Last week's news that NBC-owned stations in New York and Miami will replace their 5 p.m. newscasts with syndicated shows and add local news at 7 p.m. was both surprising and logical.

Surprising because the 5 p.m. news has become a TV staple; logical because people are working longer hours and getting home later. The audience for an early evening newscast would seem to be limited to less desirable demographics (e.g. retired viewers with more time to watch TV).

But don't expect Pittsburgh stations to follow suit and start peeling off 5 p.m. news hours. Not gonna happen.

	James Hilston, Post-Gazette Click on chart for larger image.

While the 5 p.m. newscast does skew older, its ratings remain solid enough to warrant continuing it. Indeed, ratings for most local newscasts in Pittsburgh are higher than news ratings in many other markets.

"I could never imagine a time when we would eliminate one of our existing newscasts," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike. "While I don't envision expanding beyond where we are at the moment, I think it's more likely we would add local news time than subtract local news time."

Pike said in a universe of 200 TV channels, what makes local broadcast outlets unique is their localism, whether that's news or sports.

"I don't envision us being less local as we go forward," he said. "I would envision us being more local."

WTAE news director Bob Longo said he thinks news directors nationwide will watch what happens in New York and Miami. If successful, stations in other cities will follow suit.

"There are still a lot of people in Pittsburgh watching the 5 p.m. news," he said. "I don't see it as an either/or; I see it as another [newscast at 7]."

Longo said one challenge to Pittsburgh stations that might want to add a 7 p.m. newscast is the existing contracts stations have for the syndicated programming that already airs between 7 and 8 p.m.

For WPXI general manager Ray Carter, it's also a matter of not wanting to mess with a winning formula. He airs "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" in the "access hour" between 7 and 8 p.m. The two game shows have handily won their time slots for years.

"That would be very difficult for us to move out," Carter said. Instead, sister-cable channel PCNC airs a live half-hour of news at 7 p.m.

So why will New York and Miami drop 5 p.m. newscasts? One possible reason, Pike noted, was competition with Spanish-language newscasts, particularly in Miami. The New York Times suggested by adding news at 7 p.m., it might help boost ratings for the lagging "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" at 6:30 p.m., which will now be hammocked between local news at 6 and 7.

"While I certainly understand the rationale for [adding news at 7] and I think over time there will be an audience for that newscast," Pike said, "clearly the habit for viewership in that time period is to watch programs other than local news. I suspect there will be some growing pains making the 7 p.m. local news work."

Copter chaos

I was out all day last Friday working in Los Angeles and came back to my hotel room to see the top headline on AOL.com about the crash of two TV news helicopters. The stations were not identified in the headline, so I held my breath as I clicked on the story link, hoping it didn't happen in Pittsburgh. The helicopters that collided were from two TV stations in Phoenix. Both were covering a police chase when the accident occurred.

I have long feared a mid-air collision like this in Pittsburgh, where the news competition is fierce. As I leave work many weeknights, I can often tell when something will be on the news because I hear three choppers hovering over Downtown. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with using a helicopter as a news-gathering tool (it was necessary in the Minneapolis bridge collapse Wednesday), but there is something wrong with getting so caught up in a police chase that you don't watch where you're flying.

An investigation is under way, but it's likely that one or both of those Phoenix helicopter pilots lost track of where the other one was, perhaps because he was following the chase on the ground, under the tacit pressure to always be first with breaking news.

In the wake of the Phoenix tragedy, TV news outlets nationwide would be wise to evaluate their use of helicopters and ensure that safety -- not the gluttonous desire to be first -- is the top priority.

Where's Honsberger?

Although he's been back on the radio for months, I continue to get questions from TV viewers asking why Fred Honsberger has not returned to his TV show on PCNC since breaking his leg last year.

"There are some endurance issues with walking around," Honsberger said. "The mobility is not easy."

Honsberger said he continues to do his radio show from home while recovering. He also had an unrelated medical problem a few months ago, a perforated ulcer, that required surgery.

"That threw me for a loop and set me back," Honsberger said. "It's just a real slow thing. I'm concentrating on my radio show. That's the most important thing."

Honsberger said his TV program is more of a "moonlighting job," and he doesn't have a timetable for when he might return to it.

"I've told the people at [PCNC] that they can move on if they want," Honsberger said. "They may. I don't know, we'll see."

PCNC station manager Mark Barash said nothing has changed from the station's perspective.

"We continue to hope for Fred's full recovery," Barash wrote in an e-mail, "and to have the Honsberger show back on the PCNC schedule."

Brown remarried

KDKA-TV news anchor Patrice King Brown married KDKA medical reporter Dr. Paul Nemiroff this past weekend in Palm Springs, Calif.

Channel surfing

For children getting ready to go to school for the first time, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" will air a week of episodes dedicated to preparing preschoolers for their first school experience. The episodes will air Aug. 13-17 at 11 a.m. on WQED and repeat the week of Aug. 20 at 7 a.m. ... Another childhood favorite of mine, the 1982-83 series "Voyagers!," is out on DVD without any extras. ... Season two of Oxygen's Tori Spelling reality show, "Tori & Dean: Inn Love," premieres at 10 p.m. Aug. 14. ... Incoming Point Park University freshman Shalane Larango of Vancouver, Wash., will compete in the "2007 Miss Teen USA Competition," airing at 8 p.m. Aug. 24 on NBC, representing her home state. ... Cable channel TV One will air four previously unaired episodes of sketch comedy show "Cedric the Entertainer Presents," 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday. ... Joe Regalbuto ("Murphy Brown") will play a recuring role on Lifetime's "Side Order of Life" beginning with the Aug. 12 episode. ... To the surprise of absolutely no one given its stellar ratings, TNT has renewed "The Closer" for a fourth season to air next summer. ... Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent/Superman in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," will guest star this fall on The CW's Superman show, "Smallville," as a villain.

TV Q&A

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about WPCW in HD, TV shows in syndication and the "Save Carson Beckett campaign." Read it at post-gazette.com/tv.