Television
The many reasons TV viewers are loyal to their KING

By Pamela Sitt
Seattle Times staff reporter

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But what's noteworthy about KING's 12-year ratings reign is this: The NBC affiliate now dominates its market to a degree unrivaled by any other station in the country. In the past year, KING consistently had the highest percentage of local viewers, ages 25-54, among the nation's top 15 television markets. About a third of local viewers in that coveted age demographic watched KING.

The numbers are telling — but what do they say about us? Even as the NBC network has lost steam in recent years, losing the top spot to CBS — although NBC won with the coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic — viewers here have remained loyal to KING.

In February, KING beat second-place KOMO-TV at 5 p.m. by the highest margin in that local news slot in more than a decade — almost double that of its nearest competitor. KING had an 11.5 rating versus KOMO's 6.1. KING won at 6:30 p.m. over KOMO and at 11 p.m. over KIRO, now in second place thanks to CBS' strong 10 p.m. lineups. KING also won the local news race in the morning and at noon.

So what makes KING so attractive to this market? Do NBC programs like "The Apprentice" and "The West Wing" resonate particularly with local viewers? (Yes.) Is it the appeal of longtime news anchors like Jean Enersen? (Probably.)

Are its call letters — "k-i-n-g" — working as a subliminal marketing tool? (Hmmm.)

"A brand like KING is very recognizable to the people in Seattle," said John Damiano, executive vice president of affiliate relations at NBC. "Viewers don't really watch networks; they watch programs and they watch stations. You like to think that you get a strong station and a strong network, and they feed off of one another."

That said, KING certainly gets a boost from a network programming philosophy that agrees with Seattle-area viewers. NBC is an urban network that appeals to what Damiano calls an upscale audience — college-educated, savvy, professional — unlike ABC, CBS and Fox, which tend to attract, respectively, working-class viewers, older viewers and younger viewers.

"NBC is not a NASCAR network, and this is not a NASCAR town," said Gerald Baldasty, a professor of contemporary media at the University of Washington. "It speaks to a certain predisposition that exists in Seattle; maybe NBC as a whole captures that better."

Census data shows that Seattle is increasingly more affluent and better educated than a decade ago. It's also predominantly white and Asian. NBC noticeably caters to such viewers — Asian Americans tend to fall into the "upscale" category in income and viewing tastes — while neglecting audiences that are also relatively absent from Seattle, such as African Americans.

Programs like "The West Wing," with its liberal-leaning politics, and "The Apprentice," which NBC cites as its highest-income-skewing show, have consistently performed well in this market. Similarly, "Friends" has strong appeal in a city with a high percentage of singles and childless couples.
 
In the last November sweeps period, KING drew a higher percentage of local viewers to Oprah, to the "Today" show, and to Jay Leno than did its counterparts in other major markets. And while it's worth noting that it has the benefit of Oprah's lead-in at 4 p.m., KING's 5 p.m. newscast was the highest-rated one in the top 50 markets in November, the last sweeps month for which such figures are available.

Ingrained audience habit also deserves some of the credit for boosting a station's ratings.

KOMO news director Jim Tellus, while acknowledging the quality of KING's news product, says it's a challenge to compete with a ratings queen like Oprah.

"The biggest thing we battle is not KING or KIRO, it's habit," he said. "It's human nature to keep the remote where it is, and that's what we're fighting."

KOMO, meanwhile, has struggled with weak lead-in programming from fourth-place network ABC, but is in second place with local viewers during all but the 11 p.m. newscasts.

"I think ABC has some strong local stuff going on, but they have not had a strong national profile for several years, and that really translates into lower viewership," said Baldasty, the UW professor. "I don't know that KING is that much better these days than the others, but they have a public perception of that."

Baldasty credits KING's history as a family-owned station as well as familiar faces like longtime news anchor Enersen for viewer loyalty.

"I think there's a residue of good feeling about them that's had institutional value," he said.

The homegrown factor hasn't worked as well for KOMO, despite being owned by Seattle-based Fisher Communications. The Bullitt family, meanwhile, founded KING in 1948 and sold in 1991 to The Providence Journal Co., which turned it over to Dallas-based Belo Corp. in 1997.

Dave Lougee, KING's general manager, credits a synergy between the station and its owners, syndicated partners and network for KING's success.

"Winning in TV is the ultimate team sport, and that's the comment I'd make about my management team and our syndicated partners and the network," Lougee said. "It's about everything coming together and having all the right players in place. We've been able to go out and get the right people and hang on to them."

From a business standpoint, KING's local news operation benefits from resources including KONG-TV, which carries local and syndicated programming, and Northwest Cable News, with 24-hour regional news. KING has successfully mirrored NBC in its approach to brand extension; just as KING has KONG and NWCN getting its name out there, so does NBC with MSNBC and CNBC.

"If there's one key element of a network affiliate's strength, it's the strength of their local news," said Damiano, the NBC executive. "It's very rare that a network's strength can be strong enough to pull a station."

Elsewhere in February sweeps, at the 10 p.m. hour, KCPQ-TV's younger-skewing newscast edged past KONG-TV by one-tenth of a ratings point, or about 1,685 households.

Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this story. Pamela Sitt: psitt@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company