Rise and shine Houston viewers tuning in for 4:30 a.m. newscasts 

By TARA DOOLEY 
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Sept. 24, 2009, 5:53PM

Getting up early used to mean rising with the sun.

But these days, the sun hasn't started its approach onto the horizon by the time traffic, weather and news nudge people into full gear.

Just turn the TV on at 4:30 a.m. Newscasters, at least, seem to think that's the new 6 a.m.

“More people are up earlier, and when they get up, they are looking for information,” said Keith Connors, executive news director at KHOU (Channel 11), which launched its 4:30 a.m. show on Labor Day.

In the past month, three of the area's local news stations — KHOU, KTRK (Channel 13) and KPRC (Channel 2) — have decided to rise and shine a half-hour earlier than before.

There are multiple reasons for the early-morning call, said Henry Florsheim, KTRK president and general manager.

Basically, many Houston-area folks are up at that time, he said. Some commute long distances. Some have to get kids ready for early school bells. Some get to the gym by 5 a.m.

Others just can't sleep.

“We are absolutely wired more,” Florsheim said. “I suspect there are any number of households that either on the Internet or on phones are communicating and checking information at different parts of the day.”

The early thing also represents a change in the TV news day.

With up-to-the-minute news available at the desktop and in the palm, fewer viewers look to their televisions for information in the early evening, Connors said.

“The broadcast day is really bowed to the point where the most important newscast times are late news and early news,” he said. “That is just the world we live in.”

According to research from KHOU, 14 percent of Houston's 2.1 million households had their TVs on at 4:30 a.m. in July. At 5 a.m., about 15 percent were tuned in, and at 6 a.m. 20 percent of households had the sets going.

“We think morning is the critical growth area for local television stations,” Connors said.

The alarm clocks at KTRK have crept toward the 4:30 a.m. bell since 1992, when the 6 a.m. local news went on the air. The station added a 5 a.m. show in 1999.

The 4:30 a.m. show launched Aug. 17, and KPRC followed suit Aug. 24.

So far so good, as the show is drawing an average of 1.3 percent of Houston households, Florsheim said.

“Our sense was there was a market there,” he said, “and it is being confirmed.”

The move to 4:30 a.m. is not all that dramatic for some. Take KHOU anchor Sherry Williams.

Williams had been on the 5 a.m. show until this month. Now she is the anchor of 11 News First Look at 4:30 a.m. That means she is up at 2:30 and at work by 3.

“When you have to be at work at 4 a.m., it's not a big ol' departure to have to be at work at 3 a.m,” she said. “My world doesn't change a whole lot.”

Whether 2:30 a.m. is early depends on when one goes to bed, said Dr. Max Hirshkowitz, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the sleep disorders and research center at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The bad news is that few people are “early to bed” to balance the “early to rise.”

“What we know about our current culture is that most people don't get enough sleep,” he said. “This sleep deprivation is rampant.”

The drive toward less sleep has been going on for centuries, Hirshkowitz said.

Before the technology and information age had people up texting and checking the baseball box scores at 2 a.m., the industrial age put a stop to the siesta, for example.

Benjamin Franklin did a survey back in his day that showed Americans slept about nine hours a day, Hirshkowitz said. Now the average is more like seven and a half hours, he said.

Most people need about eight. The idea that most of the truly productive people of the world get much less is baloney, Hirshkowitz said.

Just ask Albert Einstein, an effective, smart guy and prolific sleeper. According to Hirshkowitz, he liked to get 12 hours of sleep when he had to do math.

The dangers of living on too little sleep include falling asleep at the wheel of a car or chronic health problems.

“You are increasing your risk of fatality,” Hirshkowitz said.

tara.dooley@chron.com