Local News in E. WA is in a sad state

crainbebo said:

KIMA seems to be getting better with their product. Last night Ariella Toren (reporter) joined Jake Taylor for a few minutes for the top story. Slight chemistry but should get better. This is what I'd like to see more often! This also happens often on NBC Right Now with a big story. Usually, any live reporter is off to the green screen.

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I do wonder if KEPR/KIMA will eventually follow the other market stations to combine their Tri/Yakima newscasts. My best guess it will eventually happen, perhaps sooner than later.

Beyond that, I noticed that Cody Proctor was not on yesterday or today, but perhaps I am missing her on the 6pm, as I usually only watch the 5.

KIMA (and I assume KEPR) are now showing a Sinclair 'must-run' editorial at the end of the Friday newscast. Boris Epshteyn hosts, who was an ex-Trump spokesperson. I suppose all Sinclair newscasts are showing this. Otherwise, no other changes, minus KIMA introducing a Thursday segment called 'Yakima Good', with profiles of businesses making a difference in the valley.

Boris Epshteyn was back again at the end of tonight's KIMA 5p newscast! Looks like this is daily now. KEPR and KLEW did not air Boris at the end of their newscasts, as I checked their webstreams.

New reporter on KIMA, Trisha McCauley. She just graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and freelanced for WTTW. They are still showing 'Bottom Line with Boris' during the 5pm news, 3 times a week. What irks me, is that the main anchor never tells us the commentary is next, only that the 'CBS Evening News is coming up next'.
I'm also noticing a lot of stories that are 2-3 days old on KIMA. For example, a while back they talked about, IIRC an attempted kidnapping at a local Yakima park that happened three days before. This would never fly at a Seattle station. The news isn't supposed to be 3-4 days old.
I rarely watch 11pm on KIMA, but I've been seeing Scott solo most of the time.
Really enjoyed the Hometown Proud segments this summer on NBC Right Now. Except that one time where the crew was in Mesa, WA. There is nothing there! At all! Hopefully that won't be used next summer.

Starting 9/11/17, KAPP/KVEW will now air an hour of local news from 6:00-7:00pm. With the cancellation of The Insider, and Extra moving from 6 to 7:30 (Insider's old slot), they had to fill it with something. They will also be competing with KEPR/KIMA and KNDU at 6. This is the first time in many years where local news has aired an hour straight on a local Yakima/T.C. station.

crainbebo said:

Starting 9/11/17, KAPP/KVEW will now air an hour of local news from 6:00-7:00pm. With the cancellation of The Insider, and Extra moving from 6 to 7:30 (Insider's old slot), they had to fill it with something. They will also be competing with KEPR/KIMA and KNDU at 6. This is the first time in many years where local news has aired an hour straight on a local Yakima/T.C. station.

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Interesting. Not seeing a lot of promotion on this event, but perhaps I have simply missed it. I hope they can upgrade their overall look with this change, but seriously doubt that will occur. From graphics to set to talent...

There are huge fires going on in KIMA's viewing area - Norse Peak and Jolly Mountain. The latter has forced evacuations of both Roslyn and Ronald. Yet KIMA only covers it for 30 seconds for each fire and has never sent a reporter. Don't think I've seen much from NBC Right Now or KAPP either. Cle Elum is right behind them with a level 1 'get ready' notice. Do they know how to cover a disaster, knowing some people in Kittitas County are unable to get Seattle stations? If something horrible was to ever happen in Yakima or Kittitas County, would KIMA wait for their 5PM news to report it?

crainbebo said:

There are huge fires going on in KIMA's viewing area - Norse Peak and Jolly Mountain. The latter has forced evacuations of both Roslyn and Ronald. Yet KIMA only covers it for 30 seconds for each fire and has never sent a reporter. Don't think I've seen much from NBC Right Now or KAPP either. Cle Elum is right behind them with a level 1 'get ready' notice. Do they know how to cover a disaster, knowing some people in Kittitas County are unable to get Seattle stations? If something horrible was to ever happen in Yakima or Kittitas County, would KIMA wait for their 5PM news to report it?

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To answer your question...no they wouldn't know how to cover it. But they don't have the staff. Pure and simple. This is a problem with smaller market tv stations and the blame is not totally on them. Revenues are becoming much more sparse in today's multi-media world. While KAPP/KVEW may be expanding their news by a half hour, it doesn't mean they have more resources, it just means they are laying out more land space, which doesn't equate to better news coverage.

crainbebo said:

Starting 9/11/17, KAPP/KVEW will now air an hour of local news from 6:00-7:00pm. With the cancellation of The Insider, and Extra moving from 6 to 7:30 (Insider's old slot), they had to fill it with something. They will also be competing with KEPR/KIMA and KNDU at 6. This is the first time in many years where local news has aired an hour straight on a local Yakima/T.C. station.

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Finally got around to watching KAPP/KVEW with their new 5 & 6 alignment. Graphics the same, opening the same, set still using greenscreen, but somewhat modified. But probably a good move to be in alignment with the other local affiliates, and offering a full hour at 6 is a bold move.

I've noticed a new 'background' for their 'set'. Still not a set with a green screen. Seems kind of blurry too. 35/42 could do so much better, and the same goes with 19/29. In fact they are one of the few Sinclair stations left WITHOUT the Sinclair music package or graphics (except for weather). I'm sticking with NBC Right Now for my local news. Better anchors, better weathermen. Tim Adams and Monty Webb are still good meteorologists with experience. Plus SWX airs HSFB live on Fridays.
Ariella Toren is out at KIMA. Her bio is gone. Khalyn King and a couple of other new reporters now at the station. And the 'work-one-year-in-Yakima' phase continues...

Just found out something about KEPR. Remember they prerecord the little 10-minute segment for KIMA at 11pm? They also record their 'KEPR News at 10' SEVERAL hours in advance! Yes, the 10pm news on CW9. Cody Proctor was doing a 'live' report from Kennewick that was still completely light out and looked like it was 4:30. Mike McCabe's weather also claimed it was 'sunny and 66 right now'. Also not one Yakima story to be found. Really, Sinclair? This shows how cheap KEPR is. Thumbs way down!

crainbebo said:

Just found out something about KEPR. Remember they prerecord the little 10-minute segment for KIMA at 11pm? They also record their 'KEPR News at 10' SEVERAL hours in advance! Yes, the 10pm news on CW9. Cody Proctor was doing a 'live' report from Kennewick that was still completely light out and looked like it was 4:30. Mike McCabe's weather also claimed it was 'sunny and 66 right now'. Also not one Yakima story to be found. Really, Sinclair? This shows how cheap KEPR is. Thumbs way down!

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I hear you on this. It is all about compression of work hours and small market TV has it down to a science. There is so little effort made to make a newscast appear live. In fact, many "on the street" reports are pre-recorded to ensure there are no mistakes either by the talent or the technical staff. I don't believe this is done 100% of the time, but it is obvious it is being done atleast part of the time. Welcome to small market newscasts circa 2017.

To be fair, however, radio remotes have been doing this for years. Record the remote, (usually via cell phone), make sure it is AOK, then you are golden. The difference perhaps is news should be considered "live and local", where a radio remote is just a modified advertisement.

seatownmedia said:

I hear you on this. It is all about compression of work hours and small market TV has it down to a science. There is so little effort made to make a newscast appear live. In fact, many "on the street" reports are pre-recorded to ensure there are no mistakes either by the talent or the technical staff. I don't believe this is done 100% of the time, but it is obvious it is being done atleast part of the time. Welcome to small market newscasts circa 2017.

To be fair, however, radio remotes have been doing this for years. Record the remote, (usually via cell phone), make sure it is AOK, then you are golden. The difference perhaps is news should be considered "live and local", where a radio remote is just a modified advertisement.

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To be more precise, radio stations now do remotes by recording their segment into their phones, then simply sending the file to the radio station. So much for the old Marti's. I'm sure some still use them, but the tech allows a much better bypass. We are seeing similar tech with TV stations. Record it, send it, and air it. While this is not that common in major markets, it definitely is the way smaller markets are doing it today. The one problem with this system is a lack of conversation possibllity between anchors and reporters, but I doubt many really care about that. If they do, they just put the reporter in the studio and make believe there is a continued conversation about the story. Fun stuff at the local level, I guess.

KCYU/Yakima was in full meltdown mode 10-15 minutes ago. Couldn't even watch any part of Fox First at Ten. Commercial breaks run, then there's black. Lots of black. Several minutes of black, and then another commercial break! Is this going on at KFFX as well? This TV market is a JOKE for news...and for people running stations.
Now Dateline finally running, joined in progress...
Earlier tonight at KIMA, Jake Taylor introduced Mike McCabe's final WX segment which got cut off for commercials as he was introducing the 7-day forecast. This is what happens when you throw automation to Seattle. KIMA only spent about three minutes on the Olympia Amtrak collision, and didn't even talk about the long detours people have to take around the crash site. You'd think that would be of importance. It's winter break, and there might be families heading to the South Sound from Yakima to visit family!

As much as I can't stand KAPP/KVEW and their mediocre quality and airing only a couple minutes of 11PM news, I will give them props on this...last night I saw an advertisement with Jason Valentine promoting LOCAL New Year's Eve coverage! During New Year's Rockin' Eve they will cut in throughout the night with coverage from Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton. There's some live band and other festivities. I wonder if they will air a local countdown in tandem with the ball drop (tape-delayed), or if they will blot out the NY ball drop and air a PT countdown. This is a first for southeastern WA if so!
Not related to TV news, but I wonder why 'First Night Tri-Cities' in Kennewick shoots off fireworks and celebrates the new year at 9PM? There's some common sense that I don't see. Midnight is midnight LOCAL time not whenever Eastern time celebrates! Proof here:
www.firstnighttricities.com/

crainbebo said:

As much as I can't stand KAPP/KVEW and their mediocre quality and airing only a couple minutes of 11PM news, I will give them props on this...last night I saw an advertisement with Jason Valentine promoting LOCAL New Year's Eve coverage! During New Year's Rockin' Eve they will cut in throughout the night with coverage from Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton. There's some live band and other festivities. I wonder if they will air a local countdown in tandem with the ball drop (tape-delayed), or if they will blot out the NY ball drop and air a PT countdown. This is a first for southeastern WA if so!
Not related to TV news, but I wonder why 'First Night Tri-Cities' in Kennewick shoots off fireworks and celebrates the new year at 9PM? There's some common sense that I don't see. Midnight is midnight LOCAL time not whenever Eastern time celebrates! Proof here:
www.firstnighttricities.com/

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I don't get that either, perhaps they are trying to make it "family friendly"? Anyway, I shot "FirstNight" an email and will get back on here if I get a response.

seatownmedia said:

I don't get that either, perhaps they are trying to make it "family friendly"? Anyway, I shot "FirstNight" an email and will get back on here if I get a response.

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That didn't take long. The Excecutive Director of FirstNight emailed me back. I can only paraphrase his response, but I was correct.

(paraphrasing): event is 3pm to 9pm. geared to kids. feedback was to make it an earlier event. difficult logistically to run such an event after midnight.

Yep, that's what I thought. Yet 'First Night' had fireworks at midnight for 2014-2015. Too bad no one airs it.

KIMA's news tonight featured an unusual news open with different music. Probably Sinclair's new package, which is being used at KOMO and KATU. I wonder if new graphics and a different set are on the way for '18? This is what KATU uses: http://static-12.sinclairstoryline....2-poster_5860ddb9d12740aeabae54fb80acf6b2.png
...and I wonder if we'll see something like this at both KEPR and KIMA soon. Would be nice to see a fresh look to the dull blue background they have had for years.

crainbebo said:

KIMA's news tonight featured an unusual news open with different music. Probably Sinclair's new package, which is being used at KOMO and KATU. I wonder if new graphics and a different set are on the way for '18? This is what KATU uses: http://static-12.sinclairstoryline....2-poster_5860ddb9d12740aeabae54fb80acf6b2.png
...and I wonder if we'll see something like this at both KEPR and KIMA soon. Would be nice to see a fresh look to the dull blue background they have had for years.

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Hmm...the 6:30 KEPR/KIMA combined weekend news tonight looks like the same old same old. Same music, same graphics...maybe they were testing something new last night?