Time to Take a Breath

Now that Turgeon has officially tried on the coat in Aggieville, said he's moving there, and thinking he wont pull a Dana (Altman of Creighton), I am sure the media will continue to do their prognosticating on who exactly will be the next Shocker coach and chase down airplanes and candidates headed into Koch arena under a veil of secrecy. Before everyone gets whipped into another flurry, lets take a breath and evaluate the local media performance up until now. The crazy thing is all of this news was broken by a reporter/blogger from ESPN, Andy Katz. Besides the fact he might have been off salary wise by a 1/4 million, he was pretty much right on from the beginning. KSN probably had the most interesting news story about the Turgeon thing than the other stations. It looked at the effect of the Internet and the way people get their information.
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/6962062.html
First off it provided a respite from the typical news story on a sports story when the fan is always consulted and gives pretty much the same ole interview. Stations might as well have a reel made, cued up, and ready to go called, "When news people need to do sports stories." On it would be several categories including:
A) Fans at a Bar watching a game.
B) Disappointed fans after a loss saying the overused cliche, 'There's always next year.'
C) The fan so excited his unranked team comes out of nowhere and upsets a better team, holds up the number 1 sign.
D)The fan disappointed his coach left but says, "We wish him the best but we cant wait for the new coach to come in and start winning again."
Although the team colors the fans are wearing would change a little, I am sure something like that could be touched up in the post production portion of the TV process. -Hal

Turgeon off to A&M Coverage

The worst kept secret in two states was finally confirmed late Monday, but by the time a face agreed to appear on camera, the 10PM shows were over. Give KWCH credit, they were the only station to break the news live, into Letterman, by saying a few players had just confirmed the news to them. The question comes, was it really necessary to break in for this, when after all 3 sportscasts, we were lead to believe it was only a matter of time before it would be confirmed that Mark Turgeon would leave for A&M. I would point out, however, the normal way most stations sign off when ending their reports is, "Stay tuned to Station (XYZ) and we'll give you the latest when it happens." In this case KWCH did do like they promised. Was a lot gained out of it, I dont think so, but I am sure we will be reminded many times through promos. KAKE had a reporter down in Aggie-land in the form of James Sido. I dont know why they even use a microphone on him. I went out on my porch during his report and I swear I could hear him screaming his cadenced delivery and acting like he was doing a bad impersonation of an ESPN anchor from Texas without a satellite and microphone. -Hal

KAKE: On Your Bowling Side

If you didnt know, KAKE has a 4PM show. More news shows on a TV station, basically means more fluff. And we definitely got that in a story on a National senior bowing tournament rolling into town this weekend. Overall not bad, but I didnt like the end. Their little junior reporter did a little piece acting like the pro would show her how to bowl. If anything the story is worth a watch, just to see the senior pro do what he calls the "Hawk" dance. Predictably, she ends up getting a strike and acts all excited and claims that was her first strike in her life? What? Never? Not even bumper bowling? Its not like a turkey or if she bowled a perfect game or anything. The only thing that means is KAKE must not let her out very much. Here's the link to the story. -Hal

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/6910297.html

When Panties Make News

KWCH's lead story by Jim Grawe was definitely a talker. People had new panties thrown in front of their houses in Reno county. Bizarre story and told real well, although many people didn't want to talk about it. Another story on KWCH was interesting. A man in Belle Plaine won the Mayor's race as a write-in-candidate and didn't know he won until he went to the bank. I must say, however the interview of one of the Mayoral candidates, was a little fishy. In reporter Rebecca Gannon's story, one of the losing candidates listed on the ballot, was interviewed as if the camera was far away and left on a table. It was as if it were to make it seem to the guy, the camera wasn't rolling. It seemed really strange compared to all of the other interviews in the story. -Hal

And the Winner for Election Coverage is....

Well... I would say it was pretty much even on all accounts. Each station had weaknesses. To start KSN's ticker was slow in getting out the results for the Wichita races compared to the other two. The look also was not as clean to read as KWCH's, who probably had the cleanest ticker. Also KWCH rotated the main Wichita races it seemed more frequently amidst the smaller ones. KAKE gets props for having live interviews first of Brewer and Mayans. KWCH had these following KAKE, but audio was hard to hear at Brewer's site because you could see the monitor behind the reporter with KWCH on, so Brewer's supporters were cheering pretty loudly, knowing they were on. Plus Happy Happy Cheer Cheer reporter Jennifer Bocchieri (KAKE) further proved someone can be just too happy. Her and appearing live from a location on camera, just do not go together.
It would seem as KSN had their reports on tape for the 10. I'm basing this purely by watching the other stations at the same time and noticing a louder background on KAKE and KWCH. But if I have to go to these measures to notice, than I think KSN did fine and actually the whole presentation came out cleaner, because you could hear from the winners and losers. Since the Mayoral race was decided well before 9, this in my mind was a sensible thing to do, although others would argue live interviews are the thing do. My question would be, do viewers really notice in this situation or even care if a station is live? -Hal

The Battle of the On-Air Tornado

I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen. I was beginning to think I had overestimated KAKE and their promo machine. Well then the storm brewed on the airwaves beginning at the 6PM newscast on KAKE. There it was. Clips from the on-air tornado they broadcast live the other night appeared in a promo. I must say they handled it classy for KAKE and actually credible. After the NCAA Basketball game, KWCH showed off their live tornado, as well, in a promo. Once again not bad and not over hyping what can be a deadly (although not from this one in Kansas) event. The technology the two stations have is unbelievable and if used in the right situations as was with these tornadoes can provide a good perspective. This happened in March so we have a long way to go in the storm season and I am sure these won't be the last caught live this season. However, I am not convinced KAKE wont start with the hype beginning as soon as........ well probably tomorrow. -Hal

A Vacuumed Gerbil and KSN. Interesting Irony

KSN was moving right along in their 10PM newscast and starting their weather preview when suddenly the audio was gone and then they quickly went to commercials. It seems like they are proned to more technical glitches then the other stations. Maybe it has to do with the stories I read a while back about some layoffs there. One funny part was watching the commercials. Suddenly they had an commercial for a charity where a gerbil gets vacuumed up. Hmmmm. What great irony to run a spot about a gerbil being vacuumed up while the station awaits for the latest technical glitch to pass. -Hal