Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 53

The Edmonton Journal, Friday, May 7, 1999 E13 Television -A mnaiu or man in lata CFRN credits qualify local iraewscastts for its top rating CBC continues to freefall as A-Channel continues to climb 1 wlth birds 0n i the history of flight. lJ Richard raj Helm Television upside down with a stunt flyer and hit Mach 2 with the Blue Angels on a death defying adventure of some of the most complex aerobatic maneuvers ever performed. Edmonton It's springtime and a broadcaster's fancy turns to ratings numbers. Now you can bend, fold and staple these statistics in many different ways; local programmers demonstrate that facility with every passing season. Still, a couple of things do become quite clear after studying the latest spring survey of local television broadcasters by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement fFirstix CFRN is comfortably maintaining its position as "Viewers have told us that quality local news is what they want to see, so that's what we provide." Daryl Mclntyre, CFRN anchor "I think ITV is starting to hear little footsteps now in the morning," said Thomas.

"There's not much between us and them and A-Channel is making some strides." Some of A-Channel's gains were rendered more dramatic simply because of their feeble starting point The station's Live at Five show, the lead-in newsmagazine for the supper newscast, barely registered on the BBM meter last spring, averaging 600 viewers. The audience count is now up to 5,400. That's an 800-percent improvement Now playing in IMAX at the Narrated by Tom Selleck Enter To Win 1 of 12 Discovery Flights From the Edmonton Flying dub Details at the Edmonton Space I Science Centre I Edmonton's highest-rated station in Edmonton Space Science Centre 11211 -142 St f. RATTISON KM fftm Journal Charge by Phone (780) 451-3344. I local news and ITV continues as its 'only close rival The suppertime i CFRN news anchored by Daryl Mchityre and Shawna Randolph remains the runaway ratings leader i in the city, reaching more viewers than the combined audiences of ITV jCBCandA-ChanneL Second, the city's newest TV station, A-Channel, is starting to look like The Little Engine That Could.

Although still occasionally derided by i its rivals as The Amateur Channel, A-! Channel has made several significant audience gains, with its weekday Big Breakfast show enjoying an (impressive surge. i "We're closing the gap," declared A- Channel's promotions manager Barry Close "We're seeing a 30-per-cent gain in most of our numbers, spring to spring." Meanwhile, the only surge IP'S at' stations precisely because of the strike's skewing effect "As far as I'm concerned, the numbers are really invalid simply because one of the major TV stations in this market had a labour disruption at the time these ratings were taken," he said. "There were only four days of that survey out of three weeks that were taken while we were on the air with our regular newscasts." The latest BBMS show the suppercast frontrunner, CFRN, pulling in an audience of 167,000, up 7,000 from last spring, while ITV News has increased its suppertime audience base to 137,300, up about 14,000 viewers. "We maintain our dominant No. 1 position and we're quite pleased with that," said CFRN's news director Reg Thomas.

Said Mclntryre: "Viewers have told us that quality local news is what they want to see, so thafs what we provide." ITV continues a strong second, but showed slippage both at noon and in the morning. CFRN picked up 4,000 more viewers for its noon show, drawing 38,600, while ITV dropped about 8,000, drawing 9,600. "The strength of our anchor team in that newscast is just begirining to grow," suggested Thomas by way of explanation. I "At ITV they had some changes over there, and they may not be working as welL" CFRN's noon anchor team of Joel Gotlib and Carrie Doll have been on the air for about a year. In the morning timeslot, 7 a.m.

to 9 a.m., frontrunner ITV registered audience numbers of 17,000, down considerably from the 27,100 count it enjoyed last spring. CFRN's morning count grew slightly from 12,000 to 13,300 and the A-Channel's Big Breakfast crew saw its audience swell to 5,700 from 3,500. registering over at the CBC is the sound of a toilet flushing. The public broadcaster's local numbers have been in freefall for the past few years and it obviously didn't help matters any that this latest ratings book sampled audiences durine the heart of the 48-dav strike Issues it i v. tstru fubscribf Elephants on Parade todi by CBC technicians.

I While every other local station demonstrated audience growth for their supper-hour newscasts, the CBC remained in reverse. Its suppercast numbers tumbled from 15,600 last spring to 11,800 this year In me meantime, A-Channel crept ever closer to that third-place ranking, jumping from 4,000 viewers to 7,000 over the same period. John Baker, CBC's executive producer of news, argues the latest ratings are unreliable for all local 3. SST 1S00-24M695 V- i Sunday May 9 1 to 4pm II Happy Mothers Day! first MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL a Sunday, May 9th Branch or Dinner Cruise Edmonton U1EN RI VERBOAT CORF. Live Darrell Barr The Rafters RockiiV Highliners v--on Bullard jbnjgrit ll JouHnal Entertainment Staff ONLY 95 Reservations Now Being 9734-98 Avenue 424-BOAT(2628) Grovp aod Udividail ReceryiriotM IT! GnUdMdMlltaenritioM' I I rr.

i rfm. itri rt. raTtl I ymnWfMmi, mm bbd Edmonton rjamirciWiTwniTT rr mm i i mirwwTnTTmMtWT 1 1 mm hiTg-iiTMOTriri "ij Catch the Rockin' Highliners on Mike Bullard's talk show tonight. The program airs on the Comedy Network at 11 p.m., and CTV at 12:30 p.m. The Edmonton blues rockers will perform their new single, Oh My, from their upcoming album of the same name.

It's slated to hit stores next Tuesday -The Tea Party might consider changing their name to The Pepsi Party i The Montreal band is about to kick off a 10-city club tour sponsored by the soft-drink company They're scheduled to play The Rev May 29. Tickets to the event can only be won through local radio stations or www.chartattack.com. The Tea Party will be releasing its fcew album, Triptych, on June 8. Vt Bingo Every Nights 1 Afternoons Eveiv Friday, Satuntay, i d(aH9 lmmml todays 1 I free mmm aaaanBiH I I tcMcB PPFC WB 2r3K 1 1 12 ittLl I LATE NIGHTS-1 I iRim evenings riun nights 4 l2Tmei i I I it 2 Bonanzas OddEven .12 price y-X V- fll )))ista fc-J2fil(lftMi) ftck rrl 1 1 I-' fi pmp GwjSjIaro UP LMggbpr msl ll i ifit 'llj- tONAWZA PRt-CALL 60 P.M., "GULAR GAMI 7:00 P-Ml rOT-r wir! Jf 'ffl? sifaiditowinnmjHh I SUNDAYS: 2 FOR 1 DAUBERS I 'V.