Hearst ABC-Affiliates Clean Up in Boston and Milwaukee

By Andrew Gauthier 

Boston’s WCVB and Milwaukee’s WISN, two Hearst-owned ABC-affiliates, continued their local ratings dominance in November.  Both WCVB and WISN won the sign-on to sign-off race in their respective markets during the February sweeps period.

In Boston, all of WCVB’s newscasts finished #1 for the 13th month in a row. As usual, the station’s 6 p.m. newscast was the most successful, averaging 236,000 total viewers. WCVB’s morning newscast, which expanded to 4:30 a.m. last August, drew 31,000 total viewers for the early bird half-hour.

In Milwaukee, WISN also saw success at 6 p.m. The station’s newscast had a 43% lead over second place WTMJ for the half-hour. WISN’s decision to expand its weekday 10 p.m. newscast to a full-hour in January has paid off with the station seeing a 29% increase in viewers for 10:30-11, compared to episodes of “Access Hollywood” that aired in the time slot last February.

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“From the Packers and our Groundhog Day blizzard to the budget battle in Madison, February had no shortage of big stories,” said Jan Wade, WISN’s president and general manager.

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