Greensburg: The Anniversary

This week the stations all tried to do stories remembering the tragedy of the EF5 tornado. I am sure many will argue with me on this statement, but the mighty 3rd place engine, is turning into the engine that could for the Greensburg anniversary. It certainly appears KSN had the best thought out plan ahead of time. The stories which have run all this week looked sharp, production wise and well executed reporter wise. Out of the 3, it seems as if KSN had the best plan and ran with it for this week of the Greensburg Anniversary. KWCH had some nice pieces, but not the production elements of KSN and KAKE appeared like they learned of the anniversary on Wednesday and threw something together for Thursday. KSN ran an hour long special Tonight and I think KWCH has one planned (Update me if this is wrong and if KAKE has anything planned). Going into KSN's Tonight, I thought it might be just a rehash of the nice stories they did throughout the week. That would have been fine television. Instead the first 20 minutes provided nice glimpses of the night and what happened. Surprisingly Dave and Anita were watchable. I was leery about this when the program started, but they kept their personalities in check and did OK. The overall product definitely looked like something you would see on the National level. I'll be watching the coverage of President Bush's visit this weekend, let me know what you think. -Hal

The Attack of the Video Journalist

Thanks to a recent comment saying KAKE will soon hire another video journalist, VJ, one-man band or reporter/photographer. (I would like to know if this replaces a photographer, reporter, both, or adds a staffer.) For those not familiar with the term it essentially means hiring one person to shoot, edit, report and everything else. This has happened for years in smaller markets, and apparently even here for some time. As a previous comment mentioned KAKE has had a history of Larry Hatteberg, Chris Frank and even Alan Shope with sports shoot their own material. I haven't really focused or know what Shope shoots, but Hatteberg's and Frank's stuff are just as good as the others in town. I guess I had heard about them shooting their own stuff, but forgot about it. Now as budgets shrink and the technology gets lighter and cheaper its happening at a faster pace. Recently stations in other towns have announced moves in that direction. A recent comment mentioned how sales staffs are even shooting in other places (is it happening here) and its all part of our YouTube generation. Is it a good thing? No not at all, but will viewers notice? I do not think they will, sadly. We live in a culture of more, more, and more. With that wanting of more, more, and more, the society doesn't care about quality. You can see that with Wal-Mart, many restaurants, other businesses and now I guess with broadcasting. We probably will get all the content we want from shootings, fires, car crashes, a cat stuck in a tree and even the blooper of a 80 year-old falling into their cake for their family birthday party all on-line. Its more content, but not memorable, except the cake on the old man's face, and sadly probably the industry. Sure there will be the comment to the dinosaurs who have to get over the old days and move to change, but you have to realize we are moving in this direction not for quality, but simply economics. -Hal

Update: Please vote in the Poll on the right as to when or if you think the majority of reporters in Wichita will be one-man bands. -Hal

Sweeps Has Began

Lets get off of the topic that seemed to develop from the comments of who has the better Sunday sports show, to the first day of Sweeps. All three stations had what seemed to be special stories for the day. KAKE hoards the "Skinny on Diets," KWCH tabulates the cost of murder and in one of the better promos KSN explored the dismissal of an employee at Exploration Place. Before I get to the stories, I liked how on KWCH and KAKE's websites you could watch and read previews of their stories. Although it was a nice promo on TV, KSN had no mention on the web site. All three need to stop acting like they care about the internet and ACTUALLY DO something INNOVATIVE online to compliment these stories.
KAKE's piece clearly was one which would draw viewers, but did nothing else. Rachel Phillips' story was a complete waste of time and that was clear by watching the promos. KWCH's was good and provided some interesting info on the multimillion dollar cost of a murder than multiplied by city and state numbers. If the personal and emotional loss isn't enough, the piece puts it in a different perspective in monetary value. Reporter Michael Schwanke got cutesy with an on camera appearance with coins in a jar. I thought the piece of the night was by KSN's Josh Wittsman on a lady who claims harassment from Exploration Place which led to her job being eliminated at one point. A lot of documents and an in-depth feel made this the piece of the night. I would think when the ratings period is over, this will probably be one of KSN's better ones. -Hal

Sweeps Woody

I write this a couple of times of year, but here it goes again. Its time for all the scary music and goofy stories. Its time for the ole ratings time known as Sweeps. I am not sure when it begins this time around. May's usually begins then or a few days before, but I hear it may be a little sooner, according to an LA paper. Have fun and enjoy the stories, whenever it begins. We'll tell by the promos and gimmicks which make it Sweeps.

Scrap the Breaking News and Go Back to Storytelling

A commenter sent me a great link to a blog from Lost Remote. I have linked to the articles on their site in the past. The blog has a variety of topics, but much of the time details TV and other mediums' ventures to the web and the many issues it raises. In the post entitled "Make Local TV News More Like TV News Again," Cory Bergman writes how TV has stepped up its urgency and speed to offset the frantic pace and schedules of viewers that make up life in these times. Bergman writes the web gives viewers that quick look at the news, so TV is trying to replicate it while losing focus on its strength. That strength is a medium that merges sound and pictures for good storytelling. So could a station abandon the daily house fires, car chases, shootings and just do 3-4 long stories a show? Heck, maybe even do it in the form of only 1-2 newscasts a day, but at least it would separate itself from the web rather than chasing after a technology which it cannot beat. It may not be able to beat it, but TV certainly can do storytelling better. I know this goes against the thinking of many TV news managers who all say, "Web, Web, Web, AND MORE WEB!!!!!!!!" They should think outside of the box. However, a Decade ago thinking about the web was thinking outside the box, now it is common place. You have newspapers and even radio now jumping into the race of video on the web. If you design your broadcast content for the web, while still doing TV, is the content on TV watchable? I say, no and it even speeds up the death of TV news as we know Today, rather than complementing it. Interested in your thoughts. -Hal

Dusting the Blogger Poll off

After about a 5 month absence, I decided to have a poll question. Its located on the right side. I have noticed based on the mapping software the readers of this blog come from all over but I am real interested to see how it looks like readers come from all across the state. Since I've never said much as to my background, other than I was once involved in the media, I ask one simple question. Simply, best describe yourself with one of 4 answers. -Hal

KSN Appeals Million Dollar Verdict

The Wichita Eagle reports that KSN has filed a motion with the Kansas Court of Appeals in its case ordering them to pay $1.1 million to the estate of a man who was revealed as a suspect in the BTK case. -Hal