garnet said:
...Local news, national news, traffic, weather, sports, occasional updates from The Wallstreet Journal, a few other :60 features throughout the day...? What exactly would you like from a news station?...don't want a fight or anything, I've lived in other cities with news stations, KQV just doesn't seem that much different than WCBS or WINS in NY or KYW in Philly...if anything, its a little lower key and not so 'in your face' as those stations...
KQV also ties in to Bloomberg for some weekday features and overnight play, uses a private weather service (a descendant of the old DeNardo-McFarlane service) and is the local affiliate for Radio Pennsylvania, the service offered to commercial stations by WITF. Aired along with reports from Brad Bumstead of the Tribune-Review, RPA gives KQV a worthy alternative to Tony Romeo of KDKA/KYW for state capitol coverage.
Also, KQV does offer weekend news coverage. Granted, KDKA has updated Accuweather and local talk all weekend (some of it brokered but still mostly live), so it has the capacity to provide breaking news on the weekends, but KQV does have a producer/anchor for daytime news blocks Saturday and Sunday.
Also, KQV does all this without a TV affiliate. KDKA can fall back on Channel 2, WPGB on Channel 4.
Do I have problems with KQV? Yes. I wish the station would affiliate with ABC (think of the historic value as well as the quality that such a deal would provide both network and affiliate) and use that along with AP. And I wish there were voices that didn't do both newscasts and commercials. However, I don't think those factors necessarily disqualify KQV as a source for news.
I hardly would knock KDKA, and appreciate the drivetime long-form news alternative there. It is good that Pittsburgh has two stations willing to offer this aspect of serving the public interest, convenience and necessity.
The verdict is out on the new FM 90.5, obviously, and Cleveland-based newscasts using a lot of WTAE sound and a propensity by anchors not to identify towns where incidents happen give me fewer reasons to stay with WPGB on the hour and half hour.
If you wonder what I mean by that final comment, listen in to a WPGB newscast, hear any report on a fire or fatal accident or other serious incident and expect something beside a generic "Pittsburgh" reference or perhaps the name of a county, which is bothersome in a region where Allegheny has 130 municipalities, Westmoreland 65, and so forth. More irksome is the occasional reference to a street, but with no name of a town attached to it. It isn't helpful if the same street name can be found in dozens of other communities.
Jkf said:
Could SOMEONE over at KQV please get rid of the 1970s style delivery and production. Is the fake ticker still running in the background?
I think KYW also still uses that fake ticker.
