2005 flashback: 11Alive starts a play-for-play magazine show ‘Atlanta & Company’

On Monday, local NBC affiliate WXIA-TV launches a live “Regis & Kelly”-style show with two peppy hosts, light feature stories and interviews.

But there’s an unusual twist: Some of the people they interview will have paid for the privilege. For $2,000 to $2,500, businesses can get about five minutes to talk up their products and services with two hosts from the world of radio, V-103 afternoon personality Ryan Cameron and Dave FM morning co-host Holly Firfer.

“It will give businesses a chance to talk about their business for several minutes, rather than just a 30-second commercial,” says Bob Walker, general manager of WXIA-TV. “They’re going to have information that’s useful.”

For instance, a dentist might talk about cavity prevention or a home-furnishings chain might offer pointers on spring cleaning. Nonprofit organizations, too, will have opportunities to promote themselves.

The sponsored spots will be clearly identified as such at the end of each segment and again at the end of the show, says Walker. And the show is a product of the marketing department, not the news division: “We use no news talent,” he says. “This is a stand-alone show.”

But that’s a distinction some viewers aren’t likely to grasp.

Even with labeling, says Michael Castengera, a telecommunications lecturer at the University of Georgia and a media consultant for TV stations (though not WXIA-TV), “a lot of times, viewers still don’t get it. Very few people give you 100 percent of their attention.”

That doesn’t mean WXIA is committing an ethical sin.

“The biggest question for WXIA is, are they dealing with it honestly and being upfront with the viewers, or are they trying to be deceptive?” says Castengera.

Some stations that tried this format a couple of years ago got into hot water because the shows were developed by the news divisions, with journalists handling the pay-for-play interviews, says Kelly McBride, ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for professional journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“To [WXIA’s] benefit, they are not using journalists to host the show or oversee it,” she says. “At least they’re trying to draw boundaries.”

Still, the paid segments “may undermine the value of the unpaid segments to the consumer,” McBride asserts. “And people will pretty quickly see that this is not consumer reporting as much as it is an advertisement.”

The fact is that though this format is relatively new, the blurring of the lines between advertising and information is not. On radio, DJs and talk-show hosts discuss products such as diet pills or cleaning products without revealing that they’ve been paid to promote them. TV news programs interview actors who just happen to be on the same network. Newspapers (including this one) often print special sections, labeled as advertorials, that are produced by the marketing departments for companies who pay for them.

“Atlanta & Company,” which is scheduled to air weekdays at 11 a.m., will show six segments per hour.

That’s the same number as “Colorado & Company‚" which has been airing on Denver NBC affiliate KUSA-TV for about a year. (Stations in Sacramento, Calif., Phoenix and Tampa also have similar shows.) Steve Carter, KUSA marketing and promotion director, says that about half the segments on his show are paid, half unpaid, and that it identifies the paid spots at the beginning and end of each segment and again at the end of the show. Often, he says, the businesses’ phone numbers and Web addresses remain on the screen during the segment.

On “Colorado & Company,” cooking segments are sponsored by Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, a high-end supermarket chain similar to Whole Foods. And private medical practice Colorado Body & Heart does a regular health segment in which owner Dr. James Ehrlich gabs with the two hosts.

Recently Ehrlich discussed a new breast scanner as well as a football player who died in Denver. Ehrlich’s spots have been airing since March, and “the response has been wonderful,” says Karen Haley, Colorado Body & Heart director of operations. The office staffs extra people to take calls during and after the show airs.

“Colorado & Company” ranks second in its time slot, according to Carter. Haley says she likes the audience, which consists heavily of stay-at-home moms.

Though not targeted at a specific demographic, “Atlanta & Company” will air at a time when more women are watching. It will compete against the likes of ABC affiliate WSB-TV’s “The View,” CBS affiliate WGCL-TV’s “The Price Is Right” and two courtroom shows on Fox affiliate WAGA-TV. Its predecessor, the syndicated self-improvement show “Starting Over,” typically ranked third or fourth in the Nielsen ratings.

V-103’s Cameron --- who has been a radio fixture in Atlanta for 15 years and won a local Emmy for his man-on-the-street segments on WXIA’s “Noon Day” news show during a stint there in the early 1990s --- said he expects to “banter about what’s going on in the city and the world. There’ll be celebrity interviews, cooking segments and home improvement projects. ... My goal is to make everything fun, whatever they’re there for.”

Mike James, editor for online broadcast news site www.newsblues.com, says “Atlanta & Company” is all about making money, with regular 30-second commercials losing their effectiveness.