Worst Local TV News Markets

[mleach]

It's difficult to criticize smaller markets considering many stations don't have the revenue, nor the staff to produce a nice show.

You also have to factor in "attitudes" towards small markets as well. For example the use of news choppers. Over the years I have seen postings really bashing some stations in big markets such as Baltimore's WMAR for NOT having a chopper YET the same postings ( OK posters ) bash small stations like Salisbury, MD's WBOC for having one.

 

[travisl5678]

Years ago I saw KIEM in Eureka, California, and it looked like the product had not changed since the 1980s.

And where local news is concerned, they're practically the only game in town -- KVIQ discontinued local news in 2002 and KBVU has no local news, while KAEF's newscast is a simulcast of sister station KRCR's out of Redding.

Wow, KIEM, I was about to bring that one up myself. They do local news at 5pm,6pm,and 11pm. However, Eureka is a VERY small market.

 

[kilamanjero]

It's difficult to criticize smaller markets considering many stations don't have the revenue, nor the staff to produce a nice show.

You also have to factor in "attitudes" towards small markets as well. For example the use of news choppers. Over the years I have seen postings really bashing some stations in big markets such as Baltimore's WMAR for NOT having a chopper YET the same postings ( OK posters ) bash small stations like Salisbury, MD's WBOC for having one.

Well, that is strange...

 

[dave73]

Subdivide the Chicago market & focus on the NW INdiana area. WYIN has a cheap newcast. What do you expect from a PBS station. They however have no competition for news reporting on the TV side in NW Indiana, due to WPWR-TV Gary Indiana serving Chicago instead of NW Indiana, & has no news of their own (no real need to being owned by Fox). WJYS is the only other station licensed to Hammond Indiana, & focussed on infomercials & brokered religious programming. All other stations in the Chicago market with news focusses on Chicago & the nearby suburbs.

Another market I believe has the worst news is South Bend Indiana. Their news is rather boring. WSJV has yet to go HD on their local news. WNDU's news is nothing to brag about (at least is HD) & neiher is WSBT's 2 late night newscasts: 10pm EST on SBT2 to compete with WJSV, & the 11pm in HD on WSBT 22.1. Weigel roadcasting is getting into the news reporting for their low power ABC affiliate, WBND-LD, & don't expect it to be great at all.

 

[mleach]

It's difficult to criticize smaller markets considering many stations don't have the revenue, nor the staff to produce a nice show.

You also have to factor in "attitudes" towards small markets as well. For example the use of news choppers. Over the years I have seen postings really bashing some stations in big markets such as Baltimore's WMAR for NOT having a chopper YET the same postings ( OK posters ) bash small stations like Salisbury, MD's WBOC for having one.

Well, that is strange...

Quite simple actually. The word is jealously. Like those who feel that their towns aren't worth very much because they do NOT have an In-N-Out Burger.

 

[kilamanjero]

It's difficult to criticize smaller markets considering many stations don't have the revenue, nor the staff to produce a nice show.

You also have to factor in "attitudes" towards small markets as well. For example the use of news choppers. Over the years I have seen postings really bashing some stations in big markets such as Baltimore's WMAR for NOT having a chopper YET the same postings ( OK posters ) bash small stations like Salisbury, MD's WBOC for having one.

Well, that is strange...

Quite simple actually. The word is jealously. Like those who feel that their towns aren't worth very much because they do NOT have an In-N-Out Burger.

I wouldn't call it jealousy. It is strange to see the top biller of a small market having a news helicopter for a relatively small geographic area when a major city with at least 2 million inhabitants in the metro area and closer to 3 million in its DMA not to have a resources to cover its extensive and large geographic area.

 

[Tim L]

When I first got Free to air Ku satellite 2-3 years ago, there were several local channels at 123 degrees west..I got to see KTWO, the ABC affiliate in Casper, Wyoming. They looked very much small-market..And their On air people all looked like teenagers...

 

[Sammi Brie]

When I first got Free to air Ku satellite 2-3 years ago, there were several local channels at 123 degrees west..I got to see KTWO, the ABC affiliate in Casper, Wyoming. They looked very much small-market..And their On air people all looked like teenagers...

You know why? Those were all owned by the now-defunct Equity Broadcasting. They were put on the FTA sat because Equity hubbed all of its stations out of Little Rock, its headquarters, and fed everything to the transmitters that way. They were removed as the stations were sold at auction and moved out of Little Rock.

KTWO was probably one of the only good things on that satellite. I recall it was Equity's only Big Three station.

 

[bpatrick]

When I first got Free to air Ku satellite 2-3 years ago, there were several local channels at 123 degrees west..I got to see KTWO, the ABC affiliate in Casper, Wyoming. They looked very much small-market..And their On air people all looked like teenagers...

That may be true; I was in Fort Collins, CO, about three years ago, and although it's closer to Cheyenne than to Denver, the cable company there carries only Denver stations (no, KTWO doesn't come in either). But I have heard for years that KTWO puts most bigger-market stations to shame with its coverage of state government. Is that still true?

 

[mleach]

That may be true; I was in Fort Collins, CO, about three years ago, and although it's closer to Cheyenne than to Denver, the cable company there carries only Denver stations (no, KTWO doesn't come in either). But I have heard for years that KTWO puts most bigger-market stations to shame with its coverage of state government. Is that still true?

I believe Cheyenne is now offered on cable and OTA in Fort Collins with Norhtern Colorado 5 but outside of that I doubt their cable system gets anything else from Wyoming.

Can't comment about KTWO but I have been told that the overall quality of Colorado Springs TV including the news was/is so bad where for a time a few hotels in that area would actually block out the Springs channels and use Denver's instead. Never been to Colorado Springs so i can't say if it was the case or not but I do remember the Best Western Kings Quarters Hotel outside of the Kings Dominion Theme Park back in the 80's, we stayed there and they offered WASHINGTON channels only, nothing from Richmond even though the park & hotel fell well within the Richmond market. The hotel at the time told me that most of their vistors had requested DC channels and that is what they gave them. I am sure this has since been changed.

 

[jh]

You know why? Those were all owned by the now-defunct Equity Broadcasting. They were put on the FTA sat because Equity hubbed all of its stations out of Little Rock, its headquarters, and fed everything to the transmitters that way. They were removed as the stations were sold at auction and moved out of Little Rock.

KTWO was probably one of the only good things on that satellite. I recall it was Equity's only Big Three station.

They also had the ABC affiliate in Cheyenne, also on Ku satellite. It looked like they had one reporter in Cheyenne and simulcasted the news from KTWO. It wasn't a complete simulcast, however... while KTWO ran Oprah the Cheyenne station ran infomercials.

Maybe the worst local newscast I've seen was on one of Equity's Little Rock stations. It was a half-hour at 5:30, but they apparently didn't actually have a news department. The anchor stood there giving a couple of headlines, maybe a fill story or press release, he highlighted the "web site of the day" then a stock broker walked on the set and they did a business report. Sports and weather segments were farmed out to INN. They may have killed some time with a video "press release" or read some community calender type stories. There was also a heavy spot load, mostly stuff sold with 800 numbers.

 

[Robnoxious]

Quite simple actually. The word is jealously. Like those who feel that their towns aren't worth very much because they do NOT have an In-N-Out Burger.

They should feel bad about not having an In N Out. I don't know how they cope. 8)

 

[radiolives]

Yeah, three stations that try hard, but do a poor job of covering the area. They all try to cover both Florence and Myrtle Beach, the outer areas of the Pee Dee, and those couple counties in NC that rely on them.

I mean, WBTW still does Inside Edition at 5:30. It's been like that for well over a decade. WMBF has the only 5:30pm news in the area, serving a niche. No wonder WIS and WECT served the area for decades (and did it well), the area didn't have any investors that wanted a local NBC.

I think the stations should only cover news stories from Myrtle Beach and Florence. You can tell between WBTW, WMBF, WPDE who covers what area more then the other. Both WBTW and WMBF have their studios in Myrtle Beach while WPDE is out in Conway somewhere. Also both WBTW and WMBF put out a far better product then WPDE. WPDE is just horrible and cheap. One best thing WPDE has is their main weather man.

 

[TheRob]

I recently saw KTWO, which was on cable channel 9 at the Motel 6 in Jackson, Wyoming. It was stretched into standard definition 16:9, which warped some of their video and made the studio shots fuzzy. That's market 200 for you. The tough part about being a small market in the west is the incredibly long distances between locations. Video servers, laptops and wifi will help tremendously.

The worst market I see on a semi-regular basis is Peoria, Illinois. Two stations (WEEK, WHOI), which weren't that good in the first place, share resources -- to the point of airing the same newscast with the same talent (but different graphics) on each station in the same time slots. WMBD is better, but not by much. The news is typically shooting/shooting/stabbing/car accident/kick with volunteers at senior citizen center. Peoria is a 100+ market with penny-pinching owners, so the talent doesn't get a lot of support.

Someone mentioned Colorado Springs. I haven't seen the product there since the 1990s, but a former competing news director is now at KRDO-TV, so I imagine the product is improving.

 

[charlestondxman]

Even WMBD doesn't match up. They use Raycom's former graphics, and U-Phonix for the music.

Yeah they should. WPDE used to be in Florence, and mainly covered Florence and Pee Dee news. It was kind of weird watching WBTW when they heavily used two studios (Florence and the studio in Socastee). WMBF has overtaken WPDE. WMBF has all the money from Raycom, got HD news first, and got good talent. Already in less than 3 years, they've sent talent to Cincy, Green Bay, Charlotte, Columbus and Little Rock.

It's just like WCIV in Charleston. WCIV is stuck with Allbritton, which treats them as the red-headed stepchild of the company (they get everything last), and never has gotten any traction from their anchors. They have a good main team, but their morning anchors change every year or two, while Channel 5 stays the same.

ABC has always been the lowly network in the area. WPDE didn't sign on until '80, and many people didn't even get ABC until then, except for out-of-market on cable and the few ABC shows WBTW aired. This hampered them. Ed is a great meteorologist, and Allyson Floyd an experienced anchor, with sports also a benefit, but WBTW's 25 year head start helped them.

 

[mleach]

What are the best small markets?

Charlottesville, Virginia should rank up there. Their WVIR NBC 29 recently expanded their coverage area, all the way to the West Virginia state line north of Winchester.

Grand Junction, Colorado..never seen their product but I have been told by a LOT of people that their news product is even better than what Denver, Phoenix and Salt Lake City currently has.

 

[Sammi Brie]

What are the best small markets?

Charlottesville, Virginia should rank up there. Their WVIR NBC 29 recently expanded their coverage area, all the way to the West Virginia state line north of Winchester.

Grand Junction, Colorado..never seen their product but I have been told by a LOT of people that their news product is even better than what Denver, Phoenix and Salt Lake City currently has.

Phoenix does a horrible job of covering anything outside of Maricopa and Pinal counties. Even when Show Low and Blue Ridge high schools (in the White Mountains) had a huge football game this fall...*crickets chirp*

Money could be made in ratings providing better high school sports and general news coverage up that way. Regional reporters, anyone?

 

[formeraa]

Phoenix does a horrible job of covering anything outside of Maricopa and Pinal counties. Even when Show Low and Blue Ridge high schools (in the White Mountains) had a huge football game this fall...*crickets chirp*

Money could be made in ratings providing better high school sports and general news coverage up that way. Regional reporters, anyone?

The problem is apparently lack of ad revenue in those areas. KNAZ had a full news operation in Flagstaff, but couldn't sell enough ads to pay the bills. The other problem in Arizona is the sheer distances involved for the Phoenix stations.

That being said, the idea of a Northern Arizona newscast is interesting. But you would have so many bureaus to cover the area: Prescott/Sedona, Flagstaff, Page, Show Low, etc. The advertising revenue would probably be miniscule.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Phoenix does a horrible job of covering anything outside of Maricopa and Pinal counties. Even when Show Low and Blue Ridge high schools (in the White Mountains) had a huge football game this fall...*crickets chirp*

Money could be made in ratings providing better high school sports and general news coverage up that way. Regional reporters, anyone?

The problem is apparently lack of ad revenue in those areas. KNAZ had a full news operation in Flagstaff, but couldn't sell enough ads to pay the bills. The other problem in Arizona is the sheer distances involved for the Phoenix stations.

That being said, the idea of a Northern Arizona newscast is interesting. But you would have so many bureaus to cover the area: Prescott/Sedona, Flagstaff, Page, Show Low, etc. The advertising revenue would probably be miniscule.

Couldn't they pull a 1990s KOAT and have one reporter in each area with a camera and equipment to send the reports back to the station? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHe-gYhtIc – 0:34. If New Mexico can pull it off with the areas THEY have to cover...)

 

[jsu5381m]

Phoenix does a horrible job of covering anything outside of Maricopa and Pinal counties. Even when Show Low and Blue Ridge high schools (in the White Mountains) had a huge football game this fall...*crickets chirp*

Money could be made in ratings providing better high school sports and general news coverage up that way. Regional reporters, anyone?

The problem is apparently lack of ad revenue in those areas. KNAZ had a full news operation in Flagstaff, but couldn't sell enough ads to pay the bills. The other problem in Arizona is the sheer distances involved for the Phoenix stations.

That being said, the idea of a Northern Arizona newscast is interesting. But you would have so many bureaus to cover the area: Prescott/Sedona, Flagstaff, Page, Show Low, etc. The advertising revenue would probably be miniscule.

I don't see why Flagstaff can't be its own TV market with sattelites in Kingman, Sedona and Holbrook.