When Oprah Winfrey announced last fall that she would be abdicating her throne after 25 years as the queen of daytime television, it prompted months of tears, long goodbyes and hand-wringing. And that was just among some of the TV executives who carried her show. For Emily Barr, longtime general manager of ABC O&O WLS Chicago, the station where Oprah started as the host of AM Chicago in 1984, it was another call to weather the storm and perhaps catch some lightning in a bottle.
ABC’s Multicast Play: All’s Well With Live Well
Emily Barr (left) and Peggy Allen are the ABC execs charged with developing the programming and expanding the distribution of the O&Os’ Live Well multicast channel. The diginet featuring lifestyle programming aimed at women and produced mostly by the stations is now shopping for additional affiliates with the goal of reaching 50-60% of TV homes by the end of the year. The two outline their strategies and goals as they compete for a valuable — and increasingly in demand — chunk of stations’ spectrum.
