The Ship is Still Sinking in Buffalo

There was a time when WKBW’s (Buffalo) was one of the highest-rated newscasts in the entire country.

Then Granite Broadcasting came in and took the station from first to worst.

Scripps bought the station from Granite and years later, the station still sits in the ratings basement and can’t seem to find its way out.

The Buffalo News writes that in the five most prominent local news times – 6 a.m., 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m. – three WKBW newscasts averaged less than a 2.0 household rating.

One of the two exceptions was at 6 p.m., when the newscast co-anchored by Keith Radford (who is retiring this month) and Ashley Rowe averaged a 3.4 rating, which was lower than it was a year ago and two years ago. The other exception was at 11 p.m., when Rowe and Jeff Russo either co-anchor or anchor solo, averaged a 2.1 rating. That’s down from a 2.6 a year ago.

WKBW’s 5 p.m. newscast (1.4), the 5:30 p.m. newscast (1.7) and the relatively new 7 p.m. (1.6) all saw big percentage drops from a year ago. The rating at 5:30 p.m. was about as half as large as it was a year ago and also significantly lower than it was in May of 2019. The ratings in the key age 25-54 that advertisers covet also declined significantly.

WKBW lost its way under Granite Broadcasting and it is still suffering from the actions and belt-tightening of previous management. It’s sad to see what was once a great station, reduced to a basement bottom dweller.

It might be time for Scripps to blow the place up entirely and start from scratch.

So sad to see….