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WHEC's new slogan: Commercials you can count on

  • Thread starter sincitysfavoriteson
  • Start date

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sincitysfavoriteson

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Recently returning from Sin City, I've noticed that Channel 10's newcasts are shorter. The morning show, as long as it seems to last with that robot with little pesonality, starts a little bit after the other two and ends several minutes before the other two. During the show, more commercials than the other one's air. Same at noon. It used to start a couple minutes before the others, starts after them airing more commercials in those couple minutes. They are trying too hard to chase 13 at five too. Many more commercials than the others. As for eleven o'clock, over by 11:31! COME ON! Do we really need 5 minutes of commercials before Leno comes on? These are the kind of things I'd come to expect from penny pinching Channel 8/31. Maybe the one making these decisions should head on down to 8/31 and run commercial rampant over there until they figure out cheaper does not mean better. Since I think I've lost my train of thought, I'll end it now. Has anyone else noticed the bombardment of commercials you can count on lately?
 
Yes, I have noticed that, especially during the morning show. Channel 10 has really disappointed me over the last few years. Everytime I think they are going ahead, they go backwards. As far as the morning show, I watch it up until 6:45 am, it sucks so bad, Rich Cagnilia is the only reason why I tune in the morning show. I wake up at 6:30 to see the final segment, I am really sick of Rebecca Leclair, she's good, but she needs to go in the evening as a reporter or something.
 
Rebecca just needs to go. She is the only anchor I haven't seen do a report. Don Alhart has that last segment at the end of his newscasts at six and some special reports once in a great while. Channel 8/31's anchors are out in the field and doing reports regularly, even though they may just be polishing their resumes for a better job somewhere else. People tell me they don't ever remember Leclair reporting from the field. Could it be she doen't have the skills for the job? Anybody can read a telepromter just as some stations have weatherpersons to tell people the weather and are not trained meteorologists; just there to read what's on the screen and move a little. I think RNEWS may have just found the perfect reader if she steps down and lets younger talent take over. Maybe commercials are hiding the fact that those behind the camera actually have little more talent than those in front. Can't they find local or national news to tell us about instead of those boring repeating commercials!
 
sincitysfavoriteson said:
Channel 8/31's anchors are out in the field and doing reports regularly, even though they may just be polishing their resumes for a better job somewhere else.
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Their anchors are out in the field because they don't have enough staff,....and some of them would be hard pressed to find another job elsewhere--an anchor or two included.
 
Rochwatcher said:
sincitysfavoriteson said:
Channel 8/31's anchors are out in the field and doing reports regularly, even though they may just be polishing their resumes for a better job somewhere else.
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Their anchors are out in the field because they don't have enough staff,....and some of them would be hard pressed to find another job elsewhere--an anchor or two included.
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I hear that Elmira recently lost some anchors/reporters, so maybe there would be openings for certain people from 8/31 to go back to kindergarten and learn who was President of the United States, and that a coop is a place where chickens live, not a military or civilian take-over of a government. As for 10's early morning show, all of the early morning TV shows in Rochester suck. It's the same format, with the same news, just different people. Originality is something very rare on Rochester television.
 
As for LeClair, once she starts showing her age, she, like many other former female employees at 10, will be gone. Col. Klinsky will make sure of that.
 
I've had the honor of knowing Rebecca for years. She is one of the most sincere, kind people there is; especially in a business known for its egomaniacs and cut-throats.

If there are those of you who want to be critical of her on-air performance, that's your thing. Personally I think she does a fine job. But don't be critical of her as a human being. You won't find a more decent person than Rebecca LeClair.

As for her reporting skills, I happen to have been in the business long enough to remember when a young reporter named Rebecca Johnson came to work at Channel 10 from Elmira TV. And Rebecca was a beat reporter; so she's had experience in the field and earned her stripes.

Giardina
 
Nice? Try telling my girlfriends parents. Quite the troublesome neighbor, anyway, I think I've gotten this off subject. Why does it seem that 10 is playing a lot more commercials than the others? Is the economy so good in Rochester that advertisers can afford to by time during newscasts to advertise their service or products? There are times when 10's commercial breaks last 4 or more minutes. Come on, can't they find some news, preferably good about Rochester and the surrounding area to talk about instead of that quick mention at the end of their newscasts called "Positvely Rochester" to talk about to get people to think about staying here instead of leaving? I know good news does not bring ratings that are highly coveted like you get with reporting something awful. Possibly it could be time to change the thinking of people to want to hear good things to talk about at work such as sports always does that brings people together in a happy mood, before all is lost on this and future generations of news viewers. I swear I get more news coverage from 8/31 at time that I can count on when some stories are important and 10 gives a shorter presentation and too many commercials. Shouldn't 8/31 be the commercial station during newscasts and 10 be a leader it once was?
 
sincitysfavoriteson said:
Nice? Try telling my girlfriends parents. Quite the troublesome neighbor, anyway, I think I've gotten this off subject. Why does it seem that 10 is playing a lot more commercials than the others? Is the economy so good in Rochester that advertisers can afford to by time during newscasts to advertise their service or products? There are times when 10's commercial breaks last 4 or more minutes. Come on, can't they find some news, preferably good about Rochester and the surrounding area to talk about instead of that quick mention at the end of their newscasts called "Positvely Rochester" to talk about to get people to think about staying here instead of leaving? I know good news does not bring ratings that are highly coveted like you get with reporting something awful. Possibly it could be time to change the thinking of people to want to hear good things to talk about at work such as sports always does that brings people together in a happy mood, before all is lost on this and future generations of news viewers. I swear I get more news coverage from 8/31 at time that I can count on when some stories are important and 10 gives a shorter presentation and too many commercials. Shouldn't 8/31 be the commercial station during newscasts and 10 be a leader it once was?
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If you want just the news then watch the first five minutes because the rest of the 1/2 hour will filled with weather, sports and fluff. Even during the first five to ten minutes won't guarantee that you will see hard news; that depends on what's going on that day. What annoys me is the teasers I see on some stations promoting the 11pm news. Instead of anything local nine times out of ten its something that's already aired on the national news or some piece of fluff.

As for more commercials, ever hear of the saying "greed is good?" Well the more air time a station sells the more improved their bottom line and the happier the owners and shareholders of the company owning the TV or radio station are. If that means bumping a good story so that a station can air several car commercials featuring HUGE-JA, so be it.

Speaking of commercials, try watching a movie or program on various cable networks. The same damn commercials over and over again, sandwiched in between the same promos for upcoming shows on that network. Thank god for the mute button.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
What annoys me is the teasers I see on some stations promoting the 11pm news. Instead of anything local nine times out of ten its something that's already aired on the national news or some piece of fluff.
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You're right. Many producers just pick something national so they can get it out of the way early. I agree, it's a bad move. But in other cases, it could be that the tease deadline is approaching, and there hasn't yet been a firm decision on which stories will be covered by the nightside reporters. 'Tis better to tease something national and possibly lame, than to tease a local story that winds up falling apart. National teases may irritate some people, but unkept promises anger many, many more people.

Mark_Giardina said:
As for more commercials, ever hear of the saying "greed is good?" Well the more air time a station sells the more improved their bottom line and the happier the owners and shareholders of the company owning the TV or radio station are. If that means bumping a good story so that a station can air several car commercials featuring HUGE-JA, so be it.
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Yes, the more time a station sells, the more money it makes. But the more people notice, and the more they change the channel, the more the ratings go down, and along with ratings goes your sales rates. I don't care how desparate the situation is, stations should set a limit and stick to it. Most places I've been have been pretty good about that... budging the rules ONLY for a day or two here and there during extremely busy periods, but never for weeks or months on end. If the sales department has a consistent overflow of business, then it's time to hike the rates. Supply and demand, baby!

Mark_Giardina said:
Speaking of commercials, try watching a movie or program on various cable networks. The same damn commercials over and over again, sandwiched in between the same promos for upcoming shows on that network. Thank god for the mute button.
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I agree there. What's worse, is when the cable company's local inserts fire a second or two off. They usually interrupt the very end of a promo I may have been watching (cutting off something key like the date/time an interesting program will be on) and then they rejoin the network just in time for the last 3 or 4 words of some random commercial. ("...HBO free for six months when you call Time Warner Cable today! [rejoin] ...or if you have an erection for 4 or more hours.")

Even worse is when they are late, and wind up cutting into the programming. I think most cable shows account for this by coming back from break with reopen graphics or some other type of filler... but not always! How complicated can it be to get this right?
 
Come on, can't they find some news, preferably good about Rochester and the surrounding area to talk about instead of that quick mention at the end of their newscasts called "Positvely Rochester" to talk about to get people to think about staying here instead of leaving? I know good news does not bring ratings that are highly coveted like you get with reporting something awful. Possibly it could be time to change the thinking of people to want to hear good things to talk about at work such as sports always does that brings people together in a happy mood, before all is lost on this and future generations of news viewers.
Click to expand...
Oh, pul-leeze. Another one of those "why do you people report so much bad news?" complaints? "News" is that which is out of the ordinary; the unfortunate, the unexpected (yes, I know, there are many other definitions and descriptions, and I'd love to see them listed here). When life is going well for some one or some group of people day in or day out, that is ordinary. You want more stories about sixth graders and their science projects? Or Mabel turning 100 at the Jewish Home? You want that? Go to your weekly community newspaper. Read your club's newsletter. Look through your photo album at home, talk to your family at the dinner table, sit on a street corner and watch the traffic go by without incident.
Think about "good news" it is run in diirect opposition to "bad news", so what youu're saying is "ignore the 'bad' news; we know it's there. We choose instead to run this good, happy news!"
Then we'd get complaints that we run too much "fluff".

And the reason that some primetime promos have W & N stories teased is because those things have to be written by 6 or 6:15, so the editors can pull the video and the anchors can tape them at 6:31 so they and the studio/tech crews can get on their dinner breaks, and the first promos can run by 6:59. At that time, some local stories haven't been cemented yet, or video isn't backc, or it is a slow night locally, or the W & N video is more compelling than BOPSA (buncches of people sitting around) at some town hall meeting or school budget hearing, or the EP or the ND said to tease those W & N stories b/c the consultant told them to....

This is how the sausage gets made, folks. I know I am preaching to the choir for some. Wanna hear more?
 
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