KNBC Twits KABC for ‘No. 1’ News Claim

KNBC-TV Channel 4 has accused rival KABC-TV Channel 7 of “misleading the audience” with its continuing on-air claim that “Eyewitness News” is “No. 1 in Southern California.”

In the February ratings sweeps, KNBC swept the news battle in both the Nielsen and Arbitron tabulations. KABC finished second.

“If they are willing to mislead their viewers in the opening to their newscast,” said KNBC spokeswoman Regina Miyamoto, “how do the viewers know that they are not being misled during the actual news?”

“I don’t buy that at all,” countered Roger Bell, Channel 7’s news director. “Channel 7 has been No. 1 in this market for many years. The fact that they (KNBC) won a (ratings period) here or there, so what? We’ve been consistently No. 1 for the past decade. If you went out and asked the viewers who is No. 1, they’d tell you Channel 7. I think it’s just sour grapes that they are complaining about it.”

KABC has been airing the claim that “Eyewitness News” is the “Southland’s leading news” at the top of its newscasts for 11 years. And until last February, the perennial news champ had always been No. 1 in at least one of the two ratings services. Bell said that when the February Arbitron ratings are rounded off for the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts, KABC and KNBC were tied.

Nevertheless, KNBC is outraged that after finally unseating its rival last February, Channel 7 persists in laying claim to the No. 1 mantle. KCBS-TV Channel 2, a distant third in the local news race, uses its own semantic variation on the No. 1 theme, calling itself “the real news leader” in its news promotions.

“We worked very hard to be No. 1, and for another station to say that they are No. 1 takes away from all the good work that we’ve put into it,” Miyamoto said. “We would never say we were No. 1 unless we were No. 1.”

KABC’s Bell argued that in certain key demographic groups, the data that advertisers use when purchasing commercial time, his station is still on top. KNBC disputed that assertion.

The dispute over who is entitled to call itself No. 1 points out how competitive the news promotion game has become. Channel 4 has long been on the short end of the ratings race and has had to suffer through Channel 7’s decade-long on-air bragging. Now that it has finally reached the top, Channel 4 apparently would like a chance to gloat itself.

But Bell said that being No. 1 in the ratings is not something that viewers really care about. He said the reason every station wants to say it’s No. 1 is because “we all want to say that we are the best at covering news.”

Bell sniped back at Channel 4 by criticizing that station’s recent “We get around” promotion, which features KNBC’s news personalities, speeding news vans and “funny umbrellas.”

“When you look at those promotions, maybe they aren’t saying that they are No. 1 at covering the news,” he said. “I guess they are saying they are No. 1 at something else.”