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