Cutting Corners On Your TV Screen

Image by Wonderlane via Flickr

Everyone talks about the decline of newspapers.  How many of them have gone bankrupt, cut staff, publish fewer editions, or shutting down altogether in the face of falling circulation.  And then they have the nerve to charge for their product online, where most of their readers are going.

With some exceptions, the same could be said about local TV stations.  Just like cutbacks have resulted in thinner newspapers, local TV news has declined in quality and viewers are starting to notice.

Take WCCO, the CBS station in Minneapolis.  They whack two of their most popular personalities--Paul Douglas and Jeanette Trompeter--and replace them with inferior talent for less money.  Their main news set is a plate glass window in the background.  Newscasts have turned into magazines, eschewing more news in favor of features such as "Good Question", Don Shelby's nightly commentaries, and reminders that Frank Vascellaro and Ameila Santaniello are more than just co-anchors, they're married, too!  They've also been surrendering a good chunk of their time on Fridays to high school football highlights.

Despite all this, WCCO has the top-rated newscast in town.  They'd be in big trouble if it weren't for Oprah Winfrey and the CBS prime time lineup.

KARE, the NBC station, tends to emphasize the folksy in its newscasts, just 'telling stories'.  Well, it's hard to be folksy when owner Gannett orders its on-air people to take one-week unpaid furloughs, or when your 10 p.m. news ratings suffer because NBC schedules "The Jay Leno Show" five times a week.

KSTP (ABC) and KMSP (Fox) air more hours of news per day than anyone else in this market.  They have also had their share of staff cutbacks, which results in fewer people working more hours for less pay.  And KSTP is a notoriously non-union shop.

There are other ways the quality of local news has been affected.  For example, if you've been paying attention to the Tom Petters trial, you'll notice the lack of courtroom sketch artists on WCCO and KARE.  They might think stock video tells the story better in lieu of cameras in the courtroom (which are banned in federal courts), but that doesn't make up for the fact that two sketch artists are out of work.

The cutbacks have also extended to digital TV.  Remember those promises of more channels that would come with our converter boxes?  Other cities have sports, 24 hour news and old TV shows on their digital channels.  Here, KSTP airs reruns of news and "Twin Cities Live" on its channel, KARE has a 24-hour weather station, and  . . . that's it.  The other stations either don't have a digital channel, or use theirs to simulcast their main channel in standard definition.  Only TPT seems to take multicasting seriously, and they're a public TV station.

Don't think that, if and when the economy gets better, the situation will improve any time soon.  Some people have already caught on to this.  They've dumped the 10 p.m. news for Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show".  The production values aren't much, but they sure are more entertaining.