Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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
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15 comments:
I agree Hal. Although I think all the weather guys tonight did a great job, the fault in KAKE and KWCH lies in their reporter`s handling of it.
Leon as always was relaxed at 10 and is always on more of a viewer`s level than Freeman. Jay still had my vote though for coverage (this is a blog and IMHO he always is very consistant in his delivery)
Not sure if you watched the earlier shows but Andre on KSN surprised me as well. I especially liked his chemistry with Anita believe it or not.
Anon #1 - Andrew definitely did a decent job and you mentioned that Anita's chemistry worked well with him. I agree and I would make the point I think it also comes from the FreemanLESS weather. Not seeing him on Yesterday, got me to think that Dave and all of his passion I think gets his Co-Stars hyped up as well, making them just not as pleasurable to watch either. I still am not ready to decide between Prater and Merril. For me it depends on what type of event we are talking about(snow vs. t-storms) as to which one I'll watch. -Hal
I mostly agree with this analogy, The meteorologists yesterday didnt make it out to be a huge deal, I mean we dealt with a true blizzard in December and a disastrous ice storm in areas of the state, this is nothing compared to that!
Prater consistently said, it will be a problem but there wont be huge snow amounts, Merril never really hypes anything up too often either, and KSN without Freeman was much more down to earth.
Its the reporters standing out in the cold and snow hyping it all up now and really making an inconvenience out to be a big deal.
I wouldn't place all the hype blame on the reporters...I highly doubt they're at all excited about standing out in yet another snow storm, freezing. Keep in mind, a lot of that hype pressure comes from those back in charge at the station "pump up the coverage or else." Storms like that are really tiresome to the reporters and photogs that get stuck out in them on a weekly basis.
I was actually laughing tonight at Anita and Andrew`s conversation on the 10pm news. Jennifer P`s story was really interesting too about the high school kid`s cell phone ring.
One thing I thought KSN and KAKE did earlier (not sure about KWCH as I didn`t catch it) about the vending machine vandalism I thought was almost not news worthy. I could be wrong but doesn`t that thing happen all the time to businesses? Maybe it was worth a quick note about but an entire story- I don't think it was worth the time.
I know it was a slow newsnight, but was it really worth KAKE leading a Boys Scouts camping?
KSN downplaying weather. That's a joke. What about the pointless "Weather First?"
Anon #6 - Good point. As I said on the post, any dreams of a different KSN came to an end as I was writing it and I saw a weather promo. As you point out the leading what seems like every newscast now with weather, even if it is a Sunny day and 60 would seem to be overkill. Plus it seems to me it further exposes one of its main achilles even more: its chief weather guy. -Hal
Its a shame too because I like all the meteorologists alot at KSN EXCEPT the chief weatherguy....
Hal,
I'm curious to what weather promo you are talking about and who's in it? Haven't seen it but is it really bad? What makes it make you annoyed with ksn's weather after watching it?
Weather promos in general on KSN run all the time. I dont understand why they go to such extremes to promote Freeman when I think a majority of the viewing area (not necessarily their viewing audience) probably have a negative view of him. If you are watching KSN you must be part of the small group able to handle Dave. As a previous comment pointed out KSN now looks like it leads every newscast with weather. Someone must be telling them people like Dave and maybe many people watch KSN for him. I guess for me and my friends (who don't go crazy and follow local news like I) we must be out of touch compared to everyone in the viewing area.
The previous comment asked me what specific promo I was talking about. Actually the one I saw I can handle, because it showed the whole weather team, but most of the time when I hear the music and see the promo the first thing that comes to my mind is the main reason why I don't like their main shows. If you saw the FreemanLESS weather with Anita a few days ago, the chemistry of the newscast, I think, changes for the better. Does it solve all of KSN's on-air problems? No not by a long shot, but at least I can stomach to watch for 3 minutes more than normal. -Hal
Hal,
As a former KSN-er I can tell you exactly why they promote the hell out of Freeman......because it is ALL they have.
When I worked there they blew a HUGE wad of cash to do market research in the metro (cause out in western Kansas they do great) and when the results came back it showed they were very unpopular in every category except weather....the people they talked to loved Freeman.
When I was there he was rated as the number one weather man in town. That same market research was what started that stupid slogan "Clear, Accurate, and to the Point!". Remember that gem? The reason they went with that philosophy is the research told them that is what people wanted...they wanted their info clear, accurate, and to the point....and they also wanted weather from Dave.
The meeting where they announced all this info was hilarious....you should have seen the look on Anita's face when we were told she was like sixth or seventh on the list of female on air talent in Wichita based on watchability and popularity!
Here is another tidbit Hal....not sure if they still do this or not, BUT back in the day KSN had a film company they hired that came to the studio and shot all of their image promotions. For example they had a promo that was about how KSN was there in times of disaster and it showed shots of supposed "storm" victims...well they shot that in the alley beind KSN and all the victims and flood workers were KSN employees. Poin is they used to spend LOTS of cash to make their promos look top notch and back then I think they accomplished that mission. Makes me wonder if they still did that if tolerating the weather promos would be a little easier for you.
Former KSNer...you are right. That's all they focus on is the weather and research.
Very true, the known names in this town are Roger, Cindy, Merril, Bruce, Susan, and Larry Hatteberg, then probably Dave Freeman...
What? No Jeff Herndon on that list? He's going to be devastated!
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