A Brighter Future for KSN??

So I have been out of the state for 5 days and get back today, only to read frequent commenter, Jon's comment. He links to this article.
http://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2007/05/28/daily12.html?jst=b_ln_hl
WOW. What a way to be welcomed back to blogging. Interesting developments. I'd be curious to know what the folks of KSN are thinking right now. As the article states, they went through their last sale just over a year ago and I am sure they are worried about the possibility of a repeat of what they went through when their current owners bought them: layoffs and massive cutbacks. I would almost imagine in some ways, some of the employees might view this as good news. Once again I am curious to hear any comments from those possibility affected by this possible sale. -Hal

A Flood of the Same, the Day After Sweeps

Thursday, the first day after Sweeps brought plenty of flooding coverage. At 6PM all stations offered multiple reporter treatments on the flooding in Reno and Saline counties. Pretty even for the most part. At 10PM I questioned the reason why KSN had Anita lending her voice to interviews which were already shown at 6PM with little new content for a story at 10PM, but after watching the other two, it felt they did the same thing. Although KAKE and KWCH might have had a few new interviews, the information was pretty much the same from what was reported at 6PM. Except KWCH was the first of this flooding event to do the common be careful of buying a flooded car story. KSN consolidated all their coverage at 6PM into a piece that worked well at 10PM. KWCH spent the longest on the flooding at 10PM and although I liked the consolidated approach to KSN, I thought KWCH definitely offered a good comprehensive view for those who wanted it and hadn't watched through the day. However a downside to KWCH was Linda Mares. She can do an OK, average story, but she needs to spend her time off air, practicing reading her stories into a mirror as if she is speaking live into a camera. She often gets flustered when she appears live before or after her stories. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think KSN finally was the first station to answer a recurring question from people traveling back and forth on K-96 from I-96 East to Greenwich and vice versa. Nothing overly special with the execution of the story, but I think it proved to be the most useful and informative story of the night, answering the question what the heck is going on? Lanes and ramps have been closed from 6PM to 6 AM for nearly a month now, while they have been busy cutting out holes and putting in metal rods to tie pieces of concrete together. To drivers like myself it just makes the roads rougher, but as explained in the story apparently in the end it will make the road better. We'll just have to see.

I got the car filled with overpriced gasoline and will be headed South at dawn's early light tomorrow morning for a little Memorial day R&R. I will be packing the laptop when I am done with this post, so although I wont be making any new posts the next couple of days, hopefully I'll be able to find an Internet connection and update any comments. Have a nice weekend. -Hal

The Battle of the Tornado Follow-up Story

So I had blogged a few times how I was wondering when a station would alter their Sweeps plans and do one based on the tornado in Greensburg. I had said at the time, if done right, this could be the best Sweeps story of the period. It didn't quite live up to that.
So late this weekend or Monday, KSN started promoting a story on a town in Wisconsin which was destroyed from an EF 5 and rebuilt, much like what Greensburg is up against. Suspiciously, Yesterday KAKE started promoting a story on Hallum, Nebraska, and an EF 5 tornado which leveled that town a few years back and its rebuilding process. I was actually looking forward to see which station delivered. Earlier this weekend I congratulated KSN for flying out a crew to Wisconsin to do the story. A commenter stated, how did I know they flew a crew, when they could have depended on an affiliate in Wisconsin for the video. I admitted I didn't know. However, in KSN's story Tonight, you could see reporter Josh Wittsman was there. Meanwhile at KAKE, in what could have been, at most, a 3 hour journey, it looks like KAKE didn't make the journey and depended on an affiliate for what turned out to be an over hyped piece done, purely to counter programming on KSN. Lame effort at that.
KSN's story had good content and for the people of Greensburg, I think it would be an inspiration at what can be done. The pictures from after the tornado in Wisconsin looked eerily similar to that in Greensburg, so seeing the rebuilt Wisconsin town should give hope to Greensburg. The story overall was well done, though at times it was a little sappy. It was a decent effort at what I was hoping as far as turning a good Greensburg related tornado story for the end of Sweeps, but I cant quite say it would be the best of Sweeps.
KWCH tonight showed why on the outside it thinks solid, but cannot execute all that well, and still can get by with it in ratings. As the flooding was occurring in Reno county, KWCH and KAKE, for that matter had live phoners from officials at 6PM. KWCH's presentation came off very professional, but at 10PM it was a different story. They had two stories and they were largely the same thing showing a bunch of flooded cars and people pushing them out. I thought KAKE and KSN did a better job at dealing with the concerns of the levees and and other emergency issues.
Meanwhile i don't know if it was KAKE's final Sweeps piece or not, but Deb Farris' piece on lost dogs was one for the dogs (sorry I couldn't resist). Including tears from a owner of a lost pooch, the piece had way too much drama, for my concerns. -Hal

Bad Bowling Sound Effects and Good Pink Shirts

If a past comment on this blog is true, Tuesday marks the second to last day of Sweeps. As far as news Today, City officials tried to explain what happened in losing the $100 million dollar bowling tourney. All three handled the story very similar. I will say KAKE tried to get a little to cutesy with its piece. It had a graphic and it used bowling sound effects to reveal the numbers. It might have (I am only saying might) worked with a little better graphic. Nice try, but in this scenario they didn't hit a strike with that one. Two stations chose to lead with bowling, after the latest weather warnings, while one led off with the latest fatal shooting. Over at KSN, they showed off a reoccurring Achilles of theirs. For whatever reason in weather stories, they seem to have to interview Dave Freeman. In this case it was like he was just thrown in the story, just to throw him in. His quote didn't even match the story that well, talking about Greensburg closing off the town do to the possibility of severe weather in the area.
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/7636671.html

On an unrelated note, did the weather guys get together and all decide to wear pink shirts on Tuesday? Dave and Merril definitely were wearing pink shirts, Jay's looked a little closer to salmon color. I actually like the pink, and think it is brave for men to wear them. Although at 6, in the story with Dave in it, the lighting and the shirt, made his face look somewhat pink. (See link above).

Finally, I must note the comments for some of the postings are getting good. I like the spirited debate and that's in part what I hope occurs with this blog. In the last posting a few brought up a subject I kind of touched on about KSN doing the small town series. In what must have been a KSN newsie, the person explains how ratings are a marathon and not a sprint. I agree, but then the person went on to say that the Argonia stories are part of a larger series of doing profiles of small towns. The commenter said, add the towns up and you get an audience. OK, slow down there KSNer. I believe at one time you were number 1 or had higher ratings out West then you did in Wichita. I hope you aren't thinking that wrangling up a town here and a town there is cure all for your ratings. Just think, concentrating on Rock road from 37th to 13th, alone, and you probably would have all the people you could get out of doing a couple months work of small town pieces traveling the gravel roads of Kansas. Don't misinterpret me, I am not advocating focusing strictly on Wichita. I think the experiment has failed in the past for you guys. I don't mind the small town pieces and I actually hope you continue them, but I really hope you guys aren't banking on these to be one of the rocks of your Sweeps. -Hal

The "Peril" of Sweeps

Things started to get a little hostile in the comments of the last post, so lets turn to a lighter topic like feet and the "Pedicure Peril." KAKE had been promoting this sweeps piece about people getting infections from Pedicures. Nothing like seeing "boils" on legs and hearing a teen's tragedy of how she's now not able to be on her swim team because of the boils. The agony, plus she started getting teary from it. I am sure all those women tearing up from the Bachelor season finale shed a Kleenex worth over this story. I nearly did thinking what a waste of time, but on the other hand it was smart to play off of the audience from the Bachelor, so KAKE may not get the last cry, but rather the last laugh off of that one.
KWCH had been promoting heavily a story on a BTK profiler. Frankly I thought it turned out as a weak link to get play off of any remaining interest for the BTK subject. It came out better then the "Pedicure Peril" (thats not saying much). The profiler did admit he had Radar pegged as a loner and that might be partially wrong.
Meanwhile over at KSN, they were doing a piece on Argonia. Hmmmm. They must have their Sweeps hopes pinned on the town of 500 all having ratings booklets. I think I flipped by a story at 6PM on the same town. How many stories can you do on a town of 500? We know a couple, but after seeing one, will people, besides those living in town, want more of Argonia? I would think not, but who knows. The past few days I have been wondering if a station would alter their Sweeps plans and have a piece related to the Greensburg tornado. One reader reminded me KAKE had meteorologist Jay Prater take a look at the damage for a story. I wasn't a fan of that one. Anyway I had said if done right, the piece could be one of the better ones of the month. Another reader alerted me that Sweeps ends this week. So at 10PM I saw my first promo for such a Sweeps story. And it came from none other than KSN. That kind of surprised me, because they actually spent the money to fly a crew to Wisconsin to do a piece on a town, which like Greensburg sustained a lot of damage from a tornado a number of years ago and has since rebuilt. Not a bad idea, I didn't catch who is doing the story for them, but it will be interesting to see how they do. One thing, though, at least they promoted it, since it wasn't a health story or one of their small town Argonia like pieces. -Hal

When KAKE Handles Found Body Stories Right

Sorry for the rough sounding title for this post, but that is one thing I came away with from KAKE's 10PM newscast. A body was found floating in the river today. KAKE did a good job with the story starting out with reporter Cara Kumari giving the basics and then doing a full story on who the body might be. Going into the story I was concerned the subject matter may turn the story into a version of a guess who game, but she did the story in good taste and as I said earlier the whole part was done better than what you would even see on KAKE during a weekday. As much as I am not a fan of covering every car wreck, murder, missing body, and fire, I thought KSN was missing the mark leading with a gas price story. Sure gas prices are on the minds of a lot of people, but I haven't seen a gas story yet, which besides the prices on the board, could have just been cued up from the story done a month earlier. Even if the so called "breaking" news stories hadn't developed it would have been a lame story for KSN to lead with. I was waiting for a KAKE advertised piece about cosmetic surgery, but they must have buried it while I was flipping and caught a story which should have been promoted on KSN. While KSN promotes all their health stories, and KWCH promotes a story later in the week on a BTK profiler and KAKE promoted all weekend long about their cosmetic surgery piece, KSN should have promoted Jim Kobbe's interview with new WSU basketball coach Gregg Marshall. Even if the other stations have interviewed him, since his taking on the job, the guy's last month has been unbelievable. He accepts the job, buys and sells a house, puts together a team, and at a recruiting visit a recruit drops and dies on the basketball court in front of Marshall. Then a former basketball player at Winthrop gets in an automobile accident and dies. Hearing him talk and how he has dealt with it was something. The story was a sit down interview and you really get a good feeling about this coach as a person and how he hopefully will pick off where Turgeon left off. In case you didnt luck into seeing it, here's the link to it. -Hal
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/7603922.html

Where has the May Sweeps Been

With probably about a week or 2 left of the May Sweeps Woody Warning, the razzle dazzle and in-depth, on my side investigations, normally associated with Sweeps, have been missing. Obviously the Greensburg tornado forced stations to alter their Sweeps plans, and for good reason. It makes one wonder if all three would have continued the month without any Sweeps planned promotions and pieces, would the ratings have changed at all? Unfortunately the stations have started back in the Sweeps fray to bring us over hyped stories such as KAKE's installment about Wichita BINGO parlors and their future if casinos come into the county. As I wrote in a past entry, I challenged KAKE to prove me wrong as I said the story would be all hype and little substance. They didn't. If I were to write a list of things I knew about the topic before the story, watch it, and write a list of things I learned after watching, the list would be blank. The story told me nothing, other than things I think most people would say would be common sense. Casinos come into town and surely charities benefiting from BINGO parlors are hurt. Enough said, but KAKE found it necessarily to spend several minutes on it all to pull in the viewers from the BINGO game show. If Sedgwick county was the first county in the area to possibly bring in casinos, then it might be a story, but many other communities have had simmilar issues and have seemed get around it. I am still waiting for that Sweeps story on the Greensburg tornado. I had mentioned in a previous blog I was waiting for the stations to alter their Sweeps plans and do a story off of the tornado. I had said this was a chance to really put together a piece that could be the best of the month. Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't seen one yet, nor promoted. I will say there have been some good pieces out of the storm from all three stations. I think KWCH's story on people getting sick from other storms in FEMA trailers was one of the best as a hard news, non-tribute story. It was timely, airing the first day the trailers were being given to victims in Greensburg. -Hal

Bingo Game Show = Bingo Sweeps Piece

With the Sweeps Woody Warning fully in effect, I had to laugh when KAKE promoted in their mid-day newscast of a local bingo story. Don't know if it is an actual sweeps style piece, but I doubt that the ABC launching of a new BINGO game show tonight didn't play into the timing of the local tie-in. It is a logical story, if in fact casino gambling ever gets legalized in the area. In the story KAKE talks to local BINGO parlors about the possibility of losing out on casinos and the charities who benefit from them. Tons of other places around the country have had similar issues with casinos and BINGO parlors and the charities who benefit off of them and the charities seem to march forward off of a fund set up from casinos. So on the outside, it seems as this might be a classic hype story rather than of substance, but I challenge KAKE to prove me otherwise. -Hal

Sweeps Woody Back in Full Efect

It appears Sweeps stories were running on Wednesday. I really, though, couldn't tell at least by the topics. Although, KAKE definitely had all the bells and whistles to make me think they did the "a what's learned from a tornado" story for Sweeps. If this was the idea, nice change in Sweeps plan, but bad execution. For all the scary music and crazy editing, they might as well have blown the tornado siren through the whole thing. The idea wasn't bad: have station meteorologist Jay Prater explore the damage and talk to survivors as to where they road out the storm. Particularly, not surprising, was the self promoting in the middle of the piece. Prater talks about how one couple heard the weather warnings on TV, so of course they showed clips of Prater warning people with crazy effects. Fellas, at least disguise the effect that you use to promote your weather boy in the piece. Show your boy, but dont go over the top.
Stories on the early casts from all the stations celebrated the fact the first family was awarded a FEMA temporarily trailer to live in. Well that feel-good bubble was quickly burst by 10PM with KWCH's story on FEMA trailers and whether people get sick from a wood finish on the woodwork. A small number of folks have gotten sick down south who are using similar trailers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Not a bad story if it is a totally legit deal. Over at KSN, they saved probably the best for last. Their piece on religion and disasters, was probably one of the better side bar stories about the tornado, yet. -Hal

Finding a Greensburg Tornado Angle

As the days distance themselves from that fateful Friday over a week ago when a tornado leveled Greensburg, the stations must dig deep for new angles. One thing I think they need to be careful is to not force stories or unneeded ones just to say they have a Greensburg story for the day. Both KWCH and to a lesser extent KSN did this Tonight. KWCH's story tonight from the normally strong Michael Schwanke lacked any sort of focus. It was as if he was summarizing a couple of other stories from the day, done by other reporters, and making it into one. This is done all the time, but this came out as if it was a smorgasbord and not as one cohesive unit of a story. Meanwhile KSN had two stories from reporter Chanda Brown on the Greensburg tornado. I thought this was overkill, especially as the week continues, stories may become tougher to find and seem more forced. The story on the hospital was good and answered a logical question as to what they were going to do to replace their other hospital in the short term. The story that ran tonight, probably could have been put on the shelf and saved on a day when content is needed.
KAKE probably had the best Greensburg related story of the day. Once again it came from Deb Farris, who has probably done KAKE's best work the last week. On Monday she told of how trailers of supplies are being turned back, because there is no place to put them. Good story with a new angle to the story.
In a previous post I mentioned a long tornado summary story KSN did for its telethon. KAKE followed up and did a long summary piece on Sunday by Larry Hatteberg. Done in his classic "Hatteberg's People" style, he weaved a tale that had a consistent feel throughout the whole story. -Hal
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/7488427.html

When do You Back off on Greensburg?

A real interesting dilemma for news directors: When do you start to back off on Greensburg? It'd be a difficult question, anytime of the year, but since it is in the middle of ratings when do you back off? This weekend we saw the stations starting to move on and get going with some sweeps stories and promotions are running for non-tornado stories through the week. So once again we will reissue the Sweeps Woody Warning for the area. Since we are in the middle of the month the next question must be, do stations alter their Sweeps plans and put in Greensburg related stories toward the end of the month and hype them and put increased production value into them as normal Sweeps stories? Since they already had to alter their schedules after last week, I would be shocked if at least one of the three didn't have in-depth piece on the Tornado the final week of Sweeps. This story though, would have to be done well and be right up there as one of the best of the coverage. So if anything maybe this is a challenge for the three stations to do just that. I will say the KSN story voiced by Jason Kravarik for their telethon was near that category, but as the weeks past, they will have to go beyond the overall wrap-up angles and find something new that has happened a week later related to the disaster. -Hal.

The link for the Jason Kravarik story.
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/7478582.html

Telethon should leave a Nagging Question to KSN Brass

Tonight KSN had its 2 hour telethon for the victims of the tornado, which happened one week ago Tonight. The show was very well done, right from the start, with a taped bit from Jay Leno, who concluded by saying he was giving $5000. The night included other celebrities including Martina McBride, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa (Regis needed to check on the pronunication of the town. He referred to it as "GreenBurg"). KSN tapped into the network folks like Matt Lauer, Meredith Vierra and Brian Williams. Kansas native Bill Curtis gave a taped salute in the vintage Bill style. Some nice musical tributes were sung by the Prairie Rose Wranglers, and various school and church choirs. The political brass came out in force with words from nearly every key political official in the state. I thought it was put together really nice and its unbelievable it was put together in less than a week. That leads to the question which is part of the title of this post. You think the success of this production would lead station managers to think what could they be if they had a few more people. From what I have read in the past, I am lead to believe they have one of the smallest staffs in the market after large layoffs sometime ago. However I am afraid KSN's management may look at it as , "Wow, we did really good with less, why would we need anymore people?" So I think I will compliment KSN management less for doing a show (you know you can count on promos throughout the weekend to remind everyone as to what they did) and rather congratulate the station's staff for a production they should be really proud of. As I have said before, you give KSN some time and they usually can compete with the best of them. -Hal

TV Tornado fundraisers

So we are near a week since the EF 5 tornado hit Greensburg. As for stories. KWCH and KSN (maybe even KAKE) had a real nice sports story about the Greensburg golf team competing in their first tournament since the disaster. Titlelist even gave the school new golf clubs and gear for the students. Heartwarming stuff, no doubt.
KWCH had phone banks raising money for the tornado, early in the week. About the same time KSN began promoting a 2 hour telethon. That starts Friday night and should be interesting, keeping in mind its difficult for a regular 30 minute newscast to go on without a hitch due to their staffing cutbacks. Should be interesting how smooth things will run for 2 hours. -Hal

UPDATE: A KAKE staffer e-mailed me to let me know that their station is also getting involved in the cause with "Kettles For Kansans." Along with Clear Channel radio the effort focuses on the red kettles being set up at co-sponsor Papa Johns and other businesses like the Galicihia Medical clinics, Coleman Factory Outlet as well as the stations. People can give at kettles or mail checks to KAKE, made payable to Salvation Army.

Tornado Coverage: Day 5

Obviously the big and really only story on the minds of the TV stations was President Bush's visit to Greensburg. Everyone pretty much played it even and similar. Each had a reporter and in KWCH, an anchor, give the nuts and bolts of the visit and each had a nice side angle. As I said earlier I thought Roger Cornish and Michael Schwanke compliment each other together in the field. KWCH had some interesting video of the court hearing of the military personnel accused of stealing from a Dillons in town after the tornadoes. Nothing special, but a story on the minds of people in the area. I think I was switching as KAKE was wrapping up that story, but didn't see it. I'll assume they had some of the video. I don't think KSN had this, but overall they once again had good style and execution. Their sidebar story by Chanda Brown on a family who made a banner and painted their slab, where they once had a house with words to the effect that they are happy to be alive and the site will be the site of the future family home was done well and with feeling. The quote from the lady when she said how excited that President Bush kissed her on the cheek and how she may not wash her cheek for awhile was a nice touch.
The Video Tributes Continue - A few days ago KWCH had a tribute for the victims that lacked execution on Monday. They then used the excuse of there being new names released to try it again Yesterday. This time they did better. Tonight KSN ended their newscast with their version which is quite well done. Will KAKE follow on Thursday? What hit me as I was watching is that these names have changed now for me. A few days ago when I first saw them, they were only that, just names. Now thanks to the stories, the three stations have done on the victims, these names and the people behind the names are beginning to really resonate. It was a tragedy already, but now you want to be a part of rebuilding process in their memory. -Hal

Presidential Coverage Notes

The three stations pretty much matched each other step by step. Although the dreaded glitch award went to KAKE. Just as the Pres. was headed into town they lost audio from Susan Peters as well as the picture at times. That caused morning anchor Jemelle Holopirek to have to "buy time." Not a bad job, but she had some goofy lines at times, but what can you expect. KAKE's coverage might have improved if they would have let Susan host coverage out there with Larry Hatteberg from the field. I think she needed to bounce stuff off of someone on site, similar to how KWCH did with Roger Cornish and Michael Schwanke. KWCH probably had the most solid live hosting of the three stations. KSN's Anita Cochran appeared at times a little giddy and caught up in the excitement of the whole event, although she showed her strength when she grabbed a pair of high school students walking near their location and talked to them about thoughts of the storm. Candid and good comments. Kudos to the three stations for going back to programming and not staying on air all throughout his visit and hearing the same stuff over and over. Besides KWCH switched over just in time to see Bob Barker miss a put on his "Hole and One," game. Now its time to end my lunch break and get grinding again. -Hal

Tornado Coverage: Day 4

A few days ago in a post I mentioned how as the days go on, writing will become even more important as the stories become more than just nuts and bolts. Also the good human interest stories won't be as easy to find. This should be especially troubling to KAKE and also KWCH, if they intend to have Kim Hynes find the stories. Tonight she had a story filled with great pictures of kids playing basketball on a court with half a roof on it. There were shots of kids crawling over things to get onto the court. The great elements were there, but she lacked the shine needed for a good story. She let the subject of the kids do her work for her, rather than crafting it into a great piece. With some thought and good execution she could have had a wonderful piece. Another example, over at KAKE. They probably had what could have been the best story of the the tornado coverage at the local level, because it certainly was the best subject matter. The law enforcement officer who died on Tuesday morning, had his family around him when he died. His engaged daughter was there. When the family decided that they would pull him from life support and let him die, she decided she wanted to be married in her father's presence, so she held his hand while she got married in the hospital room. She said it made her feel like her dad gave her away. What a great subject. Once again the elements were there. But do to the poor storytelling of Jeanine Kiesling, that story was buried in her piece on the officer. I normally wouldn't have stuck around for the end of the story. If she didn't want to give that part of the story away at the beginning, at least craft the story so you start with that daughter and end with her talking about getting married in her dad's presence. I think Jeanine has a habit of treating these like the crime stories she does with sound from the cops and being a pretty black and white story. This subject matter could have been turned into a fantastic piece.
Meanwhile over at KSN, they have been lacking some personal angles on the storm coverage. The other two have had better subject matter, but lacked the execution. KSN has had good information. For example Dana Hertneky's story on the high school athletic team getting things donated to them from major companies across the country was good. If she had the little nugget that Kim Hynes failed with, Dana's story really could have shined.
Tomorrow of course President Bush comes calling on Greensburg. I hope to find a way where I can see the live coverage and post a scorecard. We'll see if I can find a TV during the daytime. -Hal.

Tornado Notes: Day 3

People were finally able to go back to their houses and see for themselves what the damage is. The local stations along with the National media were right there talking to the survivors. I think it was fairly even, with stories of people finding wedding pictures, rings and other keepsakes amid all of the rubble. KAKE (correct me if I am wrong) had the first interview with family of one of the tornado fatalities. Reporter Deb Farris did an actually good story for KAKE on the subject. Kudos to Deb. This is the 2nd time this week she obtained interviews with victims' families after tragedies. Its brave for these families to talk, especially to KAKE. Deb did a nice job with both stories and outside of Chris Frank and Deb, if it was one of my family members I don't think I'd let anyone else from KAKE interview me. I'd be afraid it would be over hyped and not done in good taste.
KWCH really went wild with some flooding going on in Hutch to lead the 10PM. They broke in numerous times with maps of the area. As for their coverage of the tornado, nothing that really sticks out except for a negative. They had a tribute to the victims, but I thought the music didn't fit the mood and something could have been done to give it a little more production value and make it seem as if some thought was given in tribute.
All three stations were pretty even, although KSN's Anthony Powell's story about flooding near Hutch was interesting. He rode around town on the front of a tractor in the bucket portion as they approached flooding mobile homes. An urgent and good story.
As the days wear on it will be interesting to see how the stations continue to cover this story and find new angles. -Hal

Little Engine shows it can

In the comments following a previous post, a reader said KSN has one of the smaller staffs, after mass layoffs following the sale of the station over a year ago. I dubbed them a few days ago as the "Little Engine That Could." Watching its performance on Sunday night during an hour long special, you have to wonder, what could this station do with a couple of more people. The show, outside of the anchors, was top notch. KSN demonstrated that it has story tellers on its staff, compared to those who use voice volume and inflection to tell the importance of a story (KAKE). KWCH has a few good story tellers, but their conservative execution, make it seem stale. KAKE with its crew of reporters seams to treat any story, whether it be a tornado, murder, fire or even a 90 year old birthday the same: in your face. And with a story like this, especially as it moves through this week, story telling will become even more important. There are more than a thousand stories in that town, everyone can be good, without all of the hype. Its that effort which made KSN shine. Still I wonder how the network newscasts can come into a town and still outshine the local affiliates. It must be having more people or something. The piece on NBC Nightly Tonight was absolutely stunning, showing a family finding their dog at a house along with many other elements was truly a great piece. Maybe that's why those people are at the network level. That's not to take away from KSN, their intro graphic and music looked like something you would see on the networks and really showed the importance of what they are doing and their "storytellers" conveyed that. Before management pats themselves on the back, they need to dream how much better they could be on a consistent basis if they had a couple of more people. -Hal

To Promote or Not Promote a Tradgedy

An interesting question facing TV stations? How far do you go in promoting a station's coverage over the air from a storm which killed and destroyed an entire town? One perspective: they have basically thrown all their resources at this on Saturday, and probably are proud of their coverage and want to tell the community. On the other hand people have died and many others have their whole lives torn up and must rebuild. So do you promote your coverage?
KWCH's promoted their coverage this morning. In a strange twist, their normal big voice guy did not provide the voice, but rather Matt Mauro. It could have been because Big Voice Guy was off, or maybe they wanted it a little more subdued. It was a laid back commercial, very little post production value (a thing done in taste), but they didn't waste time patting themselves on the back saying they were the ONLY local station to be on the air for 27 straight hours of coverage. 27 straight hours is a feat, but I think its something they pat their own backs behind the scenes and not on a promo. Was the promo done in bad taste? No, but I still don't think its the thing to do. I will say as the stations start launching community projects to help those out, the tone of those promos will be interesting. Saying you did something nice for the community without the stations looking like they are trying to gain off of a tragedy will be an art.
Next question, so when do youstop continuing coverage throughout the day? KWCH is going strong right now with it this morning. They do have weekend morning show, but they are broadcasting beyond the normal times of that broadcast. -Hal

Greensburg Tornado Notes II

So as the first light broke the damage was just as if not worse than what we thought it would be. Coverage wise I gotta say "The Little Engine That Could," KSN was chugging forward and not doing too badly. They were the first to show stunning aerial video of the town. They also by afternoon cut to regular programming for awhile, until they cut in at the top and maybe even bottom of hours. Not a bad idea, if they in fact have a smaller staff, it makes sense to get their crews working the scenes rather than constantly being live rehashing the same ole stuff, like the others. They broke in for key press conferences. I would on their top of the hour cut-ins, would have liked to see more on-the-ground scene video. I will say conservative KWCH had the best on the ground damage video. Meanwhile, although new pictures are good to see, after awhile the reporters can only say so much. KAKE's reporting corps just do not fit the demeanor of a tornado. They just do not come across as very genuine and are not as strong going wall-to-wall live. The question will be, will their newscasts Tonight have anything different than the wall-to-wall live coverage we have seen since this morning. I would hope so, but find it would be challenging since they have been on camera most of the afternoon. -Hal

Greensburg Tornado Notes I

Well it seems as if the coverage will go on well through the early morning hours, and I think I am going to give the old TV a rest. Interesting coverage on the 3 stations. Once again it seemed as if KSN had to start as the underdog, but eventually pulled even with the other 3 and then past them with the first video. I should dub them the "Little Engine that could." As a comment to an earlier post noted, KSN had severe layoffs awhile back and thought KSN had smaller resources than the others.
KAKE and KWCH had their weather spotters describing the details in the early moments after the storm. The SAT cams that proved real helpful last week, didn't provide the pictures as they have had in the past. That could be due to communication issues all 3 had problems with in that area. I think KAKE's Lanny Dean provided the first phoned in reports from the area, but the scope of the storm became apparent as cell phone service was very sketchy, and he said he was using a SAT phone. News organizations reported the difficulty of getting a phone call completed to Greensburg being near impossible. Reporters eventually arrived in the area. KSN had the first video of survivors telling their tales. A little hard to hear at times, but it was good to hear the tales they told. This coverage, no doubt, will continue throughout the weekend and into next week. As far as the three, KAKE did well with their storm chasers and seemed to be ahead of information early in the game. KAKE had some real nice pictures of the wide tornado from their storm spotter later into the early morning hours. Their video, although late, was better than the early stuff KSN showed. KWCH had the tools but no proof of damage into 2 AM, and seemed rather conservative (like normal). I know the main anchors on KWCH needed a break, but I think they pulled them to early and let the Fox anchor take over. Not as strong as Cindy by a long shot and as the crews arrived and the video, Cindy needed to deliver it or some one stronger than their Fox anchor. KSN had good reports on the phone from Chanda Brown and video. One downside to KSN coverage, was Anita chatting with Dave in front of radar screens on the same shot. This could be a result of staffing levels, I dont know, but Anita being on the desk would have appeared a little more polished, than holding a microphone next to Dave. But I think KSN rebounded very well and in the early morning hours on Saturday had pulled even and maybe even ahead. -Hal
UPDATE 2:35AM: Although others heard that someone told someone that there were fatalities, KSN was first to have a confirmation from officials of a fatality.
Update 2:40AM: KAKE had an unfortunate situation as they ran an interview from tape from a guy who said "Fu--ing scarry." Susan immediately apologized for the profanity slipping through.
Update 3:15AM:KAKE was first to cut away from coverage around 3AM and KSN followed around 3:15AM. KWCH must of thought it could make up for a lack of good coverage early on and a conservative approach throughout the evening and morning by giving quantity of coverage and stayed on the air. By 3:15AM ,everything that was to say was already said and I think it was a good time to bow out and recollect on things and recharge for the day ahead. Once again Rebecca Gannon is absolutely terrible with live coverage on KWCH. If KWCH was to go on through morning, then its OK to blow your least talented on set anchor at this time. Not a bad choice, if that is their choice. I would have stayed with Cindy to at least 3AM. Nearly 40 minutes after it was first broken on another station, KWCH finally confirmed a fatality. -Hal

Missing Baby Coverage Notes

KWCH led off their 10PM with news that a baby was abducted when the car it was in was stolen. KSN led their newscast off with it as well and even had the first live pictures from the scene, but that was as far as they got outside of moving text on bottom of screen with information. KAKE jumped on it a little later after their lead story. Both KWCH and KAKE had a live picture from a police press conference announcing a baby was missing. About an hour after regular newscasts ended and the baby was located, KWCH was first to break in that the baby was found. 11 minutes later KSN had the news on text at the bottom of the screen. About 14 minutes after the news first broke on KWCH, KAKE broke in to say the baby was found and safe. KWCH even had Cindy Klose in the studio for its reports, following the press conference. Continued good hustle on KWCH's part as they had the first live pictures from where the baby was found. Gotta say KWCH won this battle, having the most up to date info and having it first as well. -Hal.

The Aging of KWCH's supporting cast

The Sweeps Woody Warning continued on 2 of the 3 stations tonight (3, if you include KSN with the latest medical report). KSN broke the story yesterday that a few gang members (as they called them) were arrested in a federal sting. Today they referred to it, slightly in a story about Gang problems in Wichita, but still were left clueless, by days end. KSN's bare-boned story on Wednesday must have lit a fire over at KAKE, a day later, because after a day off with nothing, Jeanene Kiesling managed to get the story today. Meanwhile KWCH was left in the dust without any mention on either day. Was KAKE's story a work of art? No, but good sourcing made the difference in this case.
As for Sweeps stories. All I can say is what was KWCH doing on Rebecca Gannon's story on computer software which can show someone apparently what they think they may look like when they get old? KWCH nabbed a few people from their supporting cast to find out. This software made the people look hideous. It was like they took some gravy and mayo, smeared it on the pictures then added a sharpee and drew some pimples. Typical Sweeps story (I was a sucker, made me watch), but at least they kept the post production work out of it (unlike other Sweeps stories this month), for the most part. -Hal

Who Needs "Wild Weather" When You Have "Wild KAKE"

I have been out of the area the past couple of days, so I haven't blogged lately, but KAKE certainly gave me a rousing welcome with plenty of material along from its 10PM newscast. Of course we remain in the Sweeps Woody Warning and will remain in that through the month of May. As for Tonight, KAKE started off with its stupid title for its lead story, using the much over used "Wild Weather." Wild KAKE had an absolutely useless story on the fact it rained Today from the reporter. Holy Cow, get the "Team Coverage" and your storm trackers assembled for this news. What's it supposed to do? If it didn't rain, we'd have a story before long that we are in a drought. The story was made worse when the reporter, Deb Farris, appeared on camera inside a car with the windshield wipers on. It seemed as if the windshield wipers weren't even in need, because it wasn't raining at the time of the story. You mean to tell me they couldn't have chased a better story off of the scanner than this? Things only further plunged for KAKE as the newscast continued. In their Sweeps story tonight, the very creatively titled, "Randy's Recovery," told the the story of former KAKE anchor Randy Brown, a survivor of a motorcycle crash. If you read this blog at anytime, you know I am usually a fan of all things associated with Larry Hatteberg. I assume he did this story and not merely lent his voice. If he did the story, it didn't have that characteristic shine a Hatteberg story normally has. Once again there was way too much post production. It looked something like a health segment from the 1980's and a bad Sci-Fi movie rolled into one. Way too many unnecessary visual and sound effects. The story probably could have told itself without all the gizmos, but once again we are in a Sweeps Woody Warning.

Over at KWCH, they need to circulate a memo about not over thinking reporter appearances on camera. After the over-the-top Kim Wilhelm story the other day about toilet paper, Jim Grawe found it necessary to appear on camera mixed in with a shot of him and a door handle. I am sure its all meant to help with flow and timing, but it comes off as overly gimmicky.

And at KSN, I don't know if they got the memo yet that sweeps have started. I did however see a promo about a Sweeps piece running Wednesday night. Given what I have seen on the other 2 stations so far, I wont hold my breath.-Hal