Local and national election coverage
WED. UPDATE - Talking to folks around the office, the consensus is that KOAA had the best coverage, providing the information smoothly and working in pertinent analysis.
KKTV is getting a lot of criticism for a chaotic presentation and frequent snafus.
KRDO's Jon Karroll has earned praise, but people think co-anchor Nina Sparano seemed scattered.
Anyway, that's what a bunch of newspaper people think of the TV coverage -- if any TV people want to weigh in with their opinion of The Gazette's coverage, have at it! Turnabout is fair play.
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Three "rookie" news anchors holding down the national desks tonight. I dunno what it really means, but so far I'd give the edge to NBC, where Brian Williams called in the old hand - Tom Brokaw - to pitch in on election night. They had the big gets early - McCain and Obama - and the tag team seemed pretty smooth to me.
I want to give Katie Couric the benefit of the doubt, but the weirdness about Tester in Montana - "The interesting thing about him is he lost three fingers in a meat grinding accident" - is not winning me over. Odd.
I haven't made up my mind about Charlie Gibson yet... after watching some more, I'm sticking with NBC as the one to watch.
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There's nothing like the chaos of an election to highlight the shortcomings - or strengths - of local TV news. Technical glitches are a given, what's more important is how the anchors and reporters roll with them. Also, preparation means the difference between the anchors just reading numbers and being able to put them in context.
Locally, props to KRDO for committing to the hour of local coverage, but it made for some pretty dry TV. The folks there did their homework, though, I'll give them that.
Meanwhile, over at KXRM, things are more interesting, but not really in a good way. They're having trouble with the precinct numbers and an embarrassing mic gaffe with Rachel Regalado -- Joe had to call across to tell her to turn on her mic.
I'm having reception problems with KKTV and KOAA. Anyone want to chime in on how they're doing?
UPDATE: OK, now I've got KKTV again. I'd rate them OK. They've got the best graphics, but they're having trouble throwing things around - particularly Mindy Stone at the Beauprez concession. Sort of understandable, but the race was called an hour ago. No reason for the anchors to tiptoe around things at this point. Betty Sexton's report from the Ritter HQ was an example of how those things should go.
I'm going to get some sleep. The TV will be there in the morning.
posted by AndyW @ 11/07/2006 07:15:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I flipped around a lot and thought KKTV was horrible. The anchors were uncomfortable and totally dependent upon their scripts.
Top of the 10pm, the did a live shot with Betty in Denver, thanked her, then did some weird "lets start our coverage" thing with all their "stars" in little boxes. THEN they said... "lets go first to Betty." DUH--you just did that, morons! Betty looked a little surprised, too, to be tossed back with nothing new to say. Bad producing and even worse anchor reactions.
I noticed KKTV was fuzzy over the air and KOAA was hard to tune in. What gives? KRDO's signal was crystal clear over tht air. Did KRDO have an engineer scramble the competitions' signal? :)
Having worked numerous elections, as a member of the media and now as a worker at the polls for the last few years, election night brings out the best or worst in a station's staff. After coming home exhausted at 8:30 PM after having worked at a precinct all day, I wanted to know the numbers and switched around to various stations. KKTV was bad, and I had heard that they were off the air again, for 15 to 20 minutes earlier in the day. KRDO was mediocre, numbers and ad libbing aren't necessarily Nina's strong suite and KOAA had the best consitency. At 10 PM KUSA 9News and KCNC News4 were equally excellent in their presentations.
Hope KKTV thinks they got their money's worth out of Shannon & Don. I certainly wasn't impressed.
I must add--I caught a bit of Dan Rather on Comedy Central. Hilarious! Go get 'em, Gunga Dan!
What about radio?
Last night again proved why KOAA is the market news leader. Its obvious they've put everything into their "experience", but they do that because it pays off. Last night was a good example. Kudos.
I echo thoughts about KKTV's coverage. Like a lot of their stuff lately it has not looked like the market leader they'd like to think they are.
I agree that KRDO was mediocre. Nina's age and inexperience shows in situations like Tuesday night. If she's reading the prompter she's fine and comes off very credible, but if news is breaking, she's talking about weather, or ad-libbing about anything else she instantly becomes the weakest evening anchor in the market.
KXRM? Long way to go before they are in the conversation.
"I agree that KRDO was mediocre. Nina's age and inexperience shows in situations like Tuesday night. If she's reading the prompter she's fine and comes off very credible, but if news is breaking, she's talking about weather, or ad-libbing about anything else she instantly becomes the weakest evening anchor in the market."
Good point but News Press & Gazette has only owned KRDO-TV for about five months. It KOAA years for them to be the leader they are now. Lisa Lyden in the full time anchor chair since 1983 and Rob Quark co-anchor in the early 1990's. Evening Post publishing aquired KOAA around 1977. NPG meanwhile has a ways to go to undo the bean counting ways of Patti Hoth, but believe me when I say NPG will play to win.
"KXRM? Long way to go before they are in the conversation."
KXRM has been in the game for one and a half months. The years it was produced by KKTV does not count.
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