KABC, KTLA Continue to Reign in Newscast Ratings : Television: Affiliate of ABC wins all head-to-head competitions but one, widening lead over KNBC and KCBS.

KABC-TV Channel 7 and KTLA-TV Channel 5 remained the local news ratings leaders in a February sweeps that brought dramatic ratings increases in news for several area stations, according to data released Thursday by the A. C. Nielsen Co.

KABC again won all head-to-head news competitions except one in both Nielsen and the Arbitron ratings service, widening the lead it held over rivals KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KCBS-TV Channel 2 a year ago and during the last major ratings period in November.

In February, 1992, for example, KABC’s 5 p.m. newscast, which was co-anchored by Paul Moyer, held a 20,000 household lead over KNBC. This year, with Moyer anchoring the 5 p.m. news at KNBC, KABC’s team of Harold Greene and Ann Martin beat second-place KNBC by nearly 150,000 homes.

Thanks to the whopping advantage of the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” which more than doubles the audience of its closest competition at 3 p.m., KABC also easily won the news battles at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. It won at 11 p.m. too.

The February sweeps are one of four ratings periods each year that help stations determine advertising rates. But local television executives caution that while these totals are important for bragging rights, most ad buys are made to target specific demographic groups and not simply to reach the most total households.

KNBC recaptured the lead for the 6 a.m. newscast in both ratings, but the station’s numbers for several of its newscasts declined from a year ago. KNBC, which just a few years ago was the area’s top-rated news station, has been losing ground in the past year.

Reed Manville, general manager at KNBC, pointed out that his station’s ratings had increased noticeably over those of last November. KNBC finished second in all afternoon and late-night news time periods, according to Nielsen.

KNBC also showed tiny gains in Arbitron, but KCBS scored big increases, actually pulling into second place at 5 p.m. for the first time in nearly a decade, even though the station lost ground in Nielsen from a year ago, when the Winter Olympics on parent network CBS helped lure viewers to the station.

Steven J. Gigliotti, Channel 2’s general manager, while boasting about the gains, conceded that it will be a long time before his station catches KABC. Nevertheless, KCBS’ 5 p.m. broadcast, which remains in third place, soared 32%, and the 6 p.m. show increased 37% over a year ago, while the 11 p.m. newscast, although ranked behind KABC and KNBC, rose 40% over its November total.

“The level of aggressive news coverage has been stepped up in this market in the past year,” Gigliotti said.

The network-owned stations were not the only ones to show strong gains during a news-laden month full of stormy weather, a bombing in New York and hostage situations at a local hospital and in Waco, Tex.

“The KTLA Morning News” scored a remarkable 6.1 rating (with each point representing 49,657 homes), outgunning the “Today” show, the closest of its three network morning-show competitors, by about 110,000 homes. The program, which clearly benefits from bad weather as viewers seek information before leaving home, grew a whopping 75% over last year.

KTLA’s long dominant 10 p.m. newscast again crushed its competition. KCAL-TV Channel 9, which scored precipitous gains for all of its newscasts, climbed into second at that hour, with KTTV at third. KCOP-TV Channel 13, despite unveiling a newscast makeover in January, remained in fourth.

While all four independent stations showed some gains in news at 10 p.m. over a year ago, KCAL celebrated the third anniversary of its three-hour news block with a 43% gain at 10 p.m., a 50% gain at 9 p.m. and a 14% increase at 8 p.m.

“Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” on KABC continued to dominate the 7 p.m. hour.

Behind “Jeopardy!” at 7 p.m. was “Married . . . With Children” on KTTV Channel 11. “Entertainment Tonight” on KNBC and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reruns on KCOP tied for third. KCBS, which won the time period last year with “Wheel of Fortune,” finished last with Bill Cosby’s “You Bet Your Life.”

“Wheel of Fortune” won at 7:30 p.m. with a whopping 740,000 homes more than watch most network prime-time shows here. “Hard Copy” on KNBC finished second. KCBS’ “Family Feud” ran last.

In late night, “Nightline” easily drew the most local viewers with “The Tonight Show” running second. “The Arsenio Hall Show” on KCOP continued to flounder, languishing behind all competition between 11 p.m. and midnight except the “Whoopi Goldberg Show” on KCAL.

Nationally, CBS won the prime-time sweeps with a 24% share of the audience. ABC finished second with a 20 share, NBC scored an 18 share, Fox was last with a 13.

The totals of the Big Three networks were down from a year ago, when the Olympics brought more viewers to their TVs, but it was 3% “above the February, 1991, figure, demonstrating once again the networks’ ability to stem competitive erosion with compelling programming,” said David Poltrack, CBS’ senior vice president for research and planning.