WJAR, the Media General NBC affiliate in Providence, found a new way to spell SUCCESS in February. For the first time, the station’s 4-year old 7pm newscast beat perennial time period winner “Wheel of Fortune.” The newscast, anchored by Dan Jaehnig and Alison Bologna, is the only local newscast at 7pm and certainly got a boost from an unusually snowy month. “With our continued on-air blizzard coverage and in-depth investigative stories from the I-Team and Money Watchers, we feel we have raised the bar on local news content,” says news director Christopher Lanni.
With a 7.32 rating, the 7pm news was up +24% year-over-year. “Wheel” airs on CBS affiliate WPRI at 7pm.
“It was an incredibly rewarding success in February to finally beat this previous ratings dominator,” Lanni tells GoLocalProv. “Dan and Alison and the entire team really put their heart and soul into this show. We’re also proud of the fact that we’re one of the highest rated 7pm newscasts in the entire country.”