While no decision has been announced concerning the widely rumored 2006 launch of a Fox network newscast, that hasn't stopped pundits from speculating on what the show might look like and how Roger Ailes, Fox News' top executive, would fashion the nightly program around his populist conservative inclinations. Tom Dorsey of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., wonders how a network Fox News program would affect the local Fox TV affiliate, which of course already has a news operation. The general manager of the outlet, WDRB, indicates respect for Ailes' golden gut, but expresses concern about how "The Fox Evening News with Shepard Smith" might impact revenues at his station, which is doing fine in the evening with its strip shows. Overall, he's not betting on Ailes to cook his goose. "As phenomenally successful as Fox News Channel is, if we had their numbers (ratings) here, we'd be out of business," says the general manager, noting that his local newscast has a larger audience than the Fox News Channel gets in the same market.
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