Tuesday, January 8, 2013

About KTVU; KPIX and Me; Tuesday Starter


When I think of Channel 2, (KTVU), I think of a dominant local TV outlet that has been the envy of not only industry people here, but nationally too.

I think of a TV station that had built its brand on consistency; a station whose news division has produced some of the finest reporters and TV anchors in the business. A station, up until of late, that has seen very little turnover amongst its rank and file; a station that has churned out some of the very best news directors, (Fred Zhender, to name one), ever. It doesn't stop there: the writers, the assignment editors, the producers, the people behind the scenes very few of you get to know.

With time comes change. Change is inevitable. KTVU is still the gold standard in the Bay Area, particularly at 10 O'clock. Still too, it has some of the finest people working in all platforms: news, sports, traffic, weather and all. It's very rare that so many of its core talent, (like Frank Somerville, Mark Ibanez, Rita Williams, Tom Vacar, Ken Wayne, etc), are still churning out quality work.

We hope the recent changes, including the very latest one, (News Director, Ed Chapuis leaving), will not impede the success of one of the finest TV news-gathering outlets in the Bay Area and beyond.


*Memo to KPIX PR Dept: If you're going to begin disallowing air talent to do interviews with me on my radio show, you're only hurting yourself, not me. And besides, it's not me that looks bad here, it's you. Moreover, the fact that you're going down that road, (quietly), suggests a mild case of paranoia. It's not me you have to worry about and frankly, I don't need your staffers on my show or this site. Some of them provide me with the information, unsolicited, that suggests you guys have issues. No big deal, we all do. But to begin to tell people not to do my show doesn't hurt me and makes you all look pretty lame. Parenthetically, I may add, some of my best guests have been people I've ripped, (civilly and jokingly), in the past. They know how to play the game. You guys at PIX, maybe change your thinking, but thanks for giving me an item.

*Follow me on Twitter and listen to me Monday-Friday from 1-4 PM PT, live, on KOMY and its streaming audio site on the World Wide Web.




5 comments:

  1. Interesting Rich,that one of your links to a story..also led to a story of a Anchor being fired because she responded-VERY politely to a racist post on her Facebook that the stations Christmas kids were all "people of color".
    Turns out,ALL the media corporations have rules-no,POLICY,that "talents" are NEVER to answer any public criticism. She did,they fired her.
    So,I guess who is not allowed on your show..is that type of hardline propaganda machine.
    S

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  2. With a new news director, does this mean we don't have to listen to "Thank you for trusting us" when they sign off at the end of the broadcast? Just because I might listen to the news at 10 doesn't have anything to do with trusting them. My decision to listen isn't based on trusting them (more than I might trust some other channel); it's all there is that's local at 10pm.

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  3. I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Cohen does not respect Mr. Lieberman's work. It's strange to read the 9:38 comment after remembering that Rich has praised all kinds of PIX staffers, including Ms. Gonzales among others. I hope there will be a meeting of the roots here. Bruno & Rich need to bury whatever hatchet exists.

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  4. Lieberman is a broadcast fraud. A "poser". Dishes the "dirt" but is too thin skinned to take it from others.

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  5. That's because Ms. Gonzales is Rich's narc inside the KPIX newsroom.

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