Channel 5's news director is live, late-breaking ... and outta here

You may not know who Regent Ducas is, but you've almost certainly seen his handiwork.

Whether it was a lurid promo about sex offenders stalking your kids on the Internet, a reporter breathlessly relaying details of a car accident with the urgency of the Hindenburg crash or that men's basketball game you didn't get to see because Katie Horner had weather alerts to pass along to the good people of Chillicothe, almost everyone in the Kansas City area can cite something unforgettable they saw on KCTV-5 in the past five years.

And for that we have Ducas, the station's news director during that time, to credit or blame. When he arrived from Detroit in April 2002, there was already buzz that new KCTV general manager Kirk Black had big changes in store for Kansas City's sleepiest news outfit. Even people inside the station felt change was overdue. What no one but Black expected, though, was the dramatic makeover that upended the KCTV-5 newsroom and made it, for the first time in years, a contender.

Everything, it seemed, changed: The set, the staff, the slogan, the stories and perhaps above all, the swagger of its newscasts can all be traced to the leadership of this onetime sports producer, who's now headed to Big D to work some magic on Dallas' third-place CBS affiliate, KTVT. He leaves after the February book.

  Ducas brought in an experienced producer, Sam Zeff (pictured below), to revive KCTV's investigative unit. With Steve Chamraz and later Ash-har Quraishi leading the charge, the I-team's dynamic, attention-grabbing, pot-stirring reports were the engine of the station's turnaround. In November 2004, KCTV won at 10 p.m. for the first time in a decade, and didn't relinquish that lead for two years.

  Controversy marked every moment of Ducas' watch. He outsourced sports to Time Warner Cable. The University of Kansas Medical Center threatened to ban KCTV from the premises after its reporters broke the taboo of not identifying where victims of gang violence were being treated. Ducas used non-journalists at Perverted-Justice.com to expose Internet predators.

  Each and every time, Ducas nonchalantly dismissed criticism of his actions. His results, he said, speak for themselves. This is the 20th story I've written about KCTV-5 during his tenure. He's never failed to tell me exactly what he thinks, as you'll read in these excerpts from our exit interview.

  Q: Every news station in town covers the stories you cover. Why do you think Steve Kraske and others single out KCTV-5 for blame?

  A: Buzz. I honestly and truly believe that we are not afraid to go after stories that are compelling and engaging, and that people are going to talk about. Once you do something as we did with Internet predator, we're labeled a “sex station.” Well, there's no doubt in my mind every station in town has done an equal number of sex offender stories as we have. Reality is, we did the one everyone is going to talk about and everyone is still talking about four years later. Our production is just so darned good, so awesome.

When we did that taser video (of an Iraq War vet being multiple-shocked by Independence police), no one, I think, can take it to the level -- to have the interest that we have. We live it and we breathe it. Your opinion, Steve's opinion, that's great, but we get a report card every day, and in this market, we get a No. 1 rating most days.

  Q: When were you convinced that interrupting programs for the weather was the right thing to do?

  A: Immediately when we knew that we weren't in the game, weren't a player in that arena. Weather is incredibly important to everyone's life, and it doesn't have to be a tornado coming down the street. It's almost the No.1 thing you want to know every day. We knew we had to build a foundation for us to be the weather leaders, be the most dependable station. We did the right things by pre-empting (shows). Sure, people write. But one positive letter is worth ten negative letters, because it's so easy to just (fire off a negative letter). A couple of times we were the only station on the air when a tornado hit.

 

Q: I distinctly remember, though, one storm where Katie was looking at the map and was warning people about tornadic activity and, it turns out, she'd misread the map. Do you think critics who say, “Go to a crawl, let your weathercaster have some rest,” might have a point?

  A: No, I absolutely don't. The numbers just bear it out. I don't recall Katie misreading tornadic activity. And I know people are passionate when they're missing a program, but we'll continue to do it and be the most dependable station when it comes to that. There may be a doubt whether other stations will be on or not, but without a doubt we'll be on. Now with KSMO, Channel 62, there's an opportunity for the next news director and for Kirk to decide, “Do we stay on 5? Do we move (the weather) to 62? Do we move the program to 62?” I think you'll see more of that in the future.

  Q: What's the one thing you're proudest of in your time here?

  A: The fact that we were able to come into Kansas City and change a market. I was told by a management consultant recently -- he doesn't work for us -- he said, “Rarely can you come into a station and change a market. You've changed the way people do news in Kansas City.” And I mean we, all of us here. News is just so much better, so much better, than it was when I first arrived here, at all the television stations. Competition just makes everybody better. More people are held accountable today than they were. That's a major responsibility of a news department.

  And yet, I still think there is choice for the news consumer. At this meeting you were just at, we were talking about (Thursday's) 10 o'clock news. Viewers can either choose to watch what we've done, about identity theft involving GMAC, which is a huge company with tons of Social Security (numbers) that were just thrown out in a recycle bin …. or they can find out about (KMBC chopper pilot) Johnny Rowlands.

Podcast: Exit interview with Regent Ducas