In my single data point of the Washington, D.C. TV market, over the last dozen years I can recall just three presenters moving between local and network/cable. The other moves have been between markets, or between stations (one guy even jumped to radio...). Of the three who jumped, one actually left network for local, one was in sports (now with the four-letter), and the other is splitting time between NBC and MSNBC.
And this is a top 10 market. Sure, a couple of spots about 10th, but still. David ________________________________ From: Kevin M. <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 10:40 PM Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Re: FW: for TV group On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 3:13 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't disagree with most of this. But my point in providing the limited > wiki bios of the current chief white house correspondents for the networks > was to show that I don't think any of them have any experience as local news > anchors (and maybe not even as local news reporters). My argument is that > local news has gotten so bad that even with pretty faces they are too bad > for the main network posts (which, admittedly, is a very low bar to begin > with). A few years ago I mentioned taking a group of my middle school students on a tour of NBC. We also dropped by my intern stomping ground of CNBC West, which had been relocated to a building above Universal CityWalk. One of my favorite bosses was there (sadly, he no longer is thanks to @#!$ing NBC/Uni budget decisions) and he introduced my students and me to their newest reporter. With her standing there, he told us she was a Grade A moron but NBC saw fit to treat CNBC as if it was college TV. And when you look at it, the trend no longer seems to be to make the move from local to network. Instead, you make the move from cable to network. They start at a small cable net like G4 or FX (back when FX had presenters) and climb the cable ladder until one of the bigs scoops them up. For the record, the CNBC reporter was so dense she didn't know she was being openly mocked and insulted in front of children. Local people may move markets, but they don't seem to make the jump to network anymore. Considering the local LA stations laid off about 100 people each from their news divisions a year or so ago, consolidating news operations (channels 2 and 9 share personnel, as do 11 and 13 when/if 13 bothers to do news, and 5 mostly pulls from CNN correspondants and buys prepackaged fluff). There are only three newschoppers left in the city -- only two are full time and the TV stations share them with all of the radio stations for traffic reports. Reporters used to travel to the scene with a driver who also operated the gear inside the sat. truck as well as a camera man and sometimes even an audio technician. But now reporters drive themselves and are lucky if they get someone to operate the gear (for many stories they lock down the cameras and wire themselves for sound, just like a station in Little Rock/Pine Bluff). Two stations worth keeping an eye on here: KDOC, the Orange County indie TV station, has dramatically revamped itself and now has a limited news team (including a morning newscast). Gone are the black & white TV shows and Wally George reruns, replaced by modern syndication programing. Also, former PBS station KCET is really trying to give being independent a go. They have a lot of British programing, but they also produce an extraordinary amount of local material, though most of what they produce makes the News Hour seem exciting. I really think with these stations you are seeing the last of that independent spirit, and stations like these will be the last ones to turn out the lights when networks face their fate and make the switch to online/on-demand. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
