Content area
Full Text
WXIN-TV Channel 59 is planning to launch a morning news program next month that it hopes will compete head-to-head with ratings powerhouses "The Today Show" and "Good Morning America."
The local Fox affiliate has set March 29 as the target launch date for its new program, which will air 6-9 a.m. every weekday morning. The show will provide local news, weather and traffic, as well as specialized segments and entertainment news, according to WXIN Vice President and General Manager Linda Gray.
The new show will require a major investment on the part of Channel 59, which currently produces just one news program daily. Most other stations in the market produce four to five newscasts a day.
"We seem to have mastered the late news," Gray said. "The morning show will tap a new market for us." Channel 59 -- which plans to hire an additional 22 full-time employees to staff the new show -- has conducted a considerable amount of research over the past year, and has found that most of the station's evening news viewers also tune in to morning news programs.
"We thought it would be nice if, after turning their sets off at night, there would be something for them to watch when they turn their sets back on in the morning," Gray said.
She added that...