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Look who's back on KGAN?
- Thread starter wmtbites
- Start date
This may be a good move for KGAN.
They've got some hot young anchors now, albeit with little experience.
But KCRG's GM John Phalen has to be pooping his panties now that Denny is leaving. Not to mention the previous loss of helicoptor flyboy Capt. Bobby Ratliff. No more chasing tornadoes, no more automatic weather related news numbers for KCRG. Couple that with the loss of their radio station, as crappy as it is, and KCRG may never recover. The bottom line may look better in the short run, with Frary's salary, and the helicoptor off the payroll, but the erosion is evident.
With Joe Winters moving up to evening news from his long time gig on morning news, watch for those morning news numbers to go down, as the chemistry Winters and Sanborn have in the morning will be impossible to replace.
They've got some hot young anchors now, albeit with little experience.
But KCRG's GM John Phalen has to be pooping his panties now that Denny is leaving. Not to mention the previous loss of helicoptor flyboy Capt. Bobby Ratliff. No more chasing tornadoes, no more automatic weather related news numbers for KCRG. Couple that with the loss of their radio station, as crappy as it is, and KCRG may never recover. The bottom line may look better in the short run, with Frary's salary, and the helicoptor off the payroll, but the erosion is evident.
With Joe Winters moving up to evening news from his long time gig on morning news, watch for those morning news numbers to go down, as the chemistry Winters and Sanborn have in the morning will be impossible to replace.
D
Disco Jonn
Guest
WOW... they should just turn off the lights at KCRG now!!! The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!! Thank goodness they are running "According to Jim" this Fall, that should keep the boat afloat!!! 
B
boatermik
Guest
Denny will be missed. Phelan and the rest of KCRG will remain untouchable. Joe will do just fine at night. Not to worry. The Empire that is Channel 9 will continue to dominate.
When does Capt. Bobby leave? He and the helocopter are still on KCRG's web site?
As for KGANs new staff. I like Brian, Josie has an unsual delivery style. She has toned it down a bit, at first every story was presented like it was a crisis.
Perhaps Dave will be back in a lead role, or he may just be "backup" for Mark and Bob. Keep in mind Dave has been in and out of KGAN 2x before as chief weather guy. Mark has another career as a singer, maybe he wants to focus on that more? In any case he and Bob have put a lot of hours on the air covering noon, 6, 10 and Fox, as well as the weekend news.
As for KGANs new staff. I like Brian, Josie has an unsual delivery style. She has toned it down a bit, at first every story was presented like it was a crisis.
Perhaps Dave will be back in a lead role, or he may just be "backup" for Mark and Bob. Keep in mind Dave has been in and out of KGAN 2x before as chief weather guy. Mark has another career as a singer, maybe he wants to focus on that more? In any case he and Bob have put a lot of hours on the air covering noon, 6, 10 and Fox, as well as the weekend news.
Huh?
"The Empire that is Channel 9 will continue to dominate."
Funny, somone should tell KWWL that they're getting dominated....
"The Empire that is Channel 9 will continue to dominate."
Funny, somone should tell KWWL that they're getting dominated....
Bingo Wall Cloud.
KWWL continues to put out a quality product that is reaching the masses more and more each book.
They actually have designs on Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The new ND is a good guy who should follow in the footsteps of Bob Smith quite well.
Look for KWWL to open new offices in Iowa City in the next month. Their visibility will continue to grow in the southern sector of the DMA.
KCRG is teetering. They will become more vulnerable with the end of Frary's tenure, not to mention the loss of the coptor. Phalen is on death watch. His time as GM is near it's completion. Is it possible that he and Norton have spent too much time slurping up the fermented grape juice together?
He and Norton should both keep sharp objects out of their grasp.
KWWL continues to put out a quality product that is reaching the masses more and more each book.
They actually have designs on Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The new ND is a good guy who should follow in the footsteps of Bob Smith quite well.
Look for KWWL to open new offices in Iowa City in the next month. Their visibility will continue to grow in the southern sector of the DMA.
KCRG is teetering. They will become more vulnerable with the end of Frary's tenure, not to mention the loss of the coptor. Phalen is on death watch. His time as GM is near it's completion. Is it possible that he and Norton have spent too much time slurping up the fermented grape juice together?
He and Norton should both keep sharp objects out of their grasp.
B
boatermik
Guest
I meant "dominate" between the two Cedar Rapids stations. You can't tell me you believe Channel 2 will threaten Channel 9 anytime soon? I was responding to the opinion that KGAN may gain some huge gust of momentum and knock KCRG off someday soon. Ha Ha. Very funny. Noone had mentioned KWWL in the thread. Take a cold shower, maybe Ron Steele could cradle you like Barbara Walters did when Elisabeth H. went nuts on The View the other day. Oh yeah, that show is on ABC. You were probably watching 7. Sorry.
I would agree that KWWL is likely to stay very strong. They started this back in the early 70s when they started to win the 10pm timeslot over WMT TV- (Grant Price's arrival helped, and being the lead in to Johnny Carson didn't hurt either).
In the late 70s channel 2 tried "wacky news" with Bachmann, Bailey and Bremer. That didn't work. Craig Johnson didn't really want to play 2nd bannana to the weather dork, er, duck and jumped to channel 7 when Jym Ganahl left. Dave Towne came in about this time. Channel 2 kept playing with their anchor line up- "Dave Shay and Maggie Jensen are our team" then it was "Dave and Maggie who?". They then revamped the entire team and dumped everyone. They have kept this up ever since.
One thing Channels 7 and 9 learned is that people like familiar faces on the newscasts in these smaller markets, especially the lead anchor and the weatherguy. That's why 7 kept Ron and Craig and 9 kept Ron and Denny. People want to trust their newscasters and meteorologists.
Channel 2 seemed to operate like an old Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland shop "Hey gang let's put on a newscast" and rotated anchors and weathermen like it was an "American Idol" contest. You don't build any audience loyalty when you keep driving people out.
KGAN had a real shot in the late 80s and 90s and had some real talent there, but they still seem to attract people in dire need of a N Frank Magid makeover. I am hopeful for some of the new folks I have seen and quite frankly putting Dave Towne on the air would add a level of trust (cause he has been around so long).
The new reporter Bigad Shaban has a good delivery style and presence - and a decidedly unique name. Molly Nicholsl who does the noon news needs either bangs or bushy eyebrows as she has way too much forehead. Erica Cervantes over elocutes every sylable, but is a pleasing presence otherwise.
Congratulations to Cary J Hahn for his Jack Shelly award.
The station has been increasing it's coverage of northern Iowa, a lot more of Waterloo and Dubuque news, I'll give the new ND a chance, so far it looks like they are trying to rebuild.
In the late 70s channel 2 tried "wacky news" with Bachmann, Bailey and Bremer. That didn't work. Craig Johnson didn't really want to play 2nd bannana to the weather dork, er, duck and jumped to channel 7 when Jym Ganahl left. Dave Towne came in about this time. Channel 2 kept playing with their anchor line up- "Dave Shay and Maggie Jensen are our team" then it was "Dave and Maggie who?". They then revamped the entire team and dumped everyone. They have kept this up ever since.
One thing Channels 7 and 9 learned is that people like familiar faces on the newscasts in these smaller markets, especially the lead anchor and the weatherguy. That's why 7 kept Ron and Craig and 9 kept Ron and Denny. People want to trust their newscasters and meteorologists.
Channel 2 seemed to operate like an old Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland shop "Hey gang let's put on a newscast" and rotated anchors and weathermen like it was an "American Idol" contest. You don't build any audience loyalty when you keep driving people out.
KGAN had a real shot in the late 80s and 90s and had some real talent there, but they still seem to attract people in dire need of a N Frank Magid makeover. I am hopeful for some of the new folks I have seen and quite frankly putting Dave Towne on the air would add a level of trust (cause he has been around so long).
The new reporter Bigad Shaban has a good delivery style and presence - and a decidedly unique name. Molly Nicholsl who does the noon news needs either bangs or bushy eyebrows as she has way too much forehead. Erica Cervantes over elocutes every sylable, but is a pleasing presence otherwise.
Congratulations to Cary J Hahn for his Jack Shelly award.
The station has been increasing it's coverage of northern Iowa, a lot more of Waterloo and Dubuque news, I'll give the new ND a chance, so far it looks like they are trying to rebuild.
"I meant "dominate" between the two Cedar Rapids stations."
You used the word "empire" , and that - to my way of thinking - means the market. From an outsider's point of view it seems to me that KCRG gets a lot of credit simply by comparison with KGAN. KWWL gets somewhat ignored (which is partially their own fault) but it's a monster of a station, and has been for many years. The real test for KWWL will be to maintain and grow its audience while NBC's prime numbers are slipping. No more strong lead-in's for 7, which was one of the big reasons why WMT/KGAN slipped so badly in the 80's. That's when CBS was bought by the Tisch family and no money was put into development of new shows. That cost the network dearly until the late 90's. Unfortunately KGAN hasn't seized momentum from CBS due to rampant cost-cutting and those dreaded signal issues.
Now go read your Gazette Family of Companies' employee handbook...
You used the word "empire" , and that - to my way of thinking - means the market. From an outsider's point of view it seems to me that KCRG gets a lot of credit simply by comparison with KGAN. KWWL gets somewhat ignored (which is partially their own fault) but it's a monster of a station, and has been for many years. The real test for KWWL will be to maintain and grow its audience while NBC's prime numbers are slipping. No more strong lead-in's for 7, which was one of the big reasons why WMT/KGAN slipped so badly in the 80's. That's when CBS was bought by the Tisch family and no money was put into development of new shows. That cost the network dearly until the late 90's. Unfortunately KGAN hasn't seized momentum from CBS due to rampant cost-cutting and those dreaded signal issues.
Now go read your Gazette Family of Companies' employee handbook...
Seriously, KCRG is in trouble.
Denny's departure is strike one. Losing the coptor brings them back down to earth. Strike two.
Liz Mathis won't remain much longer. She doens't need to work. Her husband is rich and she can't stand the distractions.
Bruce has it made and will stick around as long as the GFOC allows. He has ex-wife payments to keep up on.
But their news director has created enemies inside and outside the building. They've dropped Magid as their long time, highly paid consultant. They are going it alone.
Phalen is just a phone call away from another drunk driving charge.
And why would they sell their radio station anyway? Are they in bigger financial trouble then we think? Can they not afford to pay for the coptor, the pilot, and a 34 year veteran of the news staff? Did the radio station operational costs bog them down financially?
Denny's departure is strike one. Losing the coptor brings them back down to earth. Strike two.
Liz Mathis won't remain much longer. She doens't need to work. Her husband is rich and she can't stand the distractions.
Bruce has it made and will stick around as long as the GFOC allows. He has ex-wife payments to keep up on.
But their news director has created enemies inside and outside the building. They've dropped Magid as their long time, highly paid consultant. They are going it alone.
Phalen is just a phone call away from another drunk driving charge.
And why would they sell their radio station anyway? Are they in bigger financial trouble then we think? Can they not afford to pay for the coptor, the pilot, and a 34 year veteran of the news staff? Did the radio station operational costs bog them down financially?
supersoul said:
Nothing new here....this has been happening for several years now...
Good guy....for sure, allthought some intentions he has might not be in best interest.
Not sure where your geting this info from but don't hold your breath on this one... Earlier this year there was a decent chance at the hole operation moving down in that area but Quincy has pretty much pulled the plug on that one as they are remodeling the current building they are in and upgrading equipment.
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