Are we wimps?
stan posted this at 8:57 AM, and
3 of you responded
When I lived in Portland, I can remember seeing (and hearing) commercials for the ten o’clock newscasts on both KPTV and KPDX. Their main selling point was that they were one hour earlier than the standard 11pm news on channels 2, 6 and 8, so the news-hungry viewer wouldn’t have to wait any longer than they had to for the latest war protest footage or Meth Watch.
Fast forward to 2008, Joplin area, Missouri. We’re in the Central Time Zone, and network TV does things funny around here – rather than tape delay everything like they do in Pacific and Mountain, they just air everything at the same time as Eastern, which amounts to it all being one hour earlier. Thus, prime time starts at 7:00, and is over by 10:00. And the Fox Network is done by 9pm. Can you see where I’m going here?
The other day I saw a commercial advertising the Joplin Fox station’s 9 o’clock newscast, and guess what? They have the same selling point as the ones back in Stumptown – all the news you need, one hour earlier than the other guys (and about two or three clicks down on the production-value-o-meter).
It’s also interesting to note that the Fox affiliate and the CBS affiliate are one and the same company, yet they don’t share a news team, as one might expect (like KOIN and KPDX used to do – I always thought it was funny that it was the Channel 6 news on Fox 49, and branded as such).
3 Talked Back:
At May 15, 2008 at 11:15:00 PM CDT,
Unknown said...
Until a few years back the federal government didn't allow a media company to own 2 TV stations in the same market. That has changed and now KPTV Fox 12 and PDX 49 are under the same ownership and in the same studios.
Koin (6) no longer produces news for PDX 49, but Newschannel 8 does produce a 10pm newscast on another station. I think it's the CW affiliate.
Fox 12 Oregon's 10 O'Clock news has been so successful that they've added an 11 O'Clock news that competes with the 3 other network stations. I'm never home at 4pm, but I hear that Fox 12 Oregon has also added a 4 O'Clock newscast. That's consistent with their one hour earlier than the rest theme.
My favorite Fox 12 news program is still Good Day Oregon, which I can watch 15 minutes of in the morning before work. You get the headlines, weather, traffic, and some fun feature segments from Joe V.
This morning Air 12 woke me up as they were covering some criminal/police activity about 1 mile away. The video they were showing was quite good even though they were hovering near my home and zooming in from over 1 mile away.
At May 15, 2008 at 11:20:00 PM CDT,
Unknown said...
One more thing...
The one thing I don't like about Fox 12s newscasts is that I think they are more heavily focused on crime than the other stations.
It's probably easy to cover and it does get ratings. I guess I'm still watching even though I think it's too much sometimes.
At May 16, 2008 at 7:51:00 AM CDT,
stan said...
Don't forget all of the Special Reports which always seem to appear around sweeps time. If they're so special they ought to be aired as soon as they're in the can, rather than waiting up to three months for the sweeps period.
I had forgotten about KGW's 10pm news. And you're right, it is on KRCW 5/32.
Thanks for the comments Edward.
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