Some thought I was a little rough on KAKE and some of their young hires in my last post. I stand by and say their inexperience does show. At the same time I will say, KAKE reporter Parrish Alleman handled the breaking news story of a shooting that left two dead and one in critical condition very well last night since it happened East of Wichita on the edge of the viewing area in Eureka, KS. She had the most amount of information in her 10PM live shot, while the other two stations were quoting the local Eureka, KS newspaper. KWCH was live at 10, while KSN was not there. With that I was curious to watch the morning shows.
KAKE was live with Jordan Shefte. She is one of those reporters who needs some experience but she is getting it on the KAKE morning show with live shots every morning (when not anchoring) and it is showing. She did a nice job leading the coverage compared to the other stations.
KWCH had Pilar Pedraza at the scene with sound from the Sheriff. Nothing spectacular but at least you could see the sunrise and presence on the story.
Meanwhile at KSN, they must have the news version of "banking hours." They must be open from 9AM until 10:30PM. Although they had some night time video, there wasn't a live report from Eureka during the show. The Wichita TV stations have a tough dilemma when they cover nearly 2/3 of the state. Eureka is in the extreme Eastern part of the viewing area, but when two people die in a shooting, and one is in serious condition it warrants coverage. The most important part also to consider from last night's info is a suspect was identified and believed to be headed toward Park City.
Once again, KAKE did a nice job in coverage from the beginning last night to early this morning following the story. It will be interesting to see how this story plays out through the day. -Hal
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
KAKE's Shuffle-Roo
KAKE continues to intrigue me. I thought it was just a fluke when I saw the "Dumb and Dumber" anchor team of Jordan Shefti and Annette Lawless anchor KAKE's modern version of "Degrassi High," last week. However, they were on again Today with some new cheesy weather guy named, "Frank." Also the guy normally in the morning anchor chair, Mike Iuen anchored this weekend and reported Today. It looks like he is the new weekend anchor taking the spot of veteran Larry Hatteberg who is on the main desk again after Jeff Herndon left for Chicago affiliate WFLD. If that is what Hatteberg truly wants, good for him. Looking at Today's shows, he is anchoring 4,5,6 and 10PM. As for the normal morning female anchor, Jemelle Holopirek remains on the show. According to the Wichita Business Journal, she has been on vacation last week and set to return Tuesday. Some new cheesy weather guy named Frank does take the spot of Ben Pringle. He will be the weekend evening meteorologist. Also citing the Wichita Business Journal, a replacement for Jared Cerullo has been found in Annette Lawless. According to once again the Wichita Business Journal, things are messy in regards to Cerullo's exit at KAKE, including a pending lawsuit. (I have been out of this for awhile; I didn't know this had happened.) Jared Cerullo may have left KAKE, but if KAKE thinks Annette will replace Jared's experience, competence and ease on camera, Jared may have the last laugh on this one. -Hal
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Has "Degrassi High" replaced KAKE's "Good Morning Kansas."
I've been asleep for a few years and it would take something to wake me up. Well I turn on the morning news this morning and I had a flashback to the days of the PBS teen show, "Degrassi High." Jordan Shefti anchoring, some new cheesy weather guy named, "Frank" and new clueless live reporter Annette Lawless. The team (I use that word loosely) looks like a Teenage broadcast and the happy talk is of same caliber. KAKE's normal morning show cast unfortunately must have taken off at the same time. I haven't commented on the TV news in this town for quite some time, (not sure if I ever really will) however the mornings on all three stations now have the most sound talent throughout the day. But at least this morning KWCH and KSN definitely led the way. If you wanted to feel like you were watching a video version of "TeenBeat Magazine" than KAKE delivered. -Hal
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
When so called "techical advances" awake you from a deep sleep
Hello. I didn't intend to write again ever on Wichita TV News. Why did I stop? I dont know why. Then 12:00PM hit.
KWCH's Dave Roberts did a teaze for coverage later on in the day for the trial of one of 2 men accused of racing down Kellogg when the car jumped a barrier crashing into a vehicle, killing a 5 year old. Roberts took his cell phone, held it feet from his head outside of the courtroom and did a teaze saying he will have more coming up in the day. It looked very amateur. Bad video and grainy. The viewer got nothing from this. NOTHING!!!! It was like they were showing off they could do this. I think its safe to say most people dont have bag nor brick cell phones anymore and most phones have cameras on them so shooting video from a cell phone isn't that big a deal. An anchor could have easily teased the story or have Roberts shoot a standup outside the courthouse earlier in the day. Plus in this HDTV world where cameras and televisions are becoming so very clear, video from a cell phone really looks bad. Let me say this, Im not setting blame on Roberts. I think he may be a "multimedia journalist" a 1-man band who shoots and voices the stories. He does a nice job doing something that probably many coudn't do daily. Sadly its becoming a standard around the country. In that case its me blasting the industry, however if you are doing that, KWCH needs standards on how to do teases and not with cell phone standups!! The KWCHers will reply complaining that I have in the past always been hard on them. Actually local news product on all 3 stations have been decent lately (there have been some exceptions), but this example at Noon was terrible. The video quality was bad and cell phone use in this case (any case) degraded what couldve been good product. I would rather see black and white news film from the 50's then this digital stuff.
Hal
KWCH's Dave Roberts did a teaze for coverage later on in the day for the trial of one of 2 men accused of racing down Kellogg when the car jumped a barrier crashing into a vehicle, killing a 5 year old. Roberts took his cell phone, held it feet from his head outside of the courtroom and did a teaze saying he will have more coming up in the day. It looked very amateur. Bad video and grainy. The viewer got nothing from this. NOTHING!!!! It was like they were showing off they could do this. I think its safe to say most people dont have bag nor brick cell phones anymore and most phones have cameras on them so shooting video from a cell phone isn't that big a deal. An anchor could have easily teased the story or have Roberts shoot a standup outside the courthouse earlier in the day. Plus in this HDTV world where cameras and televisions are becoming so very clear, video from a cell phone really looks bad. Let me say this, Im not setting blame on Roberts. I think he may be a "multimedia journalist" a 1-man band who shoots and voices the stories. He does a nice job doing something that probably many coudn't do daily. Sadly its becoming a standard around the country. In that case its me blasting the industry, however if you are doing that, KWCH needs standards on how to do teases and not with cell phone standups!! The KWCHers will reply complaining that I have in the past always been hard on them. Actually local news product on all 3 stations have been decent lately (there have been some exceptions), but this example at Noon was terrible. The video quality was bad and cell phone use in this case (any case) degraded what couldve been good product. I would rather see black and white news film from the 50's then this digital stuff.
Hal
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Random Thoughts
Battle of Sweeps: The stations are ramping up their stories for ratings. I saw promos on two of the stations for Sunday stories. KWCH is promoting a story entitled, "DNA of an Athlete." Apparently its about a company which says it can tell through DNA which sports a child will be successful at. Meanwhile, KSN interviewed Defense Secretary Robert Gates about his Kansas roots. Although the KWCH topic intrigues me I am more interested to see the piece on Gates. However, considering demos and how many parents want their kids to succeed at athletics, I could see more people would be interested in the DNA of an Athlete. It will be interesting to watch and see which one is better.
KWCH certainly started the book out with a bang or should I say without a claw. The story entitled, "The Declaw Debate," was actually produced and edited fine, but its a goofy topic and I think in someways shows proof of the dumbing down of news. Ironically I am sure it takes quite a bit of thinking to dream a story like that up and even more so to make it not come off low brow.
The Revolving Door - I have been getting a number of comments about various reporters leaving stations and some of the reasons given are interesting, but I'm not posting those because some of those reasons given would be inflammatory if not true. Also, most of the names given are people about ready to leave, but they haven't yet and still are posted on the stations' web sites. However, here are two mentioned in comments and I haven't seen them on the air and they do not appear on their stations' websites: Anya Sehgal of KWCH and Jennifer Bocchieri of KAKE. -Hal
KWCH certainly started the book out with a bang or should I say without a claw. The story entitled, "The Declaw Debate," was actually produced and edited fine, but its a goofy topic and I think in someways shows proof of the dumbing down of news. Ironically I am sure it takes quite a bit of thinking to dream a story like that up and even more so to make it not come off low brow.
The Revolving Door - I have been getting a number of comments about various reporters leaving stations and some of the reasons given are interesting, but I'm not posting those because some of those reasons given would be inflammatory if not true. Also, most of the names given are people about ready to leave, but they haven't yet and still are posted on the stations' web sites. However, here are two mentioned in comments and I haven't seen them on the air and they do not appear on their stations' websites: Anya Sehgal of KWCH and Jennifer Bocchieri of KAKE. -Hal
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
KWCH Promos For Roeder Trial Access
A Judge banned the media on Jan. 11 from portions of jury selection at the Scott Roeder trial. Roeder is accused of killing abortion doctor George Tiller. A day later the Kansas Supreme Court reversed the Judge's ruling after KWCH, The Wichita Eagle, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press petitioned the High Court to reverse the District Judge's ruling. A day later the Judge agreed to open jury selection to those media outlets who petitioned. I think that was the fair and right thing to do. However, in the days that followed, KWCH promoted the fact they were the only Wichita station allowed in the courtroom. The promos bothered me slightly, however I did think that since they were part of the filing to the Supreme Court they ought to get something out of it. The KWCH promo department, it seems, wanted to have more fun than they already were having. In a promo that ran on Tuesday phrases like, "One station stepped in," and "Take a stand for your rights," were used. Give me a break. I bet if it wasn't for the print publications and the AP getting things rolling, KWCH wouldn't have even gotten involved. The promos are over doing something that once the trial starts and testimony gets going, most viewers wont even remember that KWCH was the only TV station present for jury selection. -Hal
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