Andrew Jensen - Media

[KJW]

Andrew,

You mentioned on the NWA Naturals thread that Fort Smith/Fayetteville is nearly a top 100 market now.

Given that McDonald County (currently in the Joplin, MO/Pittsburg, KS TV DMA) is part of NWA's metro now and both Adair and Delaware Counties, OK (currently in the Tulsa DMA) are predicted to be:

- Are you getting any input from local stations that these may be added soon? DMAs measure different things besides pure population, but the 2006 population estimates for Adair/Delaware combined are around 62,000 people, with McDonald adding 20,000+ more. If so, will that push the FSM/NWA DMA inside the top 100? (FWIW, one could add Carroll County, AR (Springfield, MO DMA) into the list with newspaper penetration there...same with Barry County, MO (same DMA) but I discount the possiblity of Barry getting in our own DMA.)

- Are NWA stations even making an effort to get on cable networks in these three counties? A colleague of mine from Pineville, MO (McDonald) says they're not on her system.

- If this happens it will be unusual for a DMA in this area to take counties away from two separate other out of state DMAs. If it doesn't, it will be unprecedented for a metro area to be split into 3 separate DMAs like this...do you get any sense that Tulsa and Joplin TV stations (or newspapers) are pushing back against the NWA stations (or newspapers) to fight encroachment into their territory?

Thanks in advance for any input you can provide...from other posts I've made on this board, obviously this subject intrigues me.

[andrewjensen]

hmmm. that sounds like a good story idea. I hadn't heard much discussed about that. Only 40/29 and KFSM are truly trying to serve the full 11-county DMA and with so much capital being sunk into Washington-Benton counties, I doubt the TV channels are eager to expand their coverage into Oklahoma and Missouri greatly at this point.

here is a link to the DMA rankings.

http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/markettrack/US_HH_by_DMA.asp

as you can see, our DMA is ranked 102 and is less than 15,000 away from the top 100. Adding a county or two would most likely put it there. Sorry I couldn't be of much more help, but it sounds like something worth looking into down the line.

[KJW]

hmmm. that sounds like a good story idea. I hadn't heard much discussed about that. Only 40/29 and KFSM are truly trying to serve the full 11-county DMA and with so much capital being sunk into Washington-Benton counties, I doubt the TV channels are eager to expand their coverage into Oklahoma and Missouri greatly at this point.

here is a link to the DMA rankings.

http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/markettrack/US_HH_by_DMA.asp

as you can see, our DMA is ranked 102 and is less than 15,000 away from the top 100. Adding a county or two would most likely put it there. Sorry I couldn't be of much more help, but it sounds like something worth looking into down the line.

[KJW]

FWIW, courtesy of our friend Sammy00, here's the now 3-year-old story from the Joplin Globe saying that the addition of Adair and Delaware Counties, OK is a near certainty for the NWA metro by the next census. And I'm not sure at the time whether the writer of that article knew that this place, right on the Siloam Springs line and very close to the Adair/Delaware border was getting ready to expand to a workforce of around 1,000 most likely making it one of the largest employers in either county.

If KNWA is truly wanting to serve the NWA metro area and if these two counties (as McDonald already has) truly become part of the same metro area...

[Mith242]

Sorry guys, this seemed a better fit over here in the coffeehouse forum.

[KJW]

No problem, Mith.

While we're at this discussion one of the TV stations may have answered us. Congrats to Channel 40/29 for by month's end having complete newsrooms in Rogers, Fayetteville AND Fort Smith.

This is going to pay off handsomely for them some day, given both the metropolitan demographic trends we have in place along with those we see developing.