Whitney alone for onslaught> WVII sports director seeking new assistant

Newly installed sports director Chuck Whitney is looking for a replacement for himself at Bangor ABC station WVII (Ch. 7)… Huh?

Whitney, who has been Rich Chrampanis’ assistant sports director for the last 3 1/2 years, isn’t going anywhere, but he is taking over for Chrampanis, who moved on to a station in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Now he just needs to hire someone to fill his old position.

“I haven’t any timetable set up right now. Most of our applicants are out of state. We’ve only had a couple in-state applicants, so it’s not a case where they can step right in,” Whitney said. “I’d like to do it as quickly as possible, but I also want to get the right type of person. I want somebody working with me, not for me.”

Unfortunately for Whitney, nobody will be working for or with him for the next couple of weeks – arguably the busiest stretch of the high school sports year (basketball tournament games plus regional and state championship meets or tournaments in all other winter sports).

“It’s crazy. Just giving thought to that first day with the tournament and all kinds of state finals going on and regionals and stuff boggles my mind,” said Whitney, who graduated with a mass communications degree from St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.) in 1992. “At least all the tourney games are in one place.”

New medium for Harvey

Aroostook County native Wayne Harvey officially made his move from radio to television this week, trading a position at Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) for an assistant sports director’s job at Bangor TV station WLBZ (Channel 2).

“The biggest difference I’ve noticed so far is everything there [WZON] was second nature and now I’m kind of learning new stuff, but I can borrow a lot from my radio experiences,” said Harvey, a 1992 graduate of Katahdin High School in Sherman Station.

Harvey, who had been at WZON since the fall of 1995, is in the process of finishing up a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Maine in mass communications.

“I think this will be a great move for me,” Harvey said. “When I first got into this, I wanted to get into TV, but [UMaine spokesman and former Black Bears hockey radio voice] Joe Carr told me the best way to do that was to get into radio first.”

Harvey is taking over for Jamie Kenneally, who took at job at WPXT, a Fox Network affiliate in Portland.

Numbers up for Fox football

The numbers are in, and according to Fox Network officials, they look promising.

Fox finished its coverage of the 1999 NFL regular season with a two percent increase in the ratings posted the previous year.

Fox’s improvement from a 10.8 average household rating in 1998 to 11.0 for 1999 roughly translates into an increase of 198,800 homes.

This marked the first season that an NFC over-the-air network has increased household ratings in consecutive seasons since CBS (1979-1981), according to a recent Fox Sports press release. The average household share remained the same at 25.

There are an estimated 99.4 million TV households in the United States. A single ratings point represents the one percent, or 1,008,000 households, watching a program. An audience share is the percentage of the viewing population (television sets) in a designated market – in this case, nationwide – watching a particular program.

Fox also reports that ratings for its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage are up four percent, from 10.7 last year to 11.1 this year – making it the network’s largest single season increase since 1995. This rating excludes Saturday and holiday coverage.

If you’re scoring at home, perhaps most significant is the fact Fox outperformed ABC’s Monday Night football in household ratings (14.1 for Fox to 13.7 for ABC). The Fox NFL Sunday pregame show also had a solid showing, beating CBS’ NFL Today (3.9 for Fox and 2.8 for CBS) and ESPN’s NFL Countdown (3.9 to 1.7) in household ratings.

Fox also improved its average household ratings in two key demographics: men ages 18-49 (two percent increase, from 9.3 to 9.5) and men ages 25-54 (up four percent, from 10.1 to 10.5).

Speaking of football demographics, ABC executives were grinning over the Super Bowl ratings numbers.

The Super Bowl drew a 43.2 rating and 62 share, which ABC officials translated into an estimate of 130,745,000 viewers. That figure would make it the fifth most-watched telecast in U.S. history.

The ratings, up seven percent from last year, made it No. 19 in ratings among the 34 Super Bowls. Last year’s Bowl had a 40.2 rating and 61 share – the lowest ratings since 1990.

According to published reports, ABC execs had hoped for a 42.0 rating. It’s not known exactly how much of a factor the game’s close score and drama played, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

According to an Associated Press story, the rating for the final half hour was up 21 percent from the 38.9 for the final half hour last year.