{"id":11468,"date":"2016-05-27T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=11468"},"modified":"2016-05-27T06:02:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T11:02:23","slug":"ron-magers-goes-out-a-winner-in-abc-7-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2016\/05\/27\/ron-magers-goes-out-a-winner-in-abc-7-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Magers goes out a winner in ABC 7 ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ron<\/a>

<\/a> Ron Magers (May 25, 2016)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ron Magers delivered a pitch-perfect farewell <\/a>and a larger than usual audience to close out the May rating sweep on a winning note for WLS-Channel 7.<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran anchorman\u2019s final 10 p.m. newscast Wednesday easily won its time period for the ABC-owned station, with a 10.0 rating (347,520 households) and 18 percent share \u2014 up 28 percent from its average for the month. Magers retired after 35 years in Chicago television news, including the last 18 at top-rated ABC 7.<\/p>\n

Nielsen numbers released Thursday showed ABC 7 winning the monthlong sweep at 10 p.m. with a 7.8 rating (271,065 households), followed by NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5<\/a> with a 7.0 rating (262,164 households), Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9<\/a> with a 2.8 rating (97,305 households), and CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2<\/a> with a 2.7 rating (93,830 households).<\/p>\n

NBC 5 narrowed the gap with ABC 7 in overall households, and maintained its lead among viewers between 25 and 54. In the adult demo at 10 p.m., NBC had a 3.6 rating, followed by ABC 7 with a 2.7, WGN with a 1.2, and CBS 2 with a 1.0.<\/p>\n

Among 9 p.m. newscasts, WGN had a 4.2 rating (145,958 households) and Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32<\/a> had a 2.0 rating (69,504 households).<\/p>\n

Culminating a week of tributes and special reports in his honor, Magers bowed out alone at a darkened anchor desk. \"I've had the great good fortune of doing something I loved for the last 51 years,\" Magers told viewers. \"Even when I hated it, I loved it.\" Quoting a possibly apocryphal line from Dr. Seuss, he added: \u201cDon't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.\u201d Afterward colleagues and family joined him on set for hugs and applause.<\/p>\n

Succeeding Magers Thursday alongside co-anchor Kathy Brock at 6 and 10 p.m. and co-anchor Cheryl Burton at 5 p.m. was Alan Krashesky, a 34-year veteran of ABC 7.<\/p>\n

For the last word<\/a> on Magers\u2019s retirement, there's this from Jim Warren, chief media correspondent for Poynter.org <\/a>and former Chicago Tribune<\/a> media critic:<\/p>\n

Sign of the times in local TV<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sun-Times<\/a>

Sun-Times (May 25, 2016)<\/p><\/div>\n

The local homages have been ample for Ron Magers, who last night signed off at WLS-TV, the ABC-owned station, after 35 years as a Chicago TV anchor. His exit dominated Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times <\/a>front page. Unmentioned were dramatic economic changes that have made even genial de facto teleprompter readers like Magers high six-figure or seven-figure luxuries stations can't afford. WLS once printed money, especially in the years after it created a morning show hosted by a woman named Oprah Winfrey. Chicagoans tuned to Channel 7 for her and didn't switch. Now everybody's ratings are heading south, and a younger generation doesn't care for the numbing low-brow repetition of much TV news. So stations are hiring younger, far cheaper de facto teleprompter readers. Magers, 71, says he's a lucky guy. Yup. The man, moment and money were perfectly aligned.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ron Magers delivered a pitch-perfect farewell and a larger than usual audience to close out the May rating sweep on a winning note for WLS-Channel 7. The veteran anchorman\u2019s final 10 p.m. newscast Wednesday easily won its time period for the ABC-owned station, with a 10.0 rating (347,520 households) and 18 percent share \u2014 up... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11468"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11475,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468\/revisions\/11475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}