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I would definitely have to say Boston, Seattle, and Dallas-Ft Worth.
In Boston, with the exception of WHDH, there are solid news teams with a serious news focus. I still remember Liz and Jack vs. Natalie and Chet every night.
In Seattle, KING and KOMO have had quality newscasts for decades. Channel 7 excelled in the happy talk format in the 80's, but jumped the shark when they changed their news theme to what amounted to a fanfare. Lately, in the past few years, they've done some excellent severe weather coverage.
In DFW, all the newscasts were serious. It was primarily WFAA's serious newscasts. When I lived there, it was important to have "Texas" in the newscast name...News 4 Texas, Texas News 5, 11 News (The Eye of Texas), and News 8 (The Spirit of Texas).
In Boston, with the exception of WHDH, there are solid news teams with a serious news focus. I still remember Liz and Jack vs. Natalie and Chet every night.
In Seattle, KING and KOMO have had quality newscasts for decades. Channel 7 excelled in the happy talk format in the 80's, but jumped the shark when they changed their news theme to what amounted to a fanfare. Lately, in the past few years, they've done some excellent severe weather coverage.
In DFW, all the newscasts were serious. It was primarily WFAA's serious newscasts. When I lived there, it was important to have "Texas" in the newscast name...News 4 Texas, Texas News 5, 11 News (The Eye of Texas), and News 8 (The Spirit of Texas).
recto101 said:
True, I guess. But the Bay Area has reached a period in which the "oldsters" (i.e: Dave McElhatton, Pete Wilson, Dennis Richmond) have either retired (Richmond) or passed away (the other two). Their replacements (Ken Bastida, Dan Ashley, Frank Somerville) don't have nearly the 'gravitas' of the anchors that they've replaced - but that's not their fault. Given another decade or so each, they'll be 'oldsters' too.
And perhaps this view is a bit sexist. Some of the female anchors (Wendy Tokuda, Cheryl Jennings) have been around for decades now.
Kent said:
A lot of people like Denver's local TV news because it is for many rather laid back such as the lack of "Eyewitness News", the lack of "Action News", little use of the tabolid format and not too mention getting involved with the community in a big way ( KUSA's 9 News is tops in that department ). While there have been "stinkers" such as KMGH some years back having a female anchor wearing cocktail dresses on air and KWGN's recent unsucessful attempt at offering a TV newscasts for the generation Y crowd with "News on the Deuce"....for the most part Denver is pretty vanilla when it comes to their TV news..and a lot of people like that.
Lkeller said:
Does have Bay Area sport many anchors/reporters who are in their early to mid 20's? Reason I ask in yesterday's Denver Post they had done a story about a young man who had just landed a job at Denver's KCNC as a reporter...he had just turned 26. Pretty young to be working at KCNC or in large market like Denver but then again I can remember reading some place in here a while back where the average age of the anchors/reporters in San Diego is 28.
Then again wasn't Jane Pauley and David Letterman both in their late TEENS when they had broke into local Indianapolis television way back in the early 70's?
Dallas-Fort Worth is far and away the best local TV news market in the country. This is due to the fact WFAA created a news operation unlike any other in the country decades ago. They have done network quality stuff forever and all the other stations in the market have had to step up their game to compete. The CBS, Fox and NBC affiiates in the DFW area would be runaway number 1 news stations in any other market based on quality. As it is, they are competitive with WFAA in ratings, but are clearly second-rate to that station in quality.
In my travels, New York is the worst I've ever seen. Los Angeles is not much better. Boston is pretty good though.
In my travels, New York is the worst I've ever seen. Los Angeles is not much better. Boston is pretty good though.
mleach said:
I guess some of the reporters are in their 20s - I'm in my 50s, and I find it hard to tell mid 20s from mid 30s ...they all look young to me. ;D
The trend in the Bay Area has moved away from young anchors, and some of the reporters and anchors - especially at ABC7 - like Don Sanchez, Cheryl Jennings, and Caroline Tyler - have been around for decades. Sanchez was there in the 70s.
Mr. Letterman was actually 22 or 23 when he came on as a pit reporter on ABC's Indy 500 coverage. Jane Pauley was 22, but got a job in Indy right after college.
Our market is like that, too. Many of the anchors have been at the stations for at least ten years, some twenty or more, while the reporters change every 6-18 months. Many of them are on their first or second job.
Our market is like that, too. Many of the anchors have been at the stations for at least ten years, some twenty or more, while the reporters change every 6-18 months. Many of them are on their first or second job.
formeraa said:
Sounds like you lived there when I did. I remember when a friend of mine from Arkansas came down to visit me. When she saw "News 4 Texas" on KDFW, she thought it was the cheesiest thing she'd ever seen. Since they stopped doing it six months to a year later, maybe channel 4 agreed!
I didn't find anything cheesy about it, but I also didn't notice Gary England's accent on KWTV in Oklahoma City until I was out of Texas and Oklahoma for six or seven years!
Kent said:
Some years back the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market did this as in adding "geography" to their promos and news. In their case it was Hampton Roads.
WTKR ( CBS )..."Newschannel 3..Taking action for Hampton Roads"
WSKY ( Ind. )..."channel 4 Hampton Roads"
WAVY ( NBC )..."WAVY NEWS 10..Hampton Roads"
WVEC ( ABC )..."in the spirit of Hampton Roads WVEC presents....."
WVBT ( FOX )..."FOX 43 News Hampton Roads"
WGNT ( CW )..."CW Hampton Roads.."
Yeah kinda cheesy ;D
Since then WAVY and a few other stations there had cut back on well..using Hampton Roads though WVEC still does.
If I remember correctly, WVEC is a Belo station like WFAA. At one time, it seemed like every Belo station was using the "Spirit" slogan. KHOU used it, though I don't remember of it was "The Spirit of Houston" or the "Spirit of Texas," like WFAA. KOTV in Tulsa was always, "Working in the Spirit of Oklahoma" until Belo sold it to Griffin in either '96 or '97. I'm thinking Griffin sacked that branding almost immediately in favor of just "The News on 6."
Locally, I even occasionally hear KMOV use "The Spirit of St. Louis," though I don't recall it ever fitting into the logo as prominently as the various spirit brands on WFAA and KOTV.
Locally, I even occasionally hear KMOV use "The Spirit of St. Louis," though I don't recall it ever fitting into the logo as prominently as the various spirit brands on WFAA and KOTV.
What About Houston Tx, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso. I noticed for the last 10 years we keep hearing about corporate headquarters moving from California to Texas hows the TV market out there. do these markets follow the lines of San Francisco type market or LA. Well San Diego Had to be bad because sometimes the LA Chases end in SD.
WFAA's "Spirit of Texas" package from the 80s was reworked for a local talk radio station here in Northeast Ohio (WNIR/100.1 Kent OH), which had the jingle resung "The Spirit of Akron"... and the station is still running the music as "The Talk of Akron" today.
Seeing YouTube video of the WFAA "Spirit of Texas" news open is a weird, weird experience for a long-time WNIR listener, let me tell you!
North Texas folks wanting a similar weird experience can stream WNIR from its website...
Seeing YouTube video of the WFAA "Spirit of Texas" news open is a weird, weird experience for a long-time WNIR listener, let me tell you!
North Texas folks wanting a similar weird experience can stream WNIR from its website...
Kent said:
Phoenix was similar in the mid-90s around the switches...
3: Arizona's News People and Arizona's News Channel (NewsChannel 3 was their main newscast branding)
5: Relaunched with CBS as "Arizona 5 (News)"
10: Debuted large "Spirit of Arizona" campaign with John B. Wells VOs on February 12, 1994 (the date AZ's original constitution was signed but rejected for a judge recall provision, oddly enough)
12: "Arizona's News Station" in a large package made in 1992
15: "News 15", the oddballs in this set.
Aside from Dallas, I wouldn't call any of the other Texas markets great.
Houston: Stations there are heavy on spot news ... crime, fires, etc. KHOU was trying to do more high-brow news for a while, but has rejoined the rest of the pack. Lots of good investigative reporters though. KPRC is a very, very weak NBC affiliate that's still trying to recover from its tabloid days.
San Antonio: Very if it bleeds, it leads ... esp. KSAT and KENS which, coincidentally, are 1 and 2 in the market. The Fox station puts on a remarkably cheap looking broadcast, but gets pretty good numbers. WOAI, the NBC affiliate, barely has a pulse.
Austin: KVUE puts on some quality newscasts. They're pretty much it though. KXAN is tabloid, complete with a hysterical weatherman. Fox O&O is a snoozer that fills its shows with stuff off the satellites. KEYE really tries and stole away some of the best anchors in town, but 10 p.m. is the only timeslot where they're remotely competitive. All the stations devote considerable resources to covering state government. None of the stations has a helicopter anymore.
El Paso: The CBS station is on life support. Fox affiliate is solid. ABC and NBC aren't bad but, again, I wouldn't say it's one of the best local news markets. Lots of coverage of border issues due to the close proximity to Mexico.
Houston: Stations there are heavy on spot news ... crime, fires, etc. KHOU was trying to do more high-brow news for a while, but has rejoined the rest of the pack. Lots of good investigative reporters though. KPRC is a very, very weak NBC affiliate that's still trying to recover from its tabloid days.
San Antonio: Very if it bleeds, it leads ... esp. KSAT and KENS which, coincidentally, are 1 and 2 in the market. The Fox station puts on a remarkably cheap looking broadcast, but gets pretty good numbers. WOAI, the NBC affiliate, barely has a pulse.
Austin: KVUE puts on some quality newscasts. They're pretty much it though. KXAN is tabloid, complete with a hysterical weatherman. Fox O&O is a snoozer that fills its shows with stuff off the satellites. KEYE really tries and stole away some of the best anchors in town, but 10 p.m. is the only timeslot where they're remotely competitive. All the stations devote considerable resources to covering state government. None of the stations has a helicopter anymore.
El Paso: The CBS station is on life support. Fox affiliate is solid. ABC and NBC aren't bad but, again, I wouldn't say it's one of the best local news markets. Lots of coverage of border issues due to the close proximity to Mexico.
recto101 said:
P
purpledevil
Guest
Kent said:
KHOU was "The Spirit of Texas" and I forget how, but it incorporated the number 11 into the word spirit. Seems like it used the first I and the R to accomplish this. Houston market has its hits and misses. Ch. 13 is the leader in news here as far as real news. They're the investigative authority as they traditionally have been with first Marvin Zindler and now Wayne Dolcefino. More than a few of our City officials probably have Wayne's face on a dartboard somewhere in their office. Man, he gives them hell. Channel 2 and 39 are nearly pure fluff, and 26 isn't much better. 11 is hit and miss, but I just can't get into their newscast and Greg Hurst is the main reason. Not sure what it is about him, but his delivery of the news is a put off to me. Furthermore, there is a place that I'd like to stick the Norman number, and it's not part of the weather graphics montage. Lord, how I miss Dr. Neil.
Kent said:
WVEC still is owned by Belo though several years ago it was reported in the local Virginian-Pilot newspaper shortly after the death of WVEC anchor Terry Zahn that ABC for a time had looked at making WVEC in making them an ABC O&O station. What made this funny was the postings the paper had received on their website saying such things as "...Hampton Roads is TOO DAMN SMALL for a major network to own a station here ! ! !"
....YET there was at the time..and until very recent local WGNT CW 27...owned by CBS !!!! Whoops ! !
Last year when Hampton Roads was hit a nor'easter I did managed to check out online WAVY, WTKR, WVEC and WVBT FOX 43 to see how they handled their coverage. I thought all of them did great especially WAVY/WVBT and WVEC but I guess I am in the minority. Reading the postings on their websites and talking to family who still live in that region they felt the whole coverage was a waste and should be resvered strictily for The Weather Channel. In other words way too many people still think that the Hampton Roads market is down there..next to Rapid City, South Dakota not one of nearly 2 million, in short not many take this market seriously which can be a disavantage.
purpledevil said:
A KHOU "Spirit" opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfY8vt1h50
They still use the "Spirit of Texas" branding for community/charitable events (food/toy drive, etc).
mleach said:Kent said:
WVEC still is owned by Belo though several years ago it was reported in the local Virginian-Pilot newspaper shortly after the death of WVEC anchor Terry Zahn that ABC for a time had looked at making WVEC in making them an ABC O&O station. What made this funny was the postings the paper had received on their website saying such things as "...Hampton Roads is TOO DAMN SMALL for a major network to own a station here ! ! !"
....YET there was at the time..and until very recent local WGNT CW 27...owned by CBS !!!! Whoops ! !
Last year when Hampton Roads was hit a nor'easter I did managed to check out online WAVY, WTKR, WVEC and WVBT FOX 43 to see how they handled their coverage. I thought all of them did great especially WAVY/WVBT and WVEC but I guess I am in the minority. Reading the postings on their websites and talking to family who still live in that region they felt the whole coverage was a waste and should be resvered strictily for The Weather Channel. In other words way too many people still think that the Hampton Roads market is down there..next to Rapid City, South Dakota not one of nearly 2 million, in short not many take this market seriously which can be a disavantage.
Yeah, right. But ABC has an o&o in Bakersfield and had o&os in Toledo and Flint, all of which, the last time I looked, were smaller than Hampton Roads.
Not all Belo stations have used the "Spirit" slogan; WHAS Louisville is one I know hasn't, and I don't recall it on WCNC Charlotte (I could be wrong about that one).
I should say one thing about news in Texas: Dan Rather has pointed out that, during his time at KHOU, management decided it needed a ratings boost so it began copying KENS's "Fuzz 'n' Wuz" (police blotter/murders) approach...and that was in 1961. It apparently worked; KHOU in those days was second to KPRC.
I haven't seen Dallas/Ft. Worth newscasts in years (never seen KTVT since it went to CBS), but (and I've probably said this more than once) no "front four" will ever, in my book, top Tracy Rowlett, Iola Johnson, Troy Dungan, and Verne Lundquist on WFAA.
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