With a lot of talk on radio, how about a break with local television news. Here are my thoughts on Cleveland's...
WKYC/3 - They have a pretty good news product, a stable syndicated line-up, and a decent local talk show (breaks up the Today show, which isn't always a bad thing). All of those things are saving the station given NBC's bad programming over the years. A lot of the personalities - Romona Robinson, Betsy Kling, Jim Donovan, Mark Nolan, Hollie Strano, Monica Robins, Eric Mansfield, and Maureen Kyle among others - are pretty good in their roles on their newscasts.
WEWS/5 - Another station with a solid syndicated line-up, but has somewhat better primetime programming with ABC, and pros and cons for their newscasts. They've got some good personalities with Leon Bibb, Lee Jordan, Kimberly Gill, Pete Kenworthy, and Tracy Carloss among others. Their "On Your Side" unit has gotten better recently with some new additions. However, they got personalities who I like - Danita Harris and Mark Johnson - but whom I've seen on Cleveland.com's Television message board that they think are either not good or in the wrong time slots. Plus, a lot of turnovers over the past few years with personalities, producers, formats, logos, graphics, and what to fill during sweeps. Plus, they have videographers do reports during the newscasts, which can result with mixed reaction.
WJW/8 - Good news product, and both syndicated and primetime lineups. Plus, I like the new morning show "New Day Cleveland" too. However, I think they have morning newscast that is way too long. I mean, 4:30am until 10am? That's a lot of news. What's there to really fill - jokes and Justin Bieber headlines? Not to mention they do news at Noon (a full hour), 5pm, 6pm (a full hour), 7pm, and 10pm. Again, that's a lot of news. Plus, they need to stop with the "Elvis is alive" sweeps reports.
WOIO/19 - What is there to say really? They had the town talking from 2003 until 2008 or so. I mean who can forget Jane Campbell's feud over her children being shown, Sharon Reed posing nude for sweeps, the fallout between Randy Lerner and the station over his sister's 911 tape played on the air, "Are the Browns for sale?," and the countless confrontations. Now, there's nothing really grabbing viewers to watch their news. I don't remember what they really did during sweeps, although I liked the East Side versus West Side reports. I think they need to start changing their anchor lineup, and maybe the format too. The last part though is unlikely since Bill Applegate might stay in his GM post until he dies. Plus, WUAB/43's 10pm newscast is virtually non-existant in the ratings.
What are your thoughts and opinions?
WKYC/3 - They have a pretty good news product, a stable syndicated line-up, and a decent local talk show (breaks up the Today show, which isn't always a bad thing). All of those things are saving the station given NBC's bad programming over the years. A lot of the personalities - Romona Robinson, Betsy Kling, Jim Donovan, Mark Nolan, Hollie Strano, Monica Robins, Eric Mansfield, and Maureen Kyle among others - are pretty good in their roles on their newscasts.
WEWS/5 - Another station with a solid syndicated line-up, but has somewhat better primetime programming with ABC, and pros and cons for their newscasts. They've got some good personalities with Leon Bibb, Lee Jordan, Kimberly Gill, Pete Kenworthy, and Tracy Carloss among others. Their "On Your Side" unit has gotten better recently with some new additions. However, they got personalities who I like - Danita Harris and Mark Johnson - but whom I've seen on Cleveland.com's Television message board that they think are either not good or in the wrong time slots. Plus, a lot of turnovers over the past few years with personalities, producers, formats, logos, graphics, and what to fill during sweeps. Plus, they have videographers do reports during the newscasts, which can result with mixed reaction.
WJW/8 - Good news product, and both syndicated and primetime lineups. Plus, I like the new morning show "New Day Cleveland" too. However, I think they have morning newscast that is way too long. I mean, 4:30am until 10am? That's a lot of news. What's there to really fill - jokes and Justin Bieber headlines? Not to mention they do news at Noon (a full hour), 5pm, 6pm (a full hour), 7pm, and 10pm. Again, that's a lot of news. Plus, they need to stop with the "Elvis is alive" sweeps reports.
WOIO/19 - What is there to say really? They had the town talking from 2003 until 2008 or so. I mean who can forget Jane Campbell's feud over her children being shown, Sharon Reed posing nude for sweeps, the fallout between Randy Lerner and the station over his sister's 911 tape played on the air, "Are the Browns for sale?," and the countless confrontations. Now, there's nothing really grabbing viewers to watch their news. I don't remember what they really did during sweeps, although I liked the East Side versus West Side reports. I think they need to start changing their anchor lineup, and maybe the format too. The last part though is unlikely since Bill Applegate might stay in his GM post until he dies. Plus, WUAB/43's 10pm newscast is virtually non-existant in the ratings.
What are your thoughts and opinions?
