4/15 on WCBS-TV at 4 p.m. Maybe Oprah shouldn't have endorsed Barack Obama for President (main rival Hillary Clinton is, after all, a New York Senator.)

- No surprise here: Former WBBM-TV GM Bill Applegate, who now holds the same capacity at Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO-TV in Cleveland, is embroiled in a lawsuit regarding the wrongful termination of a former managing editor, who is suing the station and its execs for retaliation against him after he complained about an anti-Semitic mark directed toward him by a station employee. WOIO contends he was fired for poor work performance. The lawsuit has now gone to trial .

- Tribune-owned Fox affiliate WXIN-TV in Indianapolis will simulcast its morning newscast on sister station and CW affiliate WTTV effective January 2, replacing a mix of infomercials, paid religion, and syndicated programming.

- A major upset in Denver: CBS-owned KCNC-TV is on its way to beating NBC affiliate KUSA-TV for the first time in many years. The last time KCNC beat KUSA in the November ratings (excluding the Olympics) was in 1990, when KCNC was a NBC O&O and KUSA an ABC affiliate.