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KPHO and KTVK's Combined News Department

F

formeraa

Star Participant
We've talked a little about what a merged KPHO-KTVK news department would look like in the past. Since the sale has gone through, I thought we might start a forum to discuss this topic in more detail. In the spirit of the proposed policy here, let's keep this topic civil, thoughtful, and respectful.

I would really like to hear opinions on what a combined news department would look like. What would the combined branding be or would each station keep its own branding? Would they ever simulcast the news on both channels or even do two separate newscasts at the same time? Who will be the main anchors, sports, and weather personalities?

Do you have a "dream" anchor team that you think would be best for certain newscasts from current CBS5 and 3TV personalities?
 
The KPHO-KTVK consolidation is perhaps the largest of any such station merger to date, both in terms of market size and in the size of the stations. In a market with no clear leader, both KPHO and KTVK are heavyweight stations; 5 is arguably enjoying its best years in news right now, while 3 has managed a major improvement in its evening newscasts and still has a massive following in the lucrative morning daypart.

What we know
*Ed Munson is the GM of both KPHO and KTVK.
*The combined operation will likely be housed at KTVK's facility at 7th and Missouri.
*KTVK's business office was made redundant.

My vision

A combined KTVK/KPHO operation should leverage what's working at both stations. In many cases their strengths are complementary.

For ND, KTVK's ND is Cameryn Beck (formerly of KOVR), while KPHO is helmed by Leona Wood (who was promoted from AND last year when the then-ND bolted for Albuquerque). I expect Beck, the more tenured and experienced of the two NDs, to be kept.

As for branding, I either expect existing brands to be kept, but if the two are to be unified, I would personally choose the Eyewitness News name. It has a history with both stations (KPHO in the 70s, KTVK in the 80s) but is new enough to the market for many people. Nexstar has used the Eyewitness News name across multiple stations in several markets (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) and it works well as a unifying brand.

In the morning

"Good Morning Arizona" becomes simulcast on both channels 3 and 5, airing from 4:30-7am on channel 5 and from 4:30-10am on channel 3. Given the success of GMAZ, it is left untouched while 5's morning news is subsumed into 3's. I could see Nicole Crites being added.

Your Life A to Z and Better will probably be modified or combined. I could see the two shows being combined into a new "Better" at 10am on KPHO.

At noon, KPHO's noon news continues fairly unaffected. Since Nicole Crites and Paul Horton are on the show, the lineup may change depending on what happens to GMAZ.

In the evening

The evening newscasts are split between KTVK and KPHO; KTVK airs an hour at 4 and a half-hour at 6, while KPHO airs an hour at 5 and a half-hour at 6:30.

I expect KPHO to prevail in the evenings, in terms of anchors. However I do see KTVK staff, such as Carey Peña, as part of the evening anchor lineup because the amount of news (three straight hours) simply demands more than two anchors. Fields Moseley is a bit more of a question mark.

At night

KTVK retains its 9pm news, but drops its 10pm show to cede exclusivity over the hour to KPHO. The 9pm show may be anchored by the same crew as 10pm which would help provide a ratings boost.

The Varsity Zone program, currently airing Fridays at 10:30, is kept in that timeslot. It may also be moved to KPHO, pushing Letterman back by 30 minutes, similar to what KOLD does with its The Overtime show.

Weekends

I'm not going to make many judgments on talent, but KTVK is deeper on the weekends. I expect the weekend GMAZ to continue almost unaffected just because it's a timeslot with no presence from KPHO.

The Saturday evening lineup is 5pm-6pm and 6:30-7pm on KPHO, with a 6pm half hour on KTVK. I also could see a 4:30 on KTVK, but that's new territory (KTAZ is the only station in either language at 4:30 — that just started last week!).

On Sunday, KTVK airs at 5 and KPHO at 5:30. Politics Unplugged is probably moved to Sunday morning on KPHO.

KTVK's weekend news could either be a half hour or an hour. If it's a half hour there will be a Saturday night and Sunday night sports show. If it's an hour there might be a Sunday night sports show on KPHO, the only station currently without one.

Weather

Royal Norman is probably more expensive than Chris Dunn. I almost suspect Dunn stays and Norman goes here.

Sports

The combined station needs a bigger sports operation than KPHO currently has. For a CBS affiliate KPHO has a small sports operation, and given both the sports KPHO carries from the network and Meredith's ambitions of luring sports to KTVK, I think the KTVK sports department is kept, almost intact. I could see Joe Pequeño brought in alongside Tim Ring and Tyler Baldwin.

Varsity Zone remains, as I mentioned.

Consumer and investigative

KPHO's investigative reporting unit has been a major success (aside from being part of KPHO's positioning in the market), and Meredith will ensure that it is kept. Gary Harper and Dave Cherry together may be too much, though, and the station may have to make a choice to cut one or the other.

I'm not going to try and sort out the combination of reporters and weekend anchors myself but that decision will need to be made.
 
Thanks for the very thorough and well-thought out analysis, Raymie!

As for Dave Cherry and Gary Harper, I could see a very solid combined consumer unit. Break them away from the Investigative Unit and brand them as, say, The Watchdogs. I envision a commercial with Dave and Gary standing back to back, with a voiceover saying "The Watchdogs. We're Watching Out for Arizona!" (using the voiceover guy from CBS5).

The whole anchor talent issue is going to be a bit tricky. In the mornings, GMAZ talent should prevail but I could definitely see Paul and Nicole anchoring from 4:30am to 6am and at Noon, while Scott and Kaley anchor from 6am to 10am. In the evenings, perhaps you keep a combination of Sean, Catherine, Carey, and Fields.

On weekends, I would shore up the weekend GMAZ team with Javier joining Tess and add an additional live reporter to fully cover news and events. On weekend evenings, I would try pairing Adam Longo with Jamie Cereta. Jamie's pretty good and has local roots here.

Just my 2 cents...
 
The KCBS-KCAL merger tops KPHO-KTVK both in terms of market size and size of the stations involved. In that pairing, KCAL does news at Noon, 2, 3 and 4 pm and then 8, 9 and 10 pm with syndicated shows the rest of the time. But that's L.A. and the stations are owned by CBS, which has a great deal more in resources than Meredith.

What do I think? I think Raymie's got it wrong when it comes to News Directors. Ed Munson has worked with Leona Wood for 6 years and is the one who promoted her to News Director at KPHO. He's never worked with Cameryn Beck. Cameryn Beck's got a year in Phoenix. Leona's got 9 years. And Leona was an Executive Producer at KTVK before moving over to KPHO. So she knows both operations. It's not even close. Unless Munson is regretting promoting Leona to ND, he sticks with her and Cameryn moves on.

As for the rest of the news staff, expect Munson and Wood to keep anyone they're happy with and to use KTVK's staff to replace any current KPHO people they're not happy with. A lot of KTVK people will probably walk the plank.

Smart bet on the schedule: KPHO will NOT compete against itself.

KPHO keeps its 4:30-7 am morning newscast. When KPHO goes to CBS at 7 am. KTVK would either run Good Morning Arizona from 7-10 or KPHO's morning news would simply continue (possibly with an anchor team change) from 7-10 on KTVK. It all depends on what value Meredith attaches to the Good Morning Arizona brand.

If "Your Life A to Z" is charging for appearances, they'll keep it on KTVK from 10-11. Otherwise, they'll get it out of "Better"'s way.

News from 11-Noon on KTVK, followed by KPHO's half-hour at Noon (probably the same anchors on the same set, and likely people who've been working on the 7-10 a.m. show).

Maybe KTVK keeps 30 minutes at 4:30 and 6:00. If they do, expect that to be the same anchors on the same set as the 5:00, 5:30 and 6:30 KPHO newscasts.

Whether KTVK does news at 9 depends on how badly KPHO thinks that might affect their CBS 9-10 pm numbers, which affects the 10 pm news lead-in. And again, same anchors and set as the KPHO 10 pm. If they think they'll hurt themselves, KTVK won't be on at night. The 10 pm KTVK is dead.

Bottom line, "Good Morning Arizona" has the best chance of surviving more or less intact, but shorter. But that's not a guarantee, and it could become just a 3-hour extension of KPHO's morning news. KTVK's 11 am will almost certainly be just a 60-minute extension of KPHO's noon, and KTVK at 4:30, 6:00 and 9:00 are all dependent on whether KPHO thinks it will hurt the mothership.
 
I have an update. It has been confirmed by KPHO personnel that KPHO will move to KTVK's building (sorry can't reveal the source).

@unregistered, the Phoenix Business Journal has stated that GEAZ will now start at 4pm (which actually fits with Raymie's scenario above). The interesting part in the article was the anchor situation: Fields and Jamie at 4pm with Lee and Pena at 5-6:30pm, 9pm, and 10pm, which would be a significant expansion for Lee. If the article is correct about the anchor assignments, then either Fields is being demoted or Fields and Jamie are being put on a newscast that is likely to survive and might be the permanent 4pm anchors.

Furthermore, I still believe that Meredith management would be silly not to simulcast the early am news (4:30am-7am) on KTVK. GMAZ is currently a strong brand and why send those people potentially to another station during that timeslot. Even if you embark on a campaign that GMAZ is now on 5 between 4:30am and 7am, you risk losing some of the total audience. I think simulcasting, with different commercials on the two stations, could be a way to maximize viewers and revenue. But, again, it's just a thought -- I don't have research data in front of me. You can bet that Meredith is doing some in-depth surveys about the news configuration.
 
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I'm amazed. I truly and really am. Here is channel 3, in the biggest structural turmoil certainly since they lost ABC and possibly in the station's entire history, and they've not only hired people but they've added newscasts.
 
Raymie said:
I'm amazed. I truly and really am. Here is channel 3, in the biggest structural turmoil certainly since they lost ABC and possibly in the station's entire history, and they've not only hired people but they've added newscasts.
Click to expand...

Don't believe for a moment that what you see happening right now is how things will be done in the future. Everything might currently be bunnies, dandelions and rainbows, but the storm will eventually come...it always does.

There will be huge layoffs of behind the scenes staff, and eventually you will see more combination of the two stations. Management will chop, and chop again to keep profit margins up. Such is the reason for duopolies.
 
Well, note where they are extending newscasts:

1. Weekend GMAZ one hour earlier -- After 10 and 15 added weekend morning newscasts, 3 found itself behind the curve on the weekend am beat. KPHO has no weekend am newscasts -- so weekend GMAZ is likely to survive the merger.

2. Weekday evenings starting at 4pm -- that's exactly what we've been talking about for KTVK post-merger -- a newscast from 4pm to 5pm. So, why not start viewer tuning in earlier right away?

So, it actually all makes sense. As Mediafrog points out, the inevitable cuts will come soon enough.

P.S. Yetta Gibson saw what was happening and lept at the chance to go to 15!
 
So just commercials on CBS 5 that Inside Edition will be added to their weekday schedule at 4pm. Inside Edition had been on KTVK 3TV for many years at 4pm. So this means Good Evening Arizona will now be starting at 4pm. Also, The Dr. OZ Show moves from 3TV to Fox 10/My 45 this fall.
 
I haven't seen a single comment on what the merger means for the Phoenix metro area viewer. Personally I think it means more hours of repetitive "news" (mostly of the very soft variety). In a market already saturated with news overkill we certainly don't need more hours devoted to quasi-news and car dealership ads.
 
Raymie said:
And today the official word: KPHO is moving in with KTVK, buying the facility for $9.9 million. Operations will be relocated from KPHO's 25,000 sf facility to KTVK's 90,000 sf studio over the next year.
Click to expand...

They will keep separate news departments. The reason for that is that it's a CBS requirement. And since KPHO is a CBS affiliate, they have to follow network dictates on local news as part of their affiliation agreement.

Tribune learned this when they snagged CBS for WTTV Indianapolis last month. WTTV hasn't had its own news department for almost 25 years. They contracted out to WRTV for 10 years, then started airing sister-station WXIN's news programming when Tribune bought the station. They were told they had to restart WTTV's news department, and it will have to be on-line when CBS moves there next January.

KTVK and KPHO can be co-located, and share some functions like engineering and sales, but news operations must be separate if Meredith wants to keep CBS on Channel 5.
 
KeithE4 said:
They will keep separate news departments. The reason for that is that it's a CBS requirement. And since KPHO is a CBS affiliate, they have to follow network dictates on local news as part of their affiliation agreement.

Tribune learned this when they snagged CBS for WTTV Indianapolis last month. WTTV hasn't had its own news department for almost 25 years. They contracted out to WRTV for 10 years, then started airing sister-station WXIN's news programming when Tribune bought the station. They were told they had to restart WTTV's news department, and it will have to be on-line when CBS moves there next January.

KTVK and KPHO can be co-located, and share some functions like engineering and sales, but news operations must be separate if Meredith wants to keep CBS on Channel 5.
Click to expand...

KCBS and KCAL in LA share a news operation. A model similar to that would not surprise me.
 
KeithE4 said:
They will keep separate news departments. The reason for that is that it's a CBS requirement. And since KPHO is a CBS affiliate, they have to follow network dictates on local news as part of their affiliation agreement.

Tribune learned this when they snagged CBS for WTTV Indianapolis last month. WTTV hasn't had its own news department for almost 25 years. They contracted out to WRTV for 10 years, then started airing sister-station WXIN's news programming when Tribune bought the station. They were told they had to restart WTTV's news department, and it will have to be on-line when CBS moves there next January.

KTVK and KPHO can be co-located, and share some functions like engineering and sales, but news operations must be separate if Meredith wants to keep CBS on Channel 5.
Click to expand...

Yep that's something Tribune is going to have to do, I'm not sure if Meredith will be able to do that, they'll have to watch how Tribune does to WTTV in the next 122 days before the switch in Indianapolis commences.
 
Not sure if this post will make it through, but I got the opportunity to watch KOLD News 13 and KMSB Fox 11 after KTVK stopped their 3TV news simulcast on 11 down in Tucson, but KOLD had their anchors on both stations. Just a bit of usless trivia.
 
KeithE4 said:
They will keep separate news departments. The reason for that is that it's a CBS requirement. And since KPHO is a CBS affiliate, they have to follow network dictates on local news as part of their affiliation agreement.

Tribune learned this when they snagged CBS for WTTV Indianapolis last month. WTTV hasn't had its own news department for almost 25 years. They contracted out to WRTV for 10 years, then started airing sister-station WXIN's news programming when Tribune bought the station. They were told they had to restart WTTV's news department, and it will have to be on-line when CBS moves there next January.

KTVK and KPHO can be co-located, and share some functions like engineering and sales, but news operations must be separate if Meredith wants to keep CBS on Channel 5.
Click to expand...

Really? Because KCBS/KCAL and KPIX/KBCW have combined news operations.
 
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