KXRM first look

I'm pulling myself away from a Green Bay Packers game to write about this, so I hope y'all appreciate it...

A few audio problems off the bat. Nothing horrible.

The new backdrop is certainly better than the old one at KKTV, but it seems a little narrow, doesn't it? They hadn't moved the set over or unfurled the backdrop when I was hanging out there last week, so I'm seeing that stuff for the first time. And the top of the set looks weird above that backdrop -- it wasn't that way with the old backdrop at KK, was it?

Joe and Stephanie look washed out. I played with the controls on my TV and it didn't help, so I'm thinking it's the lighting there. The shots from outside the studio look OK, too. J&S are both dressed in solid colors. Apropos of nothing, but note it for the style file.

Some tinny audio on Mike Coneen's school security report. Decent story, but a little hard to hear.

Terry's the smoothest part of the show so far. Terry's such an old pro, you could probably pull him out of a coma and he'd go straight to tomorrow's forecast.

Grace Polanski seems to have a pretty thorough report on the teacher sex scandal in Pueblo. She's delivering it from the green wall, though, and the computer cut-out around her image is really choppy. And having the reporter look like a leprauchan next to a giant picture of a sex offender was probably a bad idea.

I'm not in love with the graphic treatments -- everything feels a little busy. For example, in the around the world in 80 seconds thing, the elements were fighting each other.

Bad transition from the prescription medicine story to the cut-away to commercial. My wife said, "Whoa, that was abrupt," lest you think I'm nitpicking. I think you could hear Stephanie groan a little, too.

Terry looks fine against the green wall. Maybe it was just the solid backdrop causing problems for Polanski? The weather projections behind the Pikes Peak/Pueblo cityscape were pretty cool.

Let me amend my graphics comment - the title cards, like the "Foxlight" celebrity thing, look cool. It's the other stuff that's busy.

Now we've got the requisite story about a Fox show. It's a feature on a stunt man for "Prison Break," which I saw in the Wisconsin State Journal two weeks ago. Just sayin'.

The story on the 2nd BCT deploying proves Joe wasn't BSing about not having reporters do meaningless live shots. Good for him. Rachel Reglado's voice-over was a little rough, but the story appeared to be well photographed. I did not, however, see my buddy Josh in there. Hope you find some whitewater in Baghdad, man.

Laura Forbes story on the baby gorilla is pretty smooth. Won't this story be in the top half of the newscast on the other channels, though? With an hour newscast, there's that balance to strike between having good stories sprinkled throughout the newscast and putting the top stories at the top of the hour. You may disagree about cute animal stories leading the news, but it's pretty well established that viewers like them. I do. The other stations will run that 2nd BCT story pretty early, too. It'll be on the front page of the Gazette.

Regalado gets the annual Venetucci pumpkin story, too. She's better doing the stand-up than the voice-over. Her collar looks like Sally Fields' wimple from "The Flying Nun," though. Pretty funny. Watch out for gusty winds.

You see the tease for sports? KXRM went without a sports anchor. Joe will be handling it - doing the headlines and then something more featurey. I like sports, and nothing against John Owens and company, but I don't think it's a bad way to handle it. We'll see how it works.

Joe's smooth, but it's just the Haynesworth story. The Monday night game is over by now - it would be good to give that score, at least. (Packers got crushed in the second half, curses!). I'll reserve judgment for now.

And that's the show.