Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A Nice Trend in Local TV News
The Eagle had the news that KWCH has named assistant news director Chad Cross as news director of the station. I think this marks a nice trend in Wichita TV that in my opinion is refreshing. If I am correct, the current news directors of the three TV news stations all were assistants at those stations before being promoted to the higher role. KAKE news director Dave Grant and recently named KSN news director Jason Kravarik all worked their way up the chains of command at their respective channels. Now at KWCH, Chad Cross who had been assistant has been named news director. I think it is refreshing that at the three stations they picked people from within for those top spots. Its a nice trend that people who have worked in Wichita TV news in other roles are given the chance to lead their operations. I think it is an important time in the TV news industry and the future is unknown, so having people who have experience in this market is a good thing for their employees and hopefully for us viewers as well. -Hal
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
18 comments:
Not sure I know the new ND at KWCH but I agree this is a trend that is long over due. For years excellent, experienced, qualified people who know the uniqueness of this market and it's audience have been passed over. I'm NOT saying some of the out-of-market hires were bad choices but in most cases the in-house candidates weren't even being seriously considered. Congrats to the local hires. Now go make us all proud... proud of the decision... and proud to be journalists again!
Sorry I fell into a coma watching KSN tonight. What were we talking about?
anon 9:46 what does that mean?
Anon 9:46, thanks for watching KSN. Hopefully you enjoyed the special on the Shocker player who overcame a hand injury to make it to the Cubs, or the one on the state rep calling for an investigation of the DA's office, or any of the other valid specials the journalists at KSN are working on while you sit here thinking of pithy comments to hide your insecurity.
Can anyone justify KAKE leading with a wedding moved from Texas to Wichita because of a hurricane? The economy is about to collapse, there's a presidential election and they lead with a wedding. WTF?
To the person who has sent posts about Kansas Now 22, enlighten me. I am intrigued because I honestly had not heard about this outside of your posts. -Hal
Probably isn't a lead but KWCH had wedding pkg too. Seems like it must have been a slow local news day on the whole. There's only so many times you can beat the election and bail out stuff on a local level (especially when the bail out had been stalled). I wouldn't get too worked up over the story selection especially for a saturday night (and kake didn't even go on until almost 11:00 anyway.)
Hal,
Basically it has been announced that come January 1st, Kansas Now 22 becomes the property of KSN. Thanks to a new cable deal with Cox involving digital programming and contracts, one of the things KSN lobbied for (and won) is the rights to Ch. 22.
They don't plan to re-invent the wheel, but there will be a different format and it will push more sports than weather or news.
Last I heard, my source at the station says not many other have been announced, but the GM of KSN and the Program Manager of Cox are getting the fine details ironed out. January 1st is the target date though, so keep your eyes peeled.
As to why they wanted 22, the rumor is because it will give them another outlet to push their product and overtake KAKE as the number 2 station. I don't think that will happen, but it is a downer for 10 to lose the channel. Yet, I hear that 10 didn't put up much of a fight. It's actually a burden to hassle with ch 22, so KSN will soon find that out.
The other thing I heard is that once the NBC/Weather Channel deal is complete, there will be more WC programming up for grabs and KSN wants a station to put it on and then sell advertising for it. Basically, KSN wants to try and turn ch 22 into a cash cow. I wish them luck with that!
Does that clear it up, Hal? If I hear anymore, you can bet I will share it with you. I know there are people who are really upset about this and others who couldn't be happier that Ch 22 is changing hands.
Oh quite being such a scrooge. The couple lost everything they had in the hurricane. it's not as fluffy as it seems...they just are finding a bright spot and wichita helped.
KSN originally negotiated to do Kansas Now 22, but Cox was charging way too much for what you get out of it. Obviously, things have changed in the past couple of years.
Actually the bailout and the economy are THE STORY right now. The wedding story pkg, which aired only on KWCH's FOX newscast, was a good story but never, never a lead. Well maybe in market 150.
It's a fluff story and the person on here defending it as a lead was probably the one who put it as a lead.
You are right... the bailout and economy is THE STORY.... that EVERYONE has been covering. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC have covered it to death. Good job to the producer who decided to not to force some lame localized angle which has been done ad nausem.
I'm glad anon 945 is not my producer.
Could we try to stay on topic...and not argue about how a show was stacked...again.
A lead is an important story. A stupid wedding, sorry but it was, is not an important story. It does not impact anyone outside of a handful of people. There are plenty of local angles to do on the economy imploding. Go back to J-School you hack.
Economic collapse, minor deal, Dow only down more than 730 points Monday. No lets lead with a wedding, a wedding! It seems in addition to turning out the lights to save money, they fired anyone with any news judgement over at KAKE.
BTW: Anon 725 is either the producer who made that stupid call or the reporter who did the feature, fluff story.
I liked Stephanie Bergmann's story last ngiht about that hunter kid that got killed... that roadhunter is an idiot...
Perhaps my info is wrong, but does anyone find it interesting, even risky, that two newsrooms in town are run by people who are barely in their 30s? I just question what kind of knowledge they can bring to the table, when many people on their staffs have the same amount or more experience than they do.
Experience does not necessarily mean that a newscast will work better. The young guys out there have fresh ideas. The older folks while they CAN have ideas are more reluctant to change.
Post a Comment