Wichita-Hutchinson Plus market updates

[T.L. Hughes 752]

The conversion of ABC affiliate KAKE's newscasts to HD is actually the first of a few changes in the Wichita market.

 

KAKE is dumping its 4 p.m. newscast in September, citing a lack of a decent lead-out to maintain viewership for its 5 p.m. news. "The Dr. Oz Show" will take its place at 4:00, airing after "Anderson" (Anderson Cooper's new talk show, that will replace "Ellen" at 3 p.m.).

 

There's still going to be a 4 p.m. newscast in Wichita, but on CW affiliate KSCW as it will add newscasts produced by CBS station KWCH weekdays at 4 p.m. and nightly at 9 p.m. starting September 12. KWCH already produces a 9 p.m. newscast for Newport Television-owned Fox affiliate KSAS-TV, so KWCH will produce two primetime newscasts on two competing stations in the same timeslot until KSAS' news share agreement with KWCH concludes at the end of this year. KWCH also produces a 10 p.m. newscast on Univision affiliate KDCU; so KWCH not only producing its own newscasts, but also produces newscasts for three other Wichita stations (KSAS is the only one out of the four not owned/managed by Schurz).

 

http://blogs.kansas.com/haveyouheard/2011/03/30/kake-channel-10-to-drop-its-4-p-m-news/#storylink=misearch

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2011/07/18/52598/kwch-to-debut-4--9-pm-news-on-kscw

[T.L. Hughes 752]

With KWCH's agreement to produce a primetime newscast for KSAS ending later this year, KSAS will have to decide to do one of the following...

 

A: begin producing its own local newscasts at its studios on North West Street, in a situation similar to what WFXG is doing down in Augusta, Georgia (a 2000(?) article from the website of the "Wichita Business Journal" that I read last week, suggested that the station would need to larger studio space to house a news operation; thus if an in-house news operation were to happen where it is now, KSAS would have to add space onto its current studios like WFXG is doing, that is unless it and sister station KMTW move to a new, larger building).

B: Strike a news share agreement with one of the two other local news stations in the Wichita market, KSNW ("KSN") or KAKE (or "KAKEland" as it is now branded on-air). KSAS once did have a 9 p.m. newscast produced by KSNW in 1997, but it floundered in the ratings and got canned after a year-and-a-half.

 

Personally, I hope KSAS can come up with a way to produce its own newscasts instead of relying on someone else to do it for them, since Fox doesn't have too many stations with their own newscasts as it is especially since it lost two stations with in-house news when it decided to dump KTRV and WTVW as affiliates because of its reverse retrans comp plan.

 

Plus, Wichita TV news has always been limited to just three stations (KAKE, KSNW and KWCH). Those three have their newscasts on all their satellite stations and translators across the central and western parts of the state, and KWCH in particular produces local news on its sister stations KDCU and KSCW, and contracts local news with KSAS (I'm not sure how they handle producing news for four stations, especially since they will be carrying 9 p.m. newscasts on two stations for a few months starting in September until the KWCH/KSAS news share agreement ends, with that I think KWCH has a bit too much influence in local news in that market).

[T.L. Hughes 752]

Newport Television's Fox affiliate KSAS-TV has filed a lawsuit against Schurz Communications-owned CBS affiliate KWCH in Sedgwick County District Court alleging that KWCH stopped broadcasting the 9 p.m. newscast it produces for KSAS as a live program, since it began producing a live 9 p.m. newscast for KWCH's sister station (and area CW affiliate) KSCW. It claims that in violation of the news share agreement between KWCH and KSAS that was last renewed in January 2008, that KWCH is taping the KSAS newscast in advance. Sedgwick County District Judge Jeff Goering signed an order Thursday to have KWCH to produce its newscast for KWCH live again while the suit is pending.

 

I'm not sure how this will work out, if the KSAS newscast will be aired from KWCH's main set and the KSCW newscast will air from the secondary set the station apparently uses for the outsourced newscasts on one of the stations (I read that KSAS used the secondary set last before KWCH began airing a 9 p.m. newscast last month) or if KSAS will simulcast KSCW's newscast; but either way, this will only last until December 31, as that is when KSAS' news share agreement with KWCH ends. KSAS still hasn't mentioned, by the way, what plans it will have for local newscasts after December 31.

[TennTV1983 743]

A correction should be made: Media General is no longer the owner of KWCH-TV. Schurz Communications has owned the station for a few years now.

[T.L. Hughes 752]

Update: KSAS and KWCH have reached an agreement to continue to produce the 9 p.m. newscast for KSAS live until its current news share agreement with the station expires on December 31, ending the Fox affiliate's lawsuit against the CBS affiliate. Until that point, the live 9 p.m. newscast will then be moved over to KSCW. However, if anyone is expecting KSAS to produce newscasts in-house at the beginning of the year, don't bother. KSAS has signed a new news share agreement, turning over the production of the 9 p.m. newscast to KSNW (which produced an ill-fated 9 p.m. newscast from 1997 to 1998) starting January 2. This is a bit justifiable considering that KSAS will have to move out of its current studios on North West Street into a larger studio space in order to have its own news department, which they once contemplated but never got through to doing a decade ago. So KWCH, KSNW and KAKE will still be the sole news voices for the Wichita market to the foreseeable future, unless KSAS moves to a new studio and invests in a news department.