Atlanta

KNOWN AS THE MEDIA CAPITAL OF THE SOUTH, ATLANTA IS HOME TO TURNER BROADcasting System, including its CNN, TNT, TBS Superstation and Cartoon Network units, among others. Turner parent company Time Warner also owns Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves, the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks, the National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers, and the operating rights to the sports and entertainment center Philips Arena, where the Hawks and Thrashers play.

Time Warner reached an agreement two weeks ago to sell the Thrashers, the Hawks and the arena to a group of investors from Atlanta, Boston and Washington that includes the son-in-law of TBS founder Ted Turner.

Atlanta has the ninth-largest television market in the country with 2.03 million TV households, according to Nielsen Media Research. The city is also the headquarters of Cox Enterprises, which owns three of Atlanta's dominant media outlets in broadcast television, print and radio. Interestingly, the wave of consolidation in the TV marketplace has yet reached Atlanta, one of the few remaining top-10 markets with-out a duopoly.

Atlanta's perennial news leader is Cox-owned ABC affiliate WSB-TV, which continues to maintain a sizeable lead over its news competitors in various time periods. The station's seasoned on-air veterans are part of the reason it has maintained its position. WSB's main anchor team of John Pruitt, a 36-year Atlanta TV veteran, and 28-year WSB veteran Monica Kaufman are a market staple at 5,6 and 11 p.m.

Last April, WXIA-TV, Gannett Broadcasting's NBC affiliate, opted to shift its resources by ending its 5 p.m. newscast and launching a new half-hour news at 7 p.m. It has no news rivals in the new time period, whereas WSB, Meredith Broadcasting's CBS outlet WGCL-TV, and Fox-owned WAGA all compete for new audiences at 5 p.m. Bob Walker, WXIA president/general manager, says Atlanta's over-all growth and subsequent traffic snarls have resulted in more people getting home later, which is why the station moved its news to 7 p.m. "We have twice as many news viewers at 7 o'clock than what we had at 5," says Walker. The 7 p.m. news launched into the No. 2 position in the time period, where it remained in the July sweeps with a 4.4 rating/8 share.

WXIA is also in its second year of...