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.
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Maybe a reporter should hope they are ripped by you, because Kim Hynes winds up on Larry King Tonight. Way to fight back Kim!! Hal you stink.
The video from KAKE came from WIBW I believe.
KWCH seemed to be the only ones first thing in the morning with video from inside Chapman. Great video of people going door to door and the search for people trapped. They must have gotten in before the town was sealed off.
It looked like KAKE relied heavily on WIBW for content while KSN and KWCH sent more people north.
Really impressed with Andrew Kozak and Leon Smitherman last night. Watched the tail end of the 10pm KSN newscast. Yes, I work for KSN but was not working last night. Wanted to chime in since we all know people posting on here are all in tv. Keeping people up to date in Manhattan even though we don't technically cover that area was important to family and friends who knew people up there. Did not see the others do the same.
They did and PS...your bias is showing.
Is anybody out there like me and base their severe weather station selection solely on how much they like the station's radar appearance compared to the others? For example, I'm a KAKE guy because I think their radar is the sharpest and easiest to decipher. KWCH's seems outdated, and KSN's seems to blurry for anybody except Dave to know what's really being seen.
What is wrong with using a sister stations video? It is more efficient to do so. KAKE and WIBW are both owned by Gray TV. Also KAKE had someone live in Chapman first thing and an WIBW reporter live first thing on their show too.
Actually, I kind of missed Dave Freeman. He's better in severe weather than he is on a sunny day. Prater, too.
This is off topic but what are people’s opinions on KSN's newer reporter Josh Haskell? He's still green and needs some work but seems to be getting better on camera
Wally Wally Wichita's radar comments, got me to thinking...
Channel 3's High Def doppler doesn't appear blurry, but it always amazes me how 10 & 12's radar shows the red's where heavy action is and 3's HDD is always green & yellow.
I say it is the one that is out of date!
On another note... I will praise channel 3 for streaming weather over the internet.
Last week a tornado was in Haysville/Derby headed towards Andover where I live. Freeman was the only one saying to go to the basement... which the wife made me do, and turned out was not needed.
When we got downstairs It was raining so hard the Dish had lost it's signal, so I turned on the laptop and watched streaming coverage online.
Say what you want about Freeman, this is one thing he does that I like, it helped us keep the information coming!
You can't do stories in Chapman while sitting on your butt in Wichita. More efficient at doing nothing.
12 also had their coverage streaming online.
Josh Haskell is an example of someone who needed to work in a bureau for a year or better before coming to Wichita. I think he still shows his youth and inexperience on camera.
scotty. During the recent Haysville/Derby tornado. Freeman was not on air. You really must have had problems with your dish.
Haskell is in Wichita until they move him to the new Salina bureau.
Eagle cutting back on news coverage.
http://www.kansas.com/business/updates/story/436490.html
KAKE and KSN doing the same by the sound of it, KAKE for sure is tightening their belts. It seems KWCH is the only news operation in this area that is on stable footing. Hell, they're expanding as we speak.
sounds like scottyt may work the KSN Weatherlab??
Haskell isn't bad. He just needs to losen up a bit. He needs to act like he does IN person.
That's because at KWCH... no one ever leaves.
When you actually do a good job and enjoy the place where you work, that's what happens.
So KSN's Primetime Greensburg Special did a 5 rating.... hmmm... so much for "It aired on friday and no one watched it."
Also in the May book, KSN gained a point at 10 and the other two both lost a point. Watch out KAKE, KSN is now virtually tied with you in ratings. :)
Yep anon 5:23... I work for the weather lab... and if you look at the comments from the last blog posting, I am also Hal!
FYI, I am a Middle School teacher. I started my career out in Radio news, but never got into TV as it was a time when they were hiring anybody but a white male. Sorry, but I am just a viewer.
As for anon 4:07's comment, your thinking of the tornado last week. The one which I am talking about was a week before and never officially a tornado, just rotation, when Freeman was telling everyone at the studio to take cover also.
Finally anon 12:19... I did not know 12 had streaming coverage, I had to dig to find it. I will use it also. what about KAKE? Do they have it?
Josh Haskell had a nice "get" on Sunday in the Chapman victim's family. As he hones his skills in Salina, he appears to have a bright future in this market. KAKE also had a nice "get" with the most seriously injured of the tornado victims. Solid work from both stations.
One book does not make a trend. It does not make a pattern or a change. It's simply one book. You need more than one to make any kinds of judgement one way or another.
Actually, KSN was up 2 ratings points in the 10p demos. KWCH was down 2 points and KAKE was down 1 point.
I never get to see the ratings, besides the comments to the blog about a point up here and down there. Correct me if I am wrong. Sure there will be a renegade book here in there where there might be a huge surge somewhere, but overall looking at the big picture haven't the rating's order remained unchanged the last decade with KWCH leading the pack with KAKE and KSN battling for third? -Hal
KWCH was the first station to have a crew in Chapman. They were also the ONLY station that actually made it into town to get damage video & reaction. They got people out the door & en route super-fast.
KSN was the second Wichita station to arrive...but they were stuck outside of town.
KAKE was the last Wichita station to arrive...not sure what took them so long. Everyone else had been in the area for a few hours.
KWCH definitely had their stuff together. It's nice to see KSN doing better & actually beating KAKE!!! I think KSN is getting better & better.
KAKE Live Streams their Radar without Audio. I am sure in the next few months they will start to do both.
Exactly... been that way for more than a decade. Yet people at KWCH love to think they are the ones who put them there.
The recent jumps people at KAKE have made are proof it is a place where people who move up in this business work.
On the other hand, if you want to live off the reputation of other people's work.... you can go to KWCH.
People are jumping ship at KAKE not jumping ahead...if you make a remark like that at least get it right. The few people that did get ahead got there cause they had talent, but all the recent losers on air will be there forever cause there is no one left worth a darn to guide them.
No, the people who left KAKE did so because it's a horrible environment. From the anchor blowups to the penny pinching, it's bare bones and no fun. People actually stay at KWCH because they like it. Not to mention the fact that they actualy have resources over there and are expanding while everyone else is firing people.
Its true as the KAKE poster said, that KWCH's dominance was established long before most present employees were around. But KWCH has maintained that dominance. By doing so in this environment,they have dealt near fatal blows to the competition.
KSN had a nice bump in ratings, but they've been scrapping like a fighter on the ropes for at least 5years. Attitude-wise they've known what fight they're fighting and operating bare bones for several years. They're not delusional about becoming #1. Their goal is to stay afloat and be viable. They know where they stand.
KAKE, on the other hand, still dreams about being #1--having BEEN there for many years---many years ago. I think thats why you see these anchor blow-ups and in-fighting. Some of the higher paid and/or vets really feel the station is/should be competitive. They don't want to accept that KAKE must be a bare bones scrapper-fighting for survival. Thats a reality KSN has adapted to since maybe 2002. The double whammy for KAKE is--its parent company, Gray TV, is on the ropes in a treacherous media economy and the sugar daddies Gray hoped would buy it--are now all in trouble too in the Great Media Depression. You have to be lean and mean. And you must have amnesia about yesterday in TV. KAKE needs to develop that amnesia before it makes its next run. After this Anniversary thing, put the old KAKE in the rear view mirror forever IMO.
Ratings increases only fatten the fat cats, not us. Just go in every day and do the best damn job you can. Do it a little for yourself and mostly for the people watching.
What was up with KAKE and KSN Tonight at 6 PM? While KWCH leads with news that 3 Police officers have been suspended for some comments made, KAKE buries it several stories in and KSN must have not known about it until they saw it on KWCH and had nothing on it at 6PM. No, I am not an employee of KWCH nor the other 2 stations. From the stories I saw on 2 of the stations, it seemed very little information was released. Despite this, that shouldn't determine the relevance of a story, especially when reading an online account on the Eagle's site saying the information announcing the investigation came from the Police Department themselves.
Anonymous 7:11pm... Instead of ripping and reading a press release, KSN worked the story and had more information at 10pm as to the nature of what the suspended officers were alleged to have said. KWCH did a convenient job of blowing things up at 6 without having anything more than a vague press release. That's their prerogative, but not the only way to proceed.
KWCH should be nicknamed "The Ceiling".... yeah you are on top... but if you work there, you aren't going any higher.
10:25, that is hilarious calling KWCH the "ceiling" station because if you go there, you ain't going any higher.
You're right, when a station is among the tops in the country---better than 2-1 ahead of the nearest competitor--you probably aren't going any higher.
I guess the Kansas Jayhawks are the "celing team" in College Basketball. If you go there--you surely ain't going any higher than where they are. Ball State has a better chance of "moving up". The best KU can dream of is going sideways. Curious logic.
Very funny. Of course, you're right that KWCH does retain most employees who appreciate the high likelihood their future checks will clear.
say what you want about KSN but here's the thing: over the past 3 years, many of their reporters have re-signed. Even those really good ones who could most definitely get a job somewhere in a bigger market. Dana Hertnecky, Anne Meyer, Josh Witsman, Chanda Brown, Anthony Powell...... these people all decided on their own to stay at KSN, and from what I hear, with a really decent ( in some cases REALLY decent) pay-raise for that new contract.
So before you start saying that KSN is a toliet bowl of a station, consider what they've been through over the last 3 years, and who has stayed in spite of it. And yes, their new company (NV-TV) is actually pretty decent.
Ok, maybe Hertnecky, Meyer, Wittsman, Powell and Brown have stayed, but you leave 2 vets out of that list: Cochran and Freeman. I hope that was on purpose, because I say if those two were gone, you might see some benefit from keeping their veteran reporters around. But as long as Cochran, Freeman and their egos are around, the station will stay locked in third no matter how good the content the reporters produce is.
We're getting into the same revolving door debates we always have. Hal, time for a new post.
Good call anon 1215. I am in town for the weekend and a little longer so I'll hopefully have some time to take a look at the casts and get something up. -Hal
WOW!! KSN ran a weather promo last night; and it had all their guys in it, not just Freeman! Anyone else see this? Anyone DVR it perhaps? It was on during Dateline last night. Check your DVRs.
Is this a sign of changes to come? Have they given up on just promoting the big guys?
Has anyone else seen KWCH's morning show on the CW? Hal...what do you think of it?
Anon 430, I actually froget all about it, because when I think of news I don't think of CW. CW and other stations like it I think of cartoons and Family Matters reruns. I'll have to check it out, but isn't it basically just a replay of the KWCH Morning show? -Hal
Notice how the people who have left KAKE have all gone on to bigger markets. The people that leave KWCH are out of the biz.
KWCH - where careers find a rocking chair!!
It's not a replay. It's 2 new hours with different types of segments. Better than 4 hours of the Today Show and View crap on KAKE.
It kinda is, but the last hour seems to be more of the newstalk and entertainment stuff.
That 12-CW morning show may be trying, I just can't get past the mannequin hosts. They're just not very good.
KWCH sure found a natural sports caster, Jenn Bates. You go girl!
I guess the moral of the story here is--if you get a job at KAKE, rent--don't buy.
The KAKE bashers say you'll hate working there and will want to leave.
The KAKE lovers say you'll likely move on to a better market.
Another issue with KAKE: what happened to Rachel Phillips? I liked her work. Some one said she decided to spend more time with her family. Perhaps, but I can't entirely buy that. You cut back on your schedule, you don't just get out. Maybe that doesn't fit the script of Anon/TC who keeps chiming in with his theory that people only leave KAKE for 7 figure network jobs. Anyone know the Truth here--and not just the "company line"?
Rachel only worked two days a week anyway. You can't cutback anymore than that without getting out.
You can do that at 8:30 and 3.5 hours of news.
Rachel really did leave to be at home with her kids that is not a joke. Rachel is a mommy first and foremost and she loves spending time with her girls. I think, much like the rest of us, she jut didn't have the desire to deal with the BS anymore and she wanted to be with her children more so she made the decision to stay at home......I don't blame her we should all be so fortunate.
Thanks for your feedback. I kinda thought "spending more time with family" was true, along with--as you stated "not wanting to deal with the BS anymore".
Never doubted the first part, sort of suspected the second part, too. Thats all.
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