Got hucked.

Local television affiliates were "Hucked," as one TV newsroom employee put it, last week when aspiring GOP presidential nominee Mike Huckabee's camp smoothly scheduled a press conference to coincide with local newscasts.

The 6:01 p.m. press conference left the news stations with little choice but to air it live the day before "Super Tuesday."

"In our morning editorial meeting we had a discussion about the Huckabee press conference, and while we all understood that the timing of the Huckabee presser was likely calculated by his campaign, we decided to air it," said Rob Heverling, news director at KARK-TV, Channel 4.

So did the rest of the big three affiliates, save for KLRT-TV, Channel 16, mainly because its early-afternoon news hour is from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

But the tactic is nothing new, Heverling says, as he saw the trend building from the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.