According to American market estimates for the 2015 Nielsen TV
Ratings the New York metro area serves approximately 7,442,270
households. Glendive, MT, an isolated agricultural and ranching
town in eastern Montana, is at the other end of the spectrum
holding the bottom slot on the list of the 210 Designated Market
Areas. Glendive has only one station, KXGN, which transmits its
signal to roughly 4,330 televisions. Smaller audiences bring in
smaller revenues leaving stations like KXGN to produce their
shows with only a fraction of the operating budget of the larger
markets meaning resources are limited and equipment is older.
News stories are usually covered by a single anchor who write their
own dialogue, shoot their own footage and edit the final segment.
The result is that the smaller Designated Market Area’s have a
looser, unvarnished feel. Energetic younger news anchors cutting
their teeth straight out of college mix with older, seasoned
anchors settling into their last years in the industry. The local
news anchors fill the show with reports on national and worldwide
news mixed with stories specific to the communities where they’re
from. The global economy mingles with yard sales and tallies of
the latest sugar beet yields. The resulting dynamic is one of a
college A/V course producing high end TV.
