WLOS: Why so many Rutherford stories?

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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RoIn asked the other about why WLOS runs so many stories out of Rutherford County. I had a tepid answer, but another loyal reader had a good response.

This is my response to RoIn:
I think it has something to do WLOS’ television market, ratings and keeping the competition at bay. Rutherford County falls into a no-man’s land that other television stations would like to claim, so in order to keep ratings high enough mark the territory theirs, and to prop up advertising rates, WLOS maintains a “bureau” there.

And this is Mike:
Rutherford, Polk & McDowell counties are “battleground” counties, not only with the SC stations in this market, but also (at least for Rutherford, and, to a lesser degree, McDowell) with the Charlotte market. Years back, I believe, WLOS had a bureau (excuse me, now it’s called a “news center”) in Marion. The most recent incarnation, the Rutherford County News Center, has been the on-air entryway to WLOS for Robert Green (now doing commercials for Golf USA, in case you never found the answer to your “whatever happened to…?” query from awhile back), John Le, Candice Little and Mary Jedlicka, with a return visit from Tracy Martin squeezed in there after her stint at ‘SPA.

The challenge there, and with any story done outside Buncombe or Henderson counties, is to try to find a way to make it relevant to the whole NC part of the market (particulary Bunc & Hend), while still representing that you’re doing news in the other counties, where Nielsen doesn’t see fit to deploy very many metering devices.