What's your take?
I haven't had a chance to catch Dialing for News yet, so I'll be critiquing the 11 p.m. show. But for those of you who caught the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts, what did you think? Feel free to post here with your thoughts of those two broadcasts, and I'll see you in two hours!
posted by Howard Beale at 9:50 PM
12 Comments:
If YOU were watching the debut of YOUr new newscasts on WYOU, YOU saw that WYOU is all about YOU and dedicated to YOU with a news format unlike anything YOU’ve ever seen, if YOU know what I mean.
The set looks nice, and appears functional (although they’ve got to color correct those HDTVs). Candace is wasted as nothing but a news reader: the news segments at 5:00 and 6:00 seemed to be word-for-word repeats, and having her stand instead of sit (I guess to show a bit of leg) may do it for some people, but not for me. The interviews are superficial, short and limited to softball questions. The interactive is meaningless and borders on silly.
Weather on the ones, news on the twos, filler everyplace else.
The toughest job: WYOU guest booker. After months of planning that’s the best YOU could do? I shudder for the day (and my guess is it’s coming soon) when YOU talk about dairy price supports.
The easiest job: WYOU field reporter. What do YOU folks do all day? Or are YOU S.O.L. and headed for the door?
A “newsless” newscast?” Not for me, but heck, I’m only one voice. YOU viewers have the final say, don’t YOU?
Howard - I am an outsider, I don't work in the biz and watched the 6pm show. This is my take...
-I thought the opening was an honest depiction of what was to come.
-Schiener (sp) was very energetic.
-I couldn't believe that Candice wore the SAME CLOTHES as the previews I saw a week before. I knew I was in trouble when I saw that.
-It seemed like the show fumbled through for 30 minutes. I mean they gave the number out at least ten times and only had two real callers who didn't even "ask a question" but rather just said how much they wished good luck to the new format and concurred on "how great it would be to have a casino".
-The "expert panel" was a joke in my opinion. The guy on the left didn't even look like he wanted to be there, and at the end of the show the guy on the end just uttered "Absolutely". They just seemed so hurried...
-The biggest misappropration of my time was the slot with the lawyer, they should ditch that completely. What a waste.
-The only thing that couldn't get messed up was the weather, which is the reason Stuccio was the only one who didn't look lost. My question for Scotty is what do you say in your 3 minutes when you have 5 straight days of "Sunny 72 degrees???"
-As far as the 11pm show discussing Katie Couric, are you kidding me? What if I don't watch the world news? What if I missed it? Give me a topic I may CARE about.
-Also, for what it's worth because I know someone will jump on it at some point, who ever pinned Eric's ears back should be shot. Eric should ask that attorney guy to go after him for malpractice. I openly chuckled when I saw his ears.
Overall, it looked like the show was thrown together at the last second. This was something they talked about for weeks, and when they got on the air they looked like they didn't know what they were doing. I'd give it an "I" for incomplete and will watch tomorrow, and report back here for you and your blog viewers to enjoy / chew on...
Just finished a Tivo-ed version of the 5 and 6pm Dialing for news.
Thoughts:
Not enough depth to local stories. The 5 minutes spent on headlines was too short. It needs to have more news content. There should be one major story that is a complete package. If it were a live shot, Viewers could ask questions to reporters in the field.
Set looks cheap. Back in the late 1980's WYOU had a backdropped that fooled people into thinking that there was actually a window looking out. Now it looks like pictures of computers in the background.
The best anchors in town. Nothing overly fake or obnoxious. They are very easy to watch. Almost likeable.
NEPA needs local sports. Sid would have been a great addition.
As for Interactive segments. Softball questions and toothless hicks will kill this newscast. Also make the guest look comfortable. I am a person of size and the Pocono Mountain Casino person looked stuffed in an overly small chair. This interviewing could have been done in the field.
Ok 50 (26+22), pay attention!! 16 is the weakest it has been in two decades. Stay away from cheap gimmicks. A solid anchor like Candice reading stories over footage works. Get two more reporters (in addition to Eric D. and David) who get it. Mark Davis was a great 16 reporter. Use him.
Hire Just one more solid reporter and break the 16 spell over the area.
This interactive format would work great at 5:30 and 7PM as is. Concentrate on getting good information to me at 5 and 6.
Let professionals ask the most questions. Let the viewers ask fewer.
Give me just a little more local news and sports and I think I'll be hooked.
Just a thought. As for Katie Couric's newscast. The content and set were great. Would have rather seen John Roberts and Katie anchor. She seemed really weak today. And her eye-Make-up was horrible.
I'm out of the market, but I wish I could see it. Its a shame WYOU doesn't stream video on their website. I hope there can be a few screenshots or even a youtube posted on here. Personally, I hope this becomes a hit. This market needs at least some form of competition, it is unlikely to happen, but what if...
I only saw two segments, so I will make very limited comments.
Limited Comment 1: Candice seemed to do a credible job first day on a new set with a new format.
LC 2: The toss to Scott at the Boscov's tv showroom, a/k/a Wolf Blitzer's set, was smooth, again with the new set and format.
LC 3: The call-in segment on gambling looked good even if the callers might have been ringers to get things rolling.
LC 4: Speaking of the gambling guys... in the long shot, one looked as if he hadn't had anything to eat for a month and the other looked as if he were the reason.
LC Wrap-Up: News for people who are tired of meaningless standups, anchors who don't answer their e-mail (ahem, 28), and want their voices heard. It has its niche; may it live long and prosper.
I thought it was horrible. The panel and call-ins are a waste of time. On the 11pm show, they talked about the first Katic Couric broadcast for over 5 minutes. Who cares? Why spend so much time on it? This is going to be a loser for WYOU.
If you put this idea on 16 you people would think it is the best thing since sliced bread. I sure do love the people of NEPA.
The only way it will work is with Candice in shorter skirts and tighter sweaters without the geek coanchor. T&A like FOX News.
Content, I can't find anything that will hold viewers after the novelty wears. Want the weather, check out the first minute or two and surf away.
That all said, I'm sure they have years of interesting interactive topics about NEPA all lined up. Just check out the "Example Archived Topic 1" on the Archive page on their interactive web site. They don't even list tomorrows scheduled topics.
Nice set too, did the light on a stand hidden behind the wall cost extra in the design? Love the clothes pins holding the blue gell.
Gotta agree with Ollies "I" They should be ready to go on air with their new show in a few weeks.
What audience is WYOU aiming for? The kind that thinks 26 and 22 adds up to 50: the typical NEPA-er.
I think the format has potential, but 30 minutes is just too short for it. You do not get enough time to do anything.
With a show like this it needs to be at least an hour long so that conversations and questions are not rushed.
If they moved to an hour format, I might actually watch this. For now though, it's back to WNEP.
The "NEW" WYOU format is intresting, but it shouldn't take the place of the major news time slots. I think it would be a good 5:30pm or 7:00pm show to change things up a bit after we got our headlines at 5 & 6.
Hi Howard – I’m back again. Back for Day 2 of my take on the new WYOU format...
To start, tonight’s 6 o’clock news was light years ahead of yesterday’s train wreck. I was expecting more of the same today, but was mildly surprised at what I saw. Quickly...
-Three times they gave the number out over the air, and had three callers that made the air. The first, Selena from Froggy 101, was an obvious setup which I thought was lame and thought here we go again, but she asked and was offered very good information regarding houses that have flooding on the market, etc. Very useful info. I loved the B-Dry “pop” by the way by that guy. The other two callers also asked good questions and were offered very useful information as well. Overall, very very good information for a person who is looking to buy a home in this market in my opinion. The second interactive segment was also very useful. Again, since they dub this as “Not your daddy’s newscast” they are catering to a younger crowd, obviously with the topics offered thus far...
-The girl behind Jim Gress’ shoulder looked like she was bored out of her mind, and must have been thinking “I agreed to do THIS for college credit???” (by the way, who were all those people on the phones?)
-As far as the five minute “news session” (if you want to call it that), give me more information on a bomb scare. There was a fire somewhere, no pictures, nothing, (this is what separates WNEP from all the others, they’d send SOMEONE there to do a voice over and get pictures). There was another fire that they offered good info on, a robbery somewhere and the Gasha (sp?) trial that WBRE already covered. More time and effort has to be dedicated on the news in my opinion, after all, this is a newscast.
-I did enjoy the “street poll”. This was insightful in my opinion.
-The video loop of the houses they did during the interactive segment they need to do away with...they looped it three times during the program. Overkill.
-They need to use spell check or something on the scroll on the bottom “call us for with an idea for a topic you’d like cover” C’mon.
-Weather-wise, ho-hum. Put the e-mail address on your website so when I upload pictures of my Schwinn floating away when the storm drain overflows after the rainstorm, I can go to the website and do so...I did like the “Bob the Builder” toss from Scott to Eric.
Bits and pieces – the legal segment again was worthless, Cartwright must pay good money to get on there, when he first came on and crossed his legs, I yelled at the TV, “NOOO!”, during the graphic, someone must have yelled in someone’s ear “Tell Cartwright to uncross his legs and tuck his tie in!!!”...speaking of yelling, someone had to have yelled “Someone turn Candice’s microphone on!!!” I thought that was high comedy and the low point of the program.
Randomly Howard, I really like Scheiner and Grossklaus. Eric has energy, seems well spoken and is extremely easy to listen to in my opinion. Candice is easy on the eyes, and I actually will listen to her rather than some of the other attractive talking heads that I just mute and read closed captioning. WYOU has two people that can really take this idea places in my opinion but sometimes it seems the production / direction is just not there. Regarding someone’s comment of Candice in a short skirt and tight sweater to get ratings, you could have her in a go-go outfit hanging from a pole dangling upside down for all I care, if the direction is not there, I’m not going to watch. Period.
Their interactive website needs work. It looks like everything was done half assed. Give me the website so I can vote in the interactive poll, don’t assume I know. Hell, I don’t even work in the biz and I can come up with at least 5 solutions to make this a better program that people will watch rather than a video instructional shown at a local college Mass Communication class on ‘how not to’.
I agree with the others in that they need a sports segment. What happens if Penn State is playing for the national championship and this is the story of the week? I can see Candice now... ''and the Penn State Nittany Lions are playing for the national championship tonight in Miami... (awkward pause) Scott, how many inches of snow for tonight??'' They can’t justify sending one of their reporters down to the site if they do not have a sports guy...
I promised a grade and will give it a B- with a positive outlook. Put some effort into your website, don’t let silly things like a microphone that is off be the laughingstock and put more effort into the news and you will have something. I will watch again.
By the way, before this came out I watched WNEP.
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