Sweeps Woody Warning - Day 1?

It snuck up on me and caught me by surprise, but Tonight must be the beginning of the ratings period, judging by the hyped pieces running on the local channels tonight. KAKE went to chase down Wild West World creator Thomas Etheredge in Texas. I will say the story did get me to watch, which served the main purpose of the story. The other thing I learned is that there is a llama like animal, called an alpaca. Actually Etheredge now raises and sells them. They never were able to talk to him on camera, although on phone when reporter Deb Farris acted like she was interested in his business and didn't identify herself as a reporter. The audio recording was difficult to hear. They did talk to his wife Cheryl who said they as a couple were hurt more than anybody. I am sure that raised some brows here in Wichita. As a whole the piece got me to watch and taught me a few things, OK I guess a few more things besides there is an animal called an "alpaca." Overall not a bad piece and one that probably beat anything else which was running tonight.

Meanwhile KWCH, went with a safe theme of a "cold case." I think generally "cold case" stories do kind of peak people's interests because of the recent number of shows related to such content the last couple of years. There is one difference. The cable show, Cold Case Files, made famous by a former Wichita TV anchor, creates an interest in the victim. The majority of the time you are made to care about the person and the case. The piece by KWCH's Jim Grawae, failed to do that for me tonight. I'll admit I am normally a fan of Grawae's work. To his defense, the cable version of the show has more time to set up the story. He probably had a total of 2 minutes to tell the whole story. I just think it made me ask the question why is this case so unusual as opposed to other cold cases in Kansas and why does this one get more attention over any of the others. Plus it made realize an achilles of KWCH's I never noticed before. I don't know why but on some stories they want to make look important they chop off the top and bottom of the screen. I don't know if its to look or maybe it is HD or something but I think its one of those effects which looks like its just thrown in without a purpose other than say they are HD or can chop the picture up special like that.

Over at KSN, I am not sure if they got the memo yet on Sweeps. Maybe they had a piece tonight and I missed it, but I don't remember seeing one advertised or really notice anything different tonight.



Weather Woody Update - Well depending if you measured at the airport or other parts of Wichita, generally 4-5 inches fell in the Wichita area. Looking at the forecasts I will say because of the 3 inch windows left by the 3 stations they I guess all were right. Although KAKE's Jay Prater said 2-5 he emphasized the word "trace," a few times in forecasts and that didn't exactly come to fruition in Wichita or nearby. He as well as others were right on with the part about heavier totals to the SE. So I must give kudos to KAKE, KSN and KWCH for a pretty decent job on the forecast, although I think their prediction of gusty winds was overBLOWN. Sorry I couldn't resist. -Hal

Winter Weather Woody

This one deserves a Winter Weather Woody Warning. Actually, we are probably beyond the warning, after watching the 10PM and now into a full blown out Woody. It seemed as if by 10PM KAKE and maybe slightly KWCH and KSN were starting to back off their view as to what the storm was going to do in the Wichita area. Here are what the stations forecasted in the area during the 10PM. I will say Jay Prater really emphasized the possibility the snow accumulations could be really light.

KAKE - 2 - 5 in. Jay really emphasized the word "trace" in his forecast for snowfall overnight, then more for Thursday with the overall total being 2-5. His use of "trace" in his forecast showed how he really started to back off on the idea of heavy snow accumulations for the majority of the viewing area. He I think was the first one at 6PM to allude that he may be backing off on totals by 10PM. All the meteorologists were saying that the farther east would give the best possibility for heavy snow accumulations

KWCH - 3-6. This was from adding up tonight's forecast and Thursday's forecast. As a whole it seemed like he was in the middle of the road, compared to the other stations as far as the overall intensity of this storm.

KSN - Dave Freeman was on at 10PM (Andrew Kozak handled 5 and 6PM) and tweaked his storm totals slightly on the lower end saying 2-5 inches for Wichita and heavier just to the south, but saying for most people 2-8 inches was a possibility.

This storm shows the meteorologists with a slight difference of opinion on the Eve of this storm, so it seems like we'll definitely have some come out more correct than others after everything is counted up in the Wichita area. -Hal

Obama's Visit to Kansas

I thought the coverage of the Obama visit was pretty even on all three stations, however it might appear a little different by the time you watched the 10PM newscast. KAKE had "the exclusive" interview with the candidate. Jeff Herndon did the interview and it looked very professional. Herndon did OK although I thought the interview started to lag as he got into basketball. If you take "the exclusive" out of the mix, and coverage of the event itself, I thought it was pretty even. Everyone had the event itself and then of course had the features surrounding the event. KWCH and KSN, before the event looked like they might have an advantage as far as covering it live on their channels, because the speech was scheduled to start near the end of KWCH's Noon show and in the middle of the KSN hour long show. Obama was a little late to the appearance, thus pushed the start time past 1PM. KAKE of course had the cable channel 22 to put it up on and the rest all had their internet platforms. To those who watched the coverage, who had the best coverage? -Hal

Obama off to Kansas

In the grand scheme of things its probably not anything to get real excited about: Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's Tuesday stop to El Dorado. On the other hand its hard not to think the local media will not treat this with added excitement. And rightfully so, since the Presidential campaign coverage normally means watching other states with more delegates welcoming the candidates. This year a caucus at time where there still is a tight race, makes Kansas a tempting campaign stop, well at least for one candidate so far. The stop over the Noon hour also places it well for stations' Noon shows (KSN and KWCH) although many times candidates run late. It will be interesting how the stations cover it. Do they play it up like it is a Presidential visit (break into regular programming or extend Noon shows) or treat it like he is just that, a Presidential candidate coming to Kansas and only that. Also what's the over/under on how many times we will hear the connection of Barack and his Grandfather's El Dorado connection? Have a good week. -Hal

The Tale of 2 Leads: Weather or Marshall (Non)News

Monday brought a case of 2 story subjects that to me are a waste of time to cover to the extent the stations covered them on Monday. Are they stories? Sure, to some extent. That answer has less to do with their journalistic relevance and more of feeding the beast of content.


Weather - Let me first fend off those who say icy weather, like that which moved into the area late afternoon, can be a huge nuisance and can even kill. Roads were closed and many activities were cancelled. Was it worth leading like all of the stations did? Sure, no doubt about it. I will say looking at the 6PM newscasts I favored KSN's approach of letting Meteorologist Andrew Kozak handle the forecasting duties and even spoke over some video of road conditions. Once again I don't know where Dave Freeman has been. Wherever he is, he probably is grinding his teeth knowing he isn't on the air. I must say I really do like the FreemanLESS weather on KSN. Andrew, Leon and others have just stuck to what is going on and what could happen, but also treat viewers like they have lived in Kansas awhile and aren't dumb to what conditions can be like in January. Then they were on to other news. To me with that time spent, I learned that yes its slick out and that it could be a slick night around the area, but not talked down to. Frankly thats all I think I needed to know. Meanwhile KAKE and KWCH had more drawn out coverage. I think at least one had their "Team Coverage" moniker. On KAKE at 6PM, Jennifer Bocchieri couldn't resist doing the overused reporter shot of her sliding her feet on the pavement plus interviews with people saying basically the same thing that it is slick. At 10PM all 3 stations had reporters on the stories and were live somewhere in the area. The storm news at 10PM had more to do with the many falls around the area and ERs being busy. With that as a premise, KWCH probably did the best with that, actually having video inside an ER and an interview on camera with someone from an ER. KAKE I think had an interview from a hospital spokesperson on a phone. KSN, had a reporter I didn't recognize (I think she might be new) standing across the street from a hospital talking over video about the many slips, falls and wrecks around the area and probably with the least of the 3 on info. Its one thing to spend the least amount of time on it and give you the information you need as they did at 6. However, at 10 they spent the least time, but didn't give as much information as was learned by watching the other two stations. Once again someone will say its the story people were talking about so you have to cover it and this is the way we have always covered it in the past. So. Be different and mention the weather, show pretty pictures, let your weather guys show viewers they are on top of the situation and then get on with things knowing we are in Kansas and every once in awhile Winter will come a knocking.


Gregg Marshall - After weather the other big story of the day was Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall basically saying nothing in his statement and dancing around the notion of whether he is interested in a coaching job in South Carolina. He had to do that since he is still involved in an active season with WSU. Why would he want people to think he is planning for next season and WSU is not in those plans? Once again it is a story that has to be covered to some extent. Now if I was in charge of the newscasts I would probably think I'd have to have it in my newscasts and probably right after weather as well. I think it has less to do once again with journalistic relevance and more to do with feeding the beast that is content. In someways I am sure all the stations were saying the others are going to be going all out on it so we can't be the one left out of the mix. And like weather it is a story on people's minds. But in the end or maybe several weeks from now, hopefully you can all look back and laugh how crazy everyone got worked up over a statement which didn't say yay or nay as to his future at WSU, even if he decides to pack up and head East. -Hal

First Weather Woody of '08

Three stations (maybe I should correct that and say) two stations treated the wind blown inch of snow in Wichita by 10PM as if it was half a foot. All 3 led their newscasts with the snow and rightfully so, but KAKE and KWCH stirred up a blizzard of their own with hype. Irony or not, it was interesting that a Dave FreemanLESS 10PM newscast on KSN took a much toned down and refreshing angle with the weather. They let Leon Smitherman say what was going to happen and then showed some video of roads and then moved on. I think that was the appropriate move. There were not any current advisories for the Wichita area by 10PM or 11PM when KWCH came on. One could say, that the weather outside of the Wichita area was bad to warrant the coverage. If it is so bad at 10PM and 11PM then show me live shots of those areas and not just places in Wichita. (There was tape from snow at some of the stations' offices in other parts of the state.) Instead both KAKE and KWCH after lead off weather segments had reporters live in the snow with stories that could easily been rewound from light snows of last year. The same useless soundbites about how its slick or something to the effect that its no fun do not make a good storm story no matter how many times you use them. KWCH 's Linda Mares took the time to show viewers how snow had blown under an awning and made the statement that the traffic had slown down by 11PM compared to rush hour. Really Linda, who would have thought after rush hour? You definitely need a .8 of inch snow to come blowing through to come to that conclusion. After seeing KWCH and KAKE over hype the snow and a FreemanLESS KSN barely cover it, I started thinking maybe this should be a strategy for KSN. I really found KSN very refreshing tonight. As much as I would like to think maybe it is a new overall plan for KSN to downplay weather events, unless they are catastrophic like Greensburg or a major blizzard, I am afraid the next storm with Dave at the helm, will bring the ole "Friends," Danger, Danger stuff back to the airwaves. At least I can say for this one weather (non) event, I actually watched KSN for weather. From this viewer though, if I was KSN management, playing weather like they did Tonight would certainly differentiate them from the competition and I think in a great way. Oh, and as I write this, any dreams I had that this might happen appear to have come to a crashing hault as a KSN weather promo hits the air.-Hal

The State of Online Sites

With the Governor's State of the State Tonight and after reading the recent feature story in Broadcasting and Cable, I started wondering what is the State of what many call the future of media - the Web. The story gives a few examples of how some stations across the country are making a stake for the online ad revenues by adding web only content with blogs and revamping staffs. That led me to wonder to what degree and extent are the local Wichita TV stations pursuing online content. I wrote about this topic back in September in an entry called, "The Online World: The Universe Untapped." In that blog I wrote that I think it is important for the stations to make strong commitments to the web and develop content exclusive to the web. At the time I didn't think many inroads were being made. I thought viewing raw video of press conferences and blogs should be a standard of TV web sites, not an "extra" or something to get excited about. I still feel little is being done. In the Broadcasting and Cable story, some stations are putting content directly online as soon as it is edited, rather than wait for it to run over the air first. Is that done here ever or are there web only reports for breaking news that happens at non-newcast times such as Noon on a Saturday? A quick look at the local sites and you see mostly repeated content from their broadcasts. Of course there is the occasional "Web exclusive" or blogs on KWCH's and KAKE's sites from reporters, producers and photographers. I don't know if the 3 stations have staff dedicated only to the web. If so I would think exclusive sections for the web would soon be in order. For example, with the State Legislature beginning, there might be a section with information on the House and Senate members and issues. On that subject, during the Governor's State of the State KWCH and KAKE both simulcasted the address on their websites using, it appeared, the feed from KPTS. I am curious to hear comments from those who go to the TV websites. Are inroads being made at the local level on the station's sites or do you feel they still largely are regurgitations of the on-air product. And finally I should have asked this first, in a market size of Wichita, should stations even be working aggressively for web content? -Hal