TrfRptr 3 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Starting 10PM newscast. http://fortwaynehomepage.net/ (junk webpage but the top story tells enough) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedYoungMan 0 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Kennie Berg has been announced as the Chief Meteorologist. Staffing is complete and the newscast will launch in a couple of weeks apparently. http://jimblue.com/wordpress/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedYoungMan 0 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Okay so the debut newscast was tonight. I liked most of it and surprisingly they didn't have that many glitches. Pretty smooth over all actually. Pros: Jim Blue is absolutely professional and gives off a gravitas of the Keith Edwards and Dick Floreas of Ft. Wayne news. Good presentation. The reporters were also very good I thought. Didn't have that "Out of college" feel to them, which I don't know if they are or not, but very good. The news set is small but nice. No wood paneling with Steve Shine talking in front of it, etc. Everyone is standing. Jim has his own standing desk. Kennie Berg (meteorologist) has hers at the weather desk. Graphics - The graphics were FOX O&O, but they were all very nice still. I was surprised to see the weather graphics have smooth animations which I sometimes don't see with weather graphics, if they even have motion. They also utilized the newer trend of showing us a static image of the city and animating it in the appropriate weather, which was nice. However, they didn't start using OTS graphics until near the end. Not sure what was up with that. Needs Improving: Kennie Berg - As a meteorologist she is fine. But she seemed very reserved and somewhat nervous in her presentation. I would suggest she perhaps have a little more punch to her voice and loosen up a bit and develop some gravitas. This was especially noticeable next to Jim Blue. It was obvious she has done this before in her presentation, but I'm sure she will gel over as time goes by. Also, they were too reliant on national news pieces tonight. They had some great local news pieces, the ones they did have, but most of the newscast was too reliant on national packages and not enough attention to local stuff. I'm going to excuse it in the time being as they are still getting resources and all that situated out I'm sure. This is even more ironic as the branding of the station is "Fox Fort Wayne." Hopefully, as they get more comfortable in the city we will see a lot more news items. It wasn't terribly fast paced either. They had a piece about the snow in the area that seemed to last like 3 minutes. I liked the idea, and it was well put together, but seemed to have the pace of a National Nightly News piece. I didn't really see any Cons, which is good. They have a lot of potential I think and I'm sure if they utilize it to the fullest then there will be good things for this newscast. Overall, I give it a "B". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrfRptr 3 Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 I was fortunate to see the 1st cast. Couple of things: They led off the top with a cold-open of weather, did around 7-8 minutes of news (very slow paced), then did another weather segment. Actual weather segment went for about 3 minutes (it seemed) but I liked the presentation. After showing certain graphics there was a shot of four monitors that Berg was then able to click on: one contained the Nexrad, another with Currents, etc etc. Berg, in my opinion, came off VERY nervous. There was B-roll footage of the same street/snow about 3 times through the show. Jim Blue seemed solid, but I don't like the standing through the whole show. Is he in a hurry? Can't he sit for 35 minutes. (slight sarcasm) They seemed to roll with quicker headline (rip and read) towards the D/E block. No sports coverage, except for a reporter covering the arrival of the minor league baseball team to the city. They have 3 reporters currently who do all the work. Marchelle McConnell joins them in a few weeks according to Blue's blog. I only noticed two technical glitches. At one point during weather a side-by-side graphic appeared during the 7-day forecast. And at one point during a story either Jim's mic was open or there was a cross with the control headsets. I could hear a slight conversation for about 5 seconds...but solid from a production standpoint for the 1st newscast. I'll give them a B-, the reporters came across like the audience was new to Ft. Wayne instead of FOX FW being new to the audience. And I'd like to see a more traditional fast pace at the beginning with more content. In there A block they had a roughly two-minute package on the Italy Earthquake, that probably would have done later in the broadcast. If/When they become successful and advertising money grows they'll be able to grow. But with only 3 (soontobe 4) reporters doing all the work, they are not going to have much local content. Still nice to see a third option for news back in Fort Wayne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedYoungMan 0 Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Yeah, some definite things that could be improved. And what is very hopeful is the fact these guys DO have the potential to get things rolling, especially a faster paced more local oriented newscast. I think Kennie Berg will get better over time though. She just needs, for the lack of a better term, a better personality which I'm sure is there somewhere. I remembered the convos as well. They were just brief cuts. But for a first newscast, it wasn't bad at all I didn't think. If they want to be successful in Fort Wayne, they will definitely have to work on a ton more local news and at a faster pace. The stories about the Casino, etc, were very good I thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrfRptr 3 Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 I think they can succeed. Especially with strong FOX primetime leadins. Let's be honest, INC on CW at 10 is nothing, probably a scratch in the ratings so FOX will have little to no competition for news. However, FW audiences are very set-in-their-ways and 10PM primetime programming may prevent them from being successful. If they get anything at 10PM they should quickly get something going at 6. WPTA has absolutely destroyed their branding from their years at #1. WANE took in many viewers and there has been a slight shift away from WANE but not enough to give INC any real headway. WANE remains #1 pretty much across the board so they probably won't get many viewers from them but they can certainly get some from INC on CW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedYoungMan 0 Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Just watching the news tonight, they are actually doing a lot of local news content tonight and at a much faster pace! They are already picking it up it seems! Let's hope they keep it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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