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Harry Wappler, RIP

LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
OK...the old guy's cranky again!!
But I'm questioning the decision to have Angela Russell co-anchor the Harry obit special on KIRO.
ONLY because I can imagine someone having to spend about 10 minutes explaining to her who "Harry" is.

They COULD have had Raible fly solo and it would be more comfortable ... or even bring-back Hutch to co-anchor it!
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you there.

Since Hutchison sued KIRO, slotting the chance of her ever being back in the studio somewhere in between Jay-Z being on Warm 106.9 and Courtney Love becoming PTA President.
 
AQH said:
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
OK...the old guy's cranky again!!
But I'm questioning the decision to have Angela Russell co-anchor the Harry obit special on KIRO.
ONLY because I can imagine someone having to spend about 10 minutes explaining to her who "Harry" is.

They COULD have had Raible fly solo and it would be more comfortable ... or even bring-back Hutch to co-anchor it!
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you there.

Since Hutchison sued KIRO, slotting the chance of her ever being back in the studio somewhere in between Jay-Z being on Warm 106.9 and Courtney Love becoming PTA President.
Click to expand...

These days in music....where there is a will......there IS a way.....There can even be a trio between Susan Hutchinson, Courtney Love and Jay-Z on Warm 106.9 - for CHRISTMAS......
 
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
Dammit, Bong ... you just caused me to have to pour hot Starbucks in my eyes and the image is STILL there. Hutch in a 3-way? Eww Eww Ewww.
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LBB, I hope your eyes have recovered. Speaking of 3-ways, (admittedly awkward transition), does anyone remember when KIRO experimented with "tri-anchors"? Yes...I believe it was circa 1976 when the tried and true co-anchor setup was tested by adding a third anchor on the set. I believe the principles were KIRO vet Kim Mariner, newcomer from Portland Kathy Smith, and the newly hired Jim Harriott, former KING star who was puttering around in public TV at the time. Of course, Wappler was the mainstay with weather, and this may have been right around when Cody was hired for sports. It was certainly a large anchor desk (no Cody jokes, please), and it lasted for a couple of years as KIRO tried to compete with the more successful KING and KOMO.

Kathy eventually went back to Portland, Mariner returned to his native SoCal, and Harriott eventually ended up at KOMO, having scored the triple crown as anchor for all three major Seattle affiliates. If my recollection is correct, KIRO reacted by hiring a completely new anchor team from out of town that lasted less than a year. Common sense brought back Gary Justice, added John Marler, and along with Wayne and Harry, developed a very strong newscast in the 80's, while relying heavily on "action news", also incorporated new technology, (Chopper 7, followed by the KIRO news jet, and provided a working newsroom set.) KIRO in the 80's was doing almost everything right, and Harry Wappler seemed to be the glue that kept it all together. The 90's brought disaster, some of which was out of KIRO's control, but they have been struggling to get back their glory ever since.
 
searadiofreak said:
The 90's brought disaster, some of which was out of KIRO's control, but they have been struggling to get back their glory ever since.
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News out of the box was totally in KIRO's control.
 
True, but I was referring more to the ownership changes that plagued KIRO-TV in the 90's. Belo had to divest to maintain a much stronger KING-TV. However, the "news out of the box" experiment was completely ill-advised and certainly clumsily executed. It should be pointed out, however, that many successful local news organizations, (including KOMO), have taken elements of this concept and made them work in recent years, albeit with smoother execution. Whoever made this move at KIRO in the early 90's had the right concept, but didn't understand how to execute it correctly. Losing the CBS affiliation didn't help KIRO either.
 
From my corner of the world, the best news innovations in this market: (a) KING doing a "living room" approach as a news set (circa 74-75) (later copied in 80's by KOMO), (b) KING's replacement news set (fake newsroom) that was well-designed to function as both news room backdrop and way to transition well between anchors & reporters, and (c) KIRO's out of the box. The idea was solid -- it's the marketing and agency people that screwed it up. Set viewer expectations out of reach and put the emPHAsis on the visuals instead of the news concepts of sharing resources in an electronic news gathering & 24/7 world (which were the brain of the concept). Marketing dumbasses chose instead to focus on anchors who walked while reading, causing all those "Almost Live" parodies. All of those were NEW ideas that were just cloning some cheesy open & 4-person news/sports/weather team that was being done in every other market.
 
KMan said:
Kim Mariner?

The same Kim Mariner with the amazing voice that does late nights on KNX in Los Angeles?
Click to expand...

Yep, and a very good tv anchor at KIRO in Seattle circa 1970-1976. In fact, I would go as far as saying he was one of the smoothest anchors Seattle ever has seen. Why he got out of that line of work is beyond me.
 
searadiofreak--

We must be thinking on the same wavelength. When you asked the Ron Barr weather question, I also was thinking about the 3-anchor situation at KIRO. I don't actually remember the three that you spoke about, but I do remember KIRO trying three male anchors at one point (one of whom was Kim Mariner). I also remember the out of town anchor team and I think that it lasted a very short period of time. IIRC, one of them lasted far less than a year (maybe 2 months) and the other lasted less than a year. At one point, I found some history of this time period on the internet (I will try to find it again).

Another innovative concept that KIRO started during its glory days in the 80's was to realize that most people didn't sit down and watch the hour long 5pm newscast from start to finish. Since many were just getting in from work, KIRO updated the top stories of the day around 5:30pm. I remember Gary Justice saying, "At 5:32, let's update our top stories..." I believe that the name of the 5pm newscast was "Eyewitness News: Live at Five" -- I seem to remember a yellow or gold banner that they put in the corner of the screen (graphics were pretty basic in those days).
 
My favorite Seattle radio personality was Bill Gallant. He handled KIRO's Out of the Box news as well as can be expected. To me, that was the failure of the experiment -- Bill and others openly admitted they never got in to radio to do television, and he felt it was forced upon him. Bill criticized the format as it was happening. Harry Wappler offered similar comments after the fact. There were a lot of personalities that trashed the format after the fact, but would not admit to it for obvious reasons. I suspect the T.V. personalities under much more pressure to hold their tongues.
 
SchoolShrink said:
My favorite Seattle radio personality was Bill Gallant. He handled KIRO's Out of the Box news as well as can be expected. To me, that was the failure of the experiment -- Bill and others openly admitted they never got in to radio to do television, and he felt it was forced upon him. Bill criticized the format as it was happening. Harry Wappler offered similar comments after the fact. There were a lot of personalities that trashed the format after the fact, but would not admit to it for obvious reasons. I suspect the T.V. personalities under much more pressure to hold their tongues.
Click to expand...

Where during their shtick can a TV personality display some editorial commentary? Maybe during the handoffs between each other, but during their main routine it's nearly impossible. Even with an opportunity to do so, Wappler did not strike me as the kind of guy who would do that.

Gallant was a guy who seemingly liked to be argumentative. Yet, he had not built up the cred to be able to pull something like that off without sounding like a grouch. Few can do that without making it sound like a tune-out factor. If I'm listening to someone on the radio that doesn't want to do what they're doing, fine, I don't want to listen to that person either.

Wappler's strength was being a solid, reliable, non-confrontational personality. It's different to say something "after the fact," and you know what they about hindsight being 20/20.
 
It really depends on the format of the "newscast". Of course, Seattle tends to do hard news-focused newscasts. So, there is rarely time to make an editorial comment. In Phoenix, we have two long-form am programs: Good Morning Arizona and Arizona Morning (both on from 4:30am to 10am). Both of these shows incorporate a lot of banter between the anchors and give the anchors time to "express their opinions". Let's just say that you tend to understand their politics with on-going banter all morning long.
 
The growth of the early morning local newscasts is interesting. My theory is three-fold:

1. Branding. Why not present your newsbrand in as many hours as possible, even if they are "throw-away" hours, namely 4:30-6 AM. Not saying nobody is out there, but realistically the audiences are small.

2. Recycling. Perfect opportunity to recycle news stories, (and the entire sportscast) from the 11pm cast the night before. Cheap, only cost is a boardop pressing a button.

3. Traffic & Weather. This has become an important "benefit" that radio has previously owned. Perhaps TV has recognized a weakening from the radio side here, and have pounced on it. Smart.

Auxillary advantage: An excellent place to bring up new and upcoming talent.

Personally, I find most of these morning shows unwatchable, but the general (non-media) audience must disagree.
 
searadiofreak said:
The growth of the early morning local newscasts is interesting. My theory is three-fold:

1. Branding. Why not present your newsbrand in as many hours as possible, even if they are "throw-away" hours, namely 4:30-6 AM. Not saying nobody is out there, but realistically the audiences are small.

2. Recycling. Perfect opportunity to recycle news stories, (and the entire sportscast) from the 11pm cast the night before. Cheap, only cost is a boardop pressing a button.

3. Traffic & Weather. This has become an important "benefit" that radio has previously owned. Perhaps TV has recognized a weakening from the radio side here, and have pounced on it. Smart.

Auxillary advantage: An excellent place to bring up new and upcoming talent.

Personally, I find most of these morning shows unwatchable, but the general (non-media) audience must disagree.
Click to expand...

I certainly agree with your three points above. I believe a fourth point would be the presence of longer commutes in larger cities (such as LA, Seattle, Phoenix, etc.). When I occasionally have to catch an early flight at the airport here in Phoenix, I'm surprised at how much traffic is on the road well before 6am (certainly equal to, say, a Saturday afternoon).

The best mornings shows are basically a radio broadcast on television: news updates on the half-hour, traffic/weather every 10 minutes or so, business and sports briefs sprinkled with a bit of entertainment news, and friendly banter between the anchors.

As for growing talent, it is interesting that some fairly senior talent is often on in the mornings. KING 5 has Joyce and Brad, KIRO 7 has Julie, KOMO 4 has Molly, etc. (who are not "new" talent). Same thing here in Phoenix with a lot of fairly senior talent in the am's. Arguably, with the exception of KING 5, the weekend anchor spots have become the place for the "newbie" talent.
 
Good points, formeraa. I would offer that my points about up and coming talent during these morning 'casts apply generally to smaller markets than Seattle or Phoenix. Kind of like the old radio days when you could train and develop new radio talent overnights. (That is gone, unfortunately). I will reiterate that if you are looking for substance, these local morning shows are not the place to get it. They are completely designed to capture listeners for 10-12 minutes at a time. And I completely understand that. And atleast a feeble attempt to keep this on-topic, a Harry Wappler forecast would probably never work in early morning. First, Harry would never tease, tease again, tease for a third time, and then finish with a 1:00 report. :) Harry, you were one of the greats!
 
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