"Do most stations do a good job of covering news, weather and sports for the entire viewing area, including areas outside the bigger cities, or is this an area where they need to improve?"



25% of all viewers complain about this issue, and most of them (15%) feel strongly about it (particularly younger viewers).





What Viewers Really Say about Scope of Coverage

Most viewers living outside of the major cities feel they aren't getting enough coverage of their communities. "I understand TV stations are located in the large cities, but they have a viewing audience of the entire area, and need to cater to the entire area." However, it's not just small-town or rural folks who complain. Viewers living in large, geographically complex markets which are difficult to cover (such as Los Angeles or San Francisco) or that cross state lines (such as Washington, D.C.) can also feel like they're getting the short end of the stick. We even hear complaints from viewers in places like Tuscaloosa, who have gone without local coverage ever since station ownership changed hands.

Residents of rural areas seem understanding about the lack of news coverage but do think that stations could at least go to the effort of including them in the weather forecasts. "I'm 50 miles from a major city, and it's important that we have the weather because weather is a big deal where we live...I have to listen to an out-of-state station to find out what the weather's gonna be in my own town!...If it's raining 20 miles away, it doesn't necessarily mean it's raining where you are." Many city dwellers don't mind hearing the weather forecasts for the smaller towns because they either have relatives living there, or used to live there themselves. Viewers also commute through sparsely populated areas, and want to know what to expect on the drive to work.

Sports is another area which viewers feel would be easy to cover. There are a number of requests to show more scores from local high school games in the smaller, more remote areas. Evidently, his would not bore sports fans from the bigger cities, who say they like hearing about all kinds of sports. "I love sports, and I like to hear about all of it."

Still, even some city residents feel strongly that small towns have a right to be included in the local news coverage. "Everybody should have the same chance to receive local news...A lot of times, the smaller towns get left out of the news...All the cities are important, not just the big ones." There's also the idea that in order to be truly well-informed, it's important to keep abreast of news throughout the viewing area. "The surrounding communities affect us also, and people need to be well-informed...We need to know more of what's going on than we do. We need to know what's happening all around."

Several viewers also feel strongly that national and international news doesn't belong on a local newscast. "If we want world news, there's other channels to grab that coverage from. I'd like to feel more of a pulse from where I live and get a better sense of my community than listen to what's happening in Timbuktu."

Additional comments that viewers give for feeling that newscasts should include more local news, weather and sports from outlying areas are as follows:

Stations Should Show More Fairness to Smaller Communities — "I have a sister that lives down in Butler, Missouri, and she watches the news, and if something happens there, I think it should be on the news...Everybody should have the same chance to receive local news, not just the same ones...There are a lot of surrounding smaller towns that *need to know weather, news, etc. I don't know why they couldn't expand it...I live in one of the smaller communities that doesn't get covered a lot...I come from a small town, and I know how it feels when all they do is put on the big cities. It gets so you don't even wanna watch it...I pretty much always lived in rural areas, and typically, we don't get a lot of coverage. It'd be nice to have some wider coverage...I wanna hear what's goin' on in MY town, not what's goin' on in Marion County and everywhere else...We're interested in our own community, our own area...We live in a little town, and we hear nothing about us, EVER...Since we're not in such a very big city, I'd like to know more out in our area...When I turn on Channel 5 news, it's mostly the Bay area, it's not Napa, Calistoga, and the areas around here...We live 60 miles out of Mobile, and very seldom do we get news coverage...I can't even get any Oregon news, it all comes from Washington. So I don't even watch it...The peninsula where I live is not very well represented, and there's not a lot of information about local events and issues...I live in Olympia, but all the stations you get are out of Seattle, and 99% of their time is on Seattle/Tacoma/ Everett. And the weather for Seattle is sometimes 100% different than for Olympia...All the cities are very important, not just the big ones...The smaller cities have a right to be broadcast to...Coverage should be made available to everyone within the viewing area."

Localized Weather Forecasts Are Needed For Outlying Areas — "The distant weather forecasts don't really help me out any. I don't travel state to state. I'm really only concerned about local...A lot of people have [relatives] out of town, and they want to see the overall weather, especially with hurricanes and tornadoes...Sometimes it can be raining there, but not here...We live in a rural area quite a ways out. You might get a weather report out of Binghamton, but we're 40 miles north of there... I'm halfway between Savannah and Charleston, so why does Charleston ignore me when they're giving a report? They tell me the temperature, but they don't project rainstorms, and the Savannah station tells me when the rainstorm is gonna hit me."

Complete Coverage Means Covering the Entire Viewing Area — "It's just nice to know what's goin' on other than the big cities...Issues that go on in larger cities may or may not have any repercussions on where I live, because I live in a small rural community. My life is not necessarily based on what goes on in the city...We need to know what's goin' on, too, in the small towns...We live here, we should know more about what's happening in our own state...It should cover everybody. Us AND the big cities...The smaller areas are just as important."

Highly Localized Coverage, Not National/World News — "Instead of covering more at home, they gotta cover every other place in the universe. It should be more locally where we're at than out there."

More Localized Sports — "I'm a big sports fan, and I like to know where other people are standing...I like all kinds of sports coverage."