The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 55

WWW.THESTATE.COM THE STATE, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2003 E7 This Week in the Arts THURSDAY THE COLUMBIA COLLEGE Music Department will present an evening of musical theater at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the concert hall of the Spears Center. The program will include popular songs from musicals and operas including "Carnival," "Irene" and "Porgy and Bess." Admission: $10 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens. (803) 786-3746 FRIDAY and ONALD Orchestra the USC present PORTNOY Symphony Verdi's "Requiem" featuring vocal soloists Ann Benson, Richard Conant, Helene TintesSchuermann and Keith Jones. The USC Choirs also will appear.

The performance will be at 8 p.m. Friday at the Koger Center for the Arts, 1051 Greene St. Tickets are $7 to $15. (803) 251-2222 SATURDAY THE Dance Company USC and DANCE Conservatory the USC will present the ballet "Ondine: The Sea Sprite" and a new work, "Visions of the Amazon" at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Koger Center for the Arts, 1051 Greene St.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. (803) 777-2551 THROUGH APRIL 13 THE THIRD ANNUAL Columbia Jewish Film Festival will screen seven films including "Kedma," "All My Loved Ones," "Late Marriage" and "Land of TV FROM PAGE E3 NBC affiliate WBT in Jackson, Miss. "New people move in, sure, but they make friends with people who have been in the market for years. Eventually, those friends tell them what station to watch for local news." The Jackson television market is practically a mirror image of Columbia. WLBT signed on December 1953 and has been the dominant news stations since.

As with WIS, its chief challenger has been the city's CBS affiliate, WJTV. Modisett said a top-rated station doesn't worry so much about the competition as it does its own day-to-day operation. "It's yours to lose," Modisett said. "As long as you don't do something to violate that trust or credibility you've developed with viewers, you're going to be fine. "You can't lose touch with your viewers." But all television stations claim they try to stay in touch with viewer needs.

Certainly, WLTX has tried to be just as involved with the community as WIS. Touting slogans such as "On Your Side" and "We're Local," WLTX has tried to drive home its connection with Columbia, but the strategy still hasn't paid off in its battle with WIS. Rich O'Dell, WLTX general manager, said he refuses to spend time worrying about WIS and is confident about his station's future. "My most important concern is what we do," he said. "We have built and are continuing to build a community-based newscast.

I am very excited about the gains' we made with all our newscasts." Does he think his station could ever overtake WIS in the key news time slot? O'Dell repeated again that his focus was only on WLTX. So what causes Columbia viewers to hang on to WIS much like the "Peanuts" cartoon character Linus clings to his blanket? "Comfort might be a factor, but you could say that about a pair of old shoes," said Columbia psychologist Peter R. Kilmann. "I would have to talk with viewers and analyze the newscasts to come up with an answer." AT THE BEGINNING Still, Columbia broadcast veteran Dick Laughridge said WIS continues to benefit from that early advantage. He felt the effects of that advantage firsthand.

While a student at USC, Laughridge joined WLTX (then WNOK) as a boom operator in late 1953. He did a variety of jobs at the station, from cameraman to salesman, before moving up to general manager in 1978. That was the position he still held when he retired in spring 1999. "I just don't think people today can understand the huge advantage WIS had as a VHF station," Laughridge said. "Their signal was so superior to our UHF." That made it tough toi persuade advertisers to buy time on WLTX A scene from one of third annual Columbia Jewish Promise." Tickets are $7.50 for general admission and $5 for Columbia Film Society Members.

For show times and more details, call (803) 254-8234 or visit www.nickelodeon.org. THROUGH APRIL 26 THE HIGH VOLTAGE Theatre Company presents "Cowboy Mouth," the story of a would-be rock star kidnapped by an obsessed groupie. The play is being staged at Lettuce Lounge, 114 State St. Curtain is at 7 Friday and Saturday evenings. Admission is $5.

(803) 754-5244 THROUGH MAY 9 THE ANDERSON COUNTY Arts Center presents its 29th annual juried exhibition, which brings together more than 300 artists KINO INTERNATIONAL the films to be shown at the Fim Festival at Nickelodeon (except April 20). Call (864) 224-8811 or www.andersonartscenter.org BRIEFLY Painter Bilton hangs his first solo show HRISTOPHER BILTON, who calls himself a neo- and 600 original works of art The show will from the Southeast. be up through throughout May 10. More than $11,000 in prizes will The gallery is at 929 Gervais be awarded. Gallery hours are St.

and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays Monday through Saturday.

Call and p.m. Sundays (803) 771-6123. Ho, hum! WIS wins February news race, too URING THE FEBRUARY NBC prime time lineup by the 10, ratings did what sweeps, it has WIS-TV, done ch. for scant WLTX margin of averaged 395 30,424 households. housea half-century defeated all com- holds in prime time; WIS came in petition in every key local news- with 30,029.

Fox on WACH was cast time slot: 6, 7 and 11 p.m. third with 17,575 households, WIS even reclaimed the noon while ABC on WOLO was fourth slot, one of the few victories its closet with 16,540. rival WLTX-TV, ch. 19 had This ratings period was only the been able to pull off in recent years. fifth time CBS has tied or beaten Overall audience was up for NBC in the Columbia market.

6 and 7 p.m. newscasts in Febru- Worth noting is that "American ary 2003 compared to audiences Idol," which consistently has of a year ago. The conflict in Iraq, ranked second and third nationno doubt, played in big part in that. ally, ranked 14th in the Midlands. For example, at 6 p.m., WIS went For the February sweeps, the from an audience of 55.136 house- top 10 shows in the Columbia marholds in 2002 to 62,068 this year; ket, their and WLTX went from 31,014 house- ratings: holds to 37,906.

1. "CSI," 19.0 WACH-TV, ch. 57, did well 2. "Friends," 18.9 with its 10 p.m. newscast, attract- 3.

"Survivor: Amazon," ing 20,676 households while com- 17.1 peting against prime time fare 4. "ER," 15.5 from ABC, CBS and NBC. 5. "Law Order: Criminal Viewers in the 11-county Co- Intent," 13.5 lumbia market still haven't 6. Law Order," 13.3 warmed to centralcasting on 7.

"Everybody Loves Raymond," WOLO-TV, ch. 25. Both that chan- 12.5 nel's 6 and 11 p.m. shows attracted 8. "CSI: Miami," 11.7 only 3,446 households.

Since Sept. 9. "Will Grace," 11.6 30, 2002, WOLO's news has orig- 10. "Star Search," inated from the studios of WCCB 11.3 in Charlotte. WLTX did have something to A rating is the percentage of all smile about, though.

Its CBS prime TV households in the market. classical painter, will have his first solo show in Columbia starting Friday at Gallery 2. Bilton, who largely paints the human body, studied at the New York Academy of Art. A native of Eutawville, he recently moved back into what was his paternal grandfather's home and converted a loft into his studio. An opening reception is planned for 6-9 p.m.

Thursday at the Gervais Street gallery, which opened in early March. Doug Nye years, they'll see eliminating them and their salaries as a way to save money. Forget the fact that those people were part of the reason the station was on top." Mel Stebbins, WIS general manager, said another thing that can do in a station is becoming complacent. That, he said, is what he found when he arrived at the station in summer 2001. And that was just about the same time WLTX took a nip out of the noon ratings at WIS.

"I think we had kind of lost our focus a bit here," Stebbins said. "At the same time, WLTX had done a good job of improving their product." Stebbins didn't tamper with personnel or try to take the station in a new direction. "We already had good people and a good operation," he said. "We just needed to do a little fine-tuning. We have to be ever vigilant and always guard against becoming too comfortable with ourselves." Price said it's just that kind of attitude that should keep WIS on top for years to come.

"WIS has managed to reach that nirvana where they have the viewers' trust," Price said. "That's a hard thing for competitors to overcome, no matter what they try. Unless WIS does something to itself which I don't think will happen I don't see them ever falling from their perch." BIPLO Fresh Ground Chuck Value Pack (4 lbs. or more) BUY ONE, GET ONE GROUND FRESH DAILY FREE! WITH YOUR Pre-packaged with FREE portion of equal or lesser value included. Waltons FRESH PRODUCE Red Ripe California Strawberries lb.

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16515-62 Our Prices Are So Low, We Reserve The Right To Restrict Quantities Of Merchandise. No Sales To Dealers. BI-LO, 2003. time lineup managed to edge WIS' many couldn't pick up the station's signal. At the time, TV sets didn't come with a UHF band.

Consumers had to buy a special converter box to watch a UHF station. "Heck, we bought converter boxes for some of our advertisers just so they could see that we were really broadcasting," Laughridge said with a hearty laugh. "I remember crawling in attics and going on rooftops to help people adjust their antennas so they could pick us up." WLTX was more concerned about just getting its signal into homes and businesses, but WIS was able to concentrate on boosting its news operation. "They did a good job, no doubt about that," Laughridge said. "But I think WLTX is also doing a good job now, too.

It's just difficult to overcome 50 years of habit." TREADING LIGHTLY Price said extensive advertising and promotion is not enough for a No. 2 station to overtake a longtime ratings leader. The only time a No. 1 station puts itself in peril is when it tries to make wholesale changes. "That usually happens when the station is sold," he said.

"The new owners come in and decide they can save money and get the same results. "They usually try to do that by reducing the number of staffers. If a couple of anchors and reporters have been there for a number of.