YouTube vs. The Talking Heads
The Battle for Local News Supremacy
By Michael Bowker | From September 2007
Community Comments
Spark a community dialogue. Be the first to contribute by adding your comments.
Burrous is only slightly less irreverent when it comes to thinking outside the proverbial box. He may be doing things on-air that no one else in the country is doing in controlling the cutting-edge technology. Says Atkinson, the reigning king of Sacramento’s TV news scene for 30 years until he retired in 1999 and who served as an anchor on both KCRA 3 and KOVR 13 during his career: “God only knows what Chris is doing over there. You can never tell what Bruno is cooking up. It’s either brilliant ideas or nightmares. Chris is a very talented kid, though.They are using his early morning time slot to see whether this kind of pioneering of new technologies will stick to the wall. Will Sacramento viewers buy into it? It’s going to be very interesting finding that out.”
Cohen gives much of the credit for the station’s pioneering programs to Steve Charlier, KOVR’s vice president of news. Charlier, 37, who grew up in Iowa, made a mark as an innovative programmer in Phoenix and Salt Lake City before coming to KOVR 13 two years ago. “I watch every month as the national network news stations refuse to change — they still have the ‘talking heads’ giving the news from behind the desks the same way they did 50 years ago — and they are losing millions of viewers,” Charlier says. “We aren’t going to get to the top in the Sacramento market by trying to be like KCRA.”
The fact that there is no love lost between the two stations makes things even more interesting. Brandon Mercer, a 32-year-old whiz kid from USC who is the executive producer of cbs13.com, says: “If you want to watch yesterday’s news today, all packaged up, then you should watch KCRA. If you watch us, you’ll get everything we have access to at the moment — raw video and everything else — and we may be messy and have our hair all messed up, but we’ll be telling you the story as it happens.”
The comment incenses Troshinsky. “Printing that is irresponsible journalism,” he charges. “How can anyone say we air yesterday’s news? Our ratings prove that people watch us because they trust we will give news that’s accurate and timely. What he said is utter nonsense.”
Anzio Williams, the news director of KCRA 3 was quick to counterattack as well. “At the end of the day, the other stations still have to stand up to Dave and Lois,” he says. “They can’t. We’re way ahead in this ballgame, but we aren’t trying to just win by one or two. We want to put this game away.”
Cohen of KOVR 13 wasn’t having it. “You can either buy or innovate your way to success in this business,” he says. “KCRA is trying to buy, and we’re innovating. KCRA’s dominance is over.”
Cohen gives much of the credit for the station’s pioneering programs to Steve Charlier, KOVR’s vice president of news. Charlier, 37, who grew up in Iowa, made a mark as an innovative programmer in Phoenix and Salt Lake City before coming to KOVR 13 two years ago. “I watch every month as the national network news stations refuse to change — they still have the ‘talking heads’ giving the news from behind the desks the same way they did 50 years ago — and they are losing millions of viewers,” Charlier says. “We aren’t going to get to the top in the Sacramento market by trying to be like KCRA.”
The fact that there is no love lost between the two stations makes things even more interesting. Brandon Mercer, a 32-year-old whiz kid from USC who is the executive producer of cbs13.com, says: “If you want to watch yesterday’s news today, all packaged up, then you should watch KCRA. If you watch us, you’ll get everything we have access to at the moment — raw video and everything else — and we may be messy and have our hair all messed up, but we’ll be telling you the story as it happens.”
The comment incenses Troshinsky. “Printing that is irresponsible journalism,” he charges. “How can anyone say we air yesterday’s news? Our ratings prove that people watch us because they trust we will give news that’s accurate and timely. What he said is utter nonsense.”
Anzio Williams, the news director of KCRA 3 was quick to counterattack as well. “At the end of the day, the other stations still have to stand up to Dave and Lois,” he says. “They can’t. We’re way ahead in this ballgame, but we aren’t trying to just win by one or two. We want to put this game away.”
Cohen of KOVR 13 wasn’t having it. “You can either buy or innovate your way to success in this business,” he says. “KCRA is trying to buy, and we’re innovating. KCRA’s dominance is over.”
Prosperity Icon: Fame
Category: News & Talk Shows
The Magazine
Site Links
Prosper Plus +
- Get Prosper Plus to receive e-mail alerts, special event invites, and content that interests you.
Community
- Join the Community and start participating. It's fast. It's easy. It's free.
Advertise on this site! Show your support for the Prosper Network and reach influential thought leaders and web users like yourself. Contact us to find out how.
© 2004-2007 Prosper Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
The materials on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Prosper Media, LLC.
Community Comments