AFTER INVESTING MORE than $5 million to resurrect a local news operation in the summer of 2000, the November Nielsen ratings indicate NBC 24/51's 10 p.m. newscast had a smaller percentage of viewers than the station had when it aired reruns of "Seinfeld" in that time slot.

But that's not a big surprise, said David Needham, vice president and general manager of the television station based in Fayetteville and Fort Smith. Needham said it will take at least two years to be able to judge how well the news venture is doing, and he's happy at this point to be close to the 9 percent of viewers Seinfeld had.

"We knew going in that it would take at least two years to make a difference," he said. "I'm holding the numbers. That's fine, but my job is to grow the numbers."

Needham is quick to note that NBC 24/51, KPOM/KFAA, was the only local television news station to have a rating increase for the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts from November 2000 to last November. And the station's rating for the 5 p.m. newscast jumped by a whopping 63 percent during the same year.

"Rating" is percentage of all residents in the area. "Share" is percentage of all area television sets that are on at a given time of day. Unless otherwise noted, the numbers in this article refer to share of households.

Needham said five years would be an even better indicator of the success of the news operation. Right now, it's just too early to tell, he said.

The 10 p.m. news slot generally is considered the best barometer of the health of a local news operation. NBC just happened to be airing reruns of one of the most popular situation comedy shows in history in that time slot before...