2/11/2007

Remember my blog a while ago, talking about the demise of the Chicago Sun Times TV Prevue? The book that came with the Sunday paper, that gives you the upcoming week’s TV listings? The Sun Times touted that you’d be able to get the listings on-line instead. Well, I open the paper today, and, lo and behold- there’s a message that, due to thousands of complaints- they will resume TV Prevue in a couple of weeks! Apparently, the reading public doesn’t want to have to go on-line to find their TV listings- and would rather have a booklet they can keep next to the set that lists the local channels and what’s on. However, I’ll bet that it’ll still be the exact same booklet that you get with your Tribune, but with a different cover, and some features just moved around in it. God forbid that they would actually put some local content, besides the listings, into it. The “TV Mailbag” column- which used to include questions about Chicago TV personalities and shows- is now the generic national version, which always seems to have a sort of “smart aleck” edge to some of the answers. Invariably, there’s some dolt asking when some cancelled show will be back on the air. “I haven’t seen it for a while- when will it return?” It WON’T, idiot- BECAUSE IT’S CANCELLED! Try reading the REST of the paper sometime, you might have found out that information months ago! … Anyway, wouldn’t it be better to have local content- have Rob Feder write a special, in-depth column about something on Sundays? Have Paige Weiser write one of her clever columns about a favorite tv show or movie that’s on that week? No, of course not- because that might cost them a little more to produce, when just having the national version they can plug in is so much easier and cheaper- though not as cheap as not having it at all, which is what they were aiming for! Why do you think the “new” version of TV Guide magazine- with no localized listings- is going down the tubes? Could it be that local viewers really wanted LOCAL listings, not just the network listings? It’s the kind of the same thing that’s happening with radio- it’s cheaper to just run a national feed than have local personalities. Who needs that local connection? Well… One thing I always hear from our viewers is that they’re glad we’re on, doing the kind of stuff that they grew up seeing on local tv- local programs, being done by local personalities, that have…that local connection! I guess that’s lost on some of these local papers- but then- they should think- why do THEY exist, when people could just pick up a USA Today?!