For years KCTV was the TV station in Kansas City with the “Live, Late-Breaking, Investigative” slogan.
To many viewers that meant a steady diet of over-the-top “Breaking News” stories, salacious “Major Investigative” stories and “scare the hell out of them” weather coverage.
The CBS affiliate had a weather policy of “first on, last off,” and veteran meteorologist Katie Horner (now in St. Louis) took much of the viewer criticism for following management’s directives.
The plan worked for a short time and KCTV was the top-rated station for a few rating books. But viewers tired of the sensationalism and tuned to other stations and years later have still not returned to KCTV.
While the days of KCTV’s manic news and weather reports are long gone they now have seemed to have shifted to KMBC, which is being criticized this morning for what many viewers felt was excessive coverage of a storm that came through the area Sunday night.
The station semi-teased a potential tornado that never occurred, but delivered huge ratings (below).
Much of the coverage involved pre-empting the 2013 Billboard Music Awards.
The station’s Facebook page has several criticisms of the coverage along the lines of:
“I find it interesting that KMBC is the only station aggravating the hell out of us with continuous coverage of nothing going on here in our area! They need to get with the program and quit this forced coverage.”
An area Journalism professor joined in the criticism of the coverage.
“It is time for one of your pithy commentaries about the out of control weather coverage last night, ESPECIALLY on KMBC,” he said in an email to Bottom Line. “If I didn’t know better I would think the spirit of Katie Horner had popped up in Bryan Busby and Co.
“When you’re dropping regular shows to cover a tornado in Wichita come on! And, they were yakking long after the system was out of the area, as if we need to know there’s heavy rain in Lexington. Seriously??
“My man of the hour is Joe Lauria (Fox 4). He was spot on with his predictions Saturday night, and the Calm During The Storm proved true Sunday.”
Part of KMBC’s “perfect storm” coverage could be because this is the final week of the May TV sweeps and the station is not doing particularly well.
Storm coverage is a tried and true way to goose ratings. McDonald’s had to love Meteorologist Erin Little delivering her weather report with the fast-food’s latest promotion highlighted in the background.
A local media expert confirms KMBC’s preliminary ratings numbers from Sunday night are strong.
A source says that from 7:30-8:00, KMBC notched a 21.3 rating. That is a phenomenal number.
“I guarantee they will paint this as a weather coverage victory…. when, in essence, with the massive tune-in it just means they had more people available to piss off,” he says.
UPDATE: At the peak of the storm (6-7 p.m.) KMBC had massive numbers. The station went back to regular programming at 8:30 p.m.
6-7 pm Ratings/Share
KMBC 15.0/25
KCTV 11.6/20
WDAF 2.5/5
KSHB 2.3/4
7-10 pm
KMBC 14.3/22
KCTV 9.3/15
WDAF 4.9/8
KSHB 2.3/5
BILLBOARD AWARDS RATINGS
“A local media expert confirms KMBC’s preliminary ratings numbers from Sunday night are strong.”
Only because the Billboard Music Awards were on! I’m very surprised you didn’t mention that was the main reason why people were so pissed, because one of the most highly anticipated TV events for the past couple of weeks was on and people who wanted to watch it missed nearly half of it.
So they can claim it as a victory all they want, but the sole reason why they would’ve done so well is because it was going to be the most watched event in Kansas City last night…which may have been part of their reasoning. They knew more people would be watching them than the other stations, so they took advantage of that and aired non-stop severe weather coverage. Clever, but very transparent.
Darn it. I had mentioned the Billboard Awards show and it disappeared. I put it back in.
Thanks for keeping me honest.
SERVING VIEWERS
The weather coverage was over-the-top in hindsight, but there was enough uncertainity about the intensity of the storms and the propensity for a tornado to warrant the initial decision to extend coverage. Once it became apparent that this was likely nothing more than wind and rain, returning to the Billboard awards with interruptions only as needed would have better served the viewers.
The decision to stay on so long was probably driven by the other stations decision to NOT stay on-and pushing coverage to their secondary stations.
RIDICULOUS COVERAGE
KMBC’s coverage was absolutely ridiculous. How many sister stations do they have now? Why couldn’t they have had wall to wall coverage on one of them instead of wasting hours interrupting the Billboard Music Awards? KCTV used to be the hype station, but not anymore… to think KMBC was once reputable.
PETE BACK
They have Pete Grisby back.
I think he subs occasionally.
ALL ABOUT RATINGS
Tell your Professor friend that at the end of the day it is about ratings. Those people would not have watched if they did not want to. I love the arrogance that spews from classrooms these days. Just more proof that those who “can’t”…….”teach.”
JOPLIN REVISITED
Dear BLC: How quickly people forget!! Let’s ask the doctors and nurses at the hospital in Joplin who had five minutes warning to evacuate patients about “excessive coverage of severe weather”!! People, get a life-when you are more worried about missing your favorite show than about a potential natural disaster you have been in front of the TV scene/Computer scene too long. And, please remember, Katie Horner was fired a couple weeks before the Joplin disaster because of her “alarmist” coverage; and the Joplin tornado took place on a Sunday afternoon-that morning the KCMO blogosphere was full of angry postings about SNL being delayed the night before because of “alarmist” warnings of severe weather. While the authorities fiercely insist that Katie’s firing and the SNL controversy had nothing to do with the lack of warning in Joplin, there are two things I don’t believe in: Coincidences and the Easter bunny. Take care. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans
CAN’T COMPARE JOPLIN AND KC
First of all Ernest, Joplin is not in the Kansas City viewing area, so it wasn’t and still isn’t our problem. As harsh as that sounds, even the worst meteorologist isn’t responsible for what happened there. Secondly, the situation in Joplin is very different than what happened here last night. KMBC’s “coverage” amounted to telling us it was raining, and the wind had knocked down a few trees. That’s it. It was embarrassing. There were no tornado warnings…hell, we didn’t even get hail at my house. A lot of people didn’t. That doesn’t sound alarmist to you? Do not try to draw comparisons to last night and Joplin, it just makes you sound outrageously ignorant.
If you really want to go there, the people in Joplin had such little warning because the tornado literally came from nowhere. There was no way the warning could have gotten out fast enough with the way the storm slammed the town so quickly. None. Wall to wall coverage, or lack thereof, still wouldn’t have changed the fact that the town was mostly destroyed and people were going to die. Most homes in Joplin don’t have basements… and you can’t survive a severe tornado in just a closet. It doesn’t matter how good or bad ANYONE’S coverage was by that point.
While I see what you’re getting at about people getting mad over nothing when it comes to TV shows being interrupted during severe weather, KMBC’s new-found weather paranoia isn’t okay either. It’s sad to see that they’ve reduced themselves to that just for the sake of ratings. It doesn’t show me that they have the best “coverage you can count on”… it shows me they’re desperate and scared. And that’s not a good way to keep viewers coming back.
OMINOUS RADAR
Am I the only person who thought that the radar on KMBC looked significantly more ominous than on the other local stations?
Switching back and forth, it seemed like KMBC’s radar showed a lot more red than what I saw on the other local channels during their breaks.
LECTURE NOT NEEDED
Mr. Marconi:
This “professor” spent more years in broadcasting than some of the fresh on-air faces have been alive.
I don’t need a lecture about ratings: I lived them. There is a point of diminishing returns and wasting fuel to send a satellite truck to Emporia to watch a storm cloud is an example. All but FOX 4 do this, and the reason FOX 4 doesn’t is budgetary, I suspect.
This coverage could easily have been switched to the CW or put the Billboard show on there, but there has to be an end game on air.
OFF TO MOORE
They also sending Matt flener to Moore,OK and Tom Watchs is already their.
BOY CRIES WOLF SYNDROME
I understand the concern that people missed half an awards show to watch blanket coverage of a bad storm that could have been kicked over to a sister station. I was also upset a few years ago when Channel 9 pre-empted the NBA Finals for a thunderstorm in Ottawa producing wind gusts of up to 60 mph and dime-sized hail.
But the REAL concern is the “Boy cries wolf” syndrome. If they are going to go into this kind of hysterics for a thunderstorm, what will they do when their is a real, life-threatening storm on the way? And how many people will not pay attention because they’ve seen this all before, and this is just another thunderstorm in Ottawa with wind gust of up to 60 mph and dime-sized hail?
A second concern, expressed above, is sending reporters untrained in weather spotting, out in harm’s way. I understand that Johnny Rowlands is quite experienced, but still, having a chopper in the air to watch a storm systm with the potential for producing tornadoes is not such a good idea to me.
And the reporters, with little to no experience in storm chasing, in the SUVs driving right into it? What needs to happen before that stops to be an industry standard?
Ernest Evans:
To amplify what Nick has written:
In addition to being out of market for Kansas City, and not of IMMEDIATE meteorological concern to Kansas City viewers(news value, certainly, meteorological value, not really)the issue in Joplin was NOT whether there was adequate broadcast coverage of the impending storm. The issue was (and is) the indiscriminate use of the warning sirens. I direct you to the excellent monograph by Meteorologist Mike Smith, “When The Sirens Fell Silent” which is available now as a e book on Amazon. The local sheriff’s office ran th4 sirens and sounded alarms for severe thunderstorms, not only tornadoes. The sirens were not sounded when the main storm system approached, as it had been sounded a few minutes earlier for a POTENTIAL severe storm that moved away from Joplin. Residents had NO WARNING the tornado had formed and was approaching until they saw it.
Another issue was an apparent error in the predictions from the National Weather Service in Springfield. That issue is also addressed in the monograph.
It was also graduation day, and many people were out of access to broadcast warnings. People were also out and about. They had little warning because their public servants failed them.
SLAP AT CRITICS
Dear BLC: Well, quite a tornado in Oklahoma. Perhaps the critics of KMBC should ask the parents of those dead school children in Moore, Oklahoma how they feel about “alarmist” weather reports. Take care. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans
DRAMATICS
Can it with the dramatics, Ernest. Again, you’re drawing parallels to situations that aren’t related. Maybe it’s time for you to stop living in a bubble?
DRIVEN AWAY FROM LOCAL NEWS
I have been watching KMBC since I moved to Kansas in 1982 … first to Ft. Riley and then to Leavenworth. Increasingly — perhaps coinciding with the retirement of GM Wayne Godsey in 2011 — KMBC is becoming a more annoying version of the other three stations. I am about ready to take a vacation from local TV news — something I thought I never would do.
There is better weather available from AccuWeather, and numerous news aggregators that actually give more news and varying opinions on important issues.
I’m not leaving local news … I’m being driven away!