A critical look at the Wichita TV news

Sunday, March 9, 2008

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.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wrong Hal. The Eagle had an article written by an aunt. That was it.

KWCH was the first station or paper to talk directly with the family.

Try reading the article instead of just skimming it.

Anonymous said...

The Schoenwald family didn't talk to the Eagle. I believe the story that ran Sunday was simply an account of what happened by another family member.

Anonymous said...

Why did it take so long for KSN to get on with anything?

KWCH had a crawl about 8:15 and Larry cut-in over on KAKE about 5 minutes later. I think it was a good 20 minutes before KSN had anything up.

Anonymous said...

Its been said many times, but when KSN barely has enough people to put on a newscast weekdays, do you really think they have the people to do it on weekends and handle breaking news?

Anonymous said...

That last comment could not be more accurate when talking about KSN and the weekends.

Anonymous said...

KSN has a new weekend producer, reporter, and several new photographers. Someone probably wasn't trained on how to do a crawl.

Anonymous said...

The Eagle may not have interviewed the family, but it had the family's story ... as told by the family. And of course the paper had it first. It generally does.

Anonymous said...

whos the new weatherman on the weekends?

Anonymous said...

Actually no the paper doesn't always have things first.

Secondly, they did not talk to the mother or the girls directly. It was the story AS TOLD BY AN AUNT who wasn't there, wasn't in the crash. There's a big difference.

You are just upset (KAKEr) because you got did not have it.

Anonymous said...

The paper's story was superior only because of the perspective. It was quite unique, and well done by the mother's sister. Kind of one of those times when "the book is better than the movie." (which was good, too)

Anonymous said...

Yes... it was unique but only because it was the type of thing that cannot be done on television because it's a complete different type of medium.

Personally, I'd rather hear from the survivors themselves than read an opinion of it written third person but hey, that's just me.

Anonymous said...

Who is this new weatherbunny on KWCH? She is absolutely terrible and nobody can defend this, not even the most pro KWCH poster can.

I'm sure they had more qualified people apply, but they hired based on the fact she was a woman, because the last meteorologist was, who was bad also...I feel real bad for Merril, Mark, Ross and Rodney, who I'm sure had no say in this hire either and management pretty much made them do this... This is a huge reason and shows what is wrong with the entire TV business these days

Anonymous said...

A post from someone who obviously didn't get the job. Bitter much?

Anonymous said...

Kwch's new female meteorologist is Ayna Sehgal. You can read more here.
http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=8006127&nav=menu486_10_6

Anonymous said...

I am sure you don't work at KWCH and as such wouldn't know what say they had or didn't have.

Also, you cannot judge someone by their first day on the job. There are nerves that need to shake out. It's true for any job whether it's on camera or not.

Also, Lindsey was pretty good. What, she say no to your advances?

Anonymous said...

Give her a break...seriously. I work at another station and think shes pretty damn good. Lets see you do better, bitter poster. You obviously work at KSN or KAKE. Are all of your weather people great? I think not.

Anonymous said...

Giving credit where credit is due, KSN did good work on the Lyon pharmacy investigation. They must have had a tip, as I know that's usually how a station gets out in front of a story.

Anonymous said...

Yes, KSN actually did well and was obviously tipped off on that particular story. However, that's the only reason they did well... when the story was handed to them on a silver platter. When it comes to covering the news of the day in general, they clearly don't have a clue. I'm honestly sometimes embarassed for them even though I don't work there.

What I'm curious to know is whether it's a problem with manpower (or lack thereof) or is it a problem of just plain incompetence? I suspect a little of both.

Anonymous said...

I think Ayna Sehgal definately needs to improve, and hopefully, with more experience she will.

I know it's not PC, but I think she is nice to look at, and that makes it a more enjoyable experience for me.

Hopefully she can develop into a great weather person.

Anonymous said...

I'll judge weathergirl in a couple months. Like I hope someone would give me a couple months to learn a new job.

Anonymous said...

Maybe their resources are too tied with because Anita Cochran needs 5 people to help make her look good when she debuts 3 stories about how she lost weight. God that was embarrassing just to say you are in the same business as her. Totally ridiculous. Whoever let that air should be tarred and feathered.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I wouldn't go that far. They've been competing well lately. Still not a "breaking news" station, but their stuff like pharmacy and something Hertniky did on the dryer case the other day shows some consistency.

Anonymous said...

KSN's execution for breaking news is lacking. I do think as a reporting staff(except the new girl, Aja) is the best in the market overall, when the have the time to produce it. In a breaking news situation they are the worst coverage in the market.

Anonymous said...

If you're going to tar and feather a "Biggest Loser" tie in, throw in KAKE's "Dancing with the Local Stars" while you're at it. Tie-ins are a local news staple. They're dumb, but for some reason local news stations think they work.

Anonymous said...

Now a "Dexter" tie-in on KWCH. I'd watch that.

Anonymous said...

Lack of staff

Anonymous said...

KSN does not compete. They were 30 minutes late on the Brooks story last weekend. They continually miss the big stories, hell they have kickers running 5 minutes into the 5 (Today's Talkers). They are a joke and their "talent" is a joke. That's why they pull hash marks.

Anonymous said...

Anon 836PM - Although KSN's main anchor and weather guy stinks, their reporting staff is largely solid, except for two. I would take Dana Hertnecky, Josh Wittsman, Anne Meyer, (reporter) Anthony Powell and Jason Kravarik anytime over KWCH's Kim Hynes, Cliff Judy, Alana Rocha, and Linda Mares or KAKE's Abby Barnett, Rachel Phillips, Jennifer Bocchieri or Cayle Thompson.

Anonymous said...

And to their credit KSN does have a solid supporting weather staff. I mean Mark Bogner has been there in the mornings forever. Leon I almost think is a non player at this point with the 5pm show.
Sports is good with Jim Kobbe and Mark Davidson- much better than the arrogance I see at KAKE and KWCH.
I agree with the previous poster about reporters too.It seems to me that KSN'S biggest problem lies with its MAIN talent and management.

Anonymous said...

That's because 918 works at KSN. If you think that KSN has the best on-air talent in town then you need to get out of the business now.

And you must be the only one who thinks they are good because no one is watching them. No one.

Anonymous said...

You mistake arrogance for actual talent and knowledge. Not to mention the fact that no one from the KWCH or KAKE sports staff has been suspended for cursing out a production person on-air.

KSN has been No.3 for more than a decade. It will continue to stay No.3 especially with NBC's lineup being what it is and no hope in sight.

Anonymous said...

This is why this blog sucks. You recently has a story that made headlines all over the country. Yet all you'll find on this blog is a slap fight among stations.

WichitaMedia said...

Good Point. Thats why I think we are done commenting on this post. Now the comments are not about the topic of the post. Some interesting stuff was discussed at times, however now its just a back and forth between the West side of town, downtown and the East side of town. -Hal

Anonymous said...

I have to comment on the new Weather girl at KWCH as well. I do NOT work in the market, I am a viewer. I am married and have never met this girl.

I agree with the comment though that she is terrible. My wife and I have been sitting in awe each night as we watch Fox News at 9, the broadcast that they have her on.

She can gain experience, but as of right now, they need to pull her off and work with her drastically.

I remember a few years back, Channel 3 had a guy on Sunday mornings that literally sucked. He made this new girl look great! After a couple of weeks, he was off & replaced by Dean Jones for about a month. When he came back, he was by no means great, but he was MUCH improved.

People say Wichita is not a starters market. Well...

Anonymous said...

Wichita sucks. The new weather girl will get better. She used to be in Arkansas, and they hated her there. But all TV reporters etc suck because they are paid peanuts. As long as you work cheap, it doesn't matter if you suck. TV sucks. Wichita Sucks.