From loyal reader Sterling:
Why do people in this part of NC never talk about Tennessee? You NEVER see Knoxville news items on WLOS – and its closer than places like Greenwood SC.
Is it geography, history, or what?
From loyal reader Sterling:
Why do people in this part of NC never talk about Tennessee? You NEVER see Knoxville news items on WLOS – and its closer than places like Greenwood SC.
Is it geography, history, or what?
17 Comments
It is very true that Tennessee has done a far better job of promoting the Great Smoky Mountains and the national park. They have great advertising campaigns for the entire state of TN and the ads really focus on the mountaiins, especially the tv commercials.. NC does nothing for Western NC.
When you compare the NC and TN sides of the Smokies all the attractions and tourism is in Tennessee. NC is way behind in this area.
People talk about Tennessee all the time, just like anywhere else.
what the hell is tennessee?
Or said more plainly… no one gives a rats ass what they’re doing over there.
Okay, real reason you hear about Greenwood, SC more so than Knoxville, TN… My former employer Walter J. Brown of Spartan Radio Casting (later Spartan Communications, now a part of Media General) successfully lobbied in the 1950’s (!) to have western NC included in the G-S-A-A (Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson) media market. This ranked the combined area the 35th largest media market in terms of number of households for many decades. Household rankings placed it ahead of markets as large as Charlotte for total national media budgets which greatly benefited local media outlets, especially WYFF and WSPA. A top 50 ranking, although ridiculously hyphenated still made the market worth $110+ million a year. WLOS could lumber along not doing anything for it’s locat constituency and still make a rediculous profit, making it low hanging fruit and an ideal addition for soul-sucking Sinclair Broadcasting.
Last time I checked, this total market included just over 1.8 million adults aged 18+. Anyone living over Tennessee line is out of bounds for this market and is therefore worth zilch. From a media dollar perspective. So there you go..
To be honest, I think most people over there are snobs about Tennessee. I live in Johnson City, and whenever I mention that while talking to new people in Asheville, I can see their noses immediately stick up.
I guess apparently because Tennessee is entirely full of hicks, that makes even intelligent people who are talking to you without an accent automatically a hick as well.
I think if people saw how much better it was in Tennessee, there would be an expectation that we would have to keep up. Can’t have that, can we?
Also, it would deprive WLOS valuable airtime featuring puppies and other fluff pieces that are not news.
The same reason the Fratelli’s didn’t talk about Sloth.
Lana — excellent points. Plus there is a distinct difference in how the two state governments have shaped the current situation with the GSMNP. Tennessee was smart to promote tourism around the park. North Carolina has traditionally done nothing to help improve tourism or anything else in the Western region — and likely never will.
Hmmm. I hadn’t really wondered about Tennessee news. I do wonder why I don’t get anything substantive in ACT or on WLOS concerning local news! I generally get more information from the Greenville and/or Spartanburg TV news reports than I do from WLOS.
Johnson City and Knoxville may be physically closer, but only recently has travel to them been easy, while even historical travel to the south has been simpler.
I also think it is the market thing, as was noted above, the SMSA defines viewing and listening areas.
Ummm…How is Knoxville closer than Greenville? You did mean Greenville, right? Where is Greenwood?
Knoxville is 85 miles from Asheville. Charlotte is 95 miles. We get no news about either place and Charlotte is in our own state. Besides, TN sends all their polluted air over to us, so that’s reason enough to ignore them.
A lot of Tennessee news has started showing up on the Citizen-Times Web site recently – which seems odd. Aren’t some parts of the Citizen-Times being produced/edited in Tennessee now?
It is strictly a market geography thing. Asheville is in the same television market as Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, and Greenwood. Plus, the Citizen Times and the Greenville News share resources and the same corporate parent. It has nothing to do with mountains, jealousy, or anything else. It’s pretty simple.
Perhaps no one gives a rats ass what they’re up to over there.
I’ve certainly not experienced that here, I hear about Tennessee news all the time and many follow the UT Vols sports teams. Here are some thoughts:
Perhaps the mountains are a natural divider, but Knoxville is a larger city and has its own tv market with 3 or 4 tv stations focused on Knoxville and Eastern TN.
Our tv market is split in that WLOS focuses on Asheville and WNC; WYFF focuses on Greenville, and WSPA focuses on Spartanburg. It is rare that you see a lot of Upstate SC news on WLOS….they used to have news bureaus there, and the SC stations had news bureaus in Asheville — but that has been gone for years now. It’s the same broad tv market, but it is very split along regional lines.
I also think there continues to be a great deal of jealousy in Western NC because Tennessee has always been much more successful in marketing to and drawing the huge number of tourists who visits the Great Smoky Mtns. Tennessee uses the Smokies prominently in its very creative advertising campaigns, and places like Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Dollywood are all huge entertainment draws for that side of the mountains.