Monday, January 13, 2014

Paulsen at KTVU Is a Star; Changes Coming at KRON; KNTV Olympics Questions; Christin Ayers Shines on KPIX; KGO-TV's Sponsored Sports Segments; Larry Beil Is God?; Monday Media Starter

 Bill Martin is very good on KTVU weather. Steve Paulsen is an emerging network star.

I used to think the "MO2" weather guy was too slick. Turns out he's just easy with the words and almost looks as if he can do his thing with his eyes closed.

Oh, by the way, Tamayo is pretty decent himself.

*I've grown accustomed to getting ripped for trying to figure out why some of you are so enamoured with Kate Scott. Educate me.

*If I'm hearing right from those in the know, many changes are in store at KRON and no, it's not a coincidence that all this talk comes conveniently after the departure of Brian Greif, the ex-GM who left for health issues with his back. KRON staffers, most notably the senior staff still working at 1001 Van Ness complain of bitter management battles with an out-of-control news director and his haughty assistant, the Marie Antoinette in pumps. Like a few of the natives have said, the party's over.

*Big dilemma at KNTV in San Jose, (NBC Bay Area)--a traditional, dependable franchise like the Olympics makes for great ways to attract local viewers, send a crew to the location and build up a chunk full of local ad buys. But this Olympics might be a game-changer in a negative way for many NBC O and O's and affiliates alike with Sochi, Russia as this year's site of the Winter Games set to begin February 7. So far, all anyone has heard about the site is the possibility of terrorism, NBC's back-up plan in case trouble breaks out and how terribly difficult it is to get to Sochi. Once the games actually begin, people are going to watch no matter what, after all, it still IS, the Olympics, the question is, given the uncertainties, the lack of US star power, will this be one of the least-watched Olympics ever? No word, yet, whether KNTV plans to send one of its stars to Sochi but I'd bet the answer would be yes. Probably Raj Mathai.

*Speaking of potential stars, KPIX' Eastbay reporter, Christin Ayers, has all the makings of an emerging personality over there at PIX, if only they allow her to show her reporting wares. She has been featured in big news events--the BART quagmire, the new Bay Bridge opening and its safety issues, but all too often she suddenly disappears and is nowhere to be seen. Ayers has a cool demeanor about herself and is a refreshing presence on the screen. She's also built up a vast reservoir of good sources in Oakland. We hope to see more of her.

*Over at KGO-TV, during sports segments, the anchors frequently are saying, "this video is 'provided by the Warriors," --what's up with that? Bad enough that every sports report now has an announced hardware sponsor. I get the fact that revenue streams are being reduced and the chance to make a buck is inevitable but frankly, it looks tacky. KRON's sports segments are also announced-sponsored.

*Setting the record straight: Larry Beil is a fine, good, talented anchor that does a professional job on his news and sports presentation. It's his holier-than-thou persona that rankles me and a few of his co-workers, one of which cannot stand him. Beil can sometimes give off the appearance that he's performing brain surgery while the rest of us shlumps are merely having our toenails cut. It's a perception, Larry, but it has merit.

*In case you're interested, I'll be filling in tomorrow, (Tuesday), from Noon-2 PM on KSCO Radio, (following Rush). To listen, simply click on the website and go to the streaming audio link and click it to listen.  Suffice to say, we have a lot to talk about and I'll address a few noteworthy things and concentrate on the usual newsy matter.

*If Chris Christie eventually gets swallowed by his political Bridgegate he can always depend on a lucrative gig with one of the cable outlets where he can really be Mr. Joe Sixpack and dish. Hey, CNN, are you hearing me?

*Those dustups at local saloons involving a few of our beloved media mavens here have been documented and confirmed by eyewitness accounts so to a few of the station PR assistants who have chided me on my gossip, no, you get it straight--I'll do my thing.

*Here's how bad morning radio is in SF: I tuned into 960 AM "The Patriot" and began listening to Glenn Beck.

*"Best Damn Morning Show", really, KSFO, says who? The Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce?

*Internet "comments" and commenters: the people who think "Wheel of Fortune" is appointment TV.

*Follow me on Twitter 


*Tips/E-mail: Rich.Lieberman@Gmail.com

*Donations to 415 Media: Click on the Paypal site in the upper right on the blog. Donations are appreciated and encouraged.


Rich Lieberman
415 Media
Monday Notes

42 comments:

  1. The best dammed morning show on ksfo and the best dammed food segment with Ryan Scott. Really creative stuff going on over there.

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    1. Unfortunately the lion's share of KSFO is dedicated to some right-wing religion, the "We hate the president" cult of creeps.
      Ridiculous.

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  2. Don't forget the best damn sports show, period.

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  3. Shows how unobservant you are of this beat that's supposed to be yours. If you watch Bill Martin and compare his forecasts to anyone else's, he's frequently the most off, the most inaccurate. For example, if rain's coming and he says Thursday and everyone else says Wednesday, and he says a lot in the North Bay and little south and everyone else says a lot south and little in the North Bay, you can bet the rain will come Wednesday, with lots in the south. Yes, I write down the forecasts several days out and rate them for accuracy, and he's always the least accurate. (Both KRON and KGO seem to fare best, though the newspaper, which has the earliest deadlines and cannot update them as rapidly as live TV, is ironically the most accurate of all, for reasons that are pretty easy to figure out, actually.) I don't know how a man can be so consistently wrong and yet keep his job.

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    1. He's probably busy working on his beer keg or whatever beer he was talking about that week on KNBR with Tom Tolbert. I understand what you're saying but to be honest I have NEVER had an accurate weather report from local television, radio, even the weather channel. Whatever they say is going to happen seems to never happen in my area of the South Bay. I treat weather reports in the media more like advisories.

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    2. Well, I didn't see any of them predict the wind storms that buffetted the bay and shattered one of my skylight windows this morning.

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    3. Try noaa.gov/weather if you really care.

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  4. KNTV 's Terry Mc Sweeny should anchor all the news casts - from 4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.........

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  5. Agreed on Steve Paulson. We've watched him since his days at KFTY. He doesn't just parrot the National Weather Service. Steve is willing to go out on a limb in his forecast. He does his own work, and often disagrees with Billy Martin. He assumes the viewer is intelligent enough to understand when he explains the reasons behind the weather. Steve is the only reason we put up with Goofy Dave in the morning.

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  6. You just can't let it go, can you Rich? You do a halfway decent job on today's blog, though practically word-for-word from other posts seen this past weekend. Then, you have to get your digs in about internet commenters and Wheel of Fortune being appointment TV.

    Same analogy: Your blog, with your shitty attitude, still, is closer to "Jeopardy" than downgrading everyone else. "Jeopardy" not for brilliance, but how you are in it as the donations dry up and people tune you out. You're not even funny anymore.

    Good luck on that two-hour cluster f@ck coming up tomorrow. Any differences coming? I doubt it.

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    1. Why do you even come here if you dislike the content and the host so much? You seem infatuated with Rich. Turn off the computer or go back to your daily readings at the Huffington Post.

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    2. I, for one, am looking forward to Rich's show tomorrow. Not sure why Anon11:34 needs to have such a shitty attitude on a gorgeous day.

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    3. Because the person likes to read you sucking up to Rich's long proven mediocrity, and Julie, you're a twit, goregeous day or not. You sound like a lib-tard. Enjoy your sugar plum world, biatch.

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    4. Real Big Man, going by the name Anonymous, got his whities all twisted up and blurted out like a rubber fog horn, "your shitty attitude..." etc etc.

      If your so wonderful, then why do you hide behind anonymity like a little girly-man? Well? Tell us.

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  7. Love Steve Paulson and Ken Bastida, too! Loved David Jackson from the mid 80s. Think he went to Los Angeles market...

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  8. I am just ticked to death b/c we now have Tom Sullivan back on 960 at 7pm. Yippee. I have to decide though, should I listen to Tom or keep it on 910am to hear Alex Coombs get verbally smacked around by some of his callers. One other thing, how long do voice over contracts typically last for radio ads? 3 or 4 months? I ask because I want to know how much longer I have to endure that loud harsh young lady raving about True-Car services? She pronounces car as "Coe-oo-err". Her enthusiasm sounds as though she is arguing in a defensive manner.

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    1. I HATE THOSE GODDAM ADS, and that loud mouth obnoxious cartoon character that does the voice. Everytime I hear it coming on , I lunge for the tuner to get it away from my hearing.
      If I am ever introduced to that woman, I promise to bitch slap her all the way to Wednesday morning.

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  9. Where is Roberta ...haven't seen her around....

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  10. Rich, Totally agree with you on Channel 5's Christine Ayers but did you know since the late, great Faith Fancher passed away back in 2003, Channel 2 still, to this day, has not hired an African-American Female Reporter to replace her.

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    1. Never thought about that. Good point.

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    2. Tracey Mittchell and Sara Sidner, but both too smart and talented to stick around to see a place run into the ground by morons like Jeff Bloch, Tom Raponi on the gm side, and "special Ed" from the news department side. They both took their under appreciated talent and brains elsewhere. KTVU knows all it has to do is hire newer versions of Haener to read the prompter in studio to hold whatever chunk of the demographic that still actually watches local news.

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    3. How many of the reporters on KTVU has the station actually hired? The M-F daytime crew are full time, but so many others are freelancers. They are part time with no benefits or job security but they are under contract not to appear as a freelancer on any other station in the area.

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  11. Rich - Any chance you will be doing a daily show this year? I would love to see you take down Levin!

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    1. Concentrating on a weekend show, (Sat/Sun) on media --details will follow eventually.

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    2. Haven't we heard this before?

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    3. Yeah, but this time he's serious!

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  12. Rich every few days you report "Changes coming to (fill in the blank)".
    Thank you Captain Obvious.
    Question for you: What local news/entertainment outlet will not have any changes soon?

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    1. Someone sent an e-mail. A person who has some knowledge and since the GM has left, this has some teeth to it, that's all. We should see in the coming days.

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  13. Rich, you like beautiful amazonian-type women don't you? There's this 27 year old gal who calls herself 'Isis the Amazon' who is a pro wrestler. She's 6'9" about 250 pounds, strong as an ox, and drop-dead gorgeous. Google her and tell us what you think!

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  14. Rich, was the "provided by the Warriors" video actually video OF the Warriors game? If so, KGO is giving disclosure that an agency other than KGO or its ABC network and affiliate family was responsible for the content.

    Portions of "hand-out tapes" were often used by stations without credit until about ten years ago, when some innocuous pictures from a video news release were used in a local station reporter's package. For some reason, that particular incident caused a big stink. For a while, stations were slapping "Courtesy of..." banners on just about everything.

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    1. No game video.

      Player/coach actuality.

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    2. Me again. Absolutely sounds like a hand out. The worst kind. An "actuality" shot and selected to promote self-interest but looking and sounding like a real news bite. If so, KGO should not have used it. Calling it "provided by" may get them off the hook on an ethical technicality, but since there clearly was confusion about the use of the phrase, it was a meaningless cover.

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    3. Have to agree with 4:51 that it was likely "handout" video, and that it was KGO's way of "full disclosure" for using it on-the-air. What KGO, and any other news organization, should be going after is why the coach/players won't talk directly to their personnel and answer (or side-step) direct, tough questions. Too many deals being done to get extra revenue that is challenging the ethical foundation of news outlets.

      Every autumn, the armed forces' television unit records messages from soliders/personnel around the world that are played back on local stations, and typically packaged as "sales promotions" for selected advertisers to hang their hat on. But it's really the same, someone else doing the job that news organizations should be doing. Would any of the armed forces' branches allow local TV stations to say "Happy Holidays" to their families back home if they showed up in Afghanistan or South Korea with a camera? Or how about an independent service that did the interviews, would stations also add a disclaimer?

      YouTube videos are much the same, though many are used as "breaking news" excuses to get around any copyright issues. Yes, some are the so-called "viral" videos that are shared with viewers as such.

      Bottom line, as long as a news organization says/visually shows where the video is from, does it really make any enormous difference it today's competitive coverage? Not for me to decide, just thought I'd raise the question, since it comes with a lot of complicated answers.

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    4. Let me clear this up. The Warriors shoot player interviews after practice almost on a daily basis. They then email media members clips of the interviews to download and use for air. If you aren't Comcast who dedicates a camera and Monte Poole to cover the team, this service from the Warriors can be invaluable for sports producers. Especially these days when it gets increasingly difficult to secure a photographer day-in-and-day-out.

      Credit/courtesy is given to the Warriors for providing the video. I don't see why this is a big deal to you Rich?

      Plus, you are waaaaay off-base on Larry Beil. What did he do to you? Was it that little Twitter beef you guys got into when you accused him of union busting during the BART strike just because he works for Disney?

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    5. I said my peace about LB.

      The video feeds, I'm annoyed --not outraged. I know the reality about budgets these days but it just sounds weird.

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  15. I think what people don't understand when it comes to Kate Scott is that they are not reacting to her as much as they are reacting to Gary getting poked. This is not a put down of Kate, but Gary is basically using her as a prop where he plays the blustery radio personality who occasionally gets his comeuppance.. Gary is smart enough to know that people love this and it's obviously all shtick because he always plays his part with "a twinkle in his eye." Besides, if Gary was as arrogant as his critics believe him to be, he wound not even allow Kate on air. I guess what I'm saying is that Kate is not on because she is some transcendent talent; she is just part of Gary's act. I wonder if Kate even realizes this.

    As for her future, what is there other than snark? Without Gary to mock, Kate is pretty unremarkable - just a fan with little personality and a boatload of obvious sports takes. After all, she doesn't really add anything to Murph & Murph and that's saying a lot. A final thought: You could always tell Ray would be able to make the jump to host because he could hang with Gary as equals. I think Kate like Dibley are/were nothing more than props doomed to a life of updates and traffic reports.

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    1. Ray, as in Woodson? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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  16. You are making a claim that Kate lacks something but overlooking the fact that there might be more to see/hear if not for her limited/limiting role. Presumptuous.

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  17. If KS was any good? she cannot get a job with CSN Bay Area who have have the likes of erin coscarelli and fallon smith?

    Wish it was just the two Radnich and Kreiuger 3 people trying to speak at once is horriable radio.

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  18. Poor Rich... still censoring those comments I see. I put my name on all my comments and none have been derogatory. I guess it's simply a case of not being able to handle the truth?

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    1. Exactly, Lieberman's highly selective censoring engenders lots of ill will among his readers. Makes it obvious he's pretending to be someone he's not.

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  19. The fact that KNBR hires no talent hacks such as Kate Scott, the 'Game' pulls nitwits like 'Guru' literally off the street and give them on-air jobs, and Comcast sport bay area hires girls who look and sound as if they're still in high school, (fallon smith and erin coscerelli) shows you how far the local media has fallen. Zero credibility. It's amazing that this is happening. Can you imagine if the medical or legal professions hired rank amateurs? But no one out there seems to care or really notice that broadcasting is being taken over by a bunch of inexperienced, egotistical jerks. The companies that hire them pay them peanuts, so I guess that's why they do it. And as long as you have the mega-media companies such as Cumullus, Entercom and Comcast around, this trend will continue. Very sad!

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