Life Of Jason

KSPR-TV in Springfield recently switched their formatics, schedule and even dumped the “Springfield 33″ moniker. Several members of the KSPR team who blog invited people to view and give their thoughts about it. So tonight I realized it was about ten and decided to give the new KSPR a shot. Unfortunately, I saw quite a few mistakes and at one point even something that seemed to be the newscast falling apart. Let me just run down what I took notes on and then make a general comment at the end.

I flipped over and missed the opening of the show so I jumped in the middle of a story about a local couple that bought a home on EBay for around a thousand dollars. Apparently the seller of the home is stiffing them because they were able to win the auction at just a thousand bucks. It wasn’t the kind of story I expected at the top of a newscast but it was interesting even if it felt a little gossip-like in nature. Personally, I’m kind of interested to see how the story turns out and I guess that was the point. It’s like a teaser story for a later story assuming they follow up.

I was impressed to see the main anchors doing the Sunday night newscast when the other stations have the B-teams on the air.

I started taking notes when a Michelle Sherwood story ran on CMH’s 25th anniversary. Two things hit me during the story. First, the anchors said she was “live in the newsroom.” Looking at the main set, I thought that was the newsroom. (If it was, it would explain later why I saw someone walking behind the anchors as they were live on the air.) If Sherwood was in the newsroom then where are the anchors?

Secondly, there was some audio problems in Sherwood’s story that really distracted me. It seemed that most of the time the video was rolling Sherwood was doing her voice over on top of the voices of the people in the videos. It’s hard to understand two people talking at the same time and at some points I couldn’t hear Sherwood at all. I can’t really say I know most of the gist of the story and at one point they interviewed the hospital CEO for about two seconds. The story left me more confused than informed.

In the next story, anchor Joe Daues mispronounced the name of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to Voice of America’s official pronunciation guide, it should be pronounced as Ahh-mah-dee-nee-ZHAHD and Daues pronounced it Ahh-deen-ah-ZHAHD. (I went back on the DVR to make sure I heard him right.) Now, it’s possible one of the pronunciation guides has it that way but the way Joe said it made me instantly think he said it wrong. I didn’t hear the next part of the story because I was thinking “did he say that right?”

Now, Joe rallied with his story on the World War I museum. The story was solid from start to finish and very interesting. It showed why Joe was and is one of the best television anchors in the Springfield area. (Yes, I know he made a mistake in the story before it but no one is perfect.) I especially enjoyed how they interviewed a World War II vet about the museum. The man certainly could provide a unique perspective.

Now…here’s where I think all hell was breaking loose. During the wrap-up of Joe’s story we had some audio being cued up that ended up going on the air. A few seconds later, there was someone who shouted off camera and a noise that shook Joe. He stuttered a little bit and looked off-screen with some concern but snapped back and wrapped up the story. The guy is a pro and I wonder what happened that he was shaken like that during a live shot. After that slip Joe impressed me by telling an apparently off-the-cuff story related to the World War I museum story. It seemed to me that he really knew what he was covering and it just raised my already high opinion of Joe Daues.

As they came back from commercial, there was a guy walking in the background of the shot of the anchors. Again, I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be in the newsroom and whether or not this was a mistake. As I watch this newscast more perhaps I’ll see more people in the background. It’s not that I found it much of a problem…just out of place.

Then they ran a story on the Loft Walk on Commercial Street placing the story much lower in the newscast than their brethren in town. I was happy to see that because I think KSPR placed it where it was in terms of importance. Plus, they interviewed Paul Parker of the Commercial Club versus other stations which interviewed a city counsel member. KSPR chose someone who was more connected to the event and I liked that.

The weather came next with Kevin Lighty. My overall impression is that he was really comfortable in his position yet but he did a good job. I enjoyed the graphics and the layout of the weather forecast. I really like the way the seven day forecast graphics were arranged. The drawing circles with his finger on the weather map was a little bizarre but not entirely distracting.

Then the sports. Whitney Scott stumbled over a few words and messed up at least one time that I was able to catch referring to a third quarter NFL highlight as a fourth quarter highlight. However, I chalk it up to the fact they seemed to want to stuff eight minutes of sports into four minutes. Whitney was reading some scores and stats so fast that she couldn’t help but stumble over a few words. The placement of the college football poll between the NFL and St. Louis Cardinals score was a little weird to me…I would think the St. Louis Cardinals would still be of more interest than the AP poll to Springfield area viewers.

No disrespect to Joe with this but KSPR should realize their top talent is Whitney Scott. Cut one of the news stories and expand the sportscast especially on Sunday night during the NFL season. For example, the Commercial Street story really could have been cut in half time wise to provide another minute to Whitney. The girl has the skills and if she wants will not be long for Springfield.

Now, I’ve been critical about the newscast and brought up a few problems that I saw during my first experience with the new KSPR news. You may think that I have a really poor impression and that I won’t be turning to them again because I saw what seemed to be mistake after mistake. The off-camera shouting and distraction of the anchors seemed extremely unprofessional.

I liked what I saw.

There was just something about the freshness of the story arrangements that resonated with me. There seemed to be a life to the newscast that I don’t see with the other television newscasts in the market. I really liked how they didn’t run the Commercial street story in the first segment of the newscast. The choice of the house story to lead was a definite break from the usual way we see television news in Springfield. I liked the layout and want to see it succeed.

Joe Daues is a consummate professional and the top anchor in town. I’ll openly admit that I was no fan of his wife Christine during her previous go-round in Springfield television as Christine Bielawski but the pairing with her husband works very well. She didn’t seem like the same newscaster I remembered and that was a very good thing. I believe the pairing of these two is going to quickly elevate them to the top team in the area (if people will quit watching KY3 long enough to give them a shot.) Whitney Scott is simply the best. Kevin Lighty is likable and I think he could rise above the other weather anchors in the market. (However, I want to see how he handles some severe storm coverage.)

I have to be honest and say I wasn’t impressed with what I saw from Michelle Sherwood. The audio problems in her story really struck me the wrong way. I don’t know if she produced the story or if it was passed off to someone else to produce with her voice over but unfortunately she was the one on the story. However, I’m not one to write off someone from just one story so I’ll have to see some more of her work.

I wanted to give an overall grade to the newscast but I really can’t do it. I saw many promising parts to the newscast but too many mistakes to give a glowing review right now. Still, it’s the freshest and most exciting option in Springfield television news and hopefully in the next six months or so they can nail down the little mistakes and become a serious force to be reckoned with in this market.