DALLAS -- Belo stations provided free airtime to 135 congressional and gubernatorial candidates across the U.S. during the 2012 election season, the company announced. Each of its 14 news-producing TV station broadcast two hours of political coverage per week in the six weeks leading up to Election Day.
From Sept. 23 to Nov.5, Belo television stations aired an average of 87 local and national election-related stories each week. The coverage included eight debates. Belo re-broadcast an average of 105 stories weekly on its regional and local news channels. It also streamed and archived election-related stories and debates on its 20 station websites, and distributed election coverage on its digital multicast subchannels, mobile applications, and station Facebook pages.
The coverage was part of Belo’s “It’s Your Time” program, started in 1996 to help disseminate information about elections and issues. Other 2012 highlights included:
•A one-hour Texas Republican U.S. Senate debate which aired on all Belo Texas television stations including WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KHOU-TV in Houston, KENS-TV in San Antonio, and KVUE-TV in Austin. The debate was streamed on each station’s website as well as on Belo’s regional cable news channel, TXCN. It was also streamed on the website of The Dallas Morning News and made available statewide to Texas radio stations and Spanish television stations. This debate was followed by an additional one-hour Texas Republican runoff debate hosted by WFAA;
•A one-hour Texas U.S. Senate debate hosted by WFAA between Republican and former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and Democrat and former State Representative Paul Sadler;
•A one-hour Washington state gubernatorial debate hosted by KING-TV in Seattle/Tacoma between Democrat and former U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee and Republican Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna; and,
div id="pastingspan1">•A one-hour gubernatorial debate hosted by WCNC-TV in Charlotte between Democrat and former Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton and Republican and former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.
