If you aren’t clicking on Viewfinder Blues most days, you’re missing the most amusing TV news blog in the business. We’ve written before about our man-crush on Stewart Pittman (though we’ve never actually met). He’s a guy who slogs through a day shooting news at WGHP in High Point NC. Then he goes home, puts [...]
Archive for June, 2009
28 Jun
Emmy notes
Scanning the list of winners from Saturday’s Southeastern Emmy awards, a few things stand out. A TV station in Columbia SC beat WSB and WAGA in the Investigative Reporting category. WLTX produced a report in May 2008 about South Carolina prison inmates stealing the identities of Citibank card holders. The inmates sold the information from [...]
25 Jun
Smoltz v. Bradley
Most of us had no idea that one of Atlanta’s most thoughtful and prolific AJC sports columnists wasn’t on speaking terms with one of Atlanta’s most dynamic athletes. Yet it seems that for most of his career as an Atlanta Brave, John Smoltz refused to speak with Mark Bradley (and Bradley reciprocated). Why? Because Bradley [...]
23 Jun
Have you got yourself an occupation?
The staff at WXIA learned Tuesday that they’re only days away from getting new across-the-board pay cuts. The pay cuts will apply to staff in all of Gannett’s 23 broadcasting properties. Employees making more than $30,000 per year will get pay cuts of up to six percent. Gannett broadcast president Dave Lougee sent a memo [...]
22 Jun
Saturday night WAGA
Here’s what the DVR turned up while watching WAGA’s 10pm news Saturday. Embattled sergeant. Chris Shaw produced a story about the homecoming of a soldier who lost three limbs in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. Interesting enough. But Shaw’s purpose was to tell a detailed story about a controversy surrounding two homes, funded by [...]
18 Jun
Your innovation station
The local TV news formula changes very little. Since the 1970s, it’s largely gone like this: Male and female co-anchors Weather forecaster Slightly crazy sports guy Happy chatter amongst them Reporter packages with voice track, sound, voice track and outcue Live “doughnuts” with package wedged between live open and close “Coming up!” teases “Exclusives” Show-closing [...]
17 Jun
Icons
When Tom Houck jumped up to ask the first question at last week’s Atlanta Press Club TV news director’s forum, he referred to local news anchors as “icons.” He asked a very good question: Given the contraction of the news business, how long will local TV stations be able to justify paying large salaries to [...]
16 Jun
“Hybrid”
WXIA was the first. WGCL jumped in a few months ago. WSB did it last week. All of those Atlanta TV stations now employ “backpack journalists” a/k/a one-man-bands a/k/a “hybrids.” The position seems to be a natural part of the evolution of 21st century newsgathering, where budgets have contracted alongside viewership and advertising dollars. It’s [...]
15 Jun
TV news stinks, part two
When the Atlanta Press Club gathered the four Atlanta TV news directors for a forum last week, the first question from moderator Denis O’Hayer addressed this hypothesis: TV news stinks. The hypothesis wasn’t shocking. The shocking part is that it came from the mouth of the VP of News at WXIA-TV, Ellen Crooke. Crooke uttered [...]
12 Jun
Duck, and cover up
There are many things to like about Wendy Saltzman’s WGCL series on wasteful spending in the Fulton County school system. First, the money is substantial. Saltzman convincingly reports that Fulton’s school system rigged its bidding process so that Office Depot could land a contract for school supplies. Office Depot’s bid was nearly $1.6 million higher [...]
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