KWCH-KFDI Casino debate

So not to be outdone by the baseball story, KWCH sponsored a debate along side KFDI radio on the upcoming casino vote. It was done from the studios of KFDI radio. I kind of question the reasoning behind this. I think it would have looked better if they could have done it in the TV studio rather than a radio studio. You could tell the studio was tight on space and the wide shot of everything wasn't good because often times you saw more of the back of Michael Schwanke's head than you did of him and the rest of those involved. I think radio has less technical things to worry about, so you would think it would have been easier to have it at the TV station. With that said, there definitely was good information discussed by all in the debate and I'd encourage those who are still up in there air or maybe even if you made your mind up, to check out the debate now on the KWCH web site. -Hal

Baseball Fever and Catastrophe for Wichita TV Stations

So Anon #4's comment from the last post mentioned how they saw on KSN's website that a new baseball team had been chosen for Wichita, but now needed the city council's approval. I must admit I heard something about this at 5PM, but wasn't paying very close attention. I forgot all about it when 6PM came around and was out and not near a TV. Doing this stupid blog has now forced me to get a DVR so I can record one station of my choosing if I am away or whatever. For some dumb reason I chose to DVR 12 at 6PM. When I saw the response about a new team I checked on the DVR and saw nothing on 12. I went to the web and saw two stories on KSN and then went to KAKE.com and saw something new I liked. They stream the first segment of their newscasts. I should say most of their main newscasts. A commenter wanted to know if I saw "the meltdown Saturday at 10 on KAKE." I didn't and was hoping they were dumb enough to stream that and they weren't. Darn.
Anyway I must say KSN did a nice job on breaking the news of the new team. Was this worth having Casey Walkup and Lauragail Locke to lead on the story about an independent team at 6PM? That's your call for the comments. I will say I think they had good reason to believe they were the only ones with the news so they definitely wanted to have full coverage on it at 6PM and own the story. Someone had previously mentioned how KSN missed a fuel leak into a Salina stream Yesterday and was this enough to make up for it. I will say the Salina story probably wouldn't have been as big of a thing if it wasn't for recent catastrophes in Valley Center and Coffeyville. Even with this said, KSN did dodge a bullet that this didn't become a bigger deal and for them they were lucky it didn't pollute the town's water system. And by 10, you quickly realized the news of the day was baseball. What gains they might have made at 5 and 6 for breaking the baseball story, were quickly overshadowed by the 10. They once again looked like the way behind third and sometimes 4th ranked station in town. They owned the story at 5 and 6 yet they waste 3 minutes on non-weather to lead the 10? This could have been technically related. Then they get to the story and Paul's mic isn't working. Then the camera wouldn't switch over as Dana's microphone was slow to get going. As for the story, it was good, too bad everything else around it didn't deserve to be in the starting line-up.
KAKE did a bad job of acting like they were on top of the baseball story at 6PM with their new sports guy thrown literally into the fire to savage the story. I am becoming impressed with this guy and his delivery, but don't get me confused. I thought KAKE had a poor effort of faking it. Although they might have tricked a few people at 6PM they were on top of things, at 10PM, they interviewed the Thunder owner and then a bunch of fans who obviously knew nothing. Not a very strong effort, but as you read on they did OK if comparing to the others overall.
KWCH had nothing on the topic at 6PM, or at least with a quick scan of the DVR. They were in a tough spot tonight, because they had a debate on the casino they simulcasted on the Internet. Their problem, they didn't make a clear decision on whether to go all out with the casino or all out on baseball for 10. You cannot have both and maybe they learned that. At 9PM on the Fox newscast Linda Marez did a remarkably solid job on the baseball story. Actually a real complete package with sound from the possible new owner (which everyone had) and then reaction from a councilman. Not bad for her and a solid job. So at 10PM they lead with the baseball rather than the casino, but instead of a solid story like Linda did on Fox an hour earlier, she just read a script over video and sound from one person. I don't think they came out looking as well as an hour earlier on Fox. Then they followed up with the casino debate. I think if that's all they were going to do with baseball they should have held that for the 2nd story. Despite KAKE's story being the weakest, they probably came out about as good as the other two, just because of some bad technical blunders or bad decisions made behind the scenes by the other two. -Hal

Sunday Potpourri

OK, I know I used this title once before, but what the heck. The last few weeks we saw the battle of what station could bring us the best story on checking up on the Casino Ads Commercials. Of course this blog was filled with commenters fighting for their stations being first with it and better, all good fodder. I am sure the upcoming election will be the subject of more stories this week. I'll be curious what the next angle will be.

In the last week KAKE premiered a new sports guy to replace James Sido who went to a bigger market. As I have made it clear in the past, I never was a fan of Sido. Even though someone must like him to give him a shot in a bigger market, I just don't like these bad Sportscenter anchor impersonators. KAKE's newest sports guy made his debut over a week ago. Not sure of the spelling, but KAKE's newest sports guy Ben Arnet, isn't bad. He has had a couple of witty lines and should be good overall. While I am on the KAKE bandwagon, it was good timing having Alan Shope in Wisconsin for the arrival of Priest Holmes. Although I'm doubtful Holmes will see much playing time this year, I thought it worked well for them to be up there for that as the only Wichita station, up until this point. KWCH folks, I know, I'm sure you'll have a crew in a few days, but face it you missed an interesting day today.

Tomorrow, its not the YouTube debate, but the closest thing for Wichita. KWCH will simulcast on the Internet a casino debate Monday night. I'll be curious to hear your comments about it when its over. -Hal

Who Has the Winning Hand in Casino Vote Coverage?

With the vote less than 2 weeks away, this might be a good time to evaluate the coverage to this point for the upcoming casino vote in Sedgwick County. Thanks to the commenter who mentioned this as a possible topic. I had been thinking about the topic a little and actually if someone wanted my honest opinion who had the best coverage, I probably would say KWCH before giving it much thought. Their poll was good over a week ago showing that the margin of a lead for the "Yes" folks was shrinking. Although it appears as if it was done after KAKE's, their "Fact Finder 12" investigation on the Pro and Anti Casino spots was better. I thought Kim Wilhelm presented it in a little more of a conversational manner and still with a little more urgency. It also looked like it had a little more post production work done to it and looked better .

I had to check the web to see exactly when the two did their pieces, but I think KAKE might have done theres at least a half week earlier than KWCH's. (Update 12:33AM: Check the comments following this entry and you make your own judgement). That's about the only area in which they trumped KWCH. Once again KAKE's post-production work on the piece isn't anything near KWCH. Reporter Deb Farris had the facts (and were the first ones to report it) but they were not as easy to follow as KWCH's. They both found similar things in their stories.

Following up the rear, not surprisingly at least in timing, was KSN as they ran their promoted Casino piece Tonight. I think my head is still spinning similar to the reels on the slots. The piece by Jason Kravarik certainly was the most in-depth piece on the issue yet, done by any of the stations. The interviews worked well, mixed in with the various ads. You don't often hear, yet alone see Phil Ruffin so that proved interesting. It proves that this is a complicated topic that had been under reported by KSN up until this point. I think it also shows that with a smaller staff, KSN might do best focusing on longer in-depth pieces like this and less breaking news stories. If it only had the right on-air talent, it might be able to find a niche in Wichita and gain some ratings. It might not make them #1, but this format might improve their current spot. They currently are #3 so what do they have to lose in trying this route and promoting it.

Since apparently the web is the future for the business, I think I need to mention a few things I found when researching the story. First off, I really am not familiar with the equal time rule when it comes to campaigns. I don't know if it really even exists at the local level or not, but KWCH just may want to even things out for their sakes. This is a hot button topic and I think many will be going to websites to read and WATCH the various stories the stations did on the topic. I wanted to catch a 2nd look at the KWCH Fact Finder investigation of the commercials so I went to their web site and found that although the text of both sides are on the web, the video of only the anti-casino ad story is on the site and not the video on the pro-casino ad story. (Update 12:35AM: Since this post, the problem on the KWCH site has been corrected according to the time stamp at 12:02AM on 7-27-07. I'll admit it I might have been partially wrong on this one, but at the same time I was right too. See the comments.)

Since people we'll be checking out the web for Casino coverage prior to the polls, KSN needs to take a hint from KAKE and KWCH's sites. KAKE and KWCH have separate icons listing all their stories to this point on the vote. Its nice and makes the stories in one spot and easy to see and watch (when posted, KWCH). Maybe KSN can put a link up above their "KSN Throws a Wedding," ad. (Boy the wedding sounds like a fun gimmick, on an unrelated note. I am sure the wedding will be fodder for Hal at a later time. I will be interested to see how the newscasts will somehow get involved in this obvious sales stunt. Hey, maybe Paul could be the wedding singer. He has the hair and schmucky style for it.) A link taking the person to a list of stories KSN has done on the casino would be helpful.

I also see KWCH plans a debate on the topic. They will not broadcast it live over the air, but rather live through the web. I'll be interested to know how many hits that gets. I like this person, but I was interested in seeing that Michael Schwanke will co-host this with an announcer from KFDI radio, rather than KWCH using one of their main anchors solo or with someone with KFDI.
Also I am curious who all of you think has covered the casino issue best. Try not to let your views on the casino get in the way with who you think has the best coverage of it. -Hal

The Sale of KSN

Thanks to frequent poster, "Jon" for pointing me to the news on kansas.com that KSN had been sold. I don't know much about the new owners. I am solely basing this off of the Eagle article saying it was announced in LA.
http://kansas.com/news/updates/story/130589.html

After I read the Eagle article, I looked at the comments from readers. Yikes. There wasn't a lot of love for KSN, that's for sure. People on their site certainly are reacting, so I'll open it up for discussion tonight on this blog. Here are a few of my reactions.
First will be a question. Will KSN remain, for the most part, a #3 ranked station, or will new ownership see the possibility of dollar signs if they can improve the on-air product and the ratings? In previous posts' comments people have talked about a smaller work force KSN has compared to the others. Will new ownership shrink or expand the staff?
Hopefully a new ownership group may bring serious on-air cosmetic changes the station needs in its personalities. We have talked about their inadequacies before in previous posts. New ownership might need to clean house with management to get a fresh view of what viewers must want to watch, since the current has added an anchor that to me is hard to watch and kept one who hasn't delivered in the years she has been on the desk. The comments on the Eagle's site are getting a little harsh and maybe are just from the non-television industry-angry-disgruntled folks, so I'd be curious what you all think will or will not happen in this sale. -Hal

Discussion: Photography and Editing

One thing I realized as I went about reviewing this topic is I really had taken this subject for granted. Its one of those things when the stories are good you pretty much discount what goes on behind the camera, and praise the reporter. But when things go bad, you think who did that? I have adapted the philosophy if you aren't thinking about the photography and editing when watching the story, then those behind the scenes are doing a good job. I had a hard time thinking how I would review and critique the three stations. I finally realized, especially when it comes to photography and editing, style is key. Everyone has opinions when it comes to style and if they agree with all your opinions, then I think that is problematic. So I expect people to disagree with my opinions. With that here is the delayed discussion about photography and editing. I'll first start out with some basic things I was looking at, ratings, and then discussion will follow.


Overall Photography mechanics

Of course you want good color, sound and interesting angles.

Consistency

One thing when going into this I thought, consistency was important. From a blog in Washington I pulled off the idea of consistency. This could be applied to all facets of TV news and I will include this with future discussion topics. The Washington blog wasn't breaking down the different parts of the newscasts, but mentioned when talking about reporting the idea that individuals will have their own styles, but they should correspond to the station's own personality. Of course, different subjects will bring on different challenges and reasons to do stories differently, but the idea is when you watch a story you should be able to tell what station it is.

Overall Finished look

This goes to editing for the most part. Even if it is a day of story, when a station can make it look like some thought went into the post production and editing process, like graphics and pictures, it only adds to the story.

Extra Bonus points

Lighting for especially promoted stories, where you know they had several days to work on them.


Photography


#1KWCH


#2 KSN


#3 KAKE


Editing


#1 KSN


#2 KWCH


#3 KAKE


KAKE

Now those from KAKE will probably be upset. I will say to start I think it has more to do with their overall news philosophy. I am sure they can and do material just as good as those at the #1 spots, but on a day-to-day basis, this isn't so. When watching their newscasts you get this fast on the run kind of a style with breaking news and such. With their editing and photography, you get the feeling they don't get much time to fully devote to their stories. They have a record and spit it out philosophy although one positive is consistency. As far as consistency with reporting and photography goes, I think KAKE does this well. Although I am not a fan of their style, I think if you didn't have a bug on the screen, know who their reporters were, a majority of the time after watching one of their stories you could identify that as KAKE. They could stand to spend more time on lighting and overall execution for stories they tease. For instance, this past week they teased a story about a baby who was hit at a Wranglers game. Much of the video came from the night of the incident and might have even been home video. I'll totally discount that part, but the interviews could have been lit making it seem like a bigger story since they promoted it throughout the week. Maybe it was not shot by KAKE, since the people lived, I think, in Kansas City. If this is true, than why was the story called a "special report?" If it was so "special" to KAKE, than send your own crew there and do the story right.


KSN

One thing they do lack is consistency. I think they need to decide if they want to be more like KAKE or KWCH. Maybe that is characteristic of a station that has or been ranked #3 for a long time. On one newscast you can see a piece that looks very rushed and not put together all that well, but then the next story could look like something you would have seen on the NBC nightly newscast. On the other hand, during their special pieces, often seen during the sweeps ratings period, their photography comes off as very professional and just as good if not better than KWCH on a consistent basis.
What inconsistencies they may have in photography, are more than made up in editing. I wonder if they have the same equipment as the other stations. In someways this doesn't matter, because they do a nice job in using the pictures of the story as well as text and other graphics to really create a nice finished product. Earlier I mentioned KSN lacked consistency in the overall product. On the other hand they are far more consistent when it comes to editing. While on KAKE and KWCH you may only see the special editing effects during sweeps, it seems as if KSN does these sorts of things on a far more routine daily basis.

KWCH 12


Its starting to sound like a broken record. Their #1 ranking in the ratings and conservative approach definitely shows in the photography and to a lesser extent in editing. They really don't take many chances and shoot solid and quality stuff. It seems they don't over think a shot, and it comes out natural and better that way. Some of the interviews will have different colors in the background as if they are lit. This appears to happen far more often on KWCH than with the other two.
As for editing, I said earlier that I like a consistent philosophy with everyone pretty much shooting with the same idea in mind. Sometimes KWCH can get a little carried away in editing. Case in point several weeks ago they did a story on watching the grass grow. As much as I praised the photography and editing in an earlier post, but one cannot get carried away. http://wichitatvnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/slow-news-day-watching-grass-grow-is.html. I will say with the dull topic, the photographer and editor most certainly resurrected this piece from the grave, no matter if others want to argue that it is a viable story idea. However, sometimes the constant editing of sound breaking up the reporter's voice became distracting and makes one start thinking about who is editing or shooting that. I feel a good photographer or editor is doing their job if that isn't even a question. I think KWCH could stand to incorporate more graphics into their pieces. The lack of graphics and the breaking up of the reporter's voice, moved KWCH to #2 in editing.

So let the discussion begin. This might be hard to do, but take a few steps back and try, just try to give a real quick unbiased look at things. -Hal

Morning shows: More than holding their own

Outside of Roger and Cindy (Felicia more than held her own), replace the on-air crews from the evening newscasts on the 3 channels and make way for the morning crews. Kudos to all 3 stations' morning coverage of the apparent murder suicide and officer involved shooting. Only complicating matters for the three stations, they looked like they were already planning on live shots from the site of Yesterday's chemical plant fire. Maybe KWCH should just have Kim Hynes report in the morning. She acted like she had years of experience, for once in a live shot, she was composed and told what she knew well. Probably the best breaking news report I have seen her do. Not to be outdone Cayle Thompson at KAKE and KSN's Anne Meyer also did well. The press conference at 6:30 was handled well. KWCH got into it first while KSN and KAKE got into it just as it began and all had it live when it was discussed of multiple deceased victims. It happened at 3AM, just about 2 hours prior to their 5AM start times for a newscast. Here's another topic I'll throw out there, to those who saw this morning's coverage, I think the morning shows of all 3 stations handled this situation better than the larger-in-number evening crews would have if it happened at 3PM or even at 8PM at night. Once again good early morning hustle by all 3 stations. And not to forget, all had live on-the-scene reports at the site of the chemical fire this morning. Someone talked about online coverage of the plant explosion last night. I will say KWCH and KSN had the police involved shooting on the web site before 7. Please comment and share your opinions on this morning's coverage.
There's that saying: they come in threes. For the stations' sakes, let hope Thursday doesn't bring a 3rd major news story. -Hal

Valley Center Explosion

No, I haven't given up on the blog. I must say thanks to the comments to a previous post earlier this morning, which alerted me to the events. I was checking on the comments about 10AM and a comment about an explosion and my thoughts of the coverage. I quickly found a TV and watched sporadically through the day. First thing, KWCH employees will be excited when I do say early on they definitely had things moving well. As the day continued Roger and Cindy showed without a doubt, why they are the market's #1 anchor team. Cindy is able to stay serious and focused, Roger does the same, but every now and then he is able to get a one liner in that kind of puts the viewer to ease somewhat. One problem with KWCH as I have said before, outside of Michael Schwanke, Jim Grawe and Kim Wilhelm, their reporting depth drops. Shots from Kim Hynes and others, have been worse in the past with other stories, but they still are rough compared to the others I mentioned. KAKE scrambled quickly and handled things about expected. Their 6PM had the nuts and bolts you would expect. Like all the stations the press conference a few minutes into the newscast I am sure threw a wrench into all the newscasts. I didn't get to see it but from the early comments, KSN had a rough start to the day's events. A little slow to get going. That isn't a surprise, normally though by the end of the day they do a decent overall job of wrapping up the days coverage. We'll have to see what happens at 10PM. I will say I thought Anthony Powell shows why he is their best on-air male talent. Maybe it was good he wasn't a main anchor and stuck out in the field, because he probably was one of the bright points for KSN out in the field, although a late press conference was a little rough. I will say KSN could have maybe bailed out of the 6PM news conference earlier, like KWCH did, but that's a tough call. KWCH went the longest with continuous coverage early in the day. They can do it especially when they have a strong crew like Roger and Cindy to come in and take over things. That is a real brief summary of my thoughts about the day. I probably saw at the most about 2 hours of total coverage through the day, so please comment and give me your thoughts about the highs and lows and please after your comments rank the stations 1,2,3 for who had the best coverage collectively through the whole day. -Hal

Wild West World Fall Out

Sorry folks. I have been out of town since last week, therefore I haven't gotten to last Friday's discussion. I'll try to get to the topic this Friday. I was reading the comments from readers to the Eagle's website this evening about the closing of Wild West World and one caught me by surprise. I am interested on your thoughts about it. Here is what the person wrote as a comment to an Eagle article.

The local media made this guy seem legit by giving him a massive publicity build up before the park opened. Now they are all racing to tear him down. The Eagle and the 3 local TV stations helped fleece the people who bought season tickets as much as Etheredge.

So I am curious what your thoughts are. I seem to remember the stations doing stories on his past slightly very early on. I think one of the 3 (Possibly KAKE) did a more in-depth piece on Etheredge's past, but overall as the park was preparing to open and did open, most stories were upbeat. Frankly I really don't disagree with that idea. I think there was generally positive hopes toward the park and reason to think it could do OK. Now as the weeks wore on and you saw the parking lot half full, if that, on even a Sunny weekend, one had to start to wonder. I disagree that the media "helped fleece the people who bought season tickets." They definiely helped create a buzz of excitement for a new amusement park's opening. But, it was something exciting for the area. So as the e-mailer to the Eagle's comments wrote, is the media partially to blame by making Etheredge seem "legit?" Curious what you all think. -Hal

Slow News Day: Watching Grass Grow is news

We've all heard the description when describing something as boring as watching grass grow. Well if you watched the KWCH 5PM newscast you actually were able to do that. I wondered if viewers were bored? (Actually it was photographed and edited well, but the topic was going a little far.) KWCH staff, I know you'll be upset. The story was about the rain of the past week causing grass to grow faster than normal and regulations in the city for grass height and lawn crews being backlogged. The citations given to extra long grass I guess is an angle and it is after all the 5PM show, but I still question if there was something else out there..
I have been out of town the past couple of days enjoying the Country's freedom, so I might postpone this week's in-depth topic into the weekend. The voting is over and photography and editing won by a pretty good margin. I have my opinions already, but I haven't been watching TV closely the last few days to cite examples for my opinions, so I'll hold off for that probably Saturday or Sunday. -Hal

The Problems Coffeyville poses

On the surface, one could argue a town not quite in a TV station's viewing area isn't news. I probably would have argued early in the day sine there was flooding in Fredonia, which is in the viewing area, Coffeyville could wait. Now KWCH fans (employees) I can hear your cheers right now. Yes I will praise your product. I don't know when the decision was made to send a crew to Coffeyville, but it paid especially now since as Jim Grawe said, not only is it natural disaster but an environmental one with oil now mixing with the flood waters. They had the flooding in their viewing area covered at 10PM with a pkg from the Kansas City Fox affiliate WDAF. Michael Schwanke probably had one of the best flooding angles yet, by taking a look back at the year in disasters for the state. We just began July and as Schwanke reported the flooding makes the 3rd disaster declaration this year with over 90 percent of the state having been in some sort of disaster declaration. It was good information and a decent example of taking a story and finding a wider angle to it. In all at 10PM, KWCH spent 10 minutes on the flood while the others switched to regular news earlier into their newscasts. KAKE and KSN had some varieties of stories pulling from local and national video. Now, some of you might say, "Well you didn't see the 6PM." I don't have the numbers from May, I am sure some of you do, but especially as the Summer hits I would say the audience at 10PM is bigger. If this is so why so often are station's wads all blown on the 6PM show? Now one could argue there is more time to fill at 6, given that the newscasts are preceded by national news so they must stay away from it. My response to that would be whats more important losing a few viewers in your 2nd or 3rd segment at 6 or having a lame show at 10 coming off of primetime. In that regard if you hadn't watched news all day, KWCH definitely had a more in-depth and worthwhile presentation at 10PM than the other two.
Don't forget, to vote on which topic you want me to go in-depth on this Friday. The choices are listed below this entry. I will tally them late tomorrow night. -Hal

Vote on Next Week's Topic

Please respond by posting a comment anonymously with what you want me to comment on this Friday. Your choices are:

Sports
Photography and editing
Morning Shows

Just type one of those 3 topics in the post by Tuesday and I'll tally the responses and write one for Friday's discussion. It might take awhile for you to actually see your vote posted, because it sometimes takes me some time before I see it and get it sent through, so be paitient. -Hal