The Dysfunction that is KPIX; Watts' Leaving Further Muddies 855 Battery; Sweeps Makes It Worse; KCBS Yappers Mary Lee and Hodousek Torture Chamber; Schulman/Chronicle Steal From Me; KTVU's Gomez Non-Street Savvy; Katsuyama Screams at SF Fire Scene; Gonzales and King Factoid; Thursday 415 Media

"THE ONLY FUNCTION HERE IS DYSFUNCTION." That from one of the growing dissatisfied staffers at KPIX --where incoherence and incompetence rules the day.

To emphasize the current disarray, PIX just lost Julie Watts to their CBS counterpart in Sacramento. There are more moves from Pixies on the way, just in time for February Sweeps. How timely.

Watts wasn't one of KPIX's star players but she was big enough to warrant a lot of chatter last (Wednesday) night amongst some of the local CBS' most influential people, both on and off the air. One management figure tried to spin the Watts' move as simply a colleague "not leaving; instead just 'staying in the CBS family in Sacramento'". Yeah right, what a completely, utter sense of bullshit. And that's exactly how it was received by the rank and file.

As I've stated countless times, KPIX has NO IDENTITY. Very little leadership too. Constant conflict is not a help, particularly in the morning. Growing dissatisfaction and lack of morale is PIX's only consistent virtue.  It's a good thing the station is owned by deep pockets CBS but that's hardly a booster inside the building at 855 Battery.

Watts herself was mostly disliked by a majority of the staff --this incident especially but she was high profile enough to garner industry respect and seven Emmys too. Leaving the Bay Area for Sacramento is not that uncommon these days with the locals eyeing its relative affordability especially real estate. That said, Watts decision to leave SF and go up north primarily because she hated PIX' direction and wanted more investigative reporting makes Channel 5 look bad. Looks can be deceiving only in this case it is absolutely true and for PIX, a bad omen. Trust me.

Mary Lee

*This would be real torture: Put KCBS reporter, Carrie Hodousek and morning weather anchor, Mary Lee, in the same room together. The endless shrieking would be unbearable. Lee sounds exactly like Hodousek or is it the other way around? Either way, the shrieking violets cause eternal ear damage.

*Please, I could care less that some nobody on the night shift on KNBR was given a pink slip. I don't listen to that garbage unless there's some CBS Sports Radio content on the air but that too can be painful.

*Memo to Hank Schulman of the Chronicle: It was 415 Media that reported first, this news.

Schulman stealing from me, imagine that. Damn bloggers!

Alyana Gomez

*It was a pleasant sight viewing Alyana Gomez reporting live from the scene of that big fire in SF on Wednesday --too bad Gomez mispronounced several city street names and kept referring to "Geary Street" --locals know it as "Geary Boulevard." Trivial? No, because it's called knowing your geography and city. How damn irritating but that's just me. I would hope and prefer as gorgeous and infinitely watchable Gomez is, it would help if her street savvy were genuine.

*Then there's  Jana Katsuyama on the scene who appeared to think literally screaming and yelling would heighten the story when it was stated from the beginning that no one was hurt or injured or killed, thank god, only buildings were destroyed.

Jana Katsuyama

Katsuyama's loud outbursts did nothing to inform the viewers on KTVU but only reinforces how bad a reporter she is and why KTVU management thinks she's talented is beyond me. Maybe mediocrity rules the day and this is the best they got which apparently it is and gosh does that nauseate me.

*Between the "flipping houses" moron and "Petersen Dean" jerkoff, my has AM Radio become such a mess.

*If Roberta Gonzales truly wanted to come back to KPIX, she could. Her problem, sorta like Dana King, is that both left wanting to pursue their own independence, in King's case, a desire to become an artist; in Roberta's case to become her own broadcast boss. Problem is, both are not earning anywhere near what they got at PIX; not that the money was great but it was far more then they're making now. Yeah, money isn't everything but it's damn near close.

Dana King

415 Media Exclusive: Pete Giddings Reacts to Passing of Van Amburg; 'Nobody Quite Like Him'; 'Consumate Professional'

  JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH PETER GIDDINGS...the KGO-TV meteorologist that worked alongside Van Amburg for nearly 30 years ..and was a part of the "News Scene" team (along with Jerry Jensen and John O'Reilly)

Amburg passed away last Thursday.

Giddings was shaken.

"I'm shocked, " he said. "He was about as good as it gets." "Really, I can't believe he's gone."

"Van was the consummate professional--he was never satisfied with the finished product and always thought there was room for improvement." "I've never met anyone like that."

"He was always looking out for us; (KGO staffers) and was protective of 'us when management tried to intervene. It was that way until the end when he fought hard to become 'Managing Editor." It wasn't about ego; seriously, he was just determined to keep the product looking good and he succeeded."

About his private life:

"If you asked about the boys, that was OK; everyone else, his wife, he was extremely private and would not offer anything; will always respect him for that."

Finally:

"There was no one like Van, no one, and there never will be."

*415 Media Exclusive

Sylvia Chase KRON Experiment Was One Of Bay Area TV's Biggest Blunders

Sylvia Chase had name--BIG name. Like ABC, "20/20" name and big network gusto--and KRON, the old KRON, had plenty of desire and money to shove someone's way to make a splash --too bad it didn't work.


Chase was paid a handsome pile of dough, (close to a million bucks) to become part of the KRON family.


She debuted alongside co-anchor, Jim Paymar after the Super Bowl, 1986. Everything soon went downhill after that. Chase never moved the needle for KRON. In fact, her presence created quite a bit of jealousy and friction among station staffers-- I wonder why. In any event it was one of the biggest blunders in local TV history. And an expensive one at that.





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It's Official: KTVU News Has Been 'Foxified'; Over-Talking, Yappy Anchors Make For Bad TV

 I didn't think it would turn out this way. Boy, was I wrong.

KTVU News has become Foxified. Certifiably.

The look, the feel, the style, you name it, the entire operation. It's a dramatic rebrand of a product that didn't need rebranding; maybe a tweak or two, but whatever is the case the new look and broadcast model is a complete mess.

First, the most glaring: anchors talking with one another. Nobody said it's against the law to speak on TV news. But KTVU's now-frequent uber-banter sounds out of place and forced. It doesn't sound right nor does it look authentic--it's just a cheap reincarnation of Happy Talk and it doesn't work as I noted not too long ago.

Moreover, KTVU's entry into chatter-fest has an artificial, non-genuine feel. You can't simply reinvent the wheel when your trademark, your style; the style that has garnered you national and local acclaim and the envy of the industry has become so noticeably altered. Just because Channel 2 anchors are talking now doesn't enhance the product. Far from it. Viewers are hip too--they see something that looks contrived-- they're going to get the remote.

This new model is probably coming from the new Fox management that took over in October. It didn't take long for the Foxies to begin augmenting their version of what TV news should look like only they, so far, have miscalculated the taste of Bay Area viewers. It's not just the new mucho-yapping, it's, for example, having  anchors have to do shill promos with the TMZ TV Show, which, not coincidently is on KTVU. It's not exactly tacky but it's also not indicative of KTVU's news acumen--again, it's a bad look. And it only figures to get worse which, if you're a Channel 2 viewer used to quality news programming, is a total bummer.

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Former KPIX Sports Anchor Jan Hutchins Enjoying Life In The South Bay

 Jan Hutchins --remember him? The former KPIX sports anchor checks in with a nice spring greeting --he's now living comfortably and CEO of a Social Agenda business in Silicon Valley.


You may recall Hutchins tag line: The Body Is the Temple of the Spirit.


Looks as if life is good.




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Recall Leslie Griffith from KTVU? Quality Anchor Left Business Amid Mysterious Circumstances

 Leslie Griffith left KTVU in 2006, mysteriously I may add, although the story was that she was fed up with the TV News industry and disillusioned by its less-than-journalistic trends. (I wonder how she feels today?)


I liked Griffith even though word was that Dennis Richmond despised her. She had a few personal peccadilloes that we all have but her work for the most part was solid.


There were several issues surrounding Griffith that made the rounds. Most were false. Some were not.


She dated Dave Stewart and Willie McCovey.


Griffith was no-nonsense. She also didn't like to be taken lightly according to those who worked with her and may have been her impetus to leave even though she earned a hefty salary and had three years remaining on her contract.




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KTVU Would Like You To Know There's a Parade Saturday Night In The City In Case You Didn't Hear And It Involves Dragons

 In case you haven't heard, there's a parade in SF tonight.

KTVU has been plugging its Chinese New Year extravaganza --at least 7-8 times on Saturday's night's 5 PM newscast.

Wait, make that 10 times! And we're not even counting the extra live shots this morning on "MO2."

We don't denigrate Channel 2 for pubbing a significant cultural event for the Bay Area.

We wish, however, they were a bit more prudent placing a televised commercial venture of their own into actual news content. I know ethics long ago departed the local TV News handbook.

On the other hand, it could be worse.

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KGO-TV's Noyes 'I-Team' Grunt Work Delivers The Goods Over Overly-Glitzy NBC Bay Area 'Investigative Unit'

 Anybody who comes here knows that I've been a frequent critic of the NBC Bay Area, (KNTV) 'Investigative Unit'. Not the concept mind you; any decent local TV news operation that wants to do some grunt work like making sure politicians and city hall corruption are exposed is a valued commodity.

Except that NBC Bay Area's group--a bloated 18-person staff led by reporter, Tony Kovaleski, hasn't uncovered any ground-breaking stories. Mostly, they've been on the receiving end of a massive, money-laded ad campaign with glossy radio/TV and print packages. Clear style over substance.

ON the other hand, we have the KGO-TV, (ABC7) 'I-Team', headed by Dan Noyes with a staff of one producer. Noyes even shoots his own stories.

Noyes is not flashy nor overly hot-headed although he sure as hell breaks stories and delivers some hard-hitting TV journalism.

In the first week of the on-going November sweeps, I-Team made mincemeat of the much-ballyhooed Investigative Unit. It wasn't even close.

**In the first week of the November book, Noyes I-Team cleaned their clock with exclusives:

 

-          Nadia Lockyer talks about sex and drug scandal that drove her from office
-          Dangers on SF streets for cyclists and how they screw up
-          Plea deal in perhaps the biggest investment fraud in state history
-          Cal binge-drinking soars and strains the county EMS system

Kovaleski uncovered a much-publicized "cancer station" on a local fire department station whose fighters have seen an unusually high amount of cancer cases inflict its officers; good work, but nothing even remotely close to the volume of stories put forth by I-Team.

'Investigate Unit' has great intentions and the bulk of its reporters do good work but from here, it's more glitzy than ritzy.

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So long, Rita Williams: KTVU Veteran Ace Reporter officially retires from Channel 2

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I've talked a lot about Rita Williams, KTVU's tough-as-nails reporter, who retired, officially, from the Oakland Fox affiliate last week, after her announcement last June.
 
Here's a link to her interview with Mike MiBach.

Williams speaks, in her typical unassuming way, about the pratfalls of the business when a broadcast wag asked what she planned on doing "after you turn 40." Williams will turn 66 later this week.

She managed to shine in a business, in her heyday, dominated by white men. She was dogged and persistent, but fair. She was hard on politicians but managed to earn their respect by being firm and tenacious, but polite. Her tireless reporting and pursuit of the story, any story for that matter, was both admired and respected in an industry that has turned away from such passionate style.

Rita didn't have to have the label of "Investigative reporter"--she'd already earned her brand. It's going to be tough to watch the KTVU News without Williams' work on their airwaves.

We wish her a spirited retirement.

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