KTVU's gold-star "10 O'Clock News" is still the envy of Bay Area TV news journalism.
Nearing three-plus years after the retirement of veteran tonsil, Dennis Richmond, the marquee Channel 2 news program continues to lead the pack.
Nobody comes close.
Still guiding the ship is Bay Area native, Frank Somerville, who has maintained the brand in an utterly smooth transition. Julie Haener is a more than capable co-anchor, (she has both journalistic girth and yes, she's a hottie), and both Mark Ibanez, (sports), and Bill Martin, (weather) handle their chores quite nicely--its a smooth operation in Jack London Square.
All this in spite of the overly-massive story counts, the abundance of rancor inside the newsroom where ND, Ed Chapuis, ("Special Ed") has almost everyone on edge. And let us not forget the consultants too. (They won't go away.)
Chapuis' management style pisses off the KTVU rank and file. He's brought in a lot of outside-market reporters that are younger, cheaper, and quite frankly, not in tune with Bay Area viewership. And while KTVU News is by far the best product in the market, the look and edge of its signature show is changing. The emergence of the "Blair Witch Project"-style camera angles for a live-shot; the overly-hyped intro from overly-hyped reporter, and frankly, it's a tad so, well, un-KTVU-like. But it has Special Ed's fingerprints all over it, even so it's there and that's too bad. At least its not as applied as much at 10, but it's quite heady at 5 and 6. Oh well.
10 PM is sacred territory at KTVU and while the boasting is tempered by the fact that no one else is doing news at 10, (locally), the "10 O'Clock News" is still a well-produced, well-choreographed, and highly effective news program that is the lifeblood of KTVU.
Somerville is to be lauded for keeping the engine fresh. Same thing for Haener. And it helps to have great city natives and news reporter veterans like Rita Williams, Tom Vacar, and the Southbay version of the Ever Ready battery, Lloyd LaCuesta.
Bill Martin is a proven steady weather guide and knows how to swiftly predict the coming storm without acting like a buffoon. He's good and seems to get the idea to get in and get out without any real commotion unless a tornado is about to hit Market street.
Mark Ibanez is a 30-plus year veteran in the sports dept. and while he gets a little flack for the "that's the sporting life" ending, Ibanez is cool and adept and can write a mean and effective two minutes. He's also quite popular with the local pro sports minions, which doesn't hurt.
Overall, this is still a first-rate, superb hour news program. Not just the envy of the 415 crowd, but indeed, the entire nation. At one point in the early 2000's, its revenues alone, (the 10 O'Clock News show by itself), accounted for 1% of the entire gross earnings of KTVU's corporate owner, Cox Broadcasting. That's powerful. (And that was told to me by a former Channel 2 staffer).
Can the "10 O'Clock News" sustain itself over time? Absolutely. Even Special Ed can't screw this ship up. We can only hope.
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For once I pretty much agree with your entire post. As well as the fact that Ibanez and Martin are top notch at what they do, Julie Haener is not only a good journalist and VERY easy on the eyes (major crush, yes), she seems like a nice lady too.
ReplyDeleteFrank Sommerville and Julie Haener are up on my least favorite anchors in the Bay Area. I honestly don't think they are close to the pairing of Ken Wayne and Maureen Naylor, who actually fit the mold of what KTVU is known for-No nonsense, give it to me straight. Frank Sommerville is not a bad anchor. I just don't think he has done it for me following Dennis Richmond departure. Julie Haener is just merely a prompter-reader. But, with the usual high ratings the Bay Area has drank the Koolaid.
ReplyDeleteBill Martin is a key bench player. Martin does a semi-weekly guest spot on KNBR 3-7 Weekday slot which is at times offers some classic radio! Thanks for your blog! What happened to Lyle Perry?- KNBR Promotions Director-let go last week.
ReplyDeleteIs it just my faulty memory-or did Julie Haener have a British or Aussie accent when she first came to ch2? I could have sworn its what I heard.
ReplyDeleteAnybody else remember that?
Agree that Maureen Naylor is definitely a great anchor on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe Bill Martin spots on KNBR are fun when I've caught them, and he's the meteorologist on the weeknight broadcasts I prefer to catch.
How often Mr Media can you trudge the same ground?
ReplyDeleteBla Bla Bla Bla. Never before has local television news had so little influence or impact especially on key demographics who simply don't watch.
KTVU providing knee pads these days?
ReplyDeleteTara moriotity is just awful. Her coverage of the snow park raid was one of the WORST things i have ever witnessed. She must have come rrally cheap. Definately not up to ktvu par. Some of the new hirrs work she does not.
ReplyDeleteTo KTVU field reporters: Not every sentence begins with "NOW." Repeat: Not every sentence begins with "NOW."
ReplyDeleteKTVU was so bad tonight. They cut to a live report by Jana and the director stayed on her while she was running and coughing after tear gas was released. In addition, I heard the F bomb twice live on tv and KTVU did not censor it as someone ran behind Jana saying "I can't F_ing breathe" twice. This was during the Occupy Oakland protests live coverage. I also saw a middle finger flashed live on tv and while Frank Somerville was reading, the word "Protester" was misspelled as "Protestor" in the graphic next to his head. Also, if Julie was laid off, which most likely will happen...(look at Leslie, Elaine, etc)...she won't be picked up by other stations.
ReplyDeleteYou jinxed it Rich.... Just as you say how brilliant the Ktvu 10pm newscast is.. They delay the regular scheduled newscast by 25 minutes to stay with "x-factor" even though the fluid situation in Oakland warranted live coverage.... And then when they did finally go on, they had serious audio problems... Not exactly what I expect from the "news leader."
ReplyDeleteYou give a good sense of what we see on the inside. Julie Haener by the way nows exactly what she's talking about and has plenty of input into what we air. She has very solid journalistic chops. Frank is as nice or nicer in person than he appears on air and is the master of the ad lib. Dennis was only capable of reading what you put in front of his nose and was an asshole of a human being, that most of us don't miss at all. Sorry to burst the bubble of all of you who loved him on set. The person who truly makes the Ten O'clock news great is Executive Producer Mike Kelly. His writing, sense of timing, grasp of the situation and just general overall competence makes you want to cheer and go to hell and back again for him. What makes special Ed so pathetic is that you see him stacked up against Mike on a day to day basis and wish Eddy boy would go find himself a nice job in sales or hide out more in his office away from the rest of us. Unlike a lot of sports anchors Mark Ibanez has real gravitas. Watch him sometime when he does a fill-in anchor slot! He's damn good. All of the things about Ken and others are also true. Rita is an award winning journalist and damn can she get a source to talk! The reason there is so much frustration at KTVU is that it is full of such talented people it hurts like hell to see COX doing everything they can to trash our operation.
ReplyDeleteI worked with Frank Somerville for several years and I can agree he is one of the nicest guys in the business... no ego, very friendly, and even nice to the "little people."
ReplyDelete