Vote With Your Remote
By Andrew Stockey

You may have noticed that I no longer anchor the weeknight sports at WTAE-TV. My days of showing scores and highlights are over after a decade. I have switched to news - co-anchoring Channel 4 Action News this Morning with Kelly Frey from 5-7 a.m. weekdays. Many people-while offering congratulations-have asked me whether this is truly a promotion and whether I miss covering sports on a daily basis.

Sure, I will miss covering the Steelers on a daily basis and nothing gave me greater joy than showing Friday night high school football highlights. But I am hardly leaving the sports scene. That's because-in this town-sports is the news.

Look no further than June's coverage of Big Ben's motorcycle accident. Watching the local news stations, you would have thought President Bush was on that motorcycle. There was extensive live coverage in the wake of the bike crash and continuous coverage in the days that followed. Plenty of people-including Steelers fans-have asked me why so much Ben? Why so much Steelers? Is there nothing else of a more important nature that warrants coverage?

I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Local TV news is a business. Our mission is to inform you, but our job is to get you to watch. When there is an important news story, we will cover it extensively, but there is hardly a mine collapse every day, so what stories can we do that attract viewer interest?

In western Pennsylvania, there is only one subject that has universal appeal: the Steelers. Admit it. You love the Steelers and cannot get enough of your Black and Gold. That was proven true this last November. There was a flurry of coverage on Big Ben's injured thumb and suddenly the ratings went up. People tuned in to hear the latest about their quarterback. A winning formula was created: Ben=Ratings.

Even Ben Roethlisberger figured that out. He knew that stories about him drew viewers to the local stations, so he decided what interviews he would do, who he would talk to, and when he would do them. He even knew that November was the sweeps month for stations (a time where ratings performance sets rates stations can charge for commercials for the coming months). That's pretty shrewd for a 24-year old.

The point is the Steelers are getting plenty of coverage because you are watching and because you care. You say you want more coverage of other stories of importance and interest, but your viewing habits tell us in the media that the Steelers are your number one concern. Folks, we live in a democracy and you have the ultimate say as to what we cover. Vote with your remote.

My feeling is you will probably vote for more Steelers coverage. And I will continue to cover the team as I have the last decade at WTAE. Only now I will do it as a news reporter rather than a sportscaster.

Andrew Stockey is a news anchor for WTAE-TV Channel 4.