Compressed Air: What's on TV?
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In September 1996, seven months after President Clinton signed deregulation of broadcasting into law, Anniston's Channel 40 moved its broadcast tower from the top of Blue Mountain. The move marked the departure of an outlet that had been in the area since 1963. The station joined with Tuscaloosa's TV 33 to form the new Birmingham station, ABC 33/40. The Ayers family, owners of The Anniston Star, had sold the station to Jacksonville State University in 1983; JSU sold it a few years later to Osborn Communications of Connecticut. Channel 40 was going away, but the local news would stay, promised the new owner, Allbritton Communications. The station retains an office in Anniston and, according to its news director, Garry Kelly, plans to move to a larger space just down from its current Noble Street location. Kelly says the station has one full-time photographer/reporter. This "one-man band," as Kelly describes him in TV parlance, works a chunk of east Alabama, concentrating on Calhoun, Etowah and Talladega counties. The local office also has an engineer on call, and two advertising salespeople. The "one-man band" is Jeremy Campbell, who works out of the Anniston office. "I file every day," Campbell said. He tends to "concentrate on stories that impact the people. We do stories about health problems, city politics and county politics. We do lighter pieces sometimes, but we also do the serious stories." Recent stories he has filed include pieces about Martin Luther King Day celebrations in Anniston, the completion of the railroad depot renovations, a hospital custodian poisoning a co-worker, and Anniston's fireworks show on New Year's Eve. Campbell, a native of Scottsboro who has worked in television journalism more than seven years, said he frequently also files stories from the Anniston bureau about Jacksonville and Gadsden. A review last month of the station's Web site showed 16 stories filed between July and January. Most people would consider nearly all of these stories to be negative. Kelly, however, says the stories on the Web site are only a small sample of the overall coverage the station gives to the Anniston area. (See list below.) "I don't think it is true at all that we cover only negative stories," Kelly said from his Birmingham office. He cited a children's event on King Day, a story on the Anniston Christmas parade going green, Oxford High's new football coach, positive programs at police departments and fire departments, and efforts to revitalize Noble Street. ABC 33/40 has done Anniston-area stories that no other television station has touched, Kelly said. "Yes," he concluded, "there are negative stories in Anniston, just as there are negative stories in Birmingham; but we do the good as well as the bad." The station's mission has changed since it was based in Anniston, he said. The station, described by Kelly as the second-largest in Birmingham in terms of market share, covers a much broader area than before. "When TV 40 was in Anniston, it covered that and Gadsden," Kelly said. "Now we have more than 20 counties, and we have to cover that. "Back then, the station was small and did a good job; but essentially now this is all one big market. Now our area is north Alabama from the Mississippi line to the Georgia line." Louise Benjamin, an associate professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism, said mergers allowed by the 1996 changes haven't been all bad for local media. Though there are fewer broadcast journalists than before, salaries and benefits for those journalists have improved, she said. She also pointed to an example of the "good corporate citizen." Belo Corp., a Texas-based media company with television stations in Dallas and Houston, has won a number of Peabody Awards in the last few years, in recognition of its good news coverage, she said. But local broadcast news coverage of the Anniston area seems to be lacking, she said. "It sounds to me like the Anniston market is one of those many places where the changes have not been beneficial," she said from her office in Athens, Ga. Jen Howard, of the public-interest group Free Press, a non-partisan organization dedicated to media reform, put it more bluntly: "The television coverage [in Anniston] sounds sensationalized," Howard said from her office in Washington. "You obviously aren't getting the coverage you need in that area. Anniston, like all communities, needs local coverage, and they aren't getting it." Howard puts the blame at the feet of the FCC and rules changes that since 1996 have left communities with less coverage. "In our opinion, media consolidation has been a disaster," Howard said. "In the market we've seen a depletion of news by 25 percent. Communities have less local news and hear fewer local voices." The area still has the non-network WJXS/TV-24 in Jacksonville. A much smaller station than 33/40, TV 24 promotes "family programming," featuring re-runs of Bonanza and the Beverly Hillbillies, among other shows. Dana Conley, the news director, describes TV 24 as a community station, one that is community-oriented. The station also has a "one-man band," Kenny Callahan. "He tapes, but he also does standup," said Conley. The station's live news edition airs at 5 p.m., but repeats twice more during the evening. The Dave Mack Show from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Monday through Friday has news within it, said Conley. Conley said Callahan has recently filed stories on the Calhoun County annual meeting on the state of the economy; the expansion and growth in Jacksonville, and the contest to design a new Calhoun County seal. About this series The Telecommunications Act of 1996 poses a threat to broadcast media's essential role in democracy, according to critics. In a four-part series which began Sunday, Anniston Star Editor at Large John Fleming examines the law's impact on Calhoun County's once-abundant local news media. Related articles: • Straining to hear democracy through the static • Local radio news a dying art • The consequences when local media isn't there for the public Station's headlinesABC 33/40, with its well-known weatherman, James Spann, is a go-to for many viewers, but many say the station's commitment to continue reporting on Anniston has fallen flat. The stories the station chose to highlight on its Web site add to that impression, some viewers say. Recent headlines from 33/40's Web site include: |
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