@billybob : There's a reason why major publications over the last few years have been touting Buffalo as a destination, best kept secret type of city. Now a new convention center is in the talks

@HipKat :

The headquarters for the Buffalo newspaper is right downtown by canalside. People were always coming and going from there. You could see a lot of people in there even at night. Just saying.Oh and by tbe way, two Marriott hotels are right there too.

People in any town need local news.

@cjsummers : There's the confusion, TV homes vs population.DMA numbers are very important in the TV industry for advertising rates, etc.
Any DMA top 100 market would be a better career option for any young news personally that doesn't mind moving.
Like a low market sports team, Peoria TV execs need to keep introducing new talent vs hiring experienced, established names.

@cjsummers : In the 2017 Nieldon rankings, Bloomington Normal is ranked by itself. In my original I clearly stated that other markets in Central Illinois were ranked higher than Peoria.In your data, Bloomington is mixed with Peoria thus a slightly higher ranking.

@billybob : springfield and champaign are combined with decatur in there as well.

@cjsummers : A friend of mine , I used to work with , has a hard copy of the Nielsen rankings and alll their other demographic data because he uses it in his job. I will get his copy and photo it and post it here or a link to tbe online version.

@billybob : you might be looking at nielsens radio. those are two separate markets. peoria-bloomington has been the tv market for a long time. www.nielsen.com/cont ent/dam/corporate/us /en/public%20factshe ets/tv/2018-19-

Brooke always puts up photos of herself on Facebook and almost every comment is from some weird old dude telling her how pretty she looks.

@Tazewell : Thing is though, this used to be the norm everywhere else when it came to broadcasters. When I was looking to go into the field, I was told "if you plan on having any degree of success, you need to plan on moving to a different market every few years, and that doesn't include internal changes & such." Peoria is sort of an anormality where radio and TV talent sticks around for 10+ years in the same gig.

@JeepPilot : Exactly
The lower the ranking of the market is in your first job is in broadcasting the higher the potential is to advance.
Read the bios of any network on air personality and you will see they started out in smaller markets and rose from there. Conversely, news anchors, weather people and sportscasters that are in the largest markets most often stay until they retire or die or move to a major network. Because opportunities out of those jobs into other broadcasting jobs start to be fewer. They are already at the top.

The newest morning/noon anchor, Semone Doughton on 25 NEWS, is bringing back the restaurant series, "You Gotta Eat!" on Thursdays. First stop will be the Busy Corner Grill in Goodfield. In talking about movement by anchors/reporters, don't forget those that came, stayed in Peoria, and worked for many years. Bob Larsen, Tom McIntyre, Garry Moore, Denise Jackson, Chuck Collins, Jim Mattson, Lee Hall (although now in Sales). Others like Mike Dimmick and Eric Shangraw went to other occupations. Gina Morse was at 25, then Komen Center, and now back at 25 News. Radio personalities such as Ed Hammond, who's been at either WIRL or WMBD for a long time. (I disclose that Ed used to be married to my wife's sister).