This past weekend I was in Peoria, Illinois, visiting elderly relatives. I knew WEEK (Granite) and WHOI (Barrington) had combined newsrooms a few months earlier. I didn't realize how bad it could get until I watched Sunday night. With WMBD's news delayed by CBS' sliding prime time lineup, I started on WEEK at 10:00. One anchor is reading the news in front of a monitor with WEEK's logo displayed. At 10:01 I turn to WHOI. The same anchor is reading the news in front of a generic Peoria skyline background (different camera angle). Now that's cheap when the same anchor is doing the news on both stations in the same time slot. This was not a case of simulcasting. I presume WHOI is on tape and WEEK is live. Of course, both stations used the same prerecorded weather and sports segments (both done without logos or identifying graphics), and both aired at the exact same points in the newscast. WEEK had one reporter do a feature story. WHOI had none that I could tell. WEEK used its own lower third graphics. WHOI only had a bug in the corner.
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Combining news operations: How bad it can get
- Thread starter TheRob
- Start date
That IS really bad. In fact, it's sad.
What value is there for a station in doing this? It's a joke. WHOI might as well just show reruns of syndicated shows, as there's not even the pretext that the newscast is theirs in any way. Not when the news is on live with the same anchor on another channel. Clearly, it's probably an hour old - maybe longer.
The viewers aren't that stupid!
What value is there for a station in doing this? It's a joke. WHOI might as well just show reruns of syndicated shows, as there's not even the pretext that the newscast is theirs in any way. Not when the news is on live with the same anchor on another channel. Clearly, it's probably an hour old - maybe longer.
The viewers aren't that stupid!
I was in Peoria for the holidays and I think I recall that(I mostly watched WHOI more than WEEK with my mom). But really, my focus was on how rather shoddy the tower camera is at WHOI. It is not very clear and it shakes sometimes. :-/
This is a different story, although similar. In October of 2005 WTTO/Birmingham (the WB affiliate at the time) started airing their own evening newscast, which was written and produced by WIAT, the local CBS affiliate (and the market's dead-last news operation). It was a re-hashing of their news, without the WIAT logo. It was awful and lasted less than a year. Not sure if any other markets do that, but it was completely pointless.
Don't TV stations still have to air a certain amount of local programing per week. I know they used to and news counted toward that goal.
I think that is sad, but really, I live in Chicago and all four networks and WGN carry the SAME stories just slightly different order. There is no difference, on the people who read it. I can't remember when anyone did any "investigative" reporting.
Maybe it's just Chicago, but the politics are such that if any TV station does anything to offend any poltical person, those people just will no longer talk to that station, and they are left out, so they never do any hard hitting stories.
I think that is sad, but really, I live in Chicago and all four networks and WGN carry the SAME stories just slightly different order. There is no difference, on the people who read it. I can't remember when anyone did any "investigative" reporting.
Maybe it's just Chicago, but the politics are such that if any TV station does anything to offend any poltical person, those people just will no longer talk to that station, and they are left out, so they never do any hard hitting stories.
Media General's WJBF-TV (ABC)6 does the 10pm news for Fisher's WFXG-TV (Fox)54 is Augusta, GA. It's a win for WFXG in that they've got a news operation without the overhead in having a full-on news department. It's a win for WJBF because they have a time slot they wouldn't have with ABC, and they're getting revenue from the 10pm show.
In market 8 Atlanta, Gannett's WXIA (NBC)11 used to buy time from Viacom's then-UPN affiliated WUPA (now CW, but still O&O under the CBS umbrella)69 to have a 10pm news. It was speculated that the GM of UPA was seeing how much ratings they could pull from Fox's O&O WAGA-TV 5, to see if it was viable to have another news outlet in the market. Well, when Gannett purchased WATL-TV (MyNet)36 from Tribune, they moved their 10pm there.
In market 8 Atlanta, Gannett's WXIA (NBC)11 used to buy time from Viacom's then-UPN affiliated WUPA (now CW, but still O&O under the CBS umbrella)69 to have a 10pm news. It was speculated that the GM of UPA was seeing how much ratings they could pull from Fox's O&O WAGA-TV 5, to see if it was viable to have another news outlet in the market. Well, when Gannett purchased WATL-TV (MyNet)36 from Tribune, they moved their 10pm there.
Your examples basically involve "time shifting" a newscast onto a different station. That's actually pretty common, as 10 pm newscasts serve an audience that's asleep by 11. There definitely can be value in doing this for both stations (and sometimes they're co owned like WHDH and WLVI in Boston or KYW and WPSG in Philly or KCAL and KCBS in LA).
But the initial example in Peoria involved doing this on competing stations - at the same time (10 pm CT). And, in doing so, limiting the market to essentially 2 evening newscasts while trying to convince everyone that it's 3. At the minimum, it comes off as amateurish; and, at worst, as dishonest.
But the initial example in Peoria involved doing this on competing stations - at the same time (10 pm CT). And, in doing so, limiting the market to essentially 2 evening newscasts while trying to convince everyone that it's 3. At the minimum, it comes off as amateurish; and, at worst, as dishonest.
whitfm said:
You have to remember that WTTO was one of the Sinclair-owned stations that participated in that ill-fated "News Central" corporate news effort back in 2003. WTTO continued on with a newscast produced by WIAT/CBS 42 soon after News Central started getting phased out.
You're right that WIAT was the home for some pathetically rated newscasts. But as I understand it, CBS 42's news numbers have improved to regularly beating some of WVTM NBC 13's news shows. (Interesting how that seemed to happen after Media General sold 42 after buying 13.) If WTTO chose to do the outsourced news thing again, they'd be wise to go with CBS 42 again, as you can apparently do worse.
Yes, we are getting a little off track from my original post. This is not a case of producing a newscast in a different time slot, like a duopoly. These are two 10:00 CDT newscasts, and they were the only two newscasts at the time because of CBS delaying WMBD until 10:45 or so. If you didn't like WEEK's lead story, too bad, because there it is on WHOI too, being presented by the same anchor in front of a different background.
Perhaps this is not normal protocol for WEEK and WHOI. It was Easter after all. But considering they combined two small newsrooms into one small newsroom, I am hesitant to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even the most clueless viewer would have to wonder "WTF" flipping back and forth between so-called competing newscasts and seeing the same anchor read the same news at the same time, but dressed up a little differently.
Perhaps this is not normal protocol for WEEK and WHOI. It was Easter after all. But considering they combined two small newsrooms into one small newsroom, I am hesitant to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even the most clueless viewer would have to wonder "WTF" flipping back and forth between so-called competing newscasts and seeing the same anchor read the same news at the same time, but dressed up a little differently.
TheRob said:
I see your point. Chances are, though, they are not different at any given time. If they're using the same anchors and pretty much the same production, you can probably bet both shows are written by the same Producer. I mean, how much can happen in Peoria that will warrant two completely different shows? WATL's 10pm news is slightly different than WXIA's 11pm here in Atlanta, but they're written by two different producers. That being said, the content is still pretty much the same because 1) the producers help each other, but each have their own show, and 2) not that much happens, even here in Atlanta.
Doing some more digging... Even though the TV stations in Peoria are owned by different companies, they're operated by one company:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHOI_(TV)
With both stations being a major network affiliate, they have to have news on at the same time, and I believe both ABC and NBC's affiliation contracts either require 11pm newscasts, or incentives for 11pm newscasts. Back to Augusta (it's where I grew up, so I've got some inside intel), for the longest time NBC affiliate WAGT didn't care about a news operation, but started one in the early 90's when it was rumored NBC threatened to drop their affiliation. Run the same show on both stations and you've got your end of the contract covered, whether it's crap or not.
As far as the bugs, they can enter them through Master Control, to have individual station branding.
I don't see anything wrong with television stations pairing up to produce a 10pm
newscast, here in Wilmington, North Carolina, WECT Channel 6(NBC) produces
a 10:00 news for co-owned WSFX Channel 26(Fox), in Raleigh, WRAL Channel 5
(CBS) produces a 10:00 news for co-owned WRAZ Channel 50(Fox) and they do
well in the ratings with this, WTVD Channel 11(ABC) in the same market does a
newscasts at the same time for WLFL Channel 22(CW) and in the Greenville,
Washington/New Bern market WCTI Channel 12(ABC) handles a 10pm news for
co-owned WFXI/WYDO Channel 8/14(Fox)
newscast, here in Wilmington, North Carolina, WECT Channel 6(NBC) produces
a 10:00 news for co-owned WSFX Channel 26(Fox), in Raleigh, WRAL Channel 5
(CBS) produces a 10:00 news for co-owned WRAZ Channel 50(Fox) and they do
well in the ratings with this, WTVD Channel 11(ABC) in the same market does a
newscasts at the same time for WLFL Channel 22(CW) and in the Greenville,
Washington/New Bern market WCTI Channel 12(ABC) handles a 10pm news for
co-owned WFXI/WYDO Channel 8/14(Fox)
tothedj said:
How would you feel about it if the NBC station produced the CBS station's newscast at 11, using the same anchor and just different background graphics? With the exact same taped weather and sports segments? And, before you answer, the Fox and CW stations in the market don't offer news. So, you've got 2 newscasts to choose from in the market: the one from the NBC station and the one from the ABC station - and the clone on CBS. How would that be? Because it's a completely different scenario than you list above.
A lot of people on this thread seem to confuse the concept of one channel producing the news for another at a different time (an 11 pm newscast to be shown at 10) with the original complaint which is that newsrooms are being blown out to save money and that has the new effect of limiting your choices for news in the market. Peoria basically has the same (apparently poorly done) newscast on 2 channels at the same time - which looks ridiculous, and another newscast on one other station. That's it. They used to have 3.
People don't know the difference between news and commentary so why bother spending big bucks for low ratings.
I recently visited my elderly uncle who lives in the Rio Grande Valley(Harlingen-McAllen-Weslaco). One evening I asked him what news he watches. He said "I watch Bill O'Reilly for my news". When I told him that was not news, he said "Close enough for me".
I sometimes wonder if that are more like him than we realize and that is one of the reasons local news no longer gets the numbers it once did.
By the way, the local news production values were terrible.
I recently visited my elderly uncle who lives in the Rio Grande Valley(Harlingen-McAllen-Weslaco). One evening I asked him what news he watches. He said "I watch Bill O'Reilly for my news". When I told him that was not news, he said "Close enough for me".
I sometimes wonder if that are more like him than we realize and that is one of the reasons local news no longer gets the numbers it once did.
By the way, the local news production values were terrible.
BRNout said:
I think part of it is that people don't seem to think the "news" caters to them anymore. Fox News puts entertaining, loud people on TV who can give folks something to be angry about. Jon Stewart appeals to the cynicism of young people. What will it take to right the ship? Who knows.
The #1 reason people watch their local news: the weather forecast. Maybe the answer lies with meteorologists.
whitfm said:
And they've been trimming those for years. Back when I did it, you'd get 3:30 to 4 minutes of time in the newscast. Now, some mets are lucky to get 2 minutes. All the better to squeeze some extra "news" in about American Idol or the latest social disease contracted by Lindsey Lohan.
BRNout said:
I see your point, but why does it take 4 minutes (longer than that if you're WGN's Tom Skilling) to tell us if it's gonna rain tomorrow? Most of us don't care about the arcane Meteorologistese that some of these folks babble about. We just want to know what's the weather for the weekend going to be. Will it be hot, cold, rain, snow?
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