Seattle

WHILE LAST YEAR'S PRESIDENTIAL RACE WENT DOWN TO THE WIRE, IT PALED IN COMparison to the drama that unfolded after the gubernatorial race in Washington state. That roller-coaster ride saw Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire lose the election by a slim margin, prompting an automatic machine recount, which she also narrowly lost. A hand count then gave Gregoire the edge, and she became the state's second female governor by 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast during last November's election.

Republican challenger Dino Rossi fought to have the victory overturned, contending that thousands of illegal votes by convicted felons had been counted. On June 6, a Chelan County Superior Court judge upheld the election.

Now that the dust has settled, local media in the 12th-ranked Seattle-Tacoma market (1.69 million TV households) are hoping that the state's new legislators will push efforts to help grow the economy, which has been slow to recover from a lingering recession following the dot-coin bust and Sept. 11.

"While [our] numbers have continued to increase in the ratings, especially in prime and local newscasts, the sales atmosphere has been a bit of a challenge," says John Woodin, vp and general manager of KIRO-TV, Cox Broadcasting's CBS affiliate. "In late news, we're No. 1 [among] women 18-49 for the first time in six years, No. 2 overall in local news and our prime. But the market is soft. It's a West Coast phenomenon, and we hope to see that rebound by the end of the year."

KIRO's local news has been honored with several journalism awards, including being recognized as the single best newscast in the country with the 2005 National Headliner Awards, presented by the Press Club of Atlantic City. In the February sweeps, KIRO's late news was second in households behind BeIo Corp.'s NBC affiliate KING-TV.

Glenn Wright, interim gm for Belo Corp.'s Seattle media group, agrees that the market has been soft but contends it's starting to turn around. "The Washington state unemployment level [around 5.2 percent] has dropped to its lowest level in four years," says Wright, who plans to retire next month.

Belo has a sizeable share of the spot TV ad market in Seattle, where it owns a broadcast television duopoly and a regional cable news...