Worst local TV Newscast ever.

[elchupacabras]

Just take at this:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CH8NEWS

Wow. Sad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6CxvwW80R0 This is worse! LMAOROFL! They lead with a crime story, and then toss to a reporter who says he has "Breaking news! It was just handed to me, even though it is two days old!"

Oh my goodness! Later in the 'cast, one of the reporters does an interview and says, "We're looking at some b-roll shots right now..."

Who picked the graphics and music? They're the worst I've ever seen! And, pity poor Les - doing a stand up with all the light behind him! Who's the photog, his mother? I'll say one thing, the guy must have to hustle pretty hard as he's the ONLY reporter!

Hard to imagine KXGN being worse than this. Particularly when you consider that "Channel 8" probably serves 25 times the population of Glendive.

And the use of "EXCLUSIVE!" on every segment! A big pet peeve of mine as a former TV EP.

 

[trapper12]

I agree WKPT-TV pretty much sucked. Should have seen it the night the weathercaster was drunk on the air. They almost fell down. Needless to say that was their last night.

 

[elchupacabras]

I agree WKPT-TV pretty much sucked. Should have seen it the night the weathercaster was drunk on the air. They almost fell down. Needless to say that was their last night.

Was that Morgan? He's now doing a midday show on 'JHL.

 

[trapper12]

Was not Morgan. Before Morgan. I liked Morgan. I always felt like he was trying to do the best he could in a dire situation.

 

[elchupacabras]

Was not Morgan. Before Morgan. I liked Morgan. I always felt like he was trying to do the best he could in a dire situation.

Agreed.

 

[crainbebo]

That newscast from 1990 was one word: CRAP!! You could see the guy putting the headset on. No newscast does that, shows the Master Control during a newscast! Graphics are just video clips of businesses and events. No good graphics for weather. I mean, come on!

-crainbebo

 

[Jul]

What about CBS 3, NBC 10 and FOX 29 in Philadelphia? I think those 3 stations have very bad newscasts and bad on-air talent. 6ABC has the best newscasts in the region, no question.

 

[mleach]

That newscast from 1990 was one word: CRAP!! You could see the guy putting the headset on. No newscast does that, shows the Master Control during a newscast! Graphics are just video clips of businesses and events. No good graphics for weather. I mean, come on!

-crainbebo

At least it doesn't sound as bad as what Woodstock, VA's WAZT-TV did back in the 90's for their "Eyening Eye" newscasts. The opening showed this massive master control center with several people beind the controls..thing was that wasn't WAZT's master control ( I have seen it in person..chances are its big enough to fit in your closet ) but rather that shot came from some other television station. No tele-prompters..WAZT was using good ole old fashioned cue cards..and many of times the anchor ( and owner ) Art Stamler would say "..and now page 2" and "..and now we go to page three"..you get the idea. His clothes looked like it came from the local thirft store and the weather...chalk boards were used !!! Oddly WAZT didn't do sports during its news..and oh yes...WAZT's news was always taped because the station didn't have the equipment to rpoduce a "LIVE" newscast.

Interesting thing I have learned about WAZT recently. A few years back after the death of his wife, Stamler had put WAZT up for sale. Someone came along and offered Stamler a ton of money for WAZT in hoping they could turn WAZT into the CBS affiliate for the Harrisonburg, VA market. Stamler refused to sell because he wanted the new owners to keep WAZT as it was..mainly a religious station with limited secular programming. Anyway Stamler did find someone who was willing to buy WAZT and keep it as it is..though the local news is more/less a thing of the past. The result..WAZT is on the brink of going dark.

Art Stamler should had sold it to the people who were going to turn it into a CBS affilate.

 

[bpatrick]

The guy on WKPT who showed up drunk reminds
me of a weathercaster we had on WTVD in the '60s:
Ken Corbett. He was kids'-show host Paul Pioneer
in the afternoons, then he did the weather at 11.
He, too, showed up drunk one night; the next day,
Paul Pioneer had been replaced by a character called
Trader Jake and someone else was doing the weather
that night.

But WTVD never had a bad newscast. OTOH, WFMY
is getting there, slowly but surely, especially on its
"Good Morning Show." There's an audio glitch (usually
an echo) nearly every morning, a spelling or grammatical
error in the crawls at the bottom of the screen, and
co-anchor Rosemary Plybon can't say two words without
stumbling--but they keep her on because of her cutesy
looks and personality.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Wow,My buddies public access channel does better then that.I have better graphics on my Adobe Premiere.No lighting with the standup reporter was retarded. I guess this happens if you have a zero budget for the news dept.

 

[nathannah]

Check out our friends at WSVI...now they have an awesome new intro to the show. And by awesome I mean "I'm surprised Windows Movie Maker is so flexible for the needs of a Big Three affiliate". Wes Small of course remains the Les Nessman of his time in his part of the opening.

 

[jh]

Wes Small must have been on vacation on the most recent day I watched, some guy that made Wes look good was doing all the stories.
That day, they also included the sports segment which was actually pretty good.

 

[Nate Wesley]

I've actually got something of a contrarian view toward the newscast posted by the OP: It's certainly a plebeian-looking program next to ABC 7 in New York (or anywhere), but perhaps USVI residents don't really need the flashiest graphics or neato, HD-friendly set. The population of the islands are about 100,000 folks, which isn't that big when you consider the designated media markets in the continental U.S. Is the competitiveness and the ratings there for local newscasts? Maybe the investments in a better looking product just aren't justified--you can get by with less.

 

[jh]

Nate, I've defended WSVI earlier in this very long thread. It's not a very good newscast by many standards, but it's all local and I'm sure very much appreciated by the Virgin Islanders. It's the only local newscast in the territory. Although it has a 100,000 population, the economic conditions would be much lower than a similar sized market on the mainland, so they're probably doing the best they can with limited resources.

And Wes Small might not get hired by ABC in New York, but I bet he's one of the best known and well-liked people in St. Croix. I've never been to St. Croix, but I have been to St. Thomas a few times, and the newscast does seem to catch the flavor of the territory.

 

[Bob1370]

Someone mentioned the newscasts of WXIA, Channel 11 in Atlanra and specifically the sportscasts of Steve Somers..."sportscaster Steve Somers had to inject editorial comments into his report on the Falcons'
loss the previous day."

Guess Steve was just rehearsing for his future job. Editorial comment on sports (in converation with callers) is just what he does, drawing strong Arbitrons with 25-54 male listeners in the process, as evening sports talk host on all-sports WFAN-AM 660 in New York. They call him "The Schmoozer" these days. It's a popular act in the Big Apple, where Somers is the favorite host of regular listener/caller Jerry Seinfeld...

Bottom line, opinionated rant doesn't work well and wears out fast in the context of a short nightly TV sportscast, but on call-in talk radio it's just what the listener ordered...

 

[nathannah]

Nate, I've defended WSVI earlier in this very long thread. It's not a very good newscast by many standards, but it's all local and I'm sure very much appreciated by the Virgin Islanders. It's the only local newscast in the territory. Although it has a 100,000 population, the economic conditions would be much lower than a similar sized market on the mainland, so they're probably doing the best they can with limited resources.

And Wes Small might not get hired by ABC in New York, but I bet he's one of the best known and well-liked people in St. Croix. I've never been to St. Croix, but I have been to St. Thomas a few times, and the newscast does seem to catch the flavor of the territory.

Trust me, my remarks are in good fun and I actually enjoy that they're just not doing what many other stations in that area do and plug in either a distant newscast or sitcom reruns. I'm glad that they have a newscast there and Wes Small does a good job (I mean the Les joke in that he does almost anything). Just admiration for what they can do with so few (or fewer) of the resources that even a 150-200 market has, and I actually like that they spend more than 30 seconds on a story and never have the usual short 'Thank you Captain Obvious' soundbite.

 

[bpatrick]

Someone mentioned the newscasts of WXIA, Channel 11 in Atlanra and specifically the sportscasts of Steve Somers..."sportscaster Steve Somers had to inject editorial comments into his report on the Falcons'
loss the previous day."

Guess Steve was just rehearsing for his future job. Editorial comment on sports (in converation with callers) is just what he does, drawing strong Arbitrons with 25-54 male listeners in the process, as evening sports talk host on all-sports WFAN-AM 660 in New York. They call him "The Schmoozer" these days. It's a popular act in the Big Apple, where Somers is the favorite host of regular listener/caller Jerry Seinfeld...

Bottom line, opinionated rant doesn't work well and wears out fast in the context of a short nightly TV sportscast, but on call-in talk radio it's just what the listener ordered...

I posted the Steve Somers/WXIA/Falcons incident. He'd been doing the same thing in California, and WXIA's management thought he'd bring something different to the table at a time when the station was trying to create a different feel from WSB's and WAGA's newscasts. The problem was that Atlanta viewers resented someone who wasn't even from Georgia coming in and immediately slamming the teams (he did the same thing re the Braves), even if they deserved it. Somers was let go after two years and replaced by the more traditional Art Eckman.
So I agree with you; Somers has probably enjoyed his greatest success on WFAN,
where (and on other sportstalk stations) what he does is par for the course.

 

[willcail]

Anything that is related to Newscenter

 

[Kent]

I didn't think the WSVI newscast was terrible. It seemed better than some of the newscasts in Springfield and Joplin, MO!

 

[Interstate4Jammer]

I would have to nominate CBS affiliate WHLT 22 Hattiesburg/Laurel, MS. Lousy production, and much of the problem was that owner Media General spent next to nothing in establishing a local news operation. They did make a weak attempt to do so at one point, but it was short lived until they apparantly reached the determination that they had little, if any, change of challenging the only other station in the market, NBC affiliate WDAM-TV 7.

Before and since, WHLT has opted instead to drop in a locally produced news segment for Pine Belt area views into it's rebroadcast of the newscast from co-owned WJTV 12.