Seattle

A long way from its humble beginnings as a timber and fishing community, Seattle has shot to international prominence in the past two decades as the hub of the high-technology business, led by Bill Gates' Microsoft empire in Redmond, a suburb on the east side of Lake Washington. "Seattle has become a lot more visible because of the high-tech industry and the wealth around here," says John Eastham, chairman and CEO of EMB Partners, a Seattle ad agency. Even discounting Gates' personal fortune, the cumulative net worth of Seattle residents is estimated at about $300 billion, matching that of Manhattan.

The dot-com advertising wave hit Seattle media in a big way in last year's fourth quarter, pumping millions of dollars into local broadcast, print and outdoor outlets and pushing ad rates sky-high. Local media buyers say that while the dot-com business has fallen off a bit this year, active spending by retail, auto dealers and other segments of the local economy have helped keep inventory tight and prices on the rise. "We're still going to see pricing pressure," says Sheryl Hudson, vp and media director at McCann-Erickson/Seattle.

The Seattle-Tacoma broadcast television market ranks 12th in the U.S. with 1.6 million TV households, according to Nielsen Media Research. Competition is keen, with the local-news race led by A.H. Belo Corp.'s NBC affiliate KING-TV and Seattle-based Fisher Broadcasting's ABC affiliate, KOMO-TV

KOMO, whose executives could not be reached for comment, is the only station left in the market with local, private ownership. Fisher has just completed a new multimillion-dollar, state-of the-art broadcast facility for KOMO across the street from Seattle's famous Space Needle. The facility opened on June 16, giving a new, updated look to KOMO's newscasts.

In the May sweeps, KING won the evening and late-news competition in household ratings, handily beating KOMO at 5, 6:30 and 11 p.m. "They're doing well-they are definitely a well-regarded news leader in the market," Steve Klein, local broadcast buyer at McCann-Erickson, says of KING.

Belo also owns KONG-TV, an independent station based in Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle. KONG rebroadcasts some KING programming, including the syndicated Oprah Winfrey Show and Martha Stewart Living, along with some of KING's newscasts. In February 1999, KONG launched its own live...