By Cindy Sams, The Macon Telegraph, Ga. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 7--MACON, Ga.--Popular local television news anchor Tina Taylor Hicks will return to the airwaves later this month when Macon TV station WPGA debuts its early evening news program April 23, officials at the ABC affiliate said Friday.
Hicks, former news anchor for WMAZ-TV's 'Eyewitness News,' will lead a three-person anchor team during the station's 6:30 p.m. weeknight newscasts, said Bruce Layman, news director at WPGA, Channel 58.
'Isn't it something? I had no intentions of doing that again,' said Hicks, 47, who was approached by a WPGA employee about leading the station's newscast. Hicks left WMAZ Channel 13 in October 1999 after 26 years with the station.
The push to start a half-hour news program at WPGA began late last year. The station has aired brief news highlights for the past several years, said Layman, who became the station's news director about two months ago.
Other members of the WPGA anchor team are Sara Walsh, the sports anchor, from Jacksonville, Fla., and Chris Cotton, a certified meteorologist from Greenville, Miss.
'We suddenly realized that Macon viewers really needed a choice, an alternative, to the powerhouse in town,' Layman said. 'So it was then we decided, why not go full force?'
Layman said the station chose a 6:30 p.m. time slot because more viewers are home at that hour. The timing also mean's WPGA's fledgling news show will avoid direct competition for viewers with 'Eyewitness News,' which airs at 6 p.m.
WGXA-TV, the local Fox affiliate at Channel 24, broadcasts a 5:30 p.m. news program. WMGT-TV, the local NBC affiliate at Channel 41, does not offer local news programming.
Channel 13's 'Eyewitness News' historically has been the top-rated news show in Middle Georgia. According to figures from the latest Nielsen ratings period, the station's 6 p.m. broadcast received an average weekday rating of 25 and a 49 share.
By comparison, WGXA's 5:30 p.m. broadcast earned a 2 rating and a 5 share in the Nielsen report, which was released in February.
The rating is the percentage of all television households in the market tuned to particular program, while the share is the percentage of all TV households using television tuned to a particular program. Nielsen Media Research measures ratings four months per year in the Macon market, which covers a 22-county area with more than 220,000 television households.
Don McGouirk, WMAZ's general manager, said he welcomes competition from WPGA because it 'makes you better.' He said he had heard rumors about WPGA's plans to launch a newscast with Hicks as anchor, but the story had not been confirmed.
McGouirk said Hicks retired from the station due to health concerns.
'It's good to know Tina's illness is at such a place that she could go back to work,' he said. 'I wish she had let us know that.'
Hicks, who was stricken with angina in the fall of 1999, said she had told WMAZ officials during September contract negotiations that she was leaving the station when her contract expired in December. Her health problems surfaced shortly afterward, she said.
'We were in contract talks, and I had said to myself that if things didn't work out, I was just going to go home,' she said, adding that she wishes everyone well at WMAZ.
'I pray that God blesses every single one of them over there. I really do,' she said.
Doug Long, a co-anchor and assistant news director at WGXA, also said he believes competition from another news source is good for Macon.
'I think overall the competition will be good for all the news agencies in the market,' he said. 'It will make everybody work harder because there will be someone else out there gathering news.'
Layman said station officials are debating when to expand their news coverage to late-night and weekend hours. The station has hired three reporters in addition to the three anchors, and will add others as more broadcasts are scheduled.
'It's not a question of if,' he said. 'It's simply a question of when.'
Layman declined to say how much the station's owner, Lowell Register, is paying to start the news program or how much WPGA is paying Hicks.
'It's a not a cheap proposition,' he said of the program startup. 'I can't get into any figures, but it's a great family we're all working for. They are prepared to back us and see us through this for the long haul.'
WPGA debuted several years ago as a Fox affiliate. In 1994, the station switched affiliations with WGXA to become an ABC station.
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(c) 2001, The Macon Telegraph, Ga. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
