The DTV Test & The Crawl as a Bargaining Tool

I was watching the local Fox news as they were hyping their DTV test last night and then I heard recaps of similar tests done earlier on KWCH and KSN. I assume KAKE might have done the same thing last night. Apparently if your TV was not equipped you would have seen static and if it was fine you saw bars in some tests like on KWCH and on the Fox one I saw "Everybody Loves Raymond" promos, signaling I guess, all was good with my cable and I was ready for the switchover. Plus the stations had special lines people could call to have their questions answered. It appeared as if they were local numbers and answered by local people. What a concept or was it just cheaper that way? I am curious how the tests went at the various stations.

The Crawl as a Bargaining Tool?
It has also been interesting to watch the crawls lately through the tests. Back in the day you only saw crawls for severe weather. Lately you started seeing them warning people about the switch to DTV. Last night I saw a crawl on one of the stations using it as an apparent leverage tactic in bargaining agreements with various cable operators in the area. The crawl basically stated that if you had one of the cable companies listed as a cable provider to contact that provider because if they don't reach an agreement with the TV station, the viewer wouldn't see programming from the station after a certain date. Because of all the crawls, I haven't been reading them lately and the one last night lumped in with the rest so I cannot remember which station did this. Maybe more than one is doing this and I simply have missed it in growing tired of the crawls. The airwaves are the public's in one sense, but the programming and content is owned and controlled by the stations so they do what they think they need to like running bargaining crawls. I really don't have any views one way or another about it, but I am curious if anyone else has seen the crawls aimed specifically on the cable agreements and if any of them has interrupted your viewing of key programs. Of course when the crawls are aimed at weather info and maybe saving people's lives, angry viewers call in for that, so I am curious what happens on something like this. -Hal

Gallup: Local TV News Leads But Declining

A new Gallup survey shows that although a majority of Americans still get their news from local TV stations, it has declined from the previous year along with many other daily news sources, except cable TV news and of course the internet. Local TV news declined 3 percentage points. Sorry to say, but declining only 3 points in a year I think is a mini victory for local TV news. Digging deeper into the results, a higher percentage of viewers say they watch cable TV news than they do nightly network newscasts for the first time since Gallup started the survey in 1995. I think another one of the problematic issues for local TV news is if viewers don't watch the nightly network newscasts. I feel many local stations put more effort into a 6PM newscast than a 10PM and I really don't understand that. However, local TV stations should still be happy that a majority in the survey say they still get their news from them.

Moonves Foreshadows Network TV's Future? - CBS Chief Exec. Les Moonves said in a Marketwatch article that in 10 years the traditional model of airing new network programing on local affiliates may not exist in favor of offering a feed directly to satellite or cable operators and bypassing those local stations. This doesn't come as a surprise in premise, but it does surprise me that Moonves said it publicly. It definitely shows that local stations must look to diversify and expand its product on other platforms in order to continue to remain viable. -Hal

The Local TV News Business Game

Upon reading news today of NBC Universal slashing 500 jobs and Viacom cutting about 850 jobs, I began wondering how are things evolving locally. I think some of the cuts at NBC, Viacom and other networks were going to happen whether the economy took a turn or not, because of changes in technology and media consumption. However, the economic downturn stirs the pot even more and accelerates change in the media world. I have found it interesting in reading articles and watching stories about the economic problems how the example of local car dealers' slumps across the country have forced them to cut back on advertising in newspapers, radio and television. Not only are these stories appearing in trade publications, but also on shows and publications watched and read by the mainstream population. Its been awhile since I have heard of any large layoffs happening in Wichita at TV stations. There have been comments made to the posts that one station isn't replacing people when they leave and making 1 person do the job of a couple. Is it just a matter of time before we hear of big cuts in this market? Or are Wichita stations already dealing with minimum staffs and there are no cuts to make? With technology and the economy influencing the business at identical times, it will be interesting to see what happens. I am curious to hear your opinions.
KPTS Larry Hatteberg Special - KPTS airs a special called, "Larry Hatteberg's Kansas People," Tonight at 7PM on the local PBS station. It re airs Sunday, December 14 at 6PM. The website describes it as "collection of some of his favorite stories from the television series on KAKE TV." The special happens to run during one of the station's fundraising drives. -Hal

Time For A New Post and Random Thoughts

It is most certainly time for a new post. Things are getting a tad nasty in the comments section of the last post. I do want to briefly touch on some of the later comments from the last post on a suspicious death or homicide, whatever you want to call it in Pratt. Apparently KSN reporter Justin Kraemer called it a homicide from the beginning. Other stations kept referring to it as a "suspicious death" and many of you wrote to this blog expressing your opinions one way or another. I believe now all the stations are referring to it as a homicide. What do I think of this? It is proof that it is definitely time for a new post. I know many of you don't think I have a heart, but after all it is a Holiday period so lets steer towards some new topics.

Bill Snyder Back to K-State - This is one of those stories that when it is officially announced, you are almost tired of the story since "sources" broke the story on Sunday. All the TV stations had similar offerings. I was curious to watch the announcement (I don't know why) and I first turned online, but I decided I should give the ole TV a try. KSN was the only one to break into regular programming for the announcement on TV. The others offered it online and had crawls across the screen. Overall though, the coverage during the day was consistent among the three stations and pretty decent.

KWCH New Sports Hire - KWCH employees and fans get ready, I am about to say good things about your station. (Despite your thoughts, I am positive about your station, more than you think.) New weekend sports anchor Jenn Bates is a great hire for KWCH. She comes across as knowledgeable and confident. Female sports reporters/anchors can be tough to come by and I bet she doesn't stay around for long. I think she is very good: male or female.

KWCH Nice Thing to Write #2 - They made a change on their Saturday morning show. Kim Hynes was taken off the anchor desk and replaced by Kara Sewell. It's a difference of night and day. I had been critical before about that show, now it has a whole new feel. Weather guy Rodney appears more relaxed and natural on the set. I haven't seen enough of Kara's stories to see how she is as a reporter, but she does a nice job anchoring, switching from the happy talk of weather, to the latest shooting overnight or fluffy feel good story in a professional manner. Plus her delivery is not forced and you are not reminded that she is reading from a teleprompter. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think she's quite ready for Cindy's job, but I think it is another good hire for KWCH.

Former KWCH News Director to KPTS - This post is becoming all about KWCH. (Sorry to some of you). I received an e-mail several weeks ago and I never read it until this morning, when I received a few more comments about this. KPTS has hired former KWCH news director Michele Gors as the station's new President and Chief Executive Officer. She began her position last Monday. -Hal

What makes a Good Story?

A Comment from the last post wanted to know, "What are your qualifications on what does make a good story and what doesn't?" Some of what I write here may sound cliche, but I think it often is forgotten for flash and such. (No, its tempting here, but I wont point out the example of the City's newest arrival. Read previous posts for that.)

1)Must keep a viewer's interest - This is an obvious one, but can be very complex because it incorporates so much. If a story isn't interesting, many things can be at fault: bad subject matter, no story development, poor writing, bad editing, and no connection with the area.

2) Must answer the basic who, what, when, where, and why - Sometimes the answers to all of these 5 questions aren't known and won't ever be known. The challenge is to still engage the viewer and give a clear picture with the answers you have, but don't con the viewer into thinking you have all the answers when you do not.

3) Must fulfill the majority of viewers needs of wanting to know - Although it may sound strange at first, this refers to a shooting down the street and even to the latest escapade with Paris Hilton. Because of this, viewers' needs in a particular area of the country aren't identical. This is where I think consultants often times error. Sometimes they come up with a cure-all formula which may (I only write, "may." I don't like consultants.) help one town's TV station but not the whole country. Because people have many options of getting informed, if a viewer invests a few minutes to watch a story on TV, they better come out of it feeling they learned something out of the deal. Whether its the circumstances of the latest shooting or the name of Paris Hilton's newest dog, the viewer must feel they learned something rather than creating more questions from the story. The problems TV stations and other traditional media outlets have with the internet is the ability for viewers to customize their news intake. They don't have to invest 1:30 or 30 seconds for a story they do not care about. Sure they could flip to one of the other stations during this time, but they may not offer anything of interest either. The internet, on the other hand, can be more convenient for checking out multiple media sources at a faster pace. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer TV news over the internet.

I am only starting on this topic and as I get more comments about this one, I'll probably have more posts on this. So please, respond with your thoughts about what makes a good story. -Hal

The Heap of Sweeps

All three stations had what I guess would be considered Sweeps pieces Tonight. KWCHers will say I am picking on him, but Brian Heap's shtick is too much. KWCH's newest reporter's style is over-the-top. His story Tonight was very 80's like, but nonetheless talked about an important issue how social security numbers and other valuable info can be found in dumpsters. I wished The Heap would have done all of Wichita a favor and just stayed in the dumpster. The story was moving along when he includes the audio from a Pennsylvania woman whose son's info was found in a Wichita dumpster. She then thanks God that The Heap was the one going through the dumpster and that he decided to take the cause on. On his Sunday story he HAD to include a line where a woman was speeding along until she saw the Heap and slowed down. Thankfully he gives himself credit, because I don't know many others who would. Its too bad, because the other reporters at KWCH who do investigative pieces, Kim Wilhelm and Michael Schwanke, do not find it necessary to tell people how important they are to the story. In fact outside of seeing them for a few seconds in the story they do not make it about them. They make their stories about the topic they are covering. WOW!! What a concept. And most of their stories are very good. How this Heap of whatever can work at KWCH, I don't understand. I think KWCH takes a huge credibility hit with The Heap filing stories for them. -Hal.

Local Election Coverage Feed Back

I'll let this post be just for all of the readers as you watch the local stations and their coverage of the election returns Tonight. I don't really expect anything all that surprising as far as coverage goes. In part, I think the local races for Congress and Senate should be decided early with little surprises. As you watch and you see something interesting post a comment and let the discussion begin. -Hal

"In the Zone" = "Heap" of Nonsense

KWCH has a segment they apparently do on Sundays called, "In the Zone." (I hope I got the title right, maybe its "Answer Back 12?") "In the Zone" is a segment where they send new morning anchor Brian Heap out to the streets with a radar gun and he sees how fast drivers go in school speed zones. Let me get this out of the way first: people need to slow down and it appears it is an issue. However, when someone is as obnoxious as him and apparently is making this into a weekly segment, then you have to make note of it. My problem is it looks like a segment all about the reporter with him prancing back and forth and even saying once, "She never hit the breaks until she saw me." Thank God for him. I guess I will fall for the Sweeps ploy or whatever you call it, and watch each week to laugh at the Heap. He goes over the top and to me appears as a Heap of nonsense, but hopefully he will save a few lives. -Hal

November Sweeps Woody Has Started

I don't know anything officially but it appeared Thursday marked the first day of the so called November book, based on all the scary promos leading up to Yesterday. I think the best piece of the day was one probably not even promoted as such. That would be KAKE's Deb Farris' story on a Pratt football player injured in September, back on the sidelines to watch his teammates last night. Sure we've seen a million stories like it, but they always offer some inspiration and compared to the other Sweeps offerings last night, I think it was the best. Deb should have gotten double pay as I think the promoted KAKE Sweeps piece for the night was hers on Vanishing Veins. It was OK but it didn't really interest me. I am sure it was average or better but didn't really peak my interest. After all I am a guy, that may be part of it, but it certainly was a story I would have been upset if I would have rushed home just to see it.
KSN heavily promoted a piece this week on gas prices and an interview with officials at QT down at their headquarters in Tulsa. By the end of Sweeps I think the promo might be the best one of the month, however the story itself kind of dragged on. Even with gas prices heading down, it was smart to do a Sweeps piece on the topic because about everyone has talked about the prices in the last few months. With the topic and the promo I am sure a few extra people tuned in. I did get some answers I had always wanted about gas prices like why prices in one area of town are different then the other when its the same brand of gas.
KWCH had an Answer Back 12 piece on delinquent taxes. I don't know if that was an actual Sweeps piece or not. Alana Rocha did a nice job and it was certainly better than a typical day's story. -Hal

KWCH's New Graphics

New KWCH look- Just in time for Sweeps (which should be starting real shortly), KWCH has debuted new graphics on their shows. It is a clean look using red, blue and white. No, it doesn't have stars and stripes. I am sure someone was waiting for that comment. Its not a bad look. It reminds me of another station's look, I have seen somewhere in this country during my travels. It's not overly busy and not distracting. The moving graphics getting into stories or signaling live shots are decent. This may happen and I couldn't see it, but I wish the backgrounds on those would move slightly, but that may not be possible. I haven't decided if the name graphics are the right size, yet. I was trying to find an example of a story with the graphics in it online, for the readers not in the viewing area, however the stories I saw online do not have the graphics inserted. E-mail me if you see one that has it.
Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. life verdict - I have been growing tired of the Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. trial. It is something that has to be covered. Yesterday a jury could not come to a unanimous decision on giving Robinson death so he will get life without parole. At 10, KAKE and KSN lead with the story. KSN basically repeated everything that was said that day and during the last month and didn't advance anything outside of saying his life was spared. I will give KAKE's Abby Barnett credit trying to advance the story last night. It can be an overused premise to find jurors and ask them to take viewers "behind the close doors of deliberations," and other metaphors. I was actually interested because a guy's life was being decided. However she lacked execution (sorry, bad word to use) in pulling the story off. If the normally strong Dana Hertneky (who had nothing new in her story on KSN) had Abby's material I think she could have pulled it off and made it better.
Sweeps Woody Warning: As I often say around this time, the scary voice guy promos are running so it has to signal one thing, Sweeps. As always little will change ratings wise, but will have to see if the stations' plans of attack change at all. -Hal

The Future of TV News, Headed to New York??

You can usually depend on larger cities to see trends in different industries. However in TV for years, TV stations in smaller towns have had limited employees. Employees often do more than one job like reporting, taking pictures and putting it all together, rather than have separate people report, photograph and edit. As budgets get trimmed many see the wave to "one-man bands" becoming all the norm. If I'm correct I think Wichita has at least one in the city while the stations' outposts all are staffed with "one-man bands." For the most part, I think the stations in Wichita have full crews. In an article in the NY Observer, it appears NBC station, WNBC, is headed in the direction of smaller stations by adding the term "content producer." Maybe "content producer" is the PC way to say "one-man band." If New York gets it to work out, that really may speed up the time frame of changes in the industry. -Hal

KAB Awards and KWCH Newsroom Remodel

The KAB Awards were handed out in recent days in Wichita. There is always grumbling it seems when awards are handed out each year whether it be from the KAB or the Associated Press. I don't follow the awards that closely each year, but it seems over time it all averages out. This year's awards included local individuals such as KWCH meteorologist Merril Teller being inducted into the KAB Hall of Fame. Former KAKE meteorologist Jim O'Donnell was inducted posthumously. Not to be forgotten, but on the radio side of things longtime Wichita and KNSS newsman Steve McIntosh was inducted as well.

As for news coverage awards handed out last night, KSN got station of the year and won 4 other first place awards while KWCH won two first place awards. Maybe KAKE didn't enter because I didn't even see them place. One criticism you hear about the KAB awards is the way they break the markets up. They have three divisions Major (Kansas City) Large (Wichita) and then Medium (Topeka and everything else). So it becomes a competition within each market. I think that can be a little goofy. Kansas City Star TV columnist Aaron Barnhart has an interesting blog entry on the topic. And as he points out all of the winners in the Major market division of the KAB are from Missouri, since the KC stations make up that division.

KWCH Newsroom - It looks like KWCH has a new shot from their newsroom or remodeled it. There is a wall of TV monitors and it appears good, even though it looks more like a set then a conventional newsroom. Some may say, what's the point, its supposed to be a set. No, not a newsroom shot, a newsroom should look like just that. You have people walking behind and all, but its still a little formulaic for me, but don't get me wrong I still like the look. It kind of reminds me when KSN actually moved their whole newscasts out to the newsroom a couple of years ago. -Hal

KWCH On-Air Tweaks

If you live in the Wichita TV market viewing area, I assume you have seen the promos on KWCH with Michael Schwanke. Apparently he will start co-anchoring the 5PM with Cindy on Monday. I think this will help them, but not in a way many would think. It will help their reporting. He was anchoring the weekends and then reporting 3 weekdays. I assume now he'll anchor at 5PM weekdays and then report during those evenings. I think KWCH has the weakest reporting staff as a whole and having their strongest reporter, now five days a week really helps them.

Another change I noticed this morning is Kim Hynes no longer anchors the Saturday morning newscast on KWCH. I must admit I never watched the show and don't know how long the change has been in place. New hire Kara Sewell now anchors the show and is a great improvement over Kim. Kara has a lot of confidence while anchoring, yet she doesn't come across as though she is talking down to the audience. She looks young, but her demeanor definitely helps out her overall delivery. So now I am wondering who will take over for Schwanke on the weekend evenings?

On one hand I have to say, when you are #1 and you make some changes you at least aren't taking things for granted. However, I am curious if the new news director is the one behind these changes? If so, it sure hasn't taken him long to start switching things up. -Hal

Facebook, Myspace and Twitter: The Savior of TV News?

Although only four people commented on the last post, I am going to continue with what appears as a not so local issue, but will alter TV news as we know it on a local level. In the interest of full disclosure I saw this on lostremote.com. I know a couple of the readers always say that the site is against broadcast TV and only cares about online issues. I think no matter how you feel, people have to be somewhat open for discussion on how TV news is evolving. An article in the Miami Herald, features one show which may provide us a glimpse of where TV news is headed. The article features a show on CNN from 2PM until 3PM weekdays, hosted by Rick Sanchez. It is high paced and many issues are discussed in the hour. The show is interactive by having an open dialogue with viewers and the host through social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. The show is viewed as a success, certainly by the network, because ratings for that hour have increased 25 percent, since it began. Its this ratings success which worries me. Will shows like this become mainstream and eventually replace Today's newscasts as we know it? Also it would be cheaper production wise because you would need less reporters and production people. They could be replaced with a talking head who scans his or her social networking sites. Some may say a show mixed with Facebook and Twitter livens up a show. However, as I wrote in the last post I think it opens the media up for criticism if information, not so accurate, gets out all in the name of interactivity or citizen journalism.
In the Miami Herald article, John Klein, the head of CNN America is quoted as saying, "The speed of life has increased steadily for decades. We've gone from the network TV news cycle, delivering stories once a day at 6:30, to the cable news cycle, 24 hours a day, to the Internet news cycle, nearly instantaneous, to the blog news cycle, where it doesn't even have to be news, just whispers or rumor. Now we've reached Twitter, which is life beat-by-beat: I'm picking up the phone, I'm on the phone, I'm opening a Coke. That's the speed of Rick's show." I know the business is evolving and some (such as Sanchez) may call me a dinosaur, but I question if this really is good for informing the public. -Hal

A Hole in the "iReport" World?

Although this isn't exactly local, I think the topic certainly should be on the radar of all news organizations. National news networks and in some areas even local stations invite viewers to submit video clips and other news items to use for air. It has been called citizen journalism. For the most part, it is limited to viewers giving their opinions, like for instance, on the debate last night. However, a recent report on CNN's iReport had impact on Apple's stock price. Like other sites, viewers can submit their stories and make it on the CNN iReport site. For the most part they do not make it to air. This morning a story hit the site saying Apple's Steve Jobs was rushed to the hospital after a heart attack. Apple reps say it did NOT happen. It may not have made it onto CNN TV, however Apple's stock price took a big fall after the story hit "iReport" and until it could be determined it wasn't true. Here is an account of the incident. On the iReport site is a slogan, "Unedited. UnFiltered. News." It should be noted that although the site may be owned by the company owning CNN and says it is powered by CNN, the site says that CNN, "makes no guarantees about the content or the coverage on ireport.com!" I think some who go to these "citizen" input sites may assume these sites would take these submissions by "citizen journalists" as a traditional media source would and check it out with sources before publishing, broadcasting or posting, but not in this case. That's why media literacy is key more than ever. Citizen journalism may be fine for the opinions of so called "normal Joe's," but I think using the submissions for hard news stories unfiltered is irresponsible at this time. It is also an example where citizen journalism puts the responsibility of deciding fact or fiction solely on the reader. One may say that has always been the case, but now its true more than ever. -Hal

Economic Bail Out: Local Fall Out

An interesting opinion on the economic problems and how it affects local TV news. The following two columns say it won't effect the National media nearly as bad has it is set up to effect local media, because often they depend on auto dealers and small businesses for advertising. The article continues to say even aggressive efforts on the internet will not be able to make up for the difference. So, is this a major moment in local TV and will TV news be forced to downsize even quicker? Will we see one-man bands now even sooner than expected? -Hal


http://www.lostremote.com/2008/09/30/the-perfect-economic-storm-for-local-tv/

http://www.lostremote.com/2008/09/26/economy-has-profound-effect-on-local-tv/

Local Bail Out Coverage

Obviously the story on Monday was Congress voting down the bail out plan and the resulting fall out on Wall Street. KAKE and KSN lead with that at 10. I still think it was the lead story, however it seemed as if KWCH pulled a page out of the normal KAKE playbook by leading with a live "breaking news" report of a hit and run pedestrian accident. It certainly had the feel of KAKE, I certainly hope this isn't a direction they are moving toward with a new news director. They are #1 the others are battling for #2 or #3, (however you view it) so KWCH should play it conservative as they have for many years and let KAKE and KSN fight it out between themselves.

Thanks to the reader for the info on the apparent change in Kansas Now 22 with KSN taking it over from KAKE. According to a reader the changeover will happen at the beginning of '09 and the reader says KSN plans to not only do weather but also broadcast sporting events on the station. Quite a change for KSN considering they cut sports from the station completely over 5 years ago, only to bring it back a couple of years later, and now adding sports productions. Also lets hope that automated production system they use to do their newscasts isn't used to do live games. That would be a disaster. -Hal

A Nice Trend in Local TV News

The Eagle had the news that KWCH has named assistant news director Chad Cross as news director of the station. I think this marks a nice trend in Wichita TV that in my opinion is refreshing. If I am correct, the current news directors of the three TV news stations all were assistants at those stations before being promoted to the higher role. KAKE news director Dave Grant and recently named KSN news director Jason Kravarik all worked their way up the chains of command at their respective channels. Now at KWCH, Chad Cross who had been assistant has been named news director. I think it is refreshing that at the three stations they picked people from within for those top spots. Its a nice trend that people who have worked in Wichita TV news in other roles are given the chance to lead their operations. I think it is an important time in the TV news industry and the future is unknown, so having people who have experience in this market is a good thing for their employees and hopefully for us viewers as well. -Hal

Plane Crashes and Making National Stories Local

Two separate plane crashes, within hours of each other, made it seem like at least one of the three stations was waiting for a big story to break. Although this was certainly not a fatal crash, KWCH certainly made it appear as if they were ready for this to be bigger as they offered some version of team coverage for the early newscasts. KAKE and KSN also covered this story. I thought KWCH and KAKE did a nice job localizing it and finding eyewitnesses and it gave some urgency to it.
I really do not know what KSN lead with at 10PM: I don't remember. Sub reporter Aileen Simborio I think did something about the economy or stock market. But I lost interest when it looked like it was going to give me some local perspective, but instead was filled with stuff I had already gotten on the evening newscasts or the cable channels. I never understood this practice when local stations have local talent lend their voice to the stories. How hard would it have been to put a microphone outside the studio and get some local comment for that story? I normally would be against this, but if this is your only chance to make this a little local than go for it.
It is local news and if you make it appear as a local story bring me some local perspective into the story. Also Aileen has no passion when she reads. (KWCH's/Fox's Rebecca Gannon leaves me feeling the same way.) Aileen appears like she is being paid to read something on a screen and that is the only interest she has in the story. Its like half the time she appears she is reading it for the very first time when she is live on TV.
Finally A New Poll - I decided to add a new poll question. Yes, its lame and doesn't have much to do with any topics of the blog, but I am curious as to how often you read the blog. Please vote only once. -Hal

Noah's Review (Flood of '08 Coverage Notes)

The 3 stations all provided strong coverage with the changing conditions throughout the day. The story lines pretty much were the record amount of rain, flooding in West Wichita, the evacuation of the Winfield campgrounds and then the other random spots in the area including El Dorado. Mixed in was some nice video of rescues. I noticed KAKE had one of people being rescued from a car. I think they needed to make a story of it like KSN which had a similar one as their newest reporter Justin Kraemer narrated the video and it had a nice breaking news type of feel. For a storm with most of its bite shown earlier in the day, most of the 10PM newscasts resembled a tired feel and they really didn't advance things nor give a polished wrap up to the coverage you would expect for a storm of this nature. I am sure people will disagree with me. I was curious how the Fox 9PM newscast would wrap things up. Forget it. It seemed like they had more on Ike then they did on this record rainfall. -Hal

The Online Breaking News Battle

Sunday night proved to be a pretty big news night with a missing child and a fire, injuring 3 including a firefighter. I must say all three stations did a real nice job updating their online content for these events on a Sunday night when staffing usually is low. I think it was handled even better than on a weekday. My biggest question as of 12AM, where is the Eagle in all of this? Neither of the two events were posted online. Someone may say they are in the business to sell papers, but at least with the missing child, put his picture online as KAKE and KSN did (KWCH didn't have a picture online, but did have the story online). While I write about the coverage of the missing child, I appreciated KWCH mentioning specifically the guidelines required to issue an Amber Alert and the reasons why this hadn't met those qualifications. It was a question I had when I heard about the case and anchor Michael Schwanke mentioned viewers called asking that as well. Here is a question on coverage, should the broadcast stations adhere to those same guidelines to even just mention the case of the missing boy in the newscasts, without an Amber Alert? I seem to remember the broadcasters had a part in developing Amber Alert criteria and had legit reasons for making those. Should they follow that same criteria in taking it to the air? Despite not having an Amber Alert, I thought they needed to mention it and all handled it responsibly. -Hal

Football Frenzy, Fever.... whatever you call it

Tonight marks the first Friday of the Stations' high school football efforts. We will see the coverage at 10PM and had a sneak peak last night then the previews at 6 Tonight. I must say the Tailgate party KSN had tonight and I guess is having every week is an interesting idea. I don't know for sure but I think they did it last year as well. It would be better if Jim Kobbe had a better partner to chat with than Dave Freeman. Dave in these environments really shows his Achilles. Watching Leon at the Fair Tonight at Five, shows Leon would be much more comfortable to watch during the tailgates and better at interaction with Jim, rather than Dave. I don't think I mentioned it last year, but it seems as if the 3 stations all have different types of coverage. I cannot remember who does what, but one I think shows more in-depth highlites from games, while another is more about quanity then quality. I'll watch tonight and hopefully figure out who does what philosophy, if they repeat what they did last year. Interested in your thoughts about the football coverage from 10PM. -Hal

Extra points

Here are a few random points on my mind:

The Brady Bunch
I'll admit I was wrong. A few posts ago I complimented KAKE hire Carol(ine) Brady. She is serving as a fill-in on the weekdays for Jemelle Holopirek who is on maternity leave and also anchors/reports on the weekend mornings. I watched her with Mike Iuen last week anchoring the 1130 show a couple of times. Mike and Carol (I like the way it has that vintage TV show sound) are certainly no Mike and Jemelle. Carol comes across as a loud girl who has to comment about everything whether or not it relates to the topic at hand. (Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!) I feel bad for Mike Iuen because he is left picking up the pieces. Her comments leave him at times in some tough spots to get back in the flow of things. While she hurts Iuen, she helps Saturday morning co-anchor Cayle Thompson. In the past, I have said I didn't like Cayle anchoring Saturday morning, but that was when he shared the camera with former anchor Rachel Phillips. It was as if the two competed to one-up each other. With Carol he has toned himself down and it works, but still doesn't make up for Carol's loud brash nature. If I never had seen Cayle anchor with Rachel before, I probably wouldn't be as positive about his performance with Carol, but he has been forced to improve himself.

One Down, One to Go
With the Hawker Beech strike settled, it now looks like the 2nd aviation strike will soon begin with Boeing. I didn't really get a good look at the coverage from the three stations on the Hawker strike, but I cannot really think of many miscues. It was peaceful and once started I couldn't think of major developments. The stations did a decent job of talking to strikers and their families as it drug out, but still refrained from getting overly emotional with the story.

Musical Anchor Chairs
It didn't interest me as a topic until a comment was made from the last post. Someone wrote that at KSN on Friday, Anne Meyer anchored at 5PM, Jason Kravarik at 6PM and was wondering if Larry Steckline would anchor at 10. I am sure the last part was done tongue-in-cheek. For those who don't get up early every morning he is the guy who does the ag reports on KSN and is Anita Cochran's dad. At 10PM Larry didn't appear, but rather Dana Hertneky, but it did get me to thinking. Lately KSN has had Aileen Simborio fill-in to less than solid results. I thought the 3 replacements on KSN did a fine job and show KSN has other possibilities for fill-ins rather than Ailieen. As I mentioned in a previous post I thought Aileen handled her anchoring fill-ins poorly and did not interact well with weather and sports. Meanwhile the three filling in on Friday, overall did a nice job, they didn't force anything, yet they didn't hold back either.

Hal Writes something Positive:
Readers have criticized me saying I never write anything positive. Here it goes and with two people I have been critical of before. Kudos to KAKE's Abby Barnett, KSN's Casey Walkup as well as KWCHs Megan Strader for stories on a high school student from Winfield who was moments from having a different procedure performed, when a heart became available. A heartwarming story by all who did it. In stories like this its easy to add drama and emotion. There was plenty of that without adding any and I thought the three reporters did a nice job in balancing that.

Sarah Palin as a Sports Reporter: No this isn't a local tie-in, but it is related to local TV news (Anchorage). The current Governor of Alaska and now VP candidate was a sportscaster at an Anchorage TV station. Station KTVA found a clip of her anchoring sports on Good Friday 1989. The news that day was allegations of Pete Rose betting on baseball. I guess this topic is somewhat locally based, keep reading. If you make it through the clip keep watching, because you might recognize the anchor on the next clip. I sort of recognized the face, but didn't think of anything until the graphic appeared with the name, Matt Simon. He used to be a reporter for KAKE a couple of years ago and now is listed as a reporter for KTVA in Anchorage and he must also be an anchor.
The Palin Sports Clip:

Hurricane coverage
Since I have posted one link, why not another? As the hurricane approaches the Southeast, there is a site which posts links to the live coverage of the various spots in Gustav's target area. -Hal

Sweeps Month in August

Watching the stories Yesterday on some of the local stations, you would think it was a ratings month, however the Olympics on one of them makes it close to it. KWCH's story on the 911 dispatch system and problems sending out crews was well done both in content and execution. Although KSN ran a version of the story earlier in the day, it wasn't near to KWCH's Kim Wilhelm's story who had interviews from people who were forced to wait for help while equipment was dispatched from far away. It is a good example of the same topic, but with a few more details and a little polish the stories can come off much different. Good work KWCH on that one. I will give KSN credit for a story that ran after the Olympics on the VA Hospital and medical alarms being ignored and silenced. Josh Wittsman had a solid piece, but the more disturbing thing was that most of those interviewed feel like the situation has been taken care of, although it doesn't quite seem that way. This has been one of several special features KSN has aired following NBC's nightly Olympic coverage. I will say I think the network isn't helping its affiliates much by delaying the end of the Olympic coverage. Often times the athletic action will end and then they will continue with a few more segments of feature stories. With the coverage already past 11, I think it gives people further excuse to turn out before it even gets to the local news. So despite the large numbers NBC is pulling I would love to know what percent of that stays around for the local newscasts. I am sure it is an increase from normal, but could be better if NBC just got out of their coverage a few segments and minutes earlier. -Hal

Getting Away from the Past

A comment from the last post struck me:

Hal - You always complain about Wichita TV news and say certain people are over-the-top. Everyone is doing it and frankly Wichita could stand to do more of it. Get away from your 50's-60's news thinking and get with Today.

Hey buddy, last I checked, stations across the nation are LOSING viewers to the internet and other viewing options. I don't know what exactly you are referring to, but I base this on my previous posts. You may argue that TV stations today cannot stand doing stuff of decades ago because of the internet, but I don't think just being louder and more annoying will prevent the inevitable, the death of local TV news.

On a separate note I see KSN has some new IDs, web logo and all. I guess they used the Olympics to premere it. I wonder if they are doing any other special things for the Olympics. With a big audience sampling them, this Olympics is big for a #3 station. I think they need to promote the stories they do and forget, as past posts have suggested, strategies from the past where they only promote weather and on-air talent viewers don't like. Maybe if they promoted some of their reporters and the stories they do it would go over better, than seeing them promote and expose their biggest problems like weather and a weak main anchor. -Hal

From the Mailbag

I was holding off on this topic for awhile, but I got a comment asking my opinion on a "fill-in" anchor on KSN:



Hal...what do you think about KSN Aileen Simborio?



I wondered what exactly Aileen did at the station, because I would see her every once in awhile, but not on a routine basis. I then discovered online, that she anchors the news for Western Kansas. Aileen might be fine doing news for Western Kansas, but should not be filling in for Anita. That is not a slam on those people out there, but I have seen those newscasts before (without Aileen) and the anchors don't have to interact with anyone on camera, so "happy talk" isn't a concern so Aileen probably would do OK with that. Aileen has been filling in for Anita on the 5,6 and 10PM newscasts all this week and did as well a few weeks ago. During that first stint, I didn't think she would get another chance at it, so I was surprised to see her once again in the anchor chair this past Monday. As much as I am not a fan of Anita, and I have written about that before on this blog, I think Anita is more watchable than Aileen. Anita does comes off colder, however she comes off more professional. Aileen doesn't come off as a human, but rather as a teleprompter reading the news with an occasional coo or giggle. KSN might be better off scripting her "happy talk" in the prompter, because all you get now if she tries to interact with Jim Kobbe or fill-in weatherman Leon Smitherman at 10 are awkward giggles and "right" or "thanks." Those 2 guys have set Aileen up for some great interaction this week, but she just fails and drops the ball all the time. I question why weekend anchor Anthony Powell doesn't fill-in or shuffle things around and let morning anchor Stephanie Bergman fill-in on the main casts.

While I am talking about new anchors, I have been impressed by new KAKE hire Caroline Brady. She appears to be filling in for Jemelle Holopirek. While she doesn't have an overly flashy or take charge delivery, its mild mannered and worked well with Mike Iuen this week. According to the KAKE website she will be anchoring the weekend morning show. I will say it should be a huge improvement over former weekend morning anchor Rachel Phillips. -Hal

Posting Comments 101

Kudos for the most part to the posts from Wednesday. Sure there were a few bad apples, but there were some good thought provoking pieces. Recently some have written that this blog has become nothing more than a forum for people to rip other stations and then employees from those stations to respond in an even angrier tone. In some cases it has become that and that's not exactly what I intended the blog to be. Many think the cure would be not allowing anonymous comments to the blog. Many blogs run things that way. However, to get a user name to post comments you basically can assume any identity you want and make up a user name, so in someways it is just like being anonymous with that extra step. I'd like for those who do post thought provoking things to not have to go through that extra step of registering. However, I will give that some thought.
In the first post over a year ago I wrote about the blog, "I hope in the days to come we can get an interesting conversation started about Wichita TV news." 165 posts later that conversation has at times been marred by some pointed attacks at people and stations. Believe it or not, I probably delete 2 out of every 10 comments. Some say that's not enough, others may say its too many. Anon 3:02 from the last post wrote:

If the host of this blog truly cared about journalism and an educated discussion, he would lead it that way by his posts, and more importantly, by controlling responses... and not allowing the haters and bitter people to turn this into a gripe-fest.Too bad. The concept is good. The execution is poor.

I agree to a point, but the term "controlling responses" is a tough thing to battle, because at times, I, myself have been criticized for being too pointed at a station or a personality in my own blog entries. And as I have written before, like it or not, these reporters are in the public eye. They may not be elected to an office, but they still chose to be in front of a camera or work in a very public industry so they must be able to take some criticism, however I will agree it cannot be personal or downright rude and cruel. So in conclusion I will give this topic more thought and see if there is a solution to finding a balance of giving my opinions and still allowing you all a forum to agree and disagree with mine or raise new concerns in the comment section. -Hal

Downburst: Coverage Notes

It wasn't a tornado and nobody was killed, but the "downburst" which hit near Park City Tuesday did plenty of damage, plus it gives me a topic at a time in which I needed something to post about.
The "downburst," as it was called, led off on all the stations. One of the stations had a good presentation, while another made it look like it was just slammed together.
KWCH had Michael Schwanke at the scene with probably the best live report location. You could actually see things in the background which was helpful and added to the report. Following his story Jim Grawe was at another location showing the hail which was still on the shoulder of the roads. Following that, Merill and Ross Janssen explained what exactly is a "down burst" and showed it on radar. Although the video was interesting in Grawe's report, we could have probably done without him since it was just a "downburst." I say "just a down burst," but I still like the way KWCH treated it and probably did the best overall.
KAKE provided detailed coverage with a live report from the scene and Deb Farris. The story covered the basics, but nothing exceptional, but still gave me all the details, plus Jay Prater briefly gave the weather spin on things.
KSN was the station who looked like they threw something together to just throw it on the air. For a station who leads every 10PM newscast with weather (and they did on Tuesday with the forecast), I thought they blew it by not having Dave explain what exactly a downburst is. For once he had weather to talk about and lead with him, but didn't!!! After the "First Forecast," they led off with a story by Aileen Simborio which gave the basics, but nothing more than that.
If it was hail or a more common thing, I would say KWCH's coverage was overboard, but since it was something less common, like a downburst, I thought the explanation KWCH gave and KAKE to a smaller degree was interesting and deserved. The little "downburst" did shut down the north/south Interstate and turned over a couple of semis and knocked windshields out. And how many times in the winter have all the TV stations led off and spent several minutes with an overturned truck blocking an interstate during a snow storm? I am sure we will get to see some of those in about 5 months or so. -Hal

Fox news At 9: The New "Heidi"

For you young ones, this will require a bit of an explanation. Stay with me on this one.

In 1968 the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets were playing for the AFL Championship. Jets were up 32-29 with 65 seconds left to go in the game, when NBC stopped that broadcast to air the already scheduled made-for-TV movie "Heidi." What followed, the Raiders would score two touchdowns in less than a minute and end up winning the game in what went down as one of the greatest endings of any sport ever. Fast forward nearly 40 years later and in a much smaller example.

The All-Star game is tied at 3 and in fabled Yankee Stadium. My total recollection may be a tad foggy, because I was close to being asleep with the game on in the background. The American League had just gotten a double in the bottom of the 12th inning, when Fox 4/KWCH's All-Star Rebecca Gannon's voice pops up and the 9 O'Clock (now past 11:30) news starts. After what seemed like a few minutes just as quickly as it started, the newscast is switched back over to baseball. Fortunately for the local Fox station, no runs were scored and the classic would continue for 3 more innings. The newscast was definitely on tape. Sure its an All Star game, not football, but what an unfortunate glitch by the folks at the local Fox station. When I realized what happened I had to wonder how many Wichita area TVs were sacrificed by fans disgruntled about the missing game and at a time when it was tied and a runner on 2nd in extra innings. I was expecting an All-Star cast of Derek Jeter, J.D. Drew, or Mariano Rivera, not Rebecca Gannon (she's definitely not an All-Star of Wichita Media). -Hal

KSN News Director Resigns; Headed to Tulsa

Well, make it 3 days in a row. OK maybe 2 days in a row (KAKE's GM Day 1 and then KWCH's news director and assignment editor Day 2), then a 12 day break and now Day 3: KSN news director Todd Spessard resigns. The Eagle reports he is headed to Tulsa after spending over 5 years in Wichita. I think this marks a unique time in which 2 of the 3 TV stations are looking for news directors after the announcement that KWCH's News Director, Michele Gors and the Assignment Editor all resigned back on July 1. That added to the news a day before KWCH's announcement that KAKE's General Manager was gone. What do you make of this sudden movement of management? Nothing. It just proves a business that has always been a little unsteady, definitely faces an uncertain future. With this change coming soon for the stations, where do I see them?

KWCH - Still #1, although I never have seen the actual ratings. I depend on all of your comments to hear what is happening. According to comments about the last ratings, KWCH was down, but still held a solid lead over the other 2. Between KWCH and KSN, I think the KWCH job would be more attractive, especially as long as Roger and Cindy remain in the anchor chairs. I think they remain #1, maybe not as solid of a lead, but they still will dominate. It is important they don't get too cocky resting on that top perch, especially if KSN gets more competitive under a new news director and challenges KAKE. The two basement dwellers could get very competitive amongst each other and together may take away some KWCH viewers, but that is only a, "MAY."

KSN -I must agree with what anon 10 said on the previous post:
If only Dave And Anita would follow, then there would be a real development.
Whoever takes over the news department can make all the changes they want, but as long as Dave and Anita stay in their chairs, things will remain the same. I don't know how long they have been in their spots together, at least 5 years. Five plus years is a lot of patience at trying to see if they can improve ratings. I don't think that's worked out too well.

KAKE - They went through a news director shake up over a year ago and now a GM change. I cuss KAKE out more than the other 2, because I think they are over-the-top much of the time, however part of me likes that. They definitely show an aggressiveness and they aren't afraid to promote that on the air. They were for the most part able to quietly move a younger Jeff Herndon into Larry Hatteberg's main anchor spot. At the time it happened, I thought there would have been far more negative fall out. As I said earlier, I don't think they will be able to compete for the top spot as long as Roger and Cindy remain in their chairs. As for looking at KSN, behind them, I think it all depends on just how serious KSN is about changing things. If upper management exercises too much control on a new news director and leaves things the same at KSN, KAKE will have no worries of KSN catching up to them. -Hal

Officer Involved Shooting Coverage

I was watching the early morning shows, first on KAKE and then on KWCH and learned of an officer involved shooting on Friday night. KAKE had a full story from Natasha Trelfa who I think in a short period of time has become one of KAKE's best reporters. Not to take anything away from Trelfa, but she is one of the best at a station with probably the weakest staff in the market. KWCH had a full story from normal weekday morning anchor Matt Mauro. Stories from both of the stations provided good information the morning after, at a time when it was hard to find information online. The argument is often made that the internet is the future of the business, however the online offerings for this story were slow in coming. By this morning all 3 TV stations had mentions online of the event. However, it was nearly 12 hours after the incident, before the Eagle had the story on their website. Even then their information came from the AP and said the condition of the suspect was unknown, while the TV stations were all saying the suspect had died around 2AM. -Hal

News Management Shake-up Scorecard

KWCH - 2
KAKE - 1
KSN- 0

As the temperatures get close to the century mark outside for the first time this year, things have been heating up in the management circles of at least 2 of the stations in Wichita. First KAKE's GM resigns Monday apparently to take a job in Florida and now word from the Eagle Today that KWCH's news director and assignment editor have resigned. Does KSN make it 3 days in a row? Probably not, but they could stand to ruffle things up a bit. -Hal

Eagle: KAKE GM Resigns

Thanks to the reader who forwarded me the link from the Eagle website that reports KAKE's GM has resigned. The whole link did not come through in the comments section from the previous post so here it is. To read the article you need a user name since the Eagle has moved to such desperate measures. (Yes the user name is free and all, but it still is a hassle). -Hal

Woman Found: The Interview

Kudos to KWCH for being the first TV station to sit down with kidnapping victim Joyce Patterson. To be official about it, they weren't the first organization to "sit down" with her. The Eagle published an article with an interview and a picture of her, together with her husband, and grandson in Sunday's edition. However, KWCH beat the other TV stations. Like in the newspaper interview, Patterson and her husband would not talk specifics about the case, but nonetheless it provided the public with a glimpse of the woman they wondered about for days.
As the manhunt continues for a "person of interest" the question will be to what lengths will the stations go to get the story. Investigators say they think their "person of interest" might be headed to Oregon. If he is found somewhere along the way, do the stations send crews out? I would say probably not, since Joyce is back here safe and sound, however if she would have been found out there, then I could have seen it. What are your thoughts? -Hal

Woman Found: Coverage notes

With missing woman Joyce Patterson found safe just after the late newscasts last night, it created a interesting scenario for the stations and coverage for the morning shows. I didn't get to see the early shows so I am interested to hear your thoughts. After watching the 5PM and 6PM shows, I think in the end KWCH did a nice job producing and packaging it. Meanwhile KSN usually is the one who comes out slow on big stories, but by the end rallies well to at least break even. Today, however it seemed the opposite. Watching at Noon, it looked like it maybe had the first interview of her husband (because it looked like it was still dark outside) and video of Joyce herself. However by 6PM, their early jump was forgotten by the light coverage, with only about 3 minutes and one reporter dedicated to it and then off to other news.
Overall the 3 stations had pretty much the same elements, although I thought it was goofy. KWCH made an effort to say something like only on KWCH you would see an interview with her daughter. The daughter's interview offered very little in the grand scheme of things. The 5PM newscasts were all handled pretty well and no station really out shined the other. They all had multiple angles and reporters at various locations. As I said before, KWCH probably came out best at 6PM. It wasn't because they had anything the others didn't have (outside of the daughter), but everything came together with a purpose. Meanwhile the competition at KAKE looked like they just threw stuff together with little strategy and KSN looked like they were tired of the story by 6PM and moved on. I still don't understand that because they had all of the elements the other 2 stations had at 5PM, however it was like they just backed off or set their 6PM show yesterday and never changed it. -Hal

Proof of KAKE's Slow News Day: Square Dancing

There will always be slow news days: days in which everyone behaves themselves and very little happens. On these days, stations must be able to at least sort of fake they have a reason for people to spend time to watch their newscast. I don't think KAKE on Sunday pulled that off very well. Their lead story at 10PM on Sunday: Square Dancing.
I will say if their story is correct, 7000 people coming into a town for any event is newsworthy, but a lead story? On the other hand the other stations didn't have mind blowing leads either, but they did a better job at faking a reason for people to watch. -Hal

The Chapman Tornado

A late night tornado definitely kept the local stations scrambling to provide coverage for the Thursday early morning shows. I was impressed that all 3 had a definite presence in town early in the day. I noticed a KAKE chaser had video of a funnel of some sort from Wednesday night's storm, not sure if it was the one which turned into a tornado through Chapman. Then Tonight's storms hit the Wichita area and provided a chance for the stations to run around and get crazy for a warning. By 10PM reporters were left on phones with nothing to report. What are your thoughts of the tornado coverage? -Hal
Update: Yeah, I forgot all about it until I was reading some comments about how the 3 chief meteorologists were not around for the tornadoes and I think the 3 stations did great with their backups. I thought KSN flourished without Dave, although KWCH I think probably did overall better than KSN with weather cutins. Many times during severe weather I cringe to turn to KSN and watch DAVE, Tonight and last night I found myself tuning in more often to KSN in between KWCH and KAKE. Often times I tune into Jay, mixed in with a little Merril and then a rare view at Dave for severe weather but last night it was definitely KWCH and KSN. KAKE did well too last night. Maybe the three stations should let their main guys go on vacation more often.

The Weekend Morning Shows

First of all, Hello and I'm back. I've been on the road quite a bit lately and unable to see any newscasts from the local stations, outside of the stories on the web. I think I previously wrote about the weekend morning newscasts. Although there are plenty of things I could write about, Saturday's morning shows were the first thing I've watched closely since I've been back. I must say I really found KAKE's morning show watchable. It took me a couple of segments to finally realize what the difference was: Rachel Phillips. She has left the station. I think someone wrote in and said it was to be a mother full time. Although she was always more watchable then KWCH's train wreck, her ditsy one liners just didn't mesh well with co-anchor Cayle Thompson. Because of this, weather guy Tanner Swift was lost in the shuffle. Without Rachel, Cayle steers the show quite well and it allows Tanner to show he's more then a weather dork. This morning he had some good one liners which complimented Cayle well, better then the not so smart fodder Rachel would deliver to the show.
Meanwhile at KWCH, there is no change, still a dreadful and painful train wreck to watch. I think students in a college or high school TV class would be more enjoyable to watch than Kim Hynes. The show looks like something you would see in a much smaller city, and is quite a contradiction to all of the other KWCH shows. Sure its early on a Saturday morning, but it just really sticks out compared to their normal on-camera talent. She simply tries too hard on camera and it seems too forced. Meteorologist Anya Sehgal filled in for normal weekend morning weather guy Rodney Price and shows a lot of potential, if only given a decent anchor to work with. Weather talk is probably Kim's biggest problem. The cliches just never stop and it is the same old one liners from week to week, although Anya progressed the conversation better than Rodney.
KWCH's Weather Going to the Dogs - Actually not really. I like Ross Janssen having his dog, Millie appear with him on camera on the weekend evenings. Now the dog has her own bio and slide show on the KWCH site. Maybe once Millie figures out what a shelf and wall cloud is, she can learn how to anchor Saturday mornings. -Hal

Greensburg: The Anniversary

This week the stations all tried to do stories remembering the tragedy of the EF5 tornado. I am sure many will argue with me on this statement, but the mighty 3rd place engine, is turning into the engine that could for the Greensburg anniversary. It certainly appears KSN had the best thought out plan ahead of time. The stories which have run all this week looked sharp, production wise and well executed reporter wise. Out of the 3, it seems as if KSN had the best plan and ran with it for this week of the Greensburg Anniversary. KWCH had some nice pieces, but not the production elements of KSN and KAKE appeared like they learned of the anniversary on Wednesday and threw something together for Thursday. KSN ran an hour long special Tonight and I think KWCH has one planned (Update me if this is wrong and if KAKE has anything planned). Going into KSN's Tonight, I thought it might be just a rehash of the nice stories they did throughout the week. That would have been fine television. Instead the first 20 minutes provided nice glimpses of the night and what happened. Surprisingly Dave and Anita were watchable. I was leery about this when the program started, but they kept their personalities in check and did OK. The overall product definitely looked like something you would see on the National level. I'll be watching the coverage of President Bush's visit this weekend, let me know what you think. -Hal

The Attack of the Video Journalist

Thanks to a recent comment saying KAKE will soon hire another video journalist, VJ, one-man band or reporter/photographer. (I would like to know if this replaces a photographer, reporter, both, or adds a staffer.) For those not familiar with the term it essentially means hiring one person to shoot, edit, report and everything else. This has happened for years in smaller markets, and apparently even here for some time. As a previous comment mentioned KAKE has had a history of Larry Hatteberg, Chris Frank and even Alan Shope with sports shoot their own material. I haven't really focused or know what Shope shoots, but Hatteberg's and Frank's stuff are just as good as the others in town. I guess I had heard about them shooting their own stuff, but forgot about it. Now as budgets shrink and the technology gets lighter and cheaper its happening at a faster pace. Recently stations in other towns have announced moves in that direction. A recent comment mentioned how sales staffs are even shooting in other places (is it happening here) and its all part of our YouTube generation. Is it a good thing? No not at all, but will viewers notice? I do not think they will, sadly. We live in a culture of more, more, and more. With that wanting of more, more, and more, the society doesn't care about quality. You can see that with Wal-Mart, many restaurants, other businesses and now I guess with broadcasting. We probably will get all the content we want from shootings, fires, car crashes, a cat stuck in a tree and even the blooper of a 80 year-old falling into their cake for their family birthday party all on-line. Its more content, but not memorable, except the cake on the old man's face, and sadly probably the industry. Sure there will be the comment to the dinosaurs who have to get over the old days and move to change, but you have to realize we are moving in this direction not for quality, but simply economics. -Hal

Update: Please vote in the Poll on the right as to when or if you think the majority of reporters in Wichita will be one-man bands. -Hal

Sweeps Has Began

Lets get off of the topic that seemed to develop from the comments of who has the better Sunday sports show, to the first day of Sweeps. All three stations had what seemed to be special stories for the day. KAKE hoards the "Skinny on Diets," KWCH tabulates the cost of murder and in one of the better promos KSN explored the dismissal of an employee at Exploration Place. Before I get to the stories, I liked how on KWCH and KAKE's websites you could watch and read previews of their stories. Although it was a nice promo on TV, KSN had no mention on the web site. All three need to stop acting like they care about the internet and ACTUALLY DO something INNOVATIVE online to compliment these stories.
KAKE's piece clearly was one which would draw viewers, but did nothing else. Rachel Phillips' story was a complete waste of time and that was clear by watching the promos. KWCH's was good and provided some interesting info on the multimillion dollar cost of a murder than multiplied by city and state numbers. If the personal and emotional loss isn't enough, the piece puts it in a different perspective in monetary value. Reporter Michael Schwanke got cutesy with an on camera appearance with coins in a jar. I thought the piece of the night was by KSN's Josh Wittsman on a lady who claims harassment from Exploration Place which led to her job being eliminated at one point. A lot of documents and an in-depth feel made this the piece of the night. I would think when the ratings period is over, this will probably be one of KSN's better ones. -Hal

Sweeps Woody

I write this a couple of times of year, but here it goes again. Its time for all the scary music and goofy stories. Its time for the ole ratings time known as Sweeps. I am not sure when it begins this time around. May's usually begins then or a few days before, but I hear it may be a little sooner, according to an LA paper. Have fun and enjoy the stories, whenever it begins. We'll tell by the promos and gimmicks which make it Sweeps.

Scrap the Breaking News and Go Back to Storytelling

A commenter sent me a great link to a blog from Lost Remote. I have linked to the articles on their site in the past. The blog has a variety of topics, but much of the time details TV and other mediums' ventures to the web and the many issues it raises. In the post entitled "Make Local TV News More Like TV News Again," Cory Bergman writes how TV has stepped up its urgency and speed to offset the frantic pace and schedules of viewers that make up life in these times. Bergman writes the web gives viewers that quick look at the news, so TV is trying to replicate it while losing focus on its strength. That strength is a medium that merges sound and pictures for good storytelling. So could a station abandon the daily house fires, car chases, shootings and just do 3-4 long stories a show? Heck, maybe even do it in the form of only 1-2 newscasts a day, but at least it would separate itself from the web rather than chasing after a technology which it cannot beat. It may not be able to beat it, but TV certainly can do storytelling better. I know this goes against the thinking of many TV news managers who all say, "Web, Web, Web, AND MORE WEB!!!!!!!!" They should think outside of the box. However, a Decade ago thinking about the web was thinking outside the box, now it is common place. You have newspapers and even radio now jumping into the race of video on the web. If you design your broadcast content for the web, while still doing TV, is the content on TV watchable? I say, no and it even speeds up the death of TV news as we know Today, rather than complementing it. Interested in your thoughts. -Hal

Dusting the Blogger Poll off

After about a 5 month absence, I decided to have a poll question. Its located on the right side. I have noticed based on the mapping software the readers of this blog come from all over but I am real interested to see how it looks like readers come from all across the state. Since I've never said much as to my background, other than I was once involved in the media, I ask one simple question. Simply, best describe yourself with one of 4 answers. -Hal

KSN Appeals Million Dollar Verdict

The Wichita Eagle reports that KSN has filed a motion with the Kansas Court of Appeals in its case ordering them to pay $1.1 million to the estate of a man who was revealed as a suspect in the BTK case. -Hal

KU Win and Coverage

Congrats to KU and another example when sports becomes your lead story. Leading up to the game I thought KAKE's coverage was really limited by their lack of talent in San Antonio. Dave Phillips and Ben Arnet just don't do it for me. As was written in a previous comment, Phillips is obnoxious and seems like a giddy fan along for the ride at the Final 4, while Arnet seems more concerned about acting suave and coming up with bad not-so-like ESPN catch phrases.
KSN did a decent job. I have never been a huge Case Walkup fan, but for Casey he did a fantastic job. Keep in mind what I wrote, "for Casey." Mark Davidson did a decent job for who he worked with, but I couldn't tell when they appeared on camera they were at the the Final 4. The other stations' views showed a background with a Final 4 logo, with KWCH having the best view.
As for KWCH, they obviously had the largest crew as previously was debated in previous posts. It didn't bother me one way or another. Cindy does provide a nice break from the constant Sports talk with side stories. The other 2 did offer them, but with KSN and Casey Walkup, although not terrible, you could still tell they were done by a sports guy forced to make it newsy, while I have no clue where Dave on KAKE was going with his supposed more newsier schtick.
As for Tonight, KSN and KAKE were at a disadvantage since the game was going on during the newscast. I did like the fact KAKE had a reporter in Lawrence live, although after 5 seconds I was sick of Abby Barnett talking about how incredible things were. I would have liked to see KWCH live from Lawrence. Although Kim Setty filed a story, a live report would have been nice with the many fans in Lawrence. I was impressed that although taped, Kim's story did have video of Lawrence after the game and the jubilation. During KWCH's coverage, the split live pictures between Memphis and Lawrence were good, although Roger referred to the Memphis picture being from an empty bar, but it looked like an empty arena of some sort. KWCH's newscast had a few angles which were good, but I thought the sports segment lacked a little. It seemed as if the press conferences were going on as the newscast was happening. I would have liked to have seen clips from those during the sportscast. You would have thought the press conference would have been on the Satellite and someone from KWCH in Wichita could have gotten that on air, because I am sure the crew in San Antonio was busy. Besides the highlights from the game and hearing from Bruce, the sports coverage wasn't as good of the event. I know KWCHers you'll argue fans saw the game on the station and got plenty of coverage. I would say however since your station aired the game you needed to provide fans with more post game player and coach react. I would argue fans would have loved to see even the press conferences happen raw and live. I went to ESPN for that. KWCH had the unique opportunity being the only station on LIVE after the game and the station had a huge audience watching, but they blew it. Your thoughts on KU coverage? -Hal

Media General article link

A recap for those who didn't sift through the comments of the last post: a commenter wrote that things at KWCH and their owners must be well since they took over the CW, launched a high school sports internet site, and are even adding employees. That was followed by a comment from someone saying that KWCH staffers should be happy their former owners, Media General, sold them a few years ago. A link to an article was then posted, but the whole address didn't come across in the comments section. Thanks to the commenter for e-mailing me it. I now have it and here is the link to the article. The article explains how a "hedge fund," that holds a stake in Media General is attempting to kick off 3 members of the Board of Directors and replace them with its own people. The commenter went on to write that employees of KSN should know what happens when an investment company takes over a TV station and isn't interested in television but merely interested in increasing profit margins by laying off staff and reducing other expenses only to then sell off the station a short time later with a nice profit to show for their maneuvers. Obviously Media General has problems due to much debt accumulated by its newspaper holdings, but another sad example of the state of the industry. -Hal

The Ratings

We often talk about the Sweeps period on this blog, but never really discuss the ratings. The Nielsen ratings have been out, as reported by many comments to this post. My only glimpse at these are from of all things the KWCH web site (Once at the link, scroll to the bottom of page for a ratings table). Obviously KWCH is happy they are, as they say in the press release/propaganda/web page, #1 at Noon, 5, 6, and 10PM. They didn't list the morning numbers, so they must not be #1 then. There is no comparison to other ratings periods, so I don't know who is up or down. Also I must say I haven't looked at rating tables like this before and some comments talk about numbers being solely from the Wichita area and not for the whole state and the satellite stations. I'd be curious to know what these ratings include. Looking at the numbers, KWCH equals the rest of the stations combined in HH (households?) at 5PM and has more than the other two combined at 10PM. Also, I don't know what the trends from other rating months are, but is it unusual for KSN's 10PM newscast to only have 7,000 more HH than their Noon show? I thought the 10PM show is supposed to be the day's highest rated newscast for a station. It is for KAKE and KWCH, but for KSN the 6PM beats the 10PM by 8000 viewers. Interested in your thoughts/spin on the February Sweeps results. -Hal

The Week the Bureaus were tested; Something Turns 1!

The Newsy Week: When the Wichita TV stations cover probably 1/2 to 2/3 of the geographic area of Kansas, weeks like this one are bound to happen. Even though many of the viewers are in Wichita, when news happens in the rural areas it can be a challenge to cover it in a way just as strong as a story in the stations' own backyard. This week 2 stories posed the problem of having them covered and with who. Watching most of the coverage you will notice that you saw younger talent (even younger and greener then the recent hires of reporters by TV stations in Wichita) on the air. Overall they did a decent job. It would be real tempting when you have a robbery gone bad and turned into a murder or a wreck killing 4 high school students to bring in an experienced reporter from the main office, but the 3 stations stuck with their people stationed out there for the most part. KSN and KAKE even had a live presence for at least the Ulysses tragedy and am not sure about Osborne County. Over at KWCH, Kansas got to know the Adam Marshal phone graphic real well. For the most part I thought the reporters at the stations did a nice job, since they probably are pretty new to TV news. This is probably their first or one of their first TV jobs. Don't get me wrong they all appeared a little green when they appeared on camera. KSN's Josh Haskel had some real nice personal angles, but he needs to take a breath and relax when he appears in front of the camera, but overall a decent job. KAKE's Elyse Molstad would be comparable. She needs to rely less on her notes and eventually look at the camera, but her live appearances this week were probably some of her first in her career. These bureau reporters are much better than when some current Wichita based reporters first appeared on camera. I will say the side bar stories KAKE does using Wichita based reporters and there is such a temptation to do them on big stories out of the area, were lame and merely a chance to make filler video if KAKE wants to make one of the scary promos about how great their team coverage is when people die and the families are suffering. I am shocked, correct me if I'm wrong, I have yet to see any such promos for any of this week's stories.

There was of course the murder in Osborne County and the death of an infant in Wichita at a home daycare. All the stations provided similar coverage and nothing too different or out of the ordinary.

Based on the comments to this blog, the most interesting story it would appear from behind the camera, is the coverage of a Wichita Police officer being shot at. The last post started receiving comments Thursday evening about the stations being asked by police not to release the name of an officer shot. For those not familiar, an officer was shot and the bullet hit his radio microphone he wore clipped to his chest. He survived and for the most part not seriously injured. From the post's comments and what I saw, KSN ran the name and the photo of the officer first. Apparently the name was not released by the Police department, but obtained by the reporter through sources. I still am not sure if the mic or if he was wearing a bullet proof vest and if that saved him. Regardless, an officer should be very thankful he survived. KAKE soon followed with releasing the name. Both also had the information on their websites. Now from here, its a little more sketchy as to what happened and I would love to know more. Apparently the Police Department contacted the local stations and pleaded with them to stop broadcasting the name. KWCH and the Eagle (I think) never ran or published the name. One reader even claims KWCH made it a point to say on TV they weren't broadcasting the name in abiding by the Police Department's wishes, or was it they didn't have another source for it besides KSN and KAKE? Either reason to me would be ethical. KAKE soon pulled the name from the web site and it was never heard on the air again. Meanwhile KSN continued to run the name, although I couldn't find the story online today when I went searching for it. A recent comment claims the police department is mad at KSN and wonders if relations are as bad as a few year's ago when former anchor Bob Donley called the Chief a piece of male anatomy during a press conference. I tend to side with KAKE in this matter for just pulling the name, once they were requested to do so. The idea of Police telling media what to do is not a popular one for media, but it depends on what the Police's reasoning is. I never really heard with this example. If they bring up safety of the officer it would be a legit concern, but still one to weigh with caution. What's the moral of the story? The Eagle NEEDS to have a weekly column on the media happenings. This story really brings to mind many interesting moral and industry questions that can be debated long and hard in many journalism classes around the area. And no, I still think those not involved in the media would find a recap of these events interesting and actually provide a snapshot of the many decisions being made daily in newsrooms. -Hal

Wichita TV News Turns 1!: Time flew by so quick I didn't even think about it until it had gone by. On March 22, 2007, a little blog started called Wichita TV News. Since then Hal has been called every name in the book and alleged to be about every current and former TV person in the market. I never thought that was going to happen. I can see Wichita doesn't read me as much as they once did and that doesn't concern me. I am amazed though at the wide Geographic area the hits on this site are coming from. Sure every now and then we get a hit from a foreign country, but especially in recent months the hits in the US are pretty evenly spread out from East to West. Thanks again. -Hal

Pew Study of Media and Other Random Thoughts

This has already gotten a lot of attention on other media sites and it is officially released on Monday. The study, by the Pew Research Center along with Project for Excellence in Journalism, covers the various platforms in media: Print, Broadcast and internet. It also divides it up between views on National and local media. Editors, producers and reporters were surveyed on a variety of issues facing the industry. I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet, but it is interesting that both National and local journalists say the worsening economic situation facing journalism is the most important issue the industry faces. 52 percent say it is the most important problem, up from 35 percent the last time the study was done in 2004. Advertising wise it does point that local television is still having success because many advertisers are still unsure of internet advertising.

Decent story on KAKE about an overnight bust on minors drinking. Yeah the stories are done often, but some good video of officers working the operation, plus interviews with some of the teens involved. Not a bad story considering there wasn't any hard hitting news, until a fatal car crash earlier in the evening. KSN must really have been hurting for news, since they had very little on the fatal crash, but as several readers of this blog pointed out ripped a story from the front page of the Eagle. The Eagle story detailed a belief that a good wheat crop might lead to an increase of tornadoes or hail in a season. Yes, stations lift stories from the paper often, but this was such a unique story not heard about before the Eagle published it, so it came off bad, especially for those who read the Sunday's paper (Many must not according to the Pew study). It didn't help that "some" or "another" reporter, Aja Vickers did the story. I have never heard so many vague terms in a story referring to the authors of the study. Plus the expert used in KSN's story was junior weather guesser Andrew Kozak who had to be put in a tough spot to speak about a theory he probably had to read about from the Eagle. Instead of crediting "some" and "others," Aja might have been better to just source the Eagle or just say read Sunday's Eagle. It probably would have saved viewers a couple of minutes in their nights. Don't get me wrong. It is an interesting topic, but not done correctly by KSN last night. -Hal.

Coverage notes: Winston Brooks Heads to New Mexico

The announcement that Wichita Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks is headed to New Mexico led all the newscasts tonight. It appeared that the press conference came late into the evening so the stations had little time to react and put things together. Let me say to start, I think all the stations were pretty even and told the story in a similar fashion. KAKE probably went the safest route and to some might have be the most successful. Little editing or post production was needed on a live interview with a school board member and often times live interviews like that can come off as more urgent. I will be honest I didn't watch the whole interview so I don't know how it came off. Meanwhile KWCH, with Megan Strader and KSN, with Jason Kravarik, all had what was needed to tell the story. KWCH had an additional nugget having sound from an affiliate in New Mexico with Winston Brooks. Winston was already wearing a shirt from his new school district. Overall I would say everyone was even on the coverage, especially given the timeline to complete it.
Outside of the Brooks story, KWCH probably had the story of the night with an interview with the survivors of the Schoenwald family. Three members of the family died in a vehicle collision last month in Colorado. The family members were interviewed first in an article in this morning's Eagle, but this was the first time I saw them interviewed on TV. I thought Kim Wilhelm did a nice respectable job on the story. -Hal

Update: I stand corrected. A couple of readers corrected me and said the Eagle did not have interviews with the Schoenwald family in their Sunday article.

NC Grandma Heeds Weather Warnings, but Locks Herself in Closet

I know this isn't a Wichita story, but it makes me think for some reason it could happen here. A lady hears weather warnings and gets in a closet. Problem is it locks from the outside and she cannot get out. Take a watch from WXII in Greensboro, NC. -Hal
http://www.wxii12.com/news/15524138/detail.html?taf=gws

The Human/Bear Foot Mystery and Pringle's Fan Club

The last post sure brought a crazy collection of comments. Anon 17 brought up the story of a discovery of what witnesses say looked like a human foot in a South Hutchinson Alco parking lot. At least two stations on Wednesday broadcasted the story of a human/animal severed foot being found in South Hutchinson. On Thursday it was discovered some guy had the bear's foot and was tired of it being around. He must have thought there was no better place for it than an Alco parking lot in South Hutch. At least he called police and let them know what he did, otherwise today we would have had newscasts lead with the story. Oh. Ooops, we did have a newscast lead with the story! KAKE, at 5, had Cayle Thompson get to the bottom of the foot mystery.
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/16340786.html

I understand stations may have been desperate for a different lead other than Boeing, but a bear foot discarded in a parking lot? I think Anon 17 wrote it best: I think it would have been better to end the newscast as somewhat of a lighter or humorous story. I totally agree. It has merits to be a story with a reporter. I am sure it will be the subject of many water cooler conversations on Friday, no doubt about it. How many days does an Alco parking lot become the temporary home to a foot, thought to be human, but then discovered to be a bear's? Not often, so a fun, tongue-in-cheek and humorous story talking to residents would have been the way to go. Making it the lead was a little crazy.

Pringle's Fan Club: KAKE morning weather meteorologist Ben Pringle should have a fan club. He may only be on vacation, but a reader said they heard Mike Iuen say on Yesterday's Noon show, "I almost stumbled and said Ben Pringle, who is no longer with us." I received quite a few comments after the post. His picture is still on the web site. One comment says he is on vacation. Who knows, but for a former main weather guy, now morning guy, he sure has a solid following. Maybe someone needs to establish the Ben Pringle fan club or a blog in his honor.

Over 20,000 Visits: Thanks to all who have visited this little forum. This past week Wichita TV News reached a milestone of over 20,000 visits. That number is even higher, because I didn't add the counting application until I had been doing the blog awhile. Also, "Hi to the Philippines." Whoever it was, probably will never come back to the blog, but we had some International visitors this week. Also Hi to what looks like Cape Town, South Africa. -Hal

Coverage Notes: The Tanker Announcement

The long anticipated announcement on who would be awarded the large USAF Tanker deal, provided Wichita TV stations with a story they had days to plan for and yet it seemed for 2 of them, they were not as prepared. All week long stations did stories previewing the decision. All saying the announcement could come at anytime. So when the decision was finally made that Boeing would not get the contract, KAKE was the first to hit the air as long time reporter Chris Frank broke the news around 3:30, citing Sen. Pat Robert's office as the source. I believe Chris is the aviation reporter and I was happy for him that he was able to get it first. I think they are the only station with an aviation beat reporter, (for lack of a better term) so to me it seems deserving he would be the first to break it. I will say since they have a 4PM newscast they were able to run the press conference of the announcement live and had decent breaking news coverage. Although KAKE did well early on with this story Yesterday afternoon, the rest of their coverage at 6 and 10 was not as good. By 10PM, it was as if the announcement was an afterthought. For a station who broke the news, their story and coverage was the worse of the 3 stations at 10PM. If anything, they should of had a taped segment with Chris Frank, even giving his own thoughts after having covered aviation for so long in this town.

Meanwhile KWCH was the second station to break the news with Roger Cornish on the air a couple of minutes after KAKE. By 6PM it was evident, KWCH had the best overall plan for the decision. Obviously the decision to not award the contract to Boeing came as a surprise, but it was clear KWCH had a plan in place probably for several weeks, no matter who got it. And when the announcement came it paid off. One could always argue does quantity necessarily mean quality. No not always, but in this case especially at 6PM, KWCH's coverage was best. (KWCHers, please don't let this inflate your egos anymore than they already are.) For a 2 hour old decision they had 3-4 stories on the decision. The others all had multiple reporters, but KWCH's presentation did not seem rushed or thrown together. Roger Cornish had a story talking to an aviation historian. Although nothing award winning, it was a nice piece to put an historical perspective on a big story and probably was taped ahead of time and was ready to go no matter what the decision was. Also at 6 they had a decent story on local parts suppliers and the effect on them. The parts supplier story was done by all the stations before the announcement and in later newscasts, but on Friday combined with their other stories, I thought KWCH did the best presenting them especially at 6PM.

KSN was the last to break in or, maybe ironically, crawl the information on screen that Boeing was not selected. I question what KSN had planned ahead of time. Despite them doing stories throughout the week, it seemed they were caught surprised that a decision was made and little planning was made for such a decision until 3:30 when the decision was made public. All their stories at 6 had the basics you would expect and that was about it. It was a slow crawl for them to finally get up to speed. By 10PM they improved, as often is the case with KSN, and had more execution, which gave them better coverage of the day's big story over KAKE for one newscast. -Hal