With many changes on the local TV scene in recent months, it's time for a state of the stations report on the second day of the November sweeps period.

After years of stability, the news director ranks at all three stations saw new faces this year. In addition, stations faced a substantive change to the ratings in July when Nielsen's Local People Meters debuted and often showed an even tighter ratings race than under the old system.

Channel 2 has had its ups and downs over the years but most recently, the morning newscast aside, it generally has been a steady performer, winning in both household ratings and demos in many news time periods.

New news director Coleen Marren has not yet made many noticeable adjustments to the KDKA formula with the exception of bringing back Jennifer Antkowiak, a move in the works before her arrival, and the hiring of Rick Dayton as morning co-anchor.

Ratings for morning newscasts have always been a challenge for KDKA, and that remains true. Although it's early in the new team's tenure, Channel 2's morning news remained in third place in the October Nielsen report with KDKA a good ways behind neck-and-neck WPXI (winner in the adults 25-54 key demo) and WTAE (winner in household ratings).

Comparisons with last year are impossible because the new Nielsen measurement is so different, but average ratings for newscasts on all stations are generally down across the board, which was expected once Nielsen introduced its LPM system.

As far as KDKA's evening newscasts go, there hasn't been much change, especially now that Patrice King Brown is back from the medical leave that kept her off the air for much of the early part of the year. Steelers reports and consumer reporter Yvonne Zanos remain the linchpins in Channel 2's 5 p.m. evening news strategy.

News director Corrie Harding departed late last month and the next day a prospective replacement was spotted in the newsroom, interviewing for the job. Earlier this week we learned that Mike Goldrick, currently at WHEC in Rochester, will step into the position on Dec. 1.

In the meantime, general manager Ray Carter, a former news director, is running the show, and the station appears to be slipping back into the more sensational tone it had largely abandoned in the past five years (many fear-mongering promos for swine flu stories, even before it was widespread).

Carter was instrumental in bringing back Julie Bologna as evening news meteorologist, which has yielded little-to-no ratings benefit. Channel 11 also has holes in its reporting staff, having never filled positions vacated by Andy Gastmeyer (last December), Karen Wells (in April) and most recently Dee Thompson, who retired in September.

The station offered strong coverage of the G-20 protests but was off its game in its immediate response to the shooting of Pittsburgh police officers in April and the L.A. Fitness shooting this summer.

WPXI's advantage of being the first station to have local news in HD disappeared once KDKA joined WTAE and WPXI in broadcasting its news in HD in June.

"The Jay Leno Show," which is hurting the late news ratings of NBC stations nationwide, has had less negative impact on Channel 11 because Pittsburgh is an above average market for Leno in prime time. In October, WPXI was in third place in households and the key demo but was basically on par with its pre-"Leno" ratings from July. Among local stations, the 11 p.m. news on WPXI saw the most ratings growth from its lead-in.

Channel 11's brightest spot remains mornings where it's generally just ahead of WTAE in the key demo. The station's decision to replace Newlin Archinal last year with Jennifer Abney does not appear to have had any negative long-term ratings effect.

Since the arrival of news director Alex Bongiorno early this year -- she's already become the senior news director in town -- Channel 4's newscasts seem to have put more emphasis on breaking news stories that may have limited impact (fires, accidents, etc.) and less on anchor banter, making WTAE more WPXI-like.

Viewer frustration with anchor changes, readily apparent immediately after WTAE's shuffling last fall, appears not to have sent viewers fleeing permanently. Channel 4 maintains an advantage over WPXI at 5 and 6 p.m. (by a greater degree in household ratings than in demos) and beat KDKA in households in September when KDKA's news was pre-empted several times for tennis.

Sometimes when a station shuffles anchors and promises they'll remain visible by reporting for high-profile broadcasts, it doesn't come to pass. But Sally Wiggin has remained in the spotlight at Channel 4 by contributing some of the more interesting features and newsmaker interviews to the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. Michelle Wright had a primary role in the station's G-20 coverage and returning Mike Clark to mornings probably strengthened the station's standing in the time slot, where it often wins in household ratings.

This year WTAE was also the successful bidder to televise lottery drawings locally but the station has yet to capitalize on the tune-in the lottery brings at 6:59 p.m. by launching a 7 p.m. newscast. Splitting the screen at 10:59 p.m. on Wednesday and Saturday for lottery drawings has drawn some rebukes from viewers frustrated to have their programs disrupted.

WTAE unveiled a new on-air look for its promos this week but the station has yet to fill positions vacated by Call 4 Action reporter Aaron Saykin (in July), medical reporter Marilyn Brooks (last December) and meteorologist Don Schwenneker (in December 2007).

Channel 4 has not replaced weekend co-anchor Jake Ploeger, who departed in February, but solo anchors on the weekend evening news appear to be the new normal. KDKA never replaced Don Cannon, who last appeared on the station in 2007, and WPXI never filled Stacia Erdos' spot after she left the station last fall.

WTAE morning anchor Kelly Frey continues on maternity leave following the September birth of her son, Bennett, who was diagnosed during her pregnancy with a severe form of holoprosencephaly, a major defect of brain formation. The impact of that remains to be known but Frey offered a positive update this week.

In a scan of Bennett's brain three weeks ago, doctors found the brain tissue had expanded by as much as 40 percent, "which is a miracle," Frey said. "There was brain there that had essentially been compressed like a sponge. Once the fluid started to be relieved, [that's allowed] the brain tissue to now expand. We still don't know the long-term complications or if damage has been done to the brain tissue but the thinking part of his brain, the cortex, has expanded.

"We're praying that by the next scan his whole head is filled with brain matter and he'll be the smartest person on the planet," Frey said.

There have been bumps in the road. Bennett has already had three surgeries since his birth five weeks ago but Frey is hopeful that he'll soon return from the hospital to a transitional care facility, another step on the road to coming home for the first time.

Frey said she doesn't know when she'll return to Channel 4's morning news.

"Bennett is going to determine that a little bit," she said. "I am coming back, that's not debatable, but it's hard to think right now since this has been anything but normal. We're still getting our feet underneath us. Once he gets out of [the hospital], we're looking forward to some normal family time."

'Scrubs" returns to ABC on Dec. 1 followed by "Better Off Ted" on Dec. 8. ... Syfy has ordered an American version of the BBC America series "Being Human," about a ghost, werewolf and vampire who are roommates. ... NBC has ordered additional episodes of "Parks and Recreation," "Community" and "Mercy" as well as midseason show "Chuck." The peacock will not order more episodes of fall dud "Trauma." ... Comcast won't carry the new premium cable movie channel Epix, but the network has landed a spot on Verizon's FiOS TV lineup as Channel 395 and Channel 895 HD.

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This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about reruns, the youth obsession of advertisers and a faceless traffic reporter. Tuned In Journal includes blog posts about WTAE's repeater signal, "Friday Night Lights" and "Mad Men." Read online TV coverage at post-gazette.com/tv.

In this week's Tuned In podcast, online features editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss "White Collar," reruns (already!) and "Medium." Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.

Contact TV editor Rob Owen at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1112. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv.

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