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Perception vs. Reality.
That is the dilemma the news folks at KCTV have been trying to change for years—and they are getting frustrated trying to explain that those days are long gone at the Meredith-owned station.
But it’s a tough battle shaking off viewers’ old perceptions.
Yes, years ago the station had a slogan of “Live, Late-Breaking, Investigative” and was known for its flashy, investigative stories. As an example, it once set up a house with cameras and set a trap for individuals thinking they were coming to have sex with underage girls. It evolved into the national “Perverted Justice” series on Dateline and generated huge publicity for the station.
When severe weather broke out former meteorologist Katie Horner was under strict orders to be “first on and last off.” She was labeled (many say unfairly) as “Tornado Katie.” Her winter reports were dubbed as “snowgasms.”
In those days it seemed as if the station constantly tried to sensationalize the news and weather. While the ratings skyrocketed briefly, insiders said the station could not sustain it. And it couldn’t and an entirely new management team was brought in to fix things.
KCTV’s veteran News Director Blaise Labbe is admittedly frustrated with the perception that his station is still thought of as the “Scare the hell out them” media outlet in Kansas City.
“We still get associated with crime and sensationalized reporting because of what the station used to be about,” Labbe told Bottom Line in an exclusive interview. “But we are 180 degrees from the old KCTV5.
“‘Your News’ is more than a slogan and we work hard everyday to be involved in and to showcase the bad as well as the good in our community. One example is what we do on Thursday nights with Brad Stephens called ‘The Faces of Kansas City’ in which we showcase ordinary people doing great things right here in our city.”
Labbe says another example of the types of stories coming out of the CBS affiliate these days is an exclusive done by sterling reporter Jeanene Kiesling, who recently profiled an Overland Park police officer’s compassion to help out an 86-year-old woman in need (below).
Labbe said Kiesling was working on another story when she heard about the actions of Officer Derrick Hogan.
“She recognized what a great story this would be and pursued it,” says Labbe. “She pitched the story in our news meeting and we all agreed. We do a lot of stories like this daily the sad thing is we don’t get the credit for it.”
Ironically, it now seems that under new General Manager Sarah Smith KMBC has now evolved into the area’s most sensational news reporting outlet. The station starts virtually every newscast now with “Breaking News!” items with reporters “Live” standing near auto accidents, shootings, fires, etc.
Labbe says KCTV still covers crime, but not like it did in the past.
“We still cover crime but it is not the focus of our newscast anymore,” he says. “Our focus is on the community as a whole, the impact of events, news, people and how all relates to the viewers of Kansas City on a daily basis.”
PERCEPTION…
Perception IS reality!
OLD GUARD
As long as the “old guard” including Karen Fuller, are anchoring the news with that “end of the world as we know it” look, the perception of this viewer, anyway, of KCTV won’t change.
I have little use for the nonsensical “breaking news” routine on KMBC,either, thus my happy reliance, for the most part, toward online copy. It doesn’t go breathless on me..
PR HELP
It sounds like they need a good PR firm to help them.
Great idea!!
TIME IS NOW FOR PUSH
No time like the present to make a push as The Star’s paywall sends people searching for new sources of local news.
Fox, ABC and KCTV5 all have free iPad apps to view news stories, but 41 is actually trying to charge for its app. Good luck with that.
Perhaps I’m an optimist, but I personally think that most people just want to know what’s going on without having the reporter dump their personal agenda into the mix as 5 did before. That’s my perception of them, and we’ll see if anything has changed as I explore the news with the three free apps I downloaded yesterday.
KSHB APP
I thought KSHB was only charging people to use their Storm Shield app, a Scripps mandated app that all of their stations have?
5′S IPAD APP BEST
Good time for 5 to promote their iPad app, it’s the best of the 3, Fox in the #2 spot and KMBC a distant 3rd at least at first impressions.
KCTV HAS COME A LONG WAY
KCTV5 has come a whole hell of a long ways away from what it once was, and in fact, I find myself turning to them now as my second choice for news behind channel 41. However that still does not change the fact that they are still suffering from poor, eccentric management decisions from years before for years on end.
Channel 9 now, for some reason, and probably thanks to their new GM, has gone more of the ways of the old-KCTV5 as of late, and it’s been obvious enough that every once in a while you’ll see someone mention how outrageous their coverage was. It will eventually be their downfall if they don’t shape up soon. We could possibly see the roles of channels 5 and 9 totally reverse, but I don’t quite think that will happen because of KCTV’s still somewhat bad public image, and KMBC’s still somewhat good and iconic public image.
SNOWFALL
Yeah,I’m waiting for the next snowfall, to have
“team coverage”, informing me…..”it’s snowing” and that I should “take care” when I drive. Geez, really? I intend to be reckless and bombastic out there.
FORMER KCTV MANAGER
As a former 19 year news manager at KCTV, I can sympathize with the effort to change public perceptions. Not easy. Takes time. I can see improvement, but I’m not yet ready to hand out “most improved”awards.
KMBC & KSHB NEWS
I rarely watch local news because of the old in your face style of KCTV5. What I do see is that KMBC and NBC41 have taken over the “news you need to know” or “we’ll tell you how..”. As though we are all so stupid and have no other sources of information. Gary Lezak has gotten way too sensational with his weather reporting.
FOCUS GROUP NEWS
I rarely watch local tv news anymore. It’s usually not a good overview of what really happened at all. It’s all ratings and focus group driven and the real news is not found there. 5 is still infected with the typical liberal bias which the online content reveals. I gave up on 5 a while back. I don’t really think there is anyway to really know what’s really happening here. Maybe there never was.
NOT A KCTV FAN
kctv lost me after canning the previous morning show team of Matt & Kelly, while keeping Bumbling amble. The two they now have
on the AM show are the WORST EVER ! No questions asked ! Terrible and I have not and WILL not watch kctv morning show ever again.
I TOTALLY agree Lezak is getting “Out of hand” on KSHB, becoming a complete JOKE for weather, and this thing with the dog has GOT TO STOP !
So BORING !!!
Still say Jeff Penner should CM at KSHB and Tom Wachs at 5. Lastly PLEASE O PLEASE will wdaf get OLD joe lauria out of town, I cannot watch his whining any more on weekends !