We have visited this subject many times before, but since we had a situation this morning that prompted some questions, let’s take another look…
Many of our friends in Marengo County wanted to know why we weren’t on the air this morning with wall to wall coverage when they were under a tornado warning. The answer? Marengo County is not in our TV market.
Our promise for continuous tornado coverage is only for counties in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Annstion DMA (Designated Market Area). Those counties? Jefferson, Shelby, Pickens, Marion, Greene, Hale, Bibb, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston, Fayette, Walker, Cullman, Blount, Chilton, Coosa, Talladega, St. Clair, Etowah, Cherokee, Calhoun, and Clay. A total of 22 counties across North-Central Alabama.
The problem is in some “cross over” counties, where people have the option of watching local TV from multiple markets.
How are the counties assigned to a market? Very simple; it is based exclusively on the viewing habits of the people that live there. Counties are assigned to the market with local stations that the majority of people in the county watch. We have no control over that. Here are the cross-over counties that we would LOVE to have in the Birmingham market, but are not since a majority of the people there watch local stations in other places:
Marengo (Montgomery market)
Perry (Montgomery market)
Tallapoosa (Montgomery market)
Sumter (Meridian, MS market)
Lamar (Columbus/Tupelo market)
Cleburne (Atlanta market)
Randolph (Atlanta market)
Trust me, we do understand many people in those counties are faithful viewers, but until the county is in our market, we can’t promise wall to wall tornado coverage. Just spread the word, and watch local affiliates out of Birmingham, and if we get the majority, then you will belong to us!
