As I've said before, all the Yakima stations come in as Ellensburg is considered Yakima DMA. 4 and 5 Seattle are on part-time feeds and blacked out in primetime. 7 and 13 are not carried. 7 used to be carried in the past, 13 used to be on an OTA translator with no blackouts. KCYU must have complained as 13 no longer runs a translator out there.
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Local News in E. WA is in a sad state
- Thread starter seatownmedia
- Start date
Noticed that KEPR/KIMA ran the Sinclair KOMO documentary "Seattle is dying" this evening. This controversial documentary is actually not a bashing of Seattle, but a wakeup call. Glad to see Sinclair atleast promoting good work from their local stations to some of their feeder markets. While I have serious problems with Sinclair, I like this move. I hope they send it to Boise as well.
Too busy watching (I think) Wicked Tuna to really notice. But I'm glad KIMA showed that. KOMO did an extraordinary job on that special. Eric Johnson should get awards for that.
I still like 4 even with the Sinclair ownership. At least they focus their main newscast on Seattle news, with few 'must-run' segments. Those are usually shown during the morning news IIRC.
I still like 4 even with the Sinclair ownership. At least they focus their main newscast on Seattle news, with few 'must-run' segments. Those are usually shown during the morning news IIRC.
Here’s the new look and branding of KXLY (or, “4 News Now”). I like the set and the new Good Morning Northwest theme music, but I’m not so hot on the logo or the branding. But kudos to them for at least breaking away from the blue logo for the first time in about 40 years.
Video overview with news director Melissa Luck: https://www.facebook.com/237861902902757/posts/2425868317435427?s=559450517
https://www.kxly.com/news/new-set-new-look-introducing-4-news-now/1090259006
And here’s the first 45 seconds of GMNW: https://www.facebook.com/237861902902757/posts/2425371667485092?s=559450517
The new orange play button logo looks a lot like WISC’s, so it seems like this is standardization for Morgan Media. I’m sure KVEW/KAPP will be receiving a similar facelift soon, Crainbebo.
Video overview with news director Melissa Luck: https://www.facebook.com/237861902902757/posts/2425868317435427?s=559450517
https://www.kxly.com/news/new-set-new-look-introducing-4-news-now/1090259006
And here’s the first 45 seconds of GMNW: https://www.facebook.com/237861902902757/posts/2425371667485092?s=559450517
The new orange play button logo looks a lot like WISC’s, so it seems like this is standardization for Morgan Media. I’m sure KVEW/KAPP will be receiving a similar facelift soon, Crainbebo.
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Wow, a total makeover. Not only set, but logo. Very overdue. Does look good! Now they need to somehow replace Nadine Woodward, or perhaps they might take her back if she doesn't win the mayor race. Don't have any inside info on that!
She’s probably going to win the election (personally, I’m a a Ben Stuckart guy), but she probably wouldn’t go back to KXLY if she lost. They haven’t been reporting about the race and her candidacy with kidgloves — and rightly so — and she hasn’t been too kind to the local media.
I didn’t like Nadine at KXLY. I think she was at her best when she was working with Charles Rowe or Randy Shaw. As a solo anchor, I found her boring and too lightweight. Richard Brown was the best anchor KXLY has had in the past 40 years, but guys like him, like Rowe and Shaw, are from a bygone era.
I tend to agree. She needed a strong co-anchor at KXLY. I never understood the years of her being the solo evening anchor. Now that KXLY has re-imaged, they need a good co-anchor team. I think the current solo anchor Aaron Luna is good, just needs a co-anchor to put the entire package together.
Nor am I. But the Tri-Cities/Yakima market is growing and important. They basically let their main anchor move away in the last year, and chose to not replace him. They are a definite #3 in the market. Perhaps they are satisfied with that, and if that is the case, then they deserve what they get.
Aargh! They've returned! 'This is a once-in-a-lifetime (yeah right) opportunity to save 75% on a revolutionary hot tub...TRAC CENTER PAS-COW!' 3rd time this year! Once-in-a-lifetime my arse, and shame on the HAPO/Trac Center for inviting these idiots back over and over, to air their radio ads with the 'alert' sounds and their constant TV ads on Yakima and Kennewick stations.
Revenue rules over content...always has and always will. That said it takes me just a nano second to push my car radio button when these ads come on. Unfortunately almost all stations run the ads so at times it is better to just turn the radio off!
After 4 years they finally edited the pronunciation of “Pasco”. Baby steps.
I'm just curious.. how many of you commenting on how bad tv news is actually work in broadcasting and could do a better job?
TV is NOT easy or cheap to do.
I'm in radio, have been for many years.. and I think If I tried doing tv, it'd be a hot mess.
TV is NOT easy or cheap to do.
I'm in radio, have been for many years.. and I think If I tried doing tv, it'd be a hot mess.
Hmm, let's see...
- 2 of the 3 relying on a news department 75 miles away in a different county and different region to do news for a county with 243,000 people, plus the county north of it with 47,000 people. That's nearly 300,000 potential residents having to rely on 2/3rds of their stations (and actually the third does weekend and morning from Tri-Cities too) from a place where the news anchors DON'T call their region home! Ask the locals here in the valley. They don't want Tri-Cities news. What's going on in our hometown?
- The one Yakima station trying to give up as much as they can on making a decent newscast. About a third of it is local news, the rest is weather/Sinclair must-runs/health segments. The reporters are all young, none of them make Yakima home as they are 'upgraded' to a larger market. We've gone through three anchors in 5-6 years. The first was upgraded to a CBS in Illinois. The next went down to Tri-Cities. The current anchor comes from NTV in Nebraska. Even in the 1990s we had a few reporters that made Yakima their permanent home. It irks me when the lead anchor asks a videotape of the weather guy a 'question.' Because we don't HAVE one locally...not since 2007. How do they bill in terms of advertising I wonder? Because there are days where all I see are promos for various syndicated programs, Sinclair's Stirr App, and Tennis Channel (also part-Sinclair-owned) during LOCAL NEWS. If they don't throw in the towel in the next few years and start simulcasting Pasco news, or hell, pretape Yakima news at KOMO, I would be surprised.
- Budgets. Green screens on the ABC (come on, is this high school morning announcements?). Shoddy Sinclair set on the CBS, outdated graphics. NBC looks OK, at least. No weekend news on the ABC, and 11PM is still only 2 1/2 minutes long ever since the recession cost KAPP their entire news department and building. No weekend weatherman on NBC, they use Spokane. FOX on weekends/mornings is from 3 HOURS AWAY also in Spokane!! Why?! Most of the time, reporters bring their own cameras to live reports too. They may have one or two cameramen in studio, but unlike Seattle's stations, none for live reports.
- Bad commercials. Spa Sale, lawyers, bad car dealers, those animated 'penguins' for a local pool equipment store, etc.
- Besides the sports director (25 years) and the meteorologist (who prerecords segments for KIMA, and has worked at both KEPR and KIMA for 20+ years), no one working in front of a camera, not even an ANCHOR, has been in the market for more than a couple years. Barely.
- The fact that they were ALL ran so much better as late as the mid-2000s. My family grew up in Yakima. They remember how watchable it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Each station was unique and cared about the COMMUNITY, not the top dollar and not the Sinclair must-run by Kristine Frazao. One of KIMA's legends, T.J. Close, just passed away last week, and he had worked at KIMA for 30 years most of that time as the lead anchor for NewsBeat, the #1 newscast in Yakima for decades. All three 'big 3' stations were based here nearly completely. KAPP and KNDO were right next to each other until the recession when they moved to Tri-Cities, and they have never recovered. Ask a long-time local and they will remember the names of some of the news personalities. Bob Ivers, aformentioned T.J., Dana Cowley, Ken Crockett, Stu Seibel, 'Uncle' Jimmy Nolan. Now THAT was when Yakima TV was worth watching.
I may be a little bit biased because I grew up and lived north of Seattle for nearly my whole life. The state of eastern Washington TV news in 2019 would make Steve Raible cringe. All four stations in Seattle got brand new sets almost at the same time in 2014-15. They are ran exceptionally well, with reporters and anchors that make the Puget Sound their permanent home, and for many they almost seem like a 'family' to viewers. KCPQ's morning crew has been the same for years and years minus one anchor. At KOMO, reporters like Connie Thompson and Keith Eldredge have been there since sliced bread was invented. While KING-5 is kind of lost with anchor changes and TEGNA cuts, they are better than central Washington stations.
Moving up to Ellensburg in two months, Spectrum cable (not satellite) has partial (network stuff blacked out) feeds of KOMO-4 (channel 11) and KING-5 (on channel 5). Will be great to see quality news again from my humble roots, even if it's officially out-of-market.
- 2 of the 3 relying on a news department 75 miles away in a different county and different region to do news for a county with 243,000 people, plus the county north of it with 47,000 people. That's nearly 300,000 potential residents having to rely on 2/3rds of their stations (and actually the third does weekend and morning from Tri-Cities too) from a place where the news anchors DON'T call their region home! Ask the locals here in the valley. They don't want Tri-Cities news. What's going on in our hometown?
- The one Yakima station trying to give up as much as they can on making a decent newscast. About a third of it is local news, the rest is weather/Sinclair must-runs/health segments. The reporters are all young, none of them make Yakima home as they are 'upgraded' to a larger market. We've gone through three anchors in 5-6 years. The first was upgraded to a CBS in Illinois. The next went down to Tri-Cities. The current anchor comes from NTV in Nebraska. Even in the 1990s we had a few reporters that made Yakima their permanent home. It irks me when the lead anchor asks a videotape of the weather guy a 'question.' Because we don't HAVE one locally...not since 2007. How do they bill in terms of advertising I wonder? Because there are days where all I see are promos for various syndicated programs, Sinclair's Stirr App, and Tennis Channel (also part-Sinclair-owned) during LOCAL NEWS. If they don't throw in the towel in the next few years and start simulcasting Pasco news, or hell, pretape Yakima news at KOMO, I would be surprised.
- Budgets. Green screens on the ABC (come on, is this high school morning announcements?). Shoddy Sinclair set on the CBS, outdated graphics. NBC looks OK, at least. No weekend news on the ABC, and 11PM is still only 2 1/2 minutes long ever since the recession cost KAPP their entire news department and building. No weekend weatherman on NBC, they use Spokane. FOX on weekends/mornings is from 3 HOURS AWAY also in Spokane!! Why?! Most of the time, reporters bring their own cameras to live reports too. They may have one or two cameramen in studio, but unlike Seattle's stations, none for live reports.
- Bad commercials. Spa Sale, lawyers, bad car dealers, those animated 'penguins' for a local pool equipment store, etc.
- Besides the sports director (25 years) and the meteorologist (who prerecords segments for KIMA, and has worked at both KEPR and KIMA for 20+ years), no one working in front of a camera, not even an ANCHOR, has been in the market for more than a couple years. Barely.
- The fact that they were ALL ran so much better as late as the mid-2000s. My family grew up in Yakima. They remember how watchable it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Each station was unique and cared about the COMMUNITY, not the top dollar and not the Sinclair must-run by Kristine Frazao. One of KIMA's legends, T.J. Close, just passed away last week, and he had worked at KIMA for 30 years most of that time as the lead anchor for NewsBeat, the #1 newscast in Yakima for decades. All three 'big 3' stations were based here nearly completely. KAPP and KNDO were right next to each other until the recession when they moved to Tri-Cities, and they have never recovered. Ask a long-time local and they will remember the names of some of the news personalities. Bob Ivers, aformentioned T.J., Dana Cowley, Ken Crockett, Stu Seibel, 'Uncle' Jimmy Nolan. Now THAT was when Yakima TV was worth watching.
I may be a little bit biased because I grew up and lived north of Seattle for nearly my whole life. The state of eastern Washington TV news in 2019 would make Steve Raible cringe. All four stations in Seattle got brand new sets almost at the same time in 2014-15. They are ran exceptionally well, with reporters and anchors that make the Puget Sound their permanent home, and for many they almost seem like a 'family' to viewers. KCPQ's morning crew has been the same for years and years minus one anchor. At KOMO, reporters like Connie Thompson and Keith Eldredge have been there since sliced bread was invented. While KING-5 is kind of lost with anchor changes and TEGNA cuts, they are better than central Washington stations.
Moving up to Ellensburg in two months, Spectrum cable (not satellite) has partial (network stuff blacked out) feeds of KOMO-4 (channel 11) and KING-5 (on channel 5). Will be great to see quality news again from my humble roots, even if it's officially out-of-market.
35 years in radio for me. Wanted to go into tv but dropped out of college when I got an offer to do radio. Probably should have stayed in school. But I have been an avid news viewer ever since I was about 12 years old.
ok, fair enough then
I know at least one commenter here criticizing the news operations doesn't work in broadcasting.So we have another Columbia Cup broadcast on KNDU and SWX. I give them credit for trying hard, but the broadcast this Sunday was filled with errors and misdirected toss-offs. Pretty dismal. It was amateur hour for sure. Hopefully their tons of sponsors will be forgiving. I would not.