Best/Worst local TV news stations (by network)?

[johnnya2k6]

We already have threads devoted to the best and worst local TV news markets, but what about the stations?

Here are some of my best (sorted by network):

ABC
WABC (New York)
KABC (Los Angeles)
WLOX (Biloxi/Gulfport, Miss.)
WJLA (Washington)
KTRK (Houston)

CBS
WWL (New Orleans)
WCBS (New York, which had some troubles coming in to the 2000s stemming from "the massacre" and the "Information Network" gimmick)
WBZ (Boston)

NBC
KTUU (Anchorage; they're perhaps the only ones in Alaska with real local news!)
KING (Seattle)
WBAL (Baltimore)
WXII (Winston-Salem)
WSLS (Roanoke)

Fox
KTVU (San Francisco)
KHON (Honolulu)
WVUE (New Orleans)

CW
KTLA (Los Angeles, though they lost their way for a while after Hal Fishman's death)

And now, the worst:

ABC
KYUR (formerly KIMO, Anchorage)
KOTA (Rapid City; I lived there from 1991-92 and have always preferred KEVN (when they were with NBC, now Fox) over them)

CBS
K13XD (Fairbanks)

NBC
KTVF (Fairbanks)
WHDH (Boston, who threatened to drop Jay Leno's short-lived 10:00 show in favor of an hour-long early evening newscast)

Fox
WSVN (Miami)
WNYW (New York)

CW
WPIX (New York; a lot of them still miss Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong at 10:00 since that format change a few months ago)

 

[Sammi Brie]

KIEM Eureka, CA goes on the NBC Worst list without contest.

 

[tripinva]

If WSLS is one of the best, then NBC must have some truly terrible affiliates out there. I wouldn't rate WSLS as anything much above average, living in the market.

On the other hand, I definitely consider WVIR NBC29 to be one of the best I've seen. Definitely beats out WSLS and WWBT, both of which I see regularly.

- Trip

 

[recto101]

KGO TV should be one of the best because it is less on fluff

 

[LKellerIII]

KGO TV should be one of the best because it is less on fluff

I agree with Recto. I think KGO-TV (ABC) suffers from their decades old reputation as the "if-it-bleeds, it-leads" station. But Van Amburg has been gone for a quarter of a century now, and KGO-TV has steadily improved since the late 80s. Their newscasts are now well produced no-frills basic news, along the lines of KTVU (Fox), which (in my opinion) is riding a bit on its reputation from the Dennis Richmond era.

 

[KERCAlum]

My nominees for worst:

KXAS/Channel 5 Fort Worth/Dallas
KRBC/Channel 9 Abilene

To the poster who commented that NBC must have some terrible affiliates out there: I believe you are correct. Especially the O&Os, who don't seem to have any real direction. KXAS seems more like a small-market operation most times (and I used to work in a small-market TV station, so I can say that). KRBC is nothing more than an extension of KTAB/Channel 32, who has an LMA and basically runs KRBC's news and sales departments. Why KRBC isn't a subchannel of KTAB is beyond me, because that's the way it's being run. And it's too bad, because KRBC was the first TV station in Abilene (and in West Texas, if I'm not mistaken, but I probably am) and for a long time was THE station for news (KTXS/Channel 12 was, for a long time, a joke). I worked with both Larry Fitzgerald and Bob Bartlett, who were at KRBC for many years before moving over to KTAB, and they were and are both consummate professionals when it comes to news. Today, KRBC has no one capable of creating an identity for that station - it looks like a college TV broadcast (no offense to college TV stations).

Nominees for best:

WFAA/Channel 8 Dallas/Fort Worth
KTVT/Channel 11 Fort Worth/Dallas

Those two stations are the tops in both news and presentation. WFAA's studios at Victory Park present problems with sunlight bleeding in at times, but you have to give it props for being unique. KTVT is always solid, not incredibly flashy, and their news presentation is always straight-forward (although sometimes CBS's bias leaks through). WFAA is still a Belo property, and to their credit they've never sold out to ABC despite numerous overtures from the network. I do wish, though, that they'd trade call letters with KTXS in Abilene and go back to the "Spirit of Texas" campaign, but the longer time moves forward the less likely it is since the WFAA calls are deeply embedded in D/FW broadcast history. (And the KTXS calls have something of an infamous and ignominious history themselves.)

I travel a lot and watch local news when I get a chance in different markets, but nothing else truly stands out to me. That may point up to the fact that news budgets are being slashed nationwide and fewer people are watching, preferring to get their news from non-traditional sources. I think TV news in general is a dying breed.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Oh, I forgot the independents:

BEST
KCAL (Los Angeles)
WJXT (Jacksonville, formerly CBS)

WORST
KTVK (Phoenix, formerly ABC)
KRON (San Francisco, formerly NBC)

By the way, the "massacre" I was referring to was the mass firing WCBS executed in 1996 when they sent seven anchors packing due to low ratings.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

If WSLS is one of the best, then NBC must have some truly terrible affiliates out there. I wouldn't rate WSLS as anything much above average, living in the market.

If we're putting Roanoke in this list, I'd put WDBJ in the CBS list, instead.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Hey, I tended to like WSLS last time I visited that area, because they're the only ones with an hour-long newscast at 5:00 (on WDBJ, it's the news and Andy Griffith, while WSET has Oprah; the latter may consider a 5:00 news once Oprah finally ends this year).

Also, WSLS won many awards including a Peabody and a national Emmy for their coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. So that's why they're on the "best" list.

And why WJLA? It's like watching a nightly WUSA reunion with Gordon Peterson, Maureen Bunyan, and Doug Hill (Glenn Brenner became worm food a dozen or so years ago)!

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

In the CW category--for the Chicago DMA only--I would put WGN Noon and 9PM news in the "best" category.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Hey, I tended to like WSLS last time I visited that area, because they're the only ones with an hour-long newscast at 5:00 (on WDBJ, it's the news and Andy Griffith, while WSET has Oprah; the latter may consider a 5:00 news once Oprah finally ends this year).

Also, WSLS won many awards including a Peabody and a national Emmy for their coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. So that's why they're on the "best" list.

While I don't want to diminish WSLS's accomplishments at all, don't let the long-running presence of "Andy" on WDBJ fool you. It's a well-respected news operation and generally the leader in the market. WSET can't find its own way with a road map, like many 3rd place stations.

 

[Sammi Brie]

KTVK has one thing going for it: its 10pm high school sports show on Fridays. But even that is quite dry and somewhat hard to watch.

I could run 3 better!

 

[tripinva]

If we're putting Roanoke in this list, I'd put WDBJ in the CBS list, instead.

Absolutely agreed, but since I worked for WDBJ, I didn't think it was appropriate to say so. (I liked WDBJ long before I worked there though.)

Hey, I tended to like WSLS last time I visited that area, because they're the only ones with an hour-long newscast at 5:00 (on WDBJ, it's the news and Andy Griffith, while WSET has Oprah; the latter may consider a 5:00 news once Oprah finally ends this year).

Quantity certainly does not equal quality. I wouldn't watch WSLS even if it was an all news channel. And don't forget that WSLS canceled their noon newscast in favor of "Our Blue Ridge," whatever that is.

WDBJ carries Andy Griffith because it does really well.

Also, WSLS won many awards including a Peabody and a national Emmy for their coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. So that's why they're on the "best" list.

I don't even remember their coverage of Virginia Tech, probably because I was watching WDBJ along with everyone else in the market. WSLS might have a nice-looking newscast and may have done a respectable job handling a single event with national implications, but I know I certainly don't trust WSLS any further than I can throw them, and I gather that's true for most people outside of the city of Roanoke itself.

WSET can't find its own way with a road map, like many 3rd place stations.

I disagree. WSET doesn't do as well because they focus on the eastern half of the market, though the lack of a 5PM newscast probably doesn't help their case. The strength of WDBJ is basically market-wide, though in my area at least there's about a 50/50 split between them and WDBJ from what I've observed first-hand.

But I'm getting way off topic. Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

- Trip

 

[travisl5678]

KIEM Eureka, CA goes on the NBC Worst list without contest.

Why pick on the small markets?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I disagree. WSET doesn't do as well because they focus on the eastern half of the market, though the lack of a 5PM newscast probably doesn't help their case. The strength of WDBJ is basically market-wide, though in my area at least there's about a 50/50 split between them and WDBJ from what I've observed first-hand.

OK, I'll back off a bit...there are worse third stations in a market, and my exposure was not in that side of the market.

But WSET can be cheesy, and seem like they get WJLA's hand-me-downs. Last time I saw their "Southside" set, which I believe was in Danville, it looked like something dumped on them by a college TV journalism program that wasn't using it anymore.

Still, if you're east of Roanoke, it's probably a much smarter choice.

 

[tripinva]

But WSET can be cheesy, and seem like they get WJLA's hand-me-downs. Last time I saw their "Southside" set, which I believe was in Danville, it looked like something dumped on them by a college TV journalism program that wasn't using it anymore.

No argument with you on that. Have you seen the production quality on "Living in the Heart of Virginia" at 12:30PM? The program itself isn't bad if you like that kind of thing, but the picture and sound quality is just atrocious, or was last time I bothered to check in on it.

- Trip

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

No argument with you on that. Have you seen the production quality on "Living in the Heart of Virginia" at 12:30PM? The program itself isn't bad if you like that kind of thing, but the picture and sound quality is just atrocious, or was last time I bothered to check in on it.

I haven't been within viewing range of WSET for about 5 or 6 years, so I haven't seen it...and by that description, I'm almost afraid to see if "ABC 13" has online video...

 

[mleach]

Quantity certainly does not equal quality. I wouldn't watch WSLS even if it was an all news channel. And don't forget that WSLS canceled their noon newscast in favor of "Our Blue Ridge," whatever that is.

I don't even remember their coverage of Virginia Tech, probably because I was watching WDBJ along with everyone else in the market. WSLS might have a nice-looking newscast and may have done a respectable job handling a single event with national implications, but I know I certainly don't trust WSLS any further than I can throw them, and I gather that's true for most people outside of the city of Roanoke itself.

The biggest complaint I hear about WSLS from family members and friends who still live in the area is how that WSLS thinks that their staff has "higher moral standards" than the other stations in the region with such rules as their employees aren't allowed to smoke, drink, go to a bar, visit Las Vegas, play the Virginia Lottery ( though its OK for them to advertsie on WSLS ), can't watch certain movies..etc..etc...

I don't believe this stuff myself but no doubt a lot of this stuff stems from the Marc Lamarre and Jamie Singleton incident and the fact they air The 700 Club during the mid-morning. ...so people "assume" :

 

[fybush]

WSLS is owned by Media General, which is a publicly-traded company. Most of the alleged "higher moral standards" stuff you cite would be blatantly illegal for such an employer to mandate. As you say...you don't even believe what you're posting, so why knowingly spread falsehoods like that?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Yeah, it sounds very much like rumors that spread around after the two incidents in questions ("Look at what happened to their weather forecasters, they HAVE to be clamping down, now!").

The reality is that what both Mr. Lamarre and Mr. Singleton did is prohibited conduct for most on-air talent/personalities at every media company in America, and most such companies have "morals clauses" in talent contracts basically designed so the station is not embarrassed by those things.

You're a representative of the station even at home as a high-profile on-air personality...if you get arrested for drugs, you embarrass the station, period. "Morals clauses" in talent contracts and "higher moral standards" are not the same thing at all.

Media General and WSLS are, of course, not at all unique.

A "morals clause" is something the contract of Charlie Sheen apparently does not have.