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Local News in E. WA is in a sad state

I seriously think they are waiting for Alan Sillence to retire...then they'll put the building up for sale.
 
Maybe but they could have him work out of Pasco till he retires. But that would be somewhat cruel to a longtime employee. Either way I still predict the Sinclair operation will operate out of Pasco exclusively by the end of this year.
 
crainbebo said:
I seriously think they are waiting for Alan Sillence to retire...then they'll put the building up for sale.
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If there was an interested buyer for that run down, rat trap of a building, trust me, it would be sold already. Yakima's economy hasn't recovered from 2008, and it certainly wouldn't be recovering with a need for old office buildings with TV studio space carved into the middle.
 
Worst case scenario, but you never know. Molly Shen might be doing prerecorded Yakima news within a couple of years if not sooner...if they don't send the news to KEPR and or even shut down KEPR's news department.
 
seatownmedia said:
If it ever came to that my rethinking of this would be KOMO for Yakima and KATU for Tri cities because the TC DMA includes parts of NE Oregon.
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Frankly I think they should have done something like that way back when I was with the company. Back then I had suggested just running KOMO's newscasts on those stations to save money, but there was a little bit of ad revenue and competition still hanging around. That, and the local GM's were doing budget proposals each year that suggested possible ad dollars might be sniffing the hook. By 2007 it was clear the staples of small market radio and TV; auto dealers and furniture store ad revenue, was drying up. The bottom really fell-out in 2008, about the time I moved on.
 
Being 120 miles away from Seattle, in a completely different market, would make a KOMO news simulcast useless to most Yakima viewers. However, the trend of central-casting news has been happening for many years in other places. Small towns that used to insert news into the large-city newscast aren't doing that anymore. Dodge City KS, for example.
 
seatownmedia said:
Not if Seattle stations would try to cover the most important stories from those markets. Similar to what KHQ does for Tricities on their weekend casts
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Exactly. News from around the state is still news. Sure, Aunt Jenny's porch fire in Union Gap won't be covered, but that's never been news worth covering anyway.
 
KEPR with some minor changes this week. New intro, bolder graphics, and some quasi laser effects between stories. Not sure the latter really adds much, other than perhaps an audible comma.
 
I'll have to check KIMA because if KEPR has a new intro, I know KIMA does too. The logos changed recently as well.
 
KIMA is still doing local news out of Yakima. If you see both calls on the 5 or 6:00 newscast, it may still be a lasting effect of the ransomware attack of Sinclair, or someone is out and they have to simulcast.
 
Back home in Yakima with family who always watch the local TV news...

KIMA is still its old, tired self. Tonight they made a big geographical mistake, Jake Taylor saying 'a large brush fire burning in Wapato', then threw it to a reporter who also mentioned Wapato.
Turns out according to the Yakima Scan Facebook page, the big brush fire was in WHITE SWAN...15 miles W of Wapato! No proofreading anymore in Yakima? Only about 6 min. of local news, then commercials, then Sinclair national news segments. It amazes me that this station survived the pandemic, especially since Tri-Cities is growing way more than Yakima is.

KVEW is the only station that has dual weeknight anchors at this time, since KNDU lost Scott Daniels in April. Even with this, KNDU is the better newscast over KVEW, but KVEW has improved greatly in the past few years. Wonder if KVEW will ever bring back a full 11:00 newscast (not one of those 2.5 min. inserts before Jimmy Kimmel).
 
I think KEPR is best in Tri Cities even with just one anchor. I don’t see Yakima here. But I would guess it is just a matter of time until Sinclair combines the news markets originating from KEPR in Pasco.
 
Amusing to see Jeff Jacobs (radio station owner!) taking over Jason Valentine's WX duties this week on KVEW! Not a bad weatherman, either.
 


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