Nonstop TV news coverage of disaster beginning to ebb Networks’ local affiliates shifting back to commercial programming

While local television news coverage of the terrorist attack has been virtually wall to wall and with few paid commercials since early Tuesday, the picture is beginning to change.

ABC, CBS, NBC and the cable news networks stayed on the story full time into Thursday, skipping paid commercials. Broadcast veterans have told The Associated Press they couldn’t remember such uninterrupted coverage since President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

Bangor’s ABC affiliate, WVII-TV 7, was the first of the city’s three network affiliates to shift back to commercial programming when it broke away from news coverage to broadcast the syndicated game show “Wheel of Fortune” at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Mitch Lambert, the station’s general manager, didn’t return phone calls Thursday to explain the station’s plans. But apparently the decision to switch directly from Peter Jennings to Vanna White prompted some calls from upset viewers – some of whom called the Bangor Daily News.

Exeter resident Kristen Layton said she was “upset” by the station’s decision to break away from the news coverage. Layton said she preferred the coverage provided by Peter Jennings and was disappointed when his broadcast was skipped for the paid programming.

The region’s other two network television stations also ventured into commercial broadcasting during their coverage of the tragedy. WABI-TV 5, the CBS affiliate, has been running some commercials during its local newscasts, and WLBZ-TV 2, the NBC affiliate, has been using breaks during its newscasts for public service announcements.

While those stations plan to continue broadcasting most of the coverage reported by their networks’ news divisions, they also have started to intersperse those reports with commercials and other programming.

By going commercial-free, the big TV networks were likely losing millions of dollars in revenue. They may not have had much choice: Most advertisers aren’t eager to have their products promoted during such a horrific event.

Most newspapers across the country also devoted most of their editions Wednesday and Thursday to coverage of the attacks and continued to run paid advertisements.

The Bangor Daily News sold out of its Wednesday editions, and printed more copies later Wednesday morning. It continued to run paid advertising.

Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report rushed out special editions.

On Thursday afternoon, WLBZ broke away from its NBC News coverage to present a special Oprah Winfrey broadcast. General Manager Judy Horan said the Winfrey show was created to deal with the emotional aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and was viewed by management as providing a needed service to the public. The broadcast included paid commercials.

“We have not done any commercials, and this Oprah show is the first departure from our coverage of this tragedy,” Horan said Thursday. “This Oprah was designed to help parents deal with the tragedy. We also have our public service spots, and we think those messages are very important.”

Horan noted that the only other breaks in the station’s programming occurred during its “NEWS CENTER 2” evening and late-night broadcasts. Those breaks featured the station’s “Many Hands” project, which made professional counselors available to viewers by telephone. Other public service announcements were broadcast to praise the spirit of Americans, she said.

At WABI, some commercial messages were run during the station’s news broadcasts. The station also unveiled a 24 hour “WABI -TV 5 American Relief Fund” to benefit Red Cross agencies in Eastern and Northern Maine during its Thursday evening newscast.

WABI General Manager Mike Young said the station planned to resume some of its regular programming “more than likely this weekend.” And Young said he expected the station to be back on its regular schedule by the first of the week.

“This is obviously an unprecedented situation in which all three major networks had continuous coverage of any event for this length of time,” Young said. “We have been running certain commercials, but only within the context of our newscast.”

Television ratings began to show how many millions of Americans turned to TV as the “national campfire,” in the words of ABC anchor Peter Jennings.

An estimated 60.5 million people watched the attack coverage in prime-time Tuesday night on NBC (22.4 million), ABC (17.6 million), CBS (14.4 million) and Fox (6.1 million), according to Nielsen Media Research. Viewership on those four networks was up 47 percent over Sept. 11, 2000.

The three cable news networks also drew big audiences in prime-time: 7.7 million for CNN, 4.4 million for Fox News Channel and 2.4 million for MSNBC, Nielsen said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.