"Going down. Next stop: 23"
Pittsburgh:The Neilsen Company released their new market rankings this week. In January, Pittsburgh will be the 23rd largest television market. The city retained spot number 22 for nearly 5 years but was recently pushed out by Portland, Oregon. Local station managers don't see this as a huge problem. In fact some would say that Pittsburgh has already seen the worst dropping out of the Top 10 and later the Top 20. KDKA/WPCW GM Chris Pike told the PG, "Advertisers are more likely to look at current sales in a market, what opportunities for growth there are, and those won't be based on whether Portland has 10,000 more homes than Pittsburgh." WPXI GM Ray Carter said, "It's not that we've had hundreds of thousands of people leaving. Our loss was fairly insignificant. It's just that other markets are growing."
Readers’ Forum
Also, I see that Erie has dropped to #146 while Youngstown somehow holds on to #109. This reflects shifts in markets due to job losses and businesses closing or moving overseas. Erie only has one very stable business and that is the G.E. Locomotive plant, which is actually taking orders to ship their product to China.
Tom Lavery (URL) - August 30, 2008 at 09:28 am
I wonder how much longer Erie can survive as an independent TV market? If Erie keeps dropping like it is, would it make sense for Erie to be absorbed into Pittsburgh’s DMA?
Tim - August 30, 2008 at 1:45 pm
At one time, I think we were like the 9th largest market.
Charles D. Mandus - August 30, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I can remember being 12th in the early to mid 1980’s. Of course we used to be the 3rd largest corporate HQ in the country.
Scott - August 31, 2008 at 08:37 am
Yeah, I remember those days, we had Rockwell here, Koppers, Gulf, Eazor Express trucking, J&L, US Steel, Mellon Bank, Westinghouse and so on here. My father was an industrial photographer and used to do jobs for them all. Those were the days.
As to Erie, I think it still can be it’s own market although it is surrounded by the markets of Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo plus the two lesser ones like Youngstown and Altoona/Johnstown. Unless one of the three big markets put satellite stations up there, I cannot see it being merged into one of them.
Charles D. Mandus - August 31, 2008 at 8:02 pm
When I came to Pittsburgh in 1965, it was the nation’s 11th market. It was a “destination” market. In other words, you worked in smaller markets to get the experience necessary to find work in Pittsburgh and other top markets. It was a place where you could build a career…and I did. When I retired in 2003, it was the 22nd market and had become one of those “stepping stones” that young broadcasters use to reach larger markets. That’s why you see and hear more relatively inexperienced people here these days. Some are good…many are not. Unlike many of the folks I worked with in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, they’re just passin’ through.
Dave James - September 01, 2008 at 06:27 am