August 22nd, 2010 
joel August has turned into a time of significant change for Erie’s media.
Long-term TV personalities have flown the market, the newspaper has unequivocally called out County Councilmen and women based on their support of the proposed Community College, the Citadel group experienced a resurgence in Erie’s radio ratings even Connie Media’s #1 station extends its lead, and Erie’s top new media properties join together to further connect their/our readers.
We are covering it all in the coming days after this lengthy hiatus. Meanwhile you can spout off on anything media topic you desire in this open forum. Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or tweet @pressandtower.
Embrace the chaos!
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he warm weather brings out the repoters and Tv weathermen to every festival and fair for the time-honored “live” shot. I would like to provide an easy guide for doing an effective live shot. (given my many years of experience both locally and in larger markets)
1. Do not reference something way over your shoulder. Take the viewer to the action. If Tom Atkins is talking about canolis at the Italian Festival, then take us into the area for closeups and an interview that tells viewers what goes into the canolis, how many will you go through, how do you stuff them, etc. Do not stand there feeding your face. FREE FOOD IS NOT A LIVE SHOT!!!
Same goes for Amanda Post at the Crawford county fair. Don’t tell us about all the great food that you are going to sample. This allienates an audience. Tell us a story with video…it’s your job.
2. Photogaphers, if you must, follow APA standards and tell the story with video. Insist that the reporter follow YOUR lead if need be.
3. How about this format. a short video intro to a 1:10 package on a particular feature, with a “live” wrap at the end.
4. Never say “Back to you guys in the studio”. This is very unprofessional. A good producer knows when their talent is wrapping and can take the double-box or split screen. Tom Aitins is notorious for “Back to you in the studio”…its as bad as saying “this just in” or “the driver was seriously…killed in the accident”.
don’t laugh, I’ve heard both used in this market on several occassions.
5. Please no more live shots outside a building where a meeting took place hours ago or a verdict was read at 4PM and you are the lead at 11.
On a postive note, kuddos to Jeremy Beecher’s Joe giles story last week and the use of the map with Giles popping up. Very creative and well-told, a template for others in the market.
When did Farrah Fawcett start co Anchoring the news at WSEE with Malibu Ken?
WJET should promote Kim Thomas to co anchor alongside Sean Lafferty. Kim has done a fine job for them as a reporter – and the upside is she won’t bolt the station after 2 years!
I have been watching Paul Wagner do Newswatch at Noon on WSEE. Why can’t he take over for Mr. Bremner?
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/105636
Food for Thought…
Your link almost made me throw up in my mouth! While I understand the economics of the post, and the points made by those in the post, the entire disdain for the local market and it’s viewers is just too much to take. It’s like Lilly Broadcasting gone amuck!!!
The first thing I was taught by A.J. Miceli at Gannon University in Broadcasting 101 is that the local owners are given their license in the “Public’s Interest, Convenience, and Neccesity”. Not to make a profit. A profit is great, even encouraged, but, the first duty of a licensed broadcaster is to SERVE the market they are licensed for. And to serve that market’s PICN. If a broadcaster cannot fulfill this obligation, they should be stripped of their license.
And, if a broadcaster cannot make a profit with this license, then they should relenquish that license, because, it is basically a license to make money!
Bob, you might find it interesting that this INN thing went bankrupt and is falling apart. Its flagship station is dropping its own newscasts in favor of the ABC affiliate providing the newscast each evening. Somehow it continues to provide the service the article talks about for several other stations across the country but it sounds to be on life support. Fitting for an operation that is supposed to save money, is actually losing money. Just like that Sinclair broadcasting experiment out of Baltimore that killed so many jobs at Fox 53 in Pittsburgh a few years back.
Bob, I know where you’re coming from, but I’m still curious.
Exactly how does centralcasting the local news-weather-sports from a remote hub location serve the public’s interest, convenience, and necessity any less than the traditional local news operation where the anchors & production personnel are sitting in the same town — all else being equal ? And in fact, is this whole scheme really any different from the KHIZ morning show originating every day from 12th and Peach Sts in Erie ? By the way, take a current look at
http://www.khiztv.com/programming/news.php
for a blast from the past ! Talk about benign neglect.
Anyhow, it sounds to me like it’s an option that shares the cost of common elements (anchor talent, production personnel, studio facilities, etc.) across multiple stations — allowing those in the station’s viewing area to see a more polished product than might otherwise be attainable & affordable. In fact, the participating stations might not even be able to offer a true local news alternative …. but rather simply simulcast a warmed-over rehash of news programming from an LMA’d competitor, or broadcast infomercials (now there’s an improvement for the PICN, NOT), or even just go dark.
PICN is, as you pointed out, certainly remains an overriding regulatory objective for a commercial broadcaster albeit perhaps a bit dated of a concept in terms of today’s marketplace realities. But without some reasonable and continuing ROI for each station and its investors, before long you wouldn’t have any signal to offer up in the name of all that PICN. Broadcasting may be unique in many ways, but when it comes to economics, it obeys the same rules as any other business for better or worse.
Food for Thought, I totally get and agree with your argument about the economics. But, a news crew which is not part of the community that they are licensed to serve simply cannot provide as good a newscast to that market as one which lives and participates in that community. I can’t argue with your point about the KHIZ debacle. Those of us who produced that newscast were simply doing it because we were told to do so. We all knew that we could not do as good a job as a crew actually in the market could do. From our perspective, we knew that our newscast was, at best, inconsequential. We tried our best to get it the best that we could, but given our resources, it could never be as good or as insightful as a newscast actually produced in the market. Production values are important (and as an old director, they are of a special value to me!), but they are never as important as the actual content of a news broadcast. A news crew 2000 miles from the market they are covering can make a pretty picture, but if the content is lacking, what purpose does it serve?
Thanks for very thoughtful reply Bob.
I think we may be more in agreement than disagreement.
I’m wondering if part of the disconnect in my mind anyhow centers on definition & use of the term “news crew” in this context. If I’m not mistaken, you are quite reasonably including the studio director/production staff and anchors in the mix while I guess I separate them out in my mind conceptually & operationally from the news director, videographers, reporters, etc. which the article seems to suggest remain entirely ‘local’ to each market. (Where the “producer” job function for each newscast fits within the centralcasting model is not clear and that might be a key distinction I am overlooking though)
Assuming such a demarcation is in place, it would seem to me that the local ND and his reporters/videographers/OMBs/whatever pretty much establish the content (what stories to cover, to what extent they are covered, etc.) …. and then it is all handed off to the central hub folks for workmanlike packaging and delivery. Under that paradigm, I think this could work and the PICN would not necessarily suffer.
But I am also experienced enough in the ways of the real world to know that those lines of reposnsibility for the final product get blurred all too easily and my sunny day Frederick Taylor-esque scenario probably isn’t applicable too often.
So I do respect your insights on this topic and I’m glad we can kick it around here.
It’s pretty amazing to see news from 3 markets and the differences in how newscasts are delivered. You get the helicopter shots from KDKA as well as HD newscasts. In Youngstown the news is now in HD on basically 3 stations with WFMJ expected to add HD in the near future. And finally Erie, there’s WJET / WFXP leaving WSEE & WICU in the dust. However, it’ll be years before any of Erie’s stations go the HD route but I would expect Jet / Fox to do it first when it does happen.
Tom, as they say at NASA: “No bucks, no Buck Rogers”
Pittsburgh DMA = #23 = TVHH 1,154,950 = % of US: 1.005
Youngstown DMA = #106 = TVHH 266,560 = % of US: 0.232
Erie DMA = #146 = TVHH 156,520 = % of US: 0.136
According to TVB webpage, Effective Buying Income for Erie & Youngstown markets is nearly identical, and EBI for Pittsburgh is roughly 10% higher.
I’m guessing, then, that spot rates on the respective ad cards for local news/weather/sports avails are roughly proportional to TVHH with perhaps a slight additional boost for Pittsburgh from its EBI advantage.
Re: WJET/WFXP vs. WICU/WSEE
WJET/WFXP are run by Nexstar Broadcasting (publicly held; traded on NASDAQ as NXST; market cap $113.1 Million).
WICU/WSEE are run by Lilly Family (closely held, private).
Sort of like comparing individual Wegman’s location to mom & pop store like Urbaniak’s Market. That’s not a backhanded slam: both have their respective clientele and customer bases, both make money for their owners, both serve a legitimate function and provide goods/services/jobs to the community.
But economies of scale do favor Nexstar, all other things being equal. Whether the latter assumption is true or not, however, can be the subject of a whole other discussion.
I can see your point there I just see that one company cares more about their on air product than the other outside of network fed HD. If money is tight for Lilly, maybe it’s time to sell to a company like New Vision who runs WKBN Youngstown as well as operates WYTV for Parker broadcasting. Both stations have much improved on air product and more local HD programming locally as well as syndicated fare. A company like that could truly compete with Nexstar unlike the shoestring budget of Lilly who ruined both WICU & WSEE with cheap quality and over the air signal issues.