Baltimore

A stone’s throw away from Washington, D.C., Baltimore has a better-than-average unemployment rate, thanks to a diverse economy built on the federal government, the medical industry, the military and a busy international deepwater port. The Base Realignment and Closure Act is expected to bring 60,000 jobs to the market in 2010 to Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground. Baltimore’s other major employer, Johns Hopkins University, is reeling in research grants. That could help boost Baltimore’s TV rank, which slipped two places in the recent Nielsen rankings from No. 24 to No. 26 on the loss of 6,590 TV households. While only a 0.6 percent drop, the market was bested by Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C., with all three markets separated by just thousands.Following a brief delay to take into account some difficulties the market had with the digital TV transition, Nielsen (which owns AdweekMedia) launched local people meters in Baltimore on July 7. While the market is bracing for ratings contraction, the relative competitive positions among the stations hasn’t changed. The two leading news outlets, Hearst Television’s NBC affiliate WBAL-TV and CBS Television’s owned-and-operated outlet WJZ, took some hits but remain No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Together, WBAL and WJZ control a little over 60 percent of all news ratings points in the marketplace. The pair run neck and neck in morning ratings. But WBAL is the clear leader in early news at 5 and 6 p.m. and has been the late news leader since 2004. WBFF-TV, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox affiliate, generally ranks No. 3, followed by WMAR-TV, Scripps’ ABC affiliate, which may be planning to drop its 5 p.m. news this fall. Both WBAL and WJZ take advantage of partnerships with other local outlets. WBAL works with its sibling WBAL-AM to offer simulcasts of Baltimore Ravens preseason NFL games and specials, and the Maryland Lottery, hosted by radio personalities. And last September, WJZ struck a deal with Tribune’s The Baltimore Sun to share video and content and cross-promote each other. WJZ will also provide news for the paper’s Web site. WJZ’s sales team sells ad inventory against its video running on the paper’s site.Sinclair, which operates a duopoly in the market, could be facing bankruptcy if its local marketing partner, Cunningham Broadcasting (owner of The CW affiliate WNUV), is forced to enter bankruptcy proceedings at the end of July. Cunningham is run by family members of Sinclair’s majority owners.Radio stations are bracing for delivery starting Oct. 9 of the market’s first electronic ratings based on Arbitron’s portable people meter. A strong Urban market, Radio One’s stations could see ratings slide because of the methodology, which has tended to favor mainstream formats. Before the new ratings, Radio One’s Urban WERQ-FM ranked No. 1, and its Urban Adult Contemporary WWIN-FM held the No. 2 spot. Hearst owns only two radio stations in the country, both of which happen to be in in the market. WBAL-AM ranks No. 5 while Active Rock WIYY-FM comes in at No. 9. In a swap between Clear Channel Radio and CBS Radio involving seven radio stations in six markets, ownership of WQSR-FM changed from CBS to Clear Channel, which kept the “Jack” format on the station. Post-swap, Clear Channel has four stations in the market, including No. 3-ranked Country WPOC-FM. CBS Radio counts four stations in the market, two of which are top-five stations: Adult Contemporary WLIF-FM and Hot AC WVMX-FM. Expanding its sports footprint, CBS Radio launched Baltimore’s first FM Sports station last November on the 105.7 frequency as Sports Radio 105.7 The Fan. The station, formerly FM Talk on WHFS-FM, got new call letters, WJZ-FM, the same as CBS Television’s O&O outlet. As a result, the radio station gained more than one share point to debut at No. 8. To complement The Fan’s local Sports coverage, including play-by-play coverage of the Baltimore Orioles and the University of Maryland Terrapins, WJFK-AM at 1300 will focus exclusively on national sports as the ESPN Radio affiliate. It too will change call letters, to WJZ-AM.In February, Clarity Media Group shut down The Baltimore Examiner, a free daily tabloid, leaving The Baltimore Sun as the last remaining large daily. The financially struggling Tribune has shut down suburban bureaus and cut about 160 jobs in two waves of layoffs. The newsroom staff has shrunk from about 420 when Tribune acquired The Sun in 1999 to 148. Clear Channel Outdoor is the dominant out-of-home operator locally, with bulletins, posters and junior posters, and bus and bus shelter coverage, as well as four digital billboards. CBS Outdoor operates extensive transit shelter coverage, billboards throughout Maryland and some mall advertising.Vital Stats:* TV DMA Rank: 26* Population 2-plus: 2,728,064* TV Households: 1,102,080* TV Stations (Net/Ind/Multicast/Public): 6/2/1/2* Wired Cable Households: 769,600* Radio Metro Rank: 22* Population 6-plus: 2,271,500* Radio Stations (rated): 31* Newspapers (Daily/Weekly): 6/35The Numbers:Click here for demo dataClick here for media usage dataClick here for marketplace data

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