There’s no highly-rated, primetime entertainment programming leading into your late news. There’s no national news in the morning or evening. No latenight comedy talk shows. No soaps. It’s just syndicated programs and your news. Sounds scary, huh? Welcome to independent television as practiced by KUSI San Diego, standing all alone competing with nine network affiliates […]
There’s no highly-rated, primetime entertainment programming leading into your late news.
There’s no national news in the morning or evening. No latenight comedy talk shows. No soaps.
It’s just syndicated programs and your news. Sounds scary, huh?
Welcome to independent television as practiced by KUSI San Diego, standing all alone competing with nine network affiliates (including Spanish language stations and PBS).
“Independent is a lot more challenging,” says Michael D. McKinnon, KUSI’s owner since 1982, “but also a lot more rewarding.”
KUSI broadcasts 57 ½ hours of local news a week, 8½ hours on weekdays and 7½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays.
The best part about being independent, according to McKinnon, is “you have to be local, and you control the programming. In prime, if there’s a fire or breaking news, we can stay with it while the network stations have to go back to network programming.”
“When wildfires ravaged our county in 2007,” says Doug Freidman, KUSI’s director of creative services, “we stayed on the air with live coverage for 100 hours, most of which was without commercial interruption.”
The hardest part about being independent, according to McKinnon, is, well, being independent. He says you have to have a good team in place, “they have to be scrappy, and understand you just don’t go to the network for your survival, you are their survival.”
“Being independent allows us to turn on a dime,” says Friedman. “Being primarily a news station, we can spend as much time on a story or series as we wish.”
For example, Friedman cites how KUSI’s morning news was the only station covering National Signing Day last week where San Diego high school student athletes announce what universities they’re accepting scholarships to attend.
KUSI airs a one-hour Prep Pigskin Report Friday nights during football season. The program, according to Freidman, is “a multiple Emmy winner.”
“We dominate the high school sports scene,” says McKinnon, “not just football, but lacrosse and everything else.”
Freidman says marketing a stand-alone independent like KUSI isn’t hard “because we have a great brand. Everybody knows who we are, our numbers speak for themselves.”
One of the advantages of being independent as opposed to being part of a big, group-owned corporation is KUSI’s ability to react quickly to the needs of the station.
“We don’t have many committee meetings,” says McKinnon as he laughs. A sentiment echoed by Friedman. “I have significantly more freedom to try new ideas for campaigns and promotions without all the layers of management that go along with being a group-owned network affiliate.”
When asked about the possibility of expanding beyond just one TV station, McKinnon says, “Might; we’ve been looking at it.”
And when asked if he’s been approached by other broadcast groups to sell KUSI, McKinnon laughs and says, “You mean this week?”
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