I'm not a frequent KQED viewer and outside of a few notable local shows, most of their product content comes outside from PBS. All well and good, but the quest for more local programs is on the list of one of the big suits. That would be a welcome development in my view.
*What I like most about Ken Wayne is he's one of the few anchors that doesn't draw attention to himself. The anchor you see on the air is the same guy you see off the air as well. A rare form of un-ego in an ego-minded business. I hope KTVU and he can come to an agreement because the Bay Area needs more good anchors.
*Over at NBC Bay Area, (KNTV), the mood is supposedly mucho-gleeful. The ratings are decent enough and morale, according to a few of the inside workers, has never been better. Helps too that that corporate has more deep, deep, pockets to maintain projects like the "Investigative Unit."
*At KRON, new graphics and a new website. Looks good. And a nice new neater design. Here's hoping that translates in to the newsroom where a few of the quality people have managed to stick around and keep going.
*Unfortunately, as I'm told, stalking is almost a fact of life in TV News departments. And it isn't confined merely to women either but men too. Frightening indeed.
*If you happen to have been out in North Beach the past week, the high-profile loudmouth reporter from one of the Battery St TV machines was at it again shouting a bit too much and making a few bartenders wince. He may want to tone down the act because the owner wasn't exactly thrilled with his antics and besides, his tab wasn't all that spectacular that would allow for such wimpy behavior.
*My repetition vs your repetition dept: KCBS has to find a way to undue its nasty habit of habitually repeating the same story virtually every hour on the hour. This is both lazy and tiresome and quite embarrassing, particularly on the weekend where the same story, same time line can be re-broadcast over 10 times a day. Not becoming of a station that is a Bay Area radio news constant.
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"Unfortunately, as I'm told, stalking is almost a fact of life in TV News departments. And it isn't confined merely to women either but men too. Frightening indeed"
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I have a Henry Tenenbaum tattoo doesn't make me a stalker !
> I'm not a frequent KQED viewer and outside
ReplyDelete> of a few notable local shows, most of their
> product content comes outside from PBS.
> All well and good, but the quest for more local
> programs is on the list of one of the big suits.
> That would be a welcome development in my view.
Rich, can you keep us updated on this? I approached them a couple years ago with a program idea that's a no-brainer and plays into Bay Area interests very widely, and they were enthusiastic. They also told me that at two, they were at their maximum for local programs they could take in, and they advised me to take it to cable, where it would only be dumbed down into reality-TV fodder. I think its home is KQED.
Rich,
ReplyDeleteAny word on if KRON will be taking over the NBC affiliation in the Bay Area as was mentioned months ago? That would change the mood at NBC Bay Area pretty quickly. I for one never watch that channel. I usually end up on KRON or KPIX or even ABC. I just can't get behind the anchors they offer us over at KNTV.
Why would NBC, which OWNS KNTV and has pumped millions of dollars into the operation, affiliate with KRON?
DeleteDitto on Ken Wayne! He's a solid, credible anchor, but I always thought he was one of the best 'live' reporters in the field, who could ad-lib and go with the flow. He added so much to stories just by being a curious observer at the scene. Lots of reporters lack that intuition! Cheers Ken!!!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, your comment about KCBS is right on.
ReplyDeleteSurely the all news station that has won so many awards can do better than this.
KQED is a shell of what it used to be. Far from the "Educational Channel" of the 60's. I mean,"Antique Roadshow" M-F at 8pm? and Ed Sullivan over and over on weekends? Frontline,Nova or Nature are about all they have to show for themselves. And as much as I enjoy "Check Please" for what it is,..its all that's left of the "Newsroom" station? And when other stations are running news,KQED is running Cat in the Hat.
ReplyDeleteKQED really should be ashamed. They have almost no purpose.
"KCBS has to find a way to undue its nasty habit of habitually repeating the same story virtually every hour on the hour. "
ReplyDeleteI beg your pardon, sir. No one, but NO ONE, repeats content better than 95.7 KGMZ. In fact, I believe they invented it.
Re: KCBS repetition - (a) most people don't listen to KCBS for many hours at a time, so some repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing, and (b) it's not like it's materially better at places like KNX 1070 or 1010 WINS.
ReplyDeleteBut, I will acknowledge that the repetition is pretty obnoxious. If I were feeling snarky, I'd say it's because the Chronicle and Merc don't produce that much content, particularly on the weekends, so where would they get most of their material?
Actually, on the weekends, the Chronicle, the Merc, and pretty much all of the other local news sites get a significant portion of their stories from Bay City News, and post them verbatim from that wire feed.
DeleteRICH WROTE: A few of the power players at KQED disagree about the way to go in the future of programming and funding sources according to one of my spies.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a frequent KQED viewer and outside of a few notable local shows, most of their product content comes outside from PBS. All well and good, but the quest for more local programs is on the list of one of the big suits. That would be a welcome development in my view.
MY RESPONSE: Agreed... KQED has long been in need of more local programming. I'm from Chicago, and so am more used to WTTW; for which did a little tech consulting work, many years ago; and to which I continue to send my money, along with WBEZ, Chicaago's NPR station.
And the reasons, in the main, that I've never switched my donations to KQED, even though I've been in the Bay Area since 2000, are because of both the fact that KQED is not as good about local programming (and so seems to squander a lot of money on PBS faire, which I know is expensive... at least if it's broadcast on PBS's national schedule, as opposed to how the smaller PBS stations do it, a week to a month later) as my beloved Chicago stations are; and also -- and mostly -- because KQED is arrogant and doesn't really care about its viewers and what they want.
KQED does not hesitate to torture us with the most obnoxious and long-lasting fund raising style it can muster, and to completely screw-around with the entire schedule during it; and during which fund-raising it also gets lazy and runs the same content on one or more of its secondary digital channels as it runs on its main channel 9, thereby effectively depriving us of at least one, during any given fund-raising-time, entire secondary content source. Who woulda' ever thought that watching the PBS affiliate in Cotati would ever be better than ANY of KQED's channels!
But, in my case, I'm also angry with KQED for removing both "Religion and Ethics News Weekly," followed by "Bill Moyers," every Saturday morning, starting at 7:00 AM, on... wait... was it KQEHDT3? Or was it KQEDDT3? Ugh... I can't even remember, now. It happened about a month ago, and I'm still reeling from it. All I know about it, though, is that the crap KQED put in its place is no longer worth getting-up special on a Saturday morning for.
Worse, when I wrote to KQED about it, it didn't even bother to acknowledge hearing from me, or thanking me for my input, or apologizing for screwing-up how I've started my Saturday mornings for I can't even REMEMBER how long!
WTTW, on the other hand, is a considerably larger station, yet it responds, even if only by boilerplate, to every single email message it receives. Plus, it actually LISTENS to its viewers/subscribers...
...hence the reason it, and not KQED, gets my money! If KQED would like to change that, it knows where to find me.
I won't, of course, hold my breath.
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com