Dallas TV Station Offers All-Star TV News For Baby Boomers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KTXD Attempts to Lure Seniors to ‘The Texas Daily with Jeff Brady’
Dallas, TX – Imagine taking the most successful TV news anchors, hosts and journalists from a major market’s heyday in the 80s and 90s, putting them back on the air in one lively talk-show that offers news headlines, opinions and laughter. It’s happening in Dallas on an independent station targeting Baby Boomers instead of younger viewers.
“These are the all-stars of North Texas TV,” says ‘The Texas Daily’ host Jeff Brady, a veteran of twenty years in TV news and a former anchor at WFAA-TV in Dallas. “And I’m lucky enough to sit down with old friends and competitors to discuss the headlines of the day. I think it’s the best job in Dallas!” Brady hosts the program, which airs 6-7pm Central in the Dallas market and is re-broadcast at 9:30 each night. “Anyone who’s lived here for more than a decade will know and trust this team.”
The other counter-programming concept – each of the co-hosts is encouraged – even expected – to offer opinion and a personal slant to the conversation. It’s a step far outside the objective boundary still honored by most career journalists. “We want them to offer perspective,” says Brady, “based on their years of work in this market.”
Normally the broad 18-49 year-old demographic is known as the “Holy Grail” of TV ratings. These are the coveted viewers most often in demand by advertisers and therefore, the ones for whom most TV programming is designed. In the nation’s 5th-biggest TV market, however, this new concept in local news has targeted a distinctly more mature audience using a cast of ‘long-retired, fired but not expired’ Baby Boomer anchors and journalists. It’s called ‘The Texas Daily,’ and the owners of Dallas station KTXD call it a news-talk hybrid presenting headlines and commentary for an older audience.
“When we bought the station, every one of our hosts was retired,” says Phil Hurley, the COO of London Broadcasting, which owns KTXD. “But they still represented an amazing array of talent. I think they’re reflective of our audience. People in the DFW area who have slowed down, but may be doing their best work ever in a slightly different capacity.”
Brady hosts the show with a rotating cast of a dozen other broadcasters, including long-time WFAA co-workers Troy Dungan, Tracy Rowlett and Iola (Eye-OH-la) Johnson, who anchored the news together in the 1980s. Some have compared the program to “The View” or “Morning Joe” on MSNBC with senior North Texas journalists on the roundtable instead of New Yorkers.
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Trish Stevens
Jillian M. Sachtleben
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Office: (281) 333-3507
[email protected]
www.ascotmediagroup.com
