TMC
2013-04-15 05:05:37 UTC
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.0
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096321#msg2096321
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096391#msg2096391
Quote from: tmanokc on April 11, 2013, 12:40:08 PM
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
Are you new to the Bay Area? When KRON was owned by the Chronicle
Corporation, it had a top-rate news department, and excellent public
affairs programming. I won't get back into the Young Broadcasting
story, except to say that depending on who you believe, they were
screwed out of the NBC affiliation by the network's hardball tactics
OR paid so much for KRON and negotiated so stupidly that they screwed
themselves. Personally, I fall into the latter camp.
This was in 2003 (IIRC), and it was all downhill from there. Because
Young paid so much for what turned out to be an independent station,
they had to service their debt and cut costs dramtically. So they
gutted the news departments, cut loose all their excellent field
reporters and replaced them with "VJs" - "video-journalists" who are
basically inexperienced interns who operate their own camera while
reporting.
At that point, I stopped watching. But from what I understand, many
of their news "stories" are paid spots disguised as news stories, and
the general quality of their news operation is below that of any of
their competitors.
The station has acutally improved some since it went into bankruptcy,
but it's still pretty low quality.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096428#msg2096428
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2013, 02:58:45 PM »
Quote from: Lkeller on April 11, 2013, 02:24:18 PM
Quote from: tmanokc on April 11, 2013, 12:40:08 PM
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
Are you new to the Bay Area? When KRON was owned by the Chronicle
Corporation, it had a top-rate news department, and excellent public
affairs programming. I won't get back into the Young Broadcasting
story, except to say that depending on who you believe, they were
screwed out of the NBC affiliation by the network's hardball tactics
OR paid so much for KRON and negotiated so stupidly that they screwed
themselves. Personally, I fall into the latter camp.
This was in 2003 (IIRC), and it was all downhill from there. Because
Young paid so much for what turned out to be an independent station,
they had to service their debt and cut costs dramtically. So they
gutted the news departments, cut loose all their excellent field
reporters and replaced them with "VJs" - "video-journalists" who are
basically inexperienced interns who operate their own camera while
reporting.
At that point, I stopped watching. But from what I understand, many
of their news "stories" are paid spots disguised as news stories, and
the general quality of their news operation is below that of any of
their competitors.
The station has acutally improved some since it went into bankruptcy,
but it's still pretty low quality.
I actually have never been to the West Coast (the farthest I've been
out of Oklahoma City was Kansas City), but I do read a lot about the
television industry and have read about how Young caused KRON to lose
its NBC affiliation at the beginning of 2002. It almost sounds like
both situations you mentioned caused issues for the station. NBC
placed these contractual obligations (rebranding as "NBC4" and
carrying the network's schedule in pattern a la one of the network's
O&O) which Young objected to, and the cost of the purchase itself
created so much debt for Young that it eventually was forced into
bankruptcy.
That being said, I have heard some people question why KRON even still
has a news department -- even though there are quite a few news-
producing stations out there that are affiliated with a network other
than the Big Four or don't even have a network affiliation at all. I
think that what people are complaining about has a lot to do with its
loss of NBC affiliation and being relegated to independent status (and
later a MyNetworkTV affiliation). But the thing is WJXT had a pretty
similar situation happen around the same time, with the exception of
Post-Newsweek having owned the station for years and a switch to a
reverse compensation model for CBS being what caused WJXT to drop CBS,
and have heard that it wasn't too badly affected by losing the Eye
network. So besides the quality of its newscasts, what else is the
problem with KRON?
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096626#msg2096626
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2013, 08:34:45 PM »
The quality of the newscast and the programs that KRON 4 have in other
times. Ever since they lost the NBC affiliated in 2002 and overpaid
the station for $800 Million dollars. KRON 4 haven't been the same.
We know about the news is downhill, but what there's to watch on KRON
4? Other than news KRON 4 doesn't have a whole lot of program choices
except for Dr. Phil, The Doctors, ET/OMG! The Insider / and Inside
Edition. As for WJXT 4 in Jacksonville, there's not much local tv
stations over there. KRON 4 has to compete against KOFY-TV, KICU-TV
36, KBCW CW-44 and KTVU FOX 2 for programming. WJXT in Jacksonville,
KUSI in San Diego, KCAL 9 in Los Angeles, and KTVK in Phoenix are one
of the strongest independent stations in the country.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096858#msg2096858
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2013, 10:38:07 AM »
It's worth noting that KCAL 9 in Los Angeles was the awful KHJ-TV
until it was purchased by none other than Young Broadcasting, which
turned it into a first rate independent - later owned by Disney, and
now (IIRC) CBS.
But Young really screwed themselves with KRON. As I recall the story,
NBC wanted the station as an O&O, but Young outbid them - paying
something like $750 million, then a record for a network affiliate.
So NBC lost out, and was already unhappy. Then Young tried to hard-
ass the network, saying they didn't want to be called "NBC4," and
refused to pay NBC for network programming (up until this point,
netwoks generally paid affiliates to run network shows, but NBC wanted
to flip the arrangment). So when KRON didn't play ball, the network
went to KNTV in San Jose, and got the deal done.
According to what I've read, NBC was still offering to buy KRON from
Young (preferring the San Francisco Channel 4 allocation to Channel 11
in San Jose), but Young didn't want to lose money and wouldn't budge
on the price. So NBC went through with the KNTV deal, later buying
KNTV as an O&O. Instead of paying the $750M to Young, they got KNTV
for about $250M. One NBC execitve was quoted as saying something
like; "We saved a half-billion dollars. It was a no-brainer."
Young ended up losing a whole lot more money running KRON than they
would have if they had sold the station to NBC for a bit of a loss.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096321#msg2096321
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096391#msg2096391
Quote from: tmanokc on April 11, 2013, 12:40:08 PM
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
Are you new to the Bay Area? When KRON was owned by the Chronicle
Corporation, it had a top-rate news department, and excellent public
affairs programming. I won't get back into the Young Broadcasting
story, except to say that depending on who you believe, they were
screwed out of the NBC affiliation by the network's hardball tactics
OR paid so much for KRON and negotiated so stupidly that they screwed
themselves. Personally, I fall into the latter camp.
This was in 2003 (IIRC), and it was all downhill from there. Because
Young paid so much for what turned out to be an independent station,
they had to service their debt and cut costs dramtically. So they
gutted the news departments, cut loose all their excellent field
reporters and replaced them with "VJs" - "video-journalists" who are
basically inexperienced interns who operate their own camera while
reporting.
At that point, I stopped watching. But from what I understand, many
of their news "stories" are paid spots disguised as news stories, and
the general quality of their news operation is below that of any of
their competitors.
The station has acutally improved some since it went into bankruptcy,
but it's still pretty low quality.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096428#msg2096428
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2013, 02:58:45 PM »
Quote from: Lkeller on April 11, 2013, 02:24:18 PM
Quote from: tmanokc on April 11, 2013, 12:40:08 PM
I know this might be moved to the "Take It Outside" section, but on
this site as well as TVNewsTalk, I've noticed that a lot of people
seem to put down San Francisco's KRON a lot. Is it how Young
Broadcasting has managed it, or is it because it considered worthless
since it lost its NBC affiliation (which given that network's ratings
since the 2004-05 season, isn't as much of a loss in hindsight)?
Are you new to the Bay Area? When KRON was owned by the Chronicle
Corporation, it had a top-rate news department, and excellent public
affairs programming. I won't get back into the Young Broadcasting
story, except to say that depending on who you believe, they were
screwed out of the NBC affiliation by the network's hardball tactics
OR paid so much for KRON and negotiated so stupidly that they screwed
themselves. Personally, I fall into the latter camp.
This was in 2003 (IIRC), and it was all downhill from there. Because
Young paid so much for what turned out to be an independent station,
they had to service their debt and cut costs dramtically. So they
gutted the news departments, cut loose all their excellent field
reporters and replaced them with "VJs" - "video-journalists" who are
basically inexperienced interns who operate their own camera while
reporting.
At that point, I stopped watching. But from what I understand, many
of their news "stories" are paid spots disguised as news stories, and
the general quality of their news operation is below that of any of
their competitors.
The station has acutally improved some since it went into bankruptcy,
but it's still pretty low quality.
I actually have never been to the West Coast (the farthest I've been
out of Oklahoma City was Kansas City), but I do read a lot about the
television industry and have read about how Young caused KRON to lose
its NBC affiliation at the beginning of 2002. It almost sounds like
both situations you mentioned caused issues for the station. NBC
placed these contractual obligations (rebranding as "NBC4" and
carrying the network's schedule in pattern a la one of the network's
O&O) which Young objected to, and the cost of the purchase itself
created so much debt for Young that it eventually was forced into
bankruptcy.
That being said, I have heard some people question why KRON even still
has a news department -- even though there are quite a few news-
producing stations out there that are affiliated with a network other
than the Big Four or don't even have a network affiliation at all. I
think that what people are complaining about has a lot to do with its
loss of NBC affiliation and being relegated to independent status (and
later a MyNetworkTV affiliation). But the thing is WJXT had a pretty
similar situation happen around the same time, with the exception of
Post-Newsweek having owned the station for years and a switch to a
reverse compensation model for CBS being what caused WJXT to drop CBS,
and have heard that it wasn't too badly affected by losing the Eye
network. So besides the quality of its newscasts, what else is the
problem with KRON?
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096626#msg2096626
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2013, 08:34:45 PM »
The quality of the newscast and the programs that KRON 4 have in other
times. Ever since they lost the NBC affiliated in 2002 and overpaid
the station for $800 Million dollars. KRON 4 haven't been the same.
We know about the news is downhill, but what there's to watch on KRON
4? Other than news KRON 4 doesn't have a whole lot of program choices
except for Dr. Phil, The Doctors, ET/OMG! The Insider / and Inside
Edition. As for WJXT 4 in Jacksonville, there's not much local tv
stations over there. KRON 4 has to compete against KOFY-TV, KICU-TV
36, KBCW CW-44 and KTVU FOX 2 for programming. WJXT in Jacksonville,
KUSI in San Diego, KCAL 9 in Los Angeles, and KTVK in Phoenix are one
of the strongest independent stations in the country.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232734.msg2096858#msg2096858
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2013, 10:38:07 AM »
It's worth noting that KCAL 9 in Los Angeles was the awful KHJ-TV
until it was purchased by none other than Young Broadcasting, which
turned it into a first rate independent - later owned by Disney, and
now (IIRC) CBS.
But Young really screwed themselves with KRON. As I recall the story,
NBC wanted the station as an O&O, but Young outbid them - paying
something like $750 million, then a record for a network affiliate.
So NBC lost out, and was already unhappy. Then Young tried to hard-
ass the network, saying they didn't want to be called "NBC4," and
refused to pay NBC for network programming (up until this point,
netwoks generally paid affiliates to run network shows, but NBC wanted
to flip the arrangment). So when KRON didn't play ball, the network
went to KNTV in San Jose, and got the deal done.
According to what I've read, NBC was still offering to buy KRON from
Young (preferring the San Francisco Channel 4 allocation to Channel 11
in San Jose), but Young didn't want to lose money and wouldn't budge
on the price. So NBC went through with the KNTV deal, later buying
KNTV as an O&O. Instead of paying the $750M to Young, they got KNTV
for about $250M. One NBC execitve was quoted as saying something
like; "We saved a half-billion dollars. It was a no-brainer."
Young ended up losing a whole lot more money running KRON than they
would have if they had sold the station to NBC for a bit of a loss.