Compared to January, KGW didn't get as big a bump as one might expect from the Olympics, with most shows gaining just two tenths of a ratings point or less among viewers aged 25-54. There were two big exceptions, though: the 6:30 pm newscast, which was up more than 25 percent over January, and Live @ 7, which nearly doubled its ratings. Olympics coverage began at 7:30. KGW's late news isn't listed because of its irregular air time following the games.

UPDATE (8:17 pm): We've added KGW's locally produced "Olympic Zone" at 7:30 pm to the chart. The special aired for 13 days.

  = Morning and midday news
  = Evening news
  = Late news

And I scrapped the asterisks for shows that include weekend ratings in their averages. The difference it makes isn't as significant as I first thought.

Tyra's ditching daytime, Martha's moving to cable, and Bonnie got the boot.

With three daytime TV shows leaving the fall lineup, local stations are searching for new syndicated programming to replace them. OMC asked the general managers of KATU, KOIN, KGW, KPTV, KRCW and KPDX what changes are coming to Portland's TV schedules.

Martha Stewart left KATU for KPTV last year, but now that she's moving to the Hallmark Channel, the local Fox affiliate has poached Rachael Ray from KGW. KGW, in turn, has cleared a new program hosted by Nate Berkus, Oprah's interior designer, for 11 am.

KPTV GM Patrick McCreery says the station has yet to decide on a replacement for the canceled Bonnie Hunt show at 2 pm.

Meanwhile, KRCW, Portland's CW affiliate, is dealing with Tyra Banks' decision to end her daytime show. The station currently carries two hours of Tyra: first-run shows at 4 pm, preceded by reruns at 3. KRCW plans to keep "best of" shows at 3, and will most likely air sitcoms at 4. The station picked up a new Nancy Grace vehicle called "Swift Justice," a sort of court show minus the courtroom set, which is likely to air earlier in the day. KRCW also cleared "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage," but those shows are set to run in late night.

Among other new shows yet to find a Portland home is "Don't Forget the Lyrics," a remake of the karaoke-based game show that first ran on Fox from 2007 to 2009.

KATU and KOIN currently have no plans to change their schedules this fall, while no major new first-run shows are slated for KPDX.

The Oregonian reports that Dick Bogle, remembered as a pioneer in Portland television news and city politics, has passed away at the age of 79.

Richard Bogle spent eight years on the Portland Police force before shifting to television, working as a reporter and anchor, at Channel KATU-Channel 2 for 15 years. After a career in television news, Bogle was elected to city council in 1984, where he served as a commissioner for eight years.

No funeral has been planned, but a memorial to celebrate Bogle's life is tentatively set for March.

• The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld former "AM Northwest" host Ken Ackerman's $1.4 million damage award for what Ackerman says has been constant pain and nerve damage after his spinal cord was accidentally punctured by an OHSU surgeon. OHSU plans to appeal to the state supreme court. Ackerman left KATU in 2005, two years after his surgery, and had been an original member of KPTV's "Good Day Oregon" until 2002. He's now selling real estate.
• Eric Taylor has replaced Art Edwards as co-host of "KOIN Local 6 Early." This round of musical chairs follows Kacey Montoya replacing Jenny Hansson and precedes Matt Brode's arrival to the green screen after Christine Ferreira's exit. Meteorologist Tim Joyce is delivering morning forecasts in the interim. Carly Kennelly, to David Letterman's delight, remains on traffic. See a promo.
• The Brew (105.9 KFBW) has added new Clear Channel syndicated host Nikki Sixx, the guitarist for Mötley Crüe, to its lineup, airing weekday evenings. The station recently cut Scott Lander from afternoons and now airs recordings of Program Director Chris Sargent from 6 am to noon and DJ Daniel Bozyk from noon to 7 pm.
• And I'm realizing that, with having a separate job, traveling around town, performing additional work related to this site and attempting more enterprise stories, day-to-day reporting for this site is slowing. So I could use some help. If you think you could have written any of the short items above, and you'd like to help out, contact me. There's no commitment in terms of story counts or word counts, I can give you leads or you can find items on your own, and then you, too, can foolishly blog for free about people who are paid to be in the media. For more info, reach me at oregonmediagmail [dot] com.

While KPTV's 10 pm news remains the top local newscast overall, KOIN has managed to take the lead at 11. That #1 position is remarkable, as the station is last in every other time slot. KOIN is helped by a dominant CBS primetime, and also by the weakness of longtime leader KGW's poor lead in: at 10:45, Leno delivered the lowest ratings among Portland's four local news stations.

And new this year, I'm adding an asterisk to shows that include weekend episodes in their monthly averages, which would normally bring down total ratings.

  = Morning and midday news
  = Evening news
  = Late news

This chart is based on data copyright Nielsen Media Research. In cases of ratings ties, programs are ranked by share.

*Ratings averages include weekend episodes.

As always, if you have access to television or radio ratings in Portland, Eugene, Medford or Bend, please contact me. I always need new sources. Thank you!

UPDATE (9:25 pm): I've removed a reference to weekend ad sales from the explanation of 7-day averages.

KATU got an online makeover today, following a similar redesign for Fisher flagship KOMO's website in November.

Troy McGuire, general manager of Fisher Interactive, tells OMC that, in addition to the obvious visual changes, the site's video player is improved and load times are faster. He points out that more photos and video are "above the fold" and that there's more emphasis on the site's neighborhood content. Navigation and content discovery are improved as well, he says.

The redesign is meeting a mixed reception among visitors, with 48 percent of poll respondents giving the new site a thumbs down, versus 30 percent who are more favorable. A strong "meh" contingent accounts for the rest.

McGuire says Eugene's KVAL will be receiving a similar makeover, though no date is set. The redesign for KATU.com comes after new sites for KGW and KPTV late last year.

New traffic reporter

Something else that's new on KATU's website is the bio for new traffic reporter Greg Knight. According to that profile, Knight has previously reported for KNRV and KREN in Reno, as well as KCSG in Utah. More recently, he was news director and operations manager at radio station KSUE in Susanville, California. Knight has lived in Portland for 5 of the last 11 years, the bio says.

Knight replaces Lauren Allison, who left KATU last month for an opportunity to anchor and do weather at KVAL.

(Thank you to Brad Taylor and Jordan Frasier for contributing leads.)

Fox 12 is back on top this month. Compare against November. All locally produced weekday programs are ranked, with national morning and evening news programs included for comparison.

  = Morning and midday news
  = Evening news
  = Late news

This chart is based on data copyright Nielsen Media Research. In cases of ratings ties, programs are ranked by share.

As always, if you have access to television or radio ratings in Portland, Eugene, Medford or Bend, please contact me. I always need new sources. Thank you!

KATU reports that their own chief meteorologist, Dave Salesky, is the pilot who made an emergency landing on Sauvie Island yesterday afternoon, having completely lost power.

Salesky said both he and the plane were without injury and that, just two hours later, he flew the plane out of the field that he had landed in. His single-engine Aeronca Champion lost power at 1200 feet, about four miles from the Scappoose Airport, according to KATU.

Salesky is back to delivering forecasts on Channel 2 today. He became KATU's Chief Meteorologist in October after over 20 years of doing morning weather across town at KGW.

(Thank you to everyone who sent this in.)

Pasadena is the temporary capital of Oregon sports media as numerous reporters, photographers and additional crew assemble in California for the Oregon-Ohio State Rose Bowl.

KATU sports Director Katy Brown says nine people from her station are in Pasadena, including herself, Steve Dunn and Anna Song on air, plus three photogs, two live truck operators and a field producer. "Needless to say, it's a big deal," she says, "especially since the game is on our network." Song says she's "doing the fan angle the whole time I'm here — the fun stuff." Sports reporter Craig Birnbach will anchor Friday's 11 pm sportscast, he tells OMC.

KVAL Eugene Sports Director Tom Ward says, "We were the first TV station from Oregon down here last Saturday, and have been going strong since we hit the ground."

"Since we’ve been here," he says, "we covered the team at Disneyland, have gone to several practices, and saw them put away large quantities of beef at Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills. We’ve done some sort of 'look live' or live report every day we've been here. [On Tuesday], our sister station from Portland, KATU, arrived en masse and helped out a great deal with live coverage."

The Register-Guard's George Schroeder is in LA, he says, along with UO beat writers Rob Moseley and Adam Jude, additional sports reporters Steve Mims and Chris Hansen, reporter Mark Baker and two photographers.

The University of Oregon's main student newspaper is also devoting special coverage to the game. Daily Emerald sports reporter Lucas Clark says he and fellow sports team members Ben Schorzman and Robert Husseman are in LA with a photographer, updating their website and preparing for Monday's print edition.

Over at KPTV, reporter Mark Ross says, "The Ducks playing in the Rose Bowl is one of the biggest stories the state has seen in the last decade." He won't be part of Fox 12's LA crew, "but come New Year's Day," he says, "I'm at least going to LISTEN to the game, being a huge sports fan, even if we're driving off to some crime story!"

KGW sports director Adam Bjaranson says he and Joe Donlon are on air from LA, joined by two photographers and their sports producer.

Dwight Jaynes says he's in LA to do shows with Comcast SportsNet today and tomorrow. He was on the Morning Sports Page on The Game (KXTG) in Portland this morning.

Steve Tanenbaum says he's broadcasting tomorrow morning for KUGN from Eugene sports bar Sam's Place, then handing coverage off to Jerry Allen, Mike Jorgensen and the Oregon Sports Network in Pasadena. Once the game's over, he'll "head back to Sam's for our post game show where I'll take calls to get the fans' input on the game. After that's done, considering I'll have been in a bar since 10 am, at a party, then back to a bar without having consumed a single drop of alcohol, it won't be safe to get between me and a J.D. on the rocks."

Hank Stern, managing news editor for Willamette Week, says he's flying down to LA today and writing a piece for next week's paper.

KVAL's Ward says, "It is exciting to finally cover a Rose Bowl. I’ve covered an Aloha Bowl, four Sun Bowls, three Holiday Bowls, two Vegas Bowls, two Insight Bowls, and seen way too many Oregon and OSU seasons that ended in disappointment. Now the Ducks just need to provide us with a happy ending."

UPDATE (12/31, 5:24 pm): KEZI anchor Brandi Smith adds: "KEZI 9 News has the largest crew of any Eugene station. Executive producer Sean Schoppe, news operations manager Kurt Richter, sports director Michelle Dapper and myself have been down here since Saturday night."

This ranker is for the December 29 special coverage of Portland's surprise snowstorm. After 6, more than half of all households had a TV on. KGW had the highest ratings of the evening between 5 and 6:15 pm.

This chart is based on data copyright Nielsen Media Research.