Name: Thomas M. Long
Position: Vice President and General Manager for ABC6, WLNE-TV
Background: Born in South Carolina. Raised in northwest United States. Joined WLNE-TV in Nov. 1996. Held same position at KTLV-TV in Medford, Ore., since 1989. Sales manager, KDRV-TV, Medford, 1984-1989. General manager, KHUG radio, Medford, 1983-1984. Co-owner, Desautel & Long advertising and public relations, Spokane, Wash., 1980-1983. Station manager, KREM AM/FM, Spokane, 1977-1984. Business Manager, KREM AM/FM, 1972-1977.
Education: Bachelors degree in business, California State University, Sacramento. Served three years in the Army.
Family: married, two children, two grandchildren
Residence: Bristol
PBN: What were your expectations upon taking this job three years ago and how have they been met/unmet?
LONG: I expected to be able to improve our news ratings. I wasn’t disappointed necessarily with the product, as far as journalistically how it was done. But … broadcast television is not a subscriber medium, so you have to have a large audience in order to get advertisers. … So ratings are just a fact of life with us. I wanted to get the ratings up and I expected to be able to do that. And that’s been tougher than I thought.
In January you hired news anchors Amy DeLuca and Ron Harbaugh to take over for Larry Estepa, who left the station, and Pamela Watts, who now hosts the noon news. What precipitated that change?
The change didn’t relate to anything negative on the part of Larry or Pam. But their contracts were up and we thought about what hadn’t moved the needle, so to speak, and we decided to make some changes. But I want to point out that … those weren’t actually the most profound changes we made to our news.
What were?
I think it’s simply the way we approach doing the news. It’s now a more viewer-useful approach as opposed to here’s the news, take it or leave it so long as it’s journalistically correct.
Can you give an example?
If you have a six-car pile-up downtown, typically that would be covered as just a dramatic piece of video. Now we would cover it as here’s a place not to go if you’re traveling downtown. Here’s what happened, here’s how it could affect you and here’s what you should do if you’re on your way from here to here. That’s the kind of thing we’re doing.
Back to the anchors, you replaced a couple of local personalities with a pair not from Rhode Island or even New England. Why?
We did test certain of our people. And others in this market were tested against an audience. But the things that we were looking for involved fairly universal characteristics. Rhode Island is provincial. A lot of places are and Rhode Island certainly is. We were looking for a tie. Amy does have that tie to this area because her husband’s family is from Cranston. Ron doesn’t. But Ron comes to us with over 20 years of anchor experience and we were looking for that experienced, seasoned story teller. And Ron fit that bill.
WLNE and Cox Communications have teamed up to create the state’s first 24-hour local news channel, rebroadcasting ABC 6 News at the top and bottom of every hour. How does that fit into your business plan?
That began in November last year. … This is part of our strategy to develop strategic relationships with players that can be beneficial to us or that can help us be beneficial to the community.
How do you benefit financially from the arrangement?
I won’t give you all of the details on that. But, generally speaking, it’s a partnership and there’s a sharing of profits when and if they come. In other words, they (Cox) are selling ads into it. The Rhode Island News Channel is a separate company and we each made contributions to it and there’s a provision for sharing.
Who initiated the partnership?
I believe Cox approached us first. And, looking back, I’m not sure why it was us.
Because you’ve traditionally ranked third among local network affiliates?
You know, as I said, journalistically our newscast is top-notch. And, indeed, we just received for the third year in a row the news station of the year award from Associated Press. So what happens is if you submit what we do to someone who isn’t third-generation Rhode Island or Bristol County, Mass, and they judge that as a product then we’re fine. We did some research last year, by the way, and among people who have lived in Rhode Island five years or less we do better than among people who are long-term Rhode Islanders.
Channel 10 is viewed by many people just because we’ve always watched that. My mother watched that. My grandmother watched that. … That’s the kind of thing that you’re up against in trying to change television viewing habits. But, you know, we have a loyal audience. It’s kind of a battle between us and WPRI (Channel 12) for second place. And then first place is way up here and WJAR has had that and still has that position. But the bulk of their audience is significantly older.
So you’re saying it’s an uphill battle with perception?
Building news typically in any market is a long-term build. Unless you do something like Channel 12, which took a sensationalist approach in the late 80s, early 90s. And that got them audience. It also got them a reputation that they’ve been trying to shed ever since. And some people still attribute it to them. We still have the reputation of we’re the New Bedford station because that’s indeed where we were first licensed and for years we were there.
Your newscasts do seem to include more Bristol County, Mass., news than your competitors’.
I’ll bet you couldn’t objectively prove that, because it isn’t true. As a matter of fact, if any one station focuses on New Bedford more than the others it’s Channel 10. And, indeed, there’s only one station in Providence. And that’s us. I don’t have any quarrel. Perception is for us reality. We just have to deal with it. If they think it, that’s our problem. We’ve tried to change that for years. And it’s difficult because things don’t change very easily in Rhode Island. And that’s not a negative comment. I think that’s part of the character and the loveliness of the area. But it’s tough for us. It makes it tough for us to change opinions.
You said you want to develop more strategic partnerships. What are other examples?
One of our best strategic plans is we hooked up with OSO.com (owned by Cox Interactive Media). We are the news provider for OSO.com. (Our Web site and theirs) are hyperlinked.
Whose idea was that?
They approached us. Other strategic partnerships that we’re going to develop would involve other media. It could be radio and print, because we already have the Web and Cable. One of our strategic partnerships that has nothing to do with conventional media is the ABC6 Playhouse at the Emerald Square Mall. … It’s a break room for moms and kids. We promote it and they (the mall) promote it. We think it’s a nice kind of partnership in the community interest.
The Providence Journal recently dropped Channel 6 as its weather page sponsor in favor of Channel 10. What happened?
That was originally our and the Providence Journal’s idea back in ’94, I think. I think (The Journal) thought it was time for a change. There wasn’t any specific reason. (Channel 10) obviously has a larger audience, so maybe (The Journal) wanted to take advantage of that.
You’ve also teamed up with Cox to air Boston Red Sox games in Rhode Island. How does that work?
We have what’s called a low-power television station, Channel 48. Low-powers are 1,000 watts or less and they’re designed to supplement areas where there is maybe a coverage deficiency or something like that. … For years we’ve carried some of the Red Sox games on 6, but all of them on 48. This year we’re carrying all of them on 48 and Cox picks it up. So everywhere Cox is you can get Red Sox. That’s their relationship. And they (Cox) act as our sales arm for the commercials. The agreement is with us.
And you share revenues from ads?
Yes.
Other than the two network affiliates, how do you define your competition these days?
Media is proliferating to the point where everything is competition for time. In the days when there were three, four or five options for viewing, if you put on something half-decent you could get 20 percent of the audience. Now you have to put on something doggoned good because there are so many alternatives. Although everything looks the same, … this business has changed so much in the last five years. It’s incredibly dynamic. Cable penetration in Rhode Island is one of the highest in the nation at 78 percent. Satellite is growing. It’s not very big here yet, but it will be. And it’s only a small technological barrier that’s keeping us from receiving all of this over our phone lines. And if they can switch those lines to fiber optics then there’s no barrier. Those kinds of things make the number of video options just incredible. What reason is there for someone to specifically choose us over someone else? What it has to be is whatever service we provide the community in terms of information or entertainment or public service … things that affect their lives. That’s why we think our current approach has relevance and has a good chance for long-term success.
Your station is owned by Freedom Communications of California. How would you describe your relationship with ABC-TV?
Not as good as it was 5 years ago. We’re an affiliate by contract. That contract when it expires, who knows if they’ll want to renew it.
When does it expire?
Six years.
Why do you say the relationship isn’t as good as it was?
Networks are under tremendous pressure profit-wise and because their audiences are being decimated, too, by the number of media options. They’re being squeezed at the bottom line. And we are literally their distribution system. Just like you see all these W.B. Mason trucks. That’s their distribution system and they need those trucks. Well, they’ve needed us. But the number of ways they can get their signal out to people has increased, too. We’re not the only way for them to reach the audience now. Consequently, that’s why most stations are attempting to solidify their position in the community. Because you just don’t want to be another channel on Cox. You want to be a recognizable part of the community. The station that provided the thing at Emerald Square Mall. The station that you saw in the Bristol parade.
Doesn’t ABC need a network affiliate here?
Not necessarily. They could affiliate with Cox. … People who are growing up don’t even think about that. It’s ‘give me what I want and go away. Just make it pop up on the screen when I push this button. I don’t care if it’s a local affiliate and I don’t care what they’ve done for the community. Just give me my programming.’
So how do you view your relationship heading into the future?
I want to have it continue. But the best way for me to have that continue is to make myself so strong that I’m indispensable to ABC. … In their own self interest they’ll make it happen if I’m as strong as I can be. So my goal is basically two things: make money and serve the community. That’s really it. The rest follows.
