Well, KMBC-9 may be having problems, but getting people to watch its newscasts is not one of them. Buoyed by excellent ratings for ABC, KMBC walked off with wins in practically every time period in November (as it so helpfully illustrated in the above chart handed out to press and advertisers). When the book comes out in a couple of weeks and augments these household ratings with demographic data, KMBC should look even better.
Right behind it was KCTV-5, which has become a contender in the mornings, did extremely well with its 4 p.m. news and is the only station in town about which I have not heard any layoff rumors. Of course, it's possible that all the rumors are false for now -- as one executive at another station told me, "The company's already written off 2008" -- but what's undeniable is that for all the drama it throws into its newscasts, KCTV suddenly is the stable one behind the scenes. Its newsroom seems to be firing on all cylinders, while corporate parent Meredith is one of the very few media companies whose stock isn't in the toilet. Kirk Black, the general manager, even got a promotion: He's overseeing Meredith stations in Portland and Vegas as well as the two he's got here.
The story at KSHB is more of a mixed bag, though no one's denying the quality of the product -- it took home two of the biggest awards at this fall's regional Emmys, besting all local and St. Louis competition. No thanks to crummy NBC programming in prime time, "NBC Action News" was hammered in the evenings and then again in the mornings, when people tend to watch whatever station they were tuned to the night before. The bright spot for 41 was 11 a..m., where KSHB launched a new newscast with Christa Dubill and Jeff Vaughn. The dark spot was mornings, where the same team were practically invisible from 5 to 7 a.m.
And then there's Fox 4. WDAF was flat or off in every single newscast, including mornings, where it ceded the top spot from 6 to 7 a.m. to KMBC. I'll bet everyone there this morning was wondering why the hell Fox waited until December to air that trashy "Secret Millionaire," which had audience builder written all over it.
Here's your snapshot of the November household ratings, using numbers supplied by KCTV that I checked against KMBC's data -- if I have anything wrong here, let me know. Also, bear in mind that the 20-day Nielsen report excludes Sunday and includes Friday, when it should be the other way around.
You can click either of the charts above to see them larger and less fuzzy.
OK, enough about the ratings -- how was the journalism? "NBC Action News" reporter Russ Ptacek had the most hair-raising story, about hundreds of cadavers from the KU Medical Center that were put to unknown (and possibly unsavory) uses. WDAF stuck to the basics with a series devoted to the latest money-saving tips. My former neighbor, KMBC reporter Dan Weinbaum, got four checks in the mail for $16,000 and then did a surprisingly interesting and useful story about what happened next.
And while all news organizations in town have taken their shots at the new downtown Power & Light District, usually focusing on safety or dress-code issues, KCTV-5 came up with the most compelling critique I've yet seen -- taking video of zealous (and shady) tow-truck operations fleecing careless parkers for hundreds of dollars a pop. One disgusted victim told KCTV's Ash-Har Quraishi, "This is the kind of shenanigans that's going to kill this place." Especially when it's broadcast on the late local news.
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