Channel 4 weekend anchor Mylous Hairston is recuperating in Buffalo General Hospital after having a heart attack that led to two surgeries Tuesday and Wednesday to open an artery.

“They tell me I had a small heart attack,” the 44-year-old Hairston said from his hospital bed on Thursday. “I should be off the air for at least two weeks unless they tell me differently.”

Hairston, who has become a runner recently and lost 45 pounds three years ago, said he felt tightness in his chest while anchoring last Sunday and was fortunate that he had a physical scheduled for Tuesday. During the physical, the doctor didn’t like what she saw during a heart exam and what she heard when Hairston told her how he had been feeling.

“She said, ‘I’m calling an ambulance and you’re going to the hospital,’ ” said Hairston. “My heart started beating faster at that point.”

Two stents were placed in the heart in the first operation Tuesday to open an artery and two more stents were placed Wednesday after a clot was discovered.

“The moral of the story is when you feel discomfort don’t wait, get to a doctor,” said Hairston. “I got lucky [because he had a physical scheduled].”

Hairston has been sharing his experiences since the attack on the social network Facebook.

“I’ve really appreciated the outpouring of support,” he said.

Ironically, Hairston was in negotiations Tuesday as the head of the local American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) with representatives of LIN TV, the owner of Channel 4. AFTRA represents on-air personnel.

“One thing we’re talking about is health care,” said Hairston. “It’s a good thing I have good health care.”

He expected to be released from the hospital today or Saturday.

Channel 7 drops Nielsen

WKBW-TV has dropped its subscription to the Nielsen ratings service in what is being viewed by industry sources as an economic move that will cost it the ability to negotiate prices with its advertisers.

In a memo to the staff, Channel 7 General Manager Bill Ransom said the station will now subscribe to a service called Media Audit, which he described as the “leading local market multimedia qualitative and quantitative audience ratings service company.”

Ransom wrote that dropping Nielsen “was not an easy decision” but added that “for some time we have had concerns with Nielsen’s methodology, accuracy of data and escalating cost.”

According to sources, dropping Nielsen could save Channel 7 $500,000 a year or more in difficult times. But one source added that stations that drop the service often return and speculated that Channel 7 could go until the end of the year by selling advertising off of figures from the ratings books of May 2009 and November 2008.

Channel 7 is believed to be one of the larger market stations in the country to drop Nielsen. A source said stations dropping the service generally have been in smaller markets where the expense can be disproportional to the benefit.

While the move means Channel 7 can’t use Nielsen’s numbers beyond June 30 to negotiate prices for advertising, it does have some risk to Nielsen as well, according to sources.

Sources said that Channel 7 isn’t alone in questioning the methodology and accuracy of Nielsen and if a station like Channel 7 won’t be hurt without it there is a chance others across the nation would risk dropping Nielsen, too.