tampa/st pete/sarasota question

[Run 'n' Get 'em]

Just something I'm curious about... I see Sarasota in "attached" to the Tampa/St. Pete DMA. Is Sarasota actively considered part of the DMA (IE: Tampa stations have bureaus there) or is it just "floating there" doing it's own thing?

I see the ABC in Sarasota advertising themselves as a "small-market" station but they are part of #12!

EDIT: Spell-check

[ September 20, 2005, 12:36 AM: Message edited by: BTW-Shooter ]

[Birdy]

Sarasota receives the Tampa/St. Pete stations, and is covered by them. But, I believe that they also have a few stations/bureaus that give more local coverage, which accounts for their "small market." Sarasota & Bradenton are just over the Skyway Bridge from St. Pete, which isn't far, but the water separation makes for two completely different types of cities. If you have the chance to go to Sarasota and you like the beach, DO IT!! It's beautiful, lots of arts and things to do, and on the lower side of hurricane activity (by Florida standards).

[photodude]

Here is the real story on St.Pete/Tampa Sarasota.

Sarasota is a nice city to live in with Siesta Key Beach not far from WWSB, WWSB is the only broadcast station in Sarasota. I believe it is only 10 mins down the road from the station. It is only about three blocks from Sarasota Bay.

WWSB Pays you in sunshine. Since April 2005 they have lost i believe a total of 8-9 people. most of them got FIRED. The sports department thinks they are ESPN. The Chief Photographer, I would not trust him at all, he will be your friend one min and then turns his back on you. The Chief will tell you "your doing a great job", but then the next day you walk into work and he gives you a warning for something that you never did. The News department is all right with some of the reporters. All this station cares about is awards, awards, awards. the more awards you have the better off you are. just think of this if you want to work down there. Yeah it is a nice place to live a lot of things happen down there. But it is a revolving door, they do not like to keep people there for a long time. trust me on that. just look at the station record from APRIL 2005.

[Run 'n' Get 'em]

I'm from Clearwater so I'd love to get back down to that area... Anyone on here from WWSB or have any contacts down there I could shoot an e-mail to?

[PhrozenPhoto]

From what I remember about that market, and this is having not lived there, but visited relatives who live there for 30 years... Sarasota has always received Tampa's stations (I'm guessing that would be becuase the state is flat as a board and Tampa's only an hour or so away. They have always had the one "local" station for as long as I can remember, and for the longest time it was it's own market, With Bradenton being the northern edge of it's market (Manatee County I think, I can't recall for sure) I think as technology grew and Tampa probably grew their fleet of live trucks they started venturing down into Manatee and Sarasota Counties more often since their signal was obviously getting there. I think for Sarasota to be lumped into their DMA they had to either reach a certain threshold of viewers in those particular counties (which probably was not hard to do since I remember WWSB as being the poster child for what small television looks like) or the Tampa stations had to have some sort of physical presecene in one of those counties (ie a bureau) either way Sarasota is now lumped in, and it's been a few years since I've been there, but from what I hear not much has changed as far as WWSB goes. I think a lot of people like it for the fact that it is more locally oriented towards their community, but I think people tend to flip to WFLA or WTSP for the bigger stories. I could be wrong though. And I think WWSB cahnged channels.... I remember when I was a kid it was like Ch 40 or 44 or something like that. Another option if you really want to get to Sarasota is either Ft Myers which isn't too far away, or Sarasota's other outlet SNN 6 I believe is what it is called, a 24 hour channel that I know the local paper has a hand in. Don't know much about it other than the time or two I've seen it on when I was down there.