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The Best Local Newscast

A

Austin

Longtime lurker here wanting to ask something...

What is the best local newscast you've ever seen? I'm talking any year on any channel whether you were alive then or not.

Me, I haven't lived in too many places during my life; I lived in Houston for 4 years, then Austin for 16 years and now I'm back to Houston, so I haven't had too many viewing choices when it comes to news.

When I lived in Houston during the first four years of my life I had a nightly routine: I would watch Jeopardy! at 4:30, then KHOU 11 News (back when it was "The Spirit of Texas") at 5:00pm mainly just to see Dr. Neil Frank and his weather forecast (I actually got to meet him two months ago during a college project. It was a great thrill since he was one of my childhood heroes. He really is the nicest man you'll ever meet). Then I would watch Dan Rather at 5:30, Dave and Shara on KTRK at 6:00, and Wheel of Fortune at 6:30.

In Austin I mainly watch KXAN News because Jim Spencer was my favorite weatherman out of the three (although I loved hearing Troy Kimmel read the weather on 100.7 KASE-FM on the way to school in the mornings).

Nowadays here in Houston, I mainly still watch KHOU but I'm not really confined to any station. I've even tried to watch KIAH's "Newsfix" format that they have because it's supposed to be "youthful," and I'm 20, but I haven't been able to sit through much of it. I just find it more arrogant than interesting.

Anyways, I'd have to say that my favorite newscast is KUSA's 9 News in Denver.

I'm not too familiar with how news formats (i.e. Action, Eyewitness) work, but the opening of this newscast looks similar to WPVI's so I think 9 News is closer to the Action format. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Just everything about this newscast is cool. The Rundown on the side of the screen, the graphics, the music, and the ticker. The weather takes the cake though. The weather-woman is outside in the "9 Backyard" where the weather is going on and showing the radar on a greenscreen that's out there. How cool is that?!

If for no other reason, I would move to Denver just because of 9 News.

So what is your favorite?
 
This backyard weather thing must be common to Gannett
stations; WFMY has the "weather garden," where the meteorologist
is outside and the weather data is on a large screen.

As for my pick for best local newscast, hands down it's WFAA
Dallas/Ft. Worth in the late '70s and into the '80s, with anchors
Tracy Rowlett and Iola Johnson (she turned down a chance to
go with ABC, which wanted her at WXYZ Detroit when it was an
o&o), Troy Dungan with the weather,
Verne Lundquist (yes, the same guy who's with CBS now) on sports.
Besides the fact that this foursome jelled so well, then-news director
Marty Haag (R.I.P.) had all his reporters covering a single beat
(so, for instance, one reporter might cover nothing but
Dallas City Hall, another might have the Ft. Worth police beat...you get
the idea). It made them experts on their particular beat and it showed.

I remember, too, that the Columbia Journalism Review named WFAA and
WCCO Minneapolis/St. Paul the two stations with the best newscasts
in the country.
 
The best I am aware of was "The Al Schottelkotte News" at 11 P.M. on WCPO-TV, Channel 9 in Cincinnati. He was a newspaper reporter, but was hired by Channel 9 in 1959 when the station chose to start a TV newscast. From 1960 to 1982, his nightly newscast was the highest rated in the Cincinnati market. Schottelkotte believed that each news story needed a picture to go along with it so he was rarely seen on camera except at the beginning and end of each segment as a "hod photo" or slide was used to represent the story being reported on. Later film was used as that process was developed for quick processing and later video tape and then live coverage from a remote point by "instant cam". For a time, the WCPO-TV news department had their own helecopter. It might be noted that during the early years, everything was in black and white and finally by 1966, some of the slides shown were in color. The lack of color never seemed to bother viewers who tuned to his newscasts faithfully during that 20-plus years.

Schottelkotte later started at 12-noon newscast of which he did solo during the entire 30 minutes. A late afternoon newscast was later added.

It has been reported in the years since that when Turner Broadcasting was looking into setting up CNN, they visited WCPO-TV to watch the process that Schottelkotte had been using.

Schottelkotte passed away on December 25, 1996 some years after others were seen on the various newscasts. Someone pointed out that it was somewhat fitting that he died on Christmas since it was usually a slow news day.
 
Perhaps the most legendary news team (name-wise) was during the 1950's in Philadelphia on WCAU (Channel 10): John Facenda did the news, Jack Whitaker the sports and Ed McMahon the weather.
 
When I lived in the area I thought WXYZ in Detroit delivered a very professional,
polished newscast. (of course that was a much larger market than the ones I had
been experiencing like Pittsburgh/Altoona/Wheeling-Steubenville and Youngstown)
 
I really liked the WTRF 7 News (Wheeling, West Virginia) in the 1960s, anchored by Mark Davis (who recently passed), Pat Gaughan (pronounced 'gone,' and is also not with us) with weather, and Jennings Martin (yep, gone as well) with sports. For a small-town market (unfortunately with way less people now), it did a fine job. Obviously it couldn't hang with the big boys in Pittsburgh, but it was the market leader in a two-horse race for many years, but for the past twenty or so, not so much.
 
For many years, the Louisville KY-IN market has been well known for the quality of its TV (and radio) news departments. WAVE (since 1948-NBC), WHAS (1950-ABC), WLKY (1961, news established 1964-CBS) and WDRB (1971, news established 1990 with one of EST/EDT's first 10 pm newscasts-FOX) do solid, well-presented newscasts. I can't single any one of the four out as the best-they're all solid operations, with quality equal to and in many cases superior to larger markets.

All four news stations are well-equipped with the latest ENG, graphics, weather and traffic watch technology...their owners take pride in their output in this very competitive, geographically (for the east) large market, with a few counties in the southeast 100+ miles from the city. In fact, in the '80s and '90s, each of the then-Big Three network news departrments held their Louisville affiliates' local newscasts as the best examples of local news. News talent knows to this day that having a Louisville stop on their resume meant that you were working with some of the best.

Couple this broadcast news excellence with the quality of the Louisville Courier-Journal morning daily newspaper (particularly under the original ownership) and you see how well served this region has been in the news field.

Market size (we're #47 and due for a gain of 1-3 spots thanks to HH growth) is NOT directly proportional to station news quality!
 
Except for their graphics (which are annoying), KING 5's newscast is very good. Jean Enersen is still on there, and has been since *1968*! Weeknight anchors Dennis Bounds and Lori Matsukawa are also good as well.

-crainbebo
 
Best local TV news of ALL time was THE BIG NEWS on KNXT (now KCBS-TV) in the 1960s.

Best weatherman ever on TV was and is Lloyd Lindsay Young
 
My market: FOX Carolina News, especially in the mornings. Don't know why I like it so, but I do. Also: 7 On Your Side, also in the mornings.
 
Los Angeles is the land of senstationalism, but I think KABC is the best of bunch, and the ratings have proven that for most of the last 35 years. I usually like to sample each of the local newscasts, but I believe KABC is the best because they offer strong and concise reporting, and they've been pretty stable in terms of staff turnover.
 
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