Local TV and radio web sites have sprung up all over the web. But in a business driven by mass audiences, attention to the bottom line, and at some stations, even budget cuts, broadcasting web sites have not yet proven to be either popular or profitable. About 6,700 American television and radio stations have web sites up and running, according to Eric Meyer, a professor of journalism at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Meyer says that's almost twice the number of newspaper web sites. But only a few stations have actually hired cyberworkers like Riggi.
Bigger stations tend to have bigger web ambitions.
Most stations, however, worried about costs, simply make do with the staff and the content they already produce. At WINK-TV in Fort Myers, FL, the executive producer, in addition to his other duties, files a couple of fresh local stories a day. Those stories run as text, without video or audio, on what is essentially a CBS News web site. All 17 Belo-owned stations have web sites. First, viewers see the gauzy graphics and bold logos so familiar to TV news watchers.