Today is the start not just of November but of sweeps, the first big test of the season for Kansas City's four TV news stations. And it comes at a rare time, when all four are going through major upheavals behind the scenes.
Two stations have a new news director, another lost its news director less than a month ago, and the fourth station is up for sale, with a buyer expected any day now.
Change backstage usually means change onstage, and we're starting to see that, too.
KCTV-5
When Tracy Miller stepped into the newsroom of KCTV for the first time earlier this year, she found an outfit of dedicated reporters working diligently on some low-rent stories.
Conditioned by their hard-charging former news director Regent Ducas, the Fivers were live and late-breaking with whatever was popping up on the police scanner 15 minutes before air.
“There were a lot of petty crime stories that I felt we didn't need to have a reporter on,” said Miller, who has brought an upbeat, energetic presence to the newsroom. “I thought we could still do our brand and be more sophisticated about it.”
Do our brand -- in other words, KCTV-5 naysayers, “Live, Late Breaking, Investigative” isn't going anywhere. But, “live news doesn't have to be about just crime,” said Miller. “Let's say a coach resigned. If it just happened, it's live and late-breaking.”
Especially on its earlier newscasts, KCTV-5 news shouldn't look like “America's Most Wanted,” said Miller. “I noticed sometimes we'd do mug shot after mug shot. One time it went on for like, five minutes.” She's hired a new executive producer, LaShauna Sewell, from the Fox station in Houston, to help morning news dial back on the sensationalism while staying just as newsy.
As for investigative, Miller said she held back stories that normally would have run during premiere week in September “to give the guys a chance to do some digging.” She's promising stories that pack a wallop starting tonight.
And weather? Well, Miller had Katie Horner on for two hours straight the other week, when tornadoes grazed the viewing area, so she's doing that brand, too.
“I grew up in Oklahoma,” said Miller, “so the tornadoes were like, 'Welcome back to the Midwest!'”
NBC Action News
Rick Iler also liked what he saw when he arrived at the KSHB studios seven weeks ago as its news director. Debbie Bush, who left to run a station in Indiana, brought stability to the newsroom as well as a co-anchor for Elizabeth Alex, a news chopper, a sports show on “38 the Spot” and the late-morning “Kansas City Live.”
“This was really a strong newsroom that did a good job,” said Iler, a 21-year veteran of the news business. “But the energy level has been raised just in the time I was here.”
That's a positive way of stating a negative. During NBC's heyday in the late 1990s, it seemed KSHB could never convince many “ER” and “Law & Order” viewers to stick around for news. In recent years, as “NBC Action News” improved, the network's ratings tanked. It was deflating.
Iler, who came from a CBS affiliate in Phoenix, knows that TV is a cyclical business. At some point CBS will start to fade and NBC will be on the rise. To prepare for that day, he's tweaking KSHB's on-air presentation. More reporters walking and talking. More Q-and-A between the anchor desk and the people in the field.
“When we tell stories, we should have a conversation with our audience,” said Iler.
And he too is promising less crime coverage -- it's a trend!
“This is an extremely crime-driven television market,” Iler said. “We get too caught up covering the blotter. We've backed off the crime and I think that's already having an impact on Mark (Clegg) and Elizabeth's energy.”
Iler also has high hopes for his new wakeup crew (native Kansan Christa Dubill recently joined Jeff Vaughn and Brett Anthony). “Mornings are the big game now and we're going to be players,” he said.
KMBC-9
What hasn't changed at KMBC? New ZIP code, new high-definition cameras, new guy in the mornings, and a new sense of urgency, as the station's news director just quit under pressure.
It's not just the humans that are stressing. “In the middle of a newscast, one of our robotic cameras just decided to go for a walk in the studio,” said general manager C. Wayne Godsey. “But it's the same as any manufacturing business. You move into a new factory and things don't always work the way they should.”
According to Godsey, KMBC's number one goal this month will be to solve those technical glitches.
Fox 4
Viewers may have noticed that Fox 4's new on-screen graphics have a certain familiar look to them. That's because they're modeled on the graphics that Fox News Channel has been using for years, and all the stations owned by Fox are switching to them. Which is ironic in WDAF's case, because Fox is about to sell the station, probably to a private-equity group.
But orders are orders, and news director Bryan McGruder is a Fox man until told otherwise.
The big change in November will be on Fox 4's top-rated morning news program, as Sharita Hutton steps in for departed reporter Ken Price. Taking her place on the weekend newscasts this month is Kim Byrnes, who used to be weekend anchor before moving to part-time status.
KCTV5 has a News Anchor/Reporter Job open and News in HD sometime next year.
KSHB News in HD Spring or Summer 08.
Theirs no new guy in the Mornings on KMBC it's just Kris Ketz their know and other changes happened their to.
All Local Channels have new Evening News Anchor Promo's.
Posted by: Matt Galvin | November 01, 2007 at 05:39 PM
So you know Aaron and others Hutton is only on in the Mornings for November and be back on Weekends after that because that what she told me in a Email.
Posted by: Matt Galvin | November 05, 2007 at 05:35 PM