After 30 years, is KUSA still Number One?

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It all began in 1976, when Channel 9 in Denver was both KBTV and an affiliate of the alphabet network by the name of ABC. The pairing of Mike Landess and Ed Sardella, the forecasting of Stormy Rottmann (now deceased) and the sports coverage of Mike Nolan - the team can't be beat. Their number one status continued after Gannett bought all of Combined Communications propoerties (Channel 9 included) in 1978.

 

The 1980s came and the call letters were switched from KBTV to KUSA, and the current logo lasted for 26 years. The always awesome Rottmann retired in 1988. Despite the call letter change and Rottmann's retirement, their number one status continued.

 

The 1990s rolled around, and there was a lot going on. Ron Zappolo came to KUSA in 1990 from KCNC, and he replaced Nolan. Mike Nelson was the new weatherman. After 16 years of anchoring together, Mike Landess left Sardella in 1993 for WXIA Atlanta (KUSA's sister station). In the same year, Sardella got his female co-anchor by the name of Adele Arakawa, who is still at 9NEWS to this day. KUSA switched from ABC to NBC, and their number one status just got better with Jay Leno after the 10pn news. Despite the affiliation switch, and co-anchor changes for Sardella, and Zapollo replacing Nolan, their number one status continued.

 

The new millenium came in 2000. Sardella retired but made appearances. Jim Bennemann not only had his second go-round at 9NEWS, but replaces Sardella; this time as Arakawa's co-anchor before returning to KCNC.

 

Over the years, KUSA had bought syndicated news theme packages, including It's All Right Here (Peter Productions from 1978 to 1984, and Frank Gari from 1988 to 1991). KUSA had a custom package from Third Street Music in 1995, and it was used to commemorate the switch from ABC to NBC. During its first ten years as an NBC affiliate, that pompous custom package was a commanding lead. The graphics weren't that bad either, even the Gannett death star animation ID.

 

But now, KUSA (as with other Gannett stations) has gone WSVN. That vibe was sensed when this and other stations fell victim to the Gannett graphics and theme package. That music package was done by Rampage Music, the same composers that did the WNBC theme. The music with in-your-face beats and sounds, with the slam graphics, gives off the WSVN-ified vibe.

 

Seeing that they have gone from traditional to WSVN-like, I wonder if KUSA is still number one?

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Yes. Though KCNC has been giving them a run for their money at 5pm and 10pm.

 

The reason why KUSA is so successful is because they've been the "#1" station for such a long time, so people turn to it by default, whether it's a good newscast or rubbish (mostly the latter as of late). It's such a habit that's been so deeply engrained for years that people don't really seem to care if they're getting a good newscast or not.

 

Regarding the content, there hasn't been much of a change except that there's less hard news, but that's not a shocker. Ward Lucas and Paula Woodward, their two biggest investigative reporters, left around the same time recently, so the investigative team scrambled to find new blood, but 9 still does hefty doses of all those softie, lovey-dovey, human interest stories, or "Storytellers", that they're so famous for.

 

Their on air talent still isn't that great. I don't see what people like about Adele Arakawa, and from everyone I've talked to around town, it's unanimous that Drew Soicher is the worst sportscaster on television. But people still watch anyway, because it's channel 9. Because they're "Colorado's Information Center", whatever the hell that means.

 

Still, it's not like their competition is that much better. All of the four news outlets, in terms of content, are dead ringers for each other. At 10pm, you can flip the channel from 4, to 7, to 9 and see them all covering the same story at the same time. They all provide a mediocre newscast based on the same format.

 

As for aesthetics, viewership didn't seem to decline one bit when they changed the theme music. Nobody really cares about that, apparently, or the graphics. As long as they don't change their logo or decide to rebrand themselves something stupid like "The Nueve", people will still watch.

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Yes. Though KCNC has been giving them a run for their money at 5pm and 10pm.

 

The reason why KUSA is so successful is because they've been the "#1" station for such a long time, so people turn to it by default, whether it's a good newscast or rubbish (mostly the latter as of late). It's such a habit that's been so deeply engrained for years that people don't really seem to care if they're getting a good newscast or not.

 

Regarding the content, there hasn't been much of a change except that there's less hard news, but that's not a shocker. Ward Lucas and Paula Woodward, their two biggest investigative reporters, left around the same time recently, so the investigative team scrambled to find new blood, but 9 still does hefty doses of all those softie, lovey-dovey, human interest stories, or "Storytellers", that they're so famous for.

 

Their on air talent still isn't that great. I don't see what people like about Adele Arakawa, and from everyone I've talked to around town, it's unanimous that Drew Soicher is the worst sportscaster on television. But people still watch anyway, because it's channel 9. Because they're "Colorado's Information Center", whatever the hell that means.

 

Still, it's not like their competition is that much better. All of the four news outlets, in terms of content, are dead ringers for each other. At 10pm, you can flip the channel from 4, to 7, to 9 and see them all covering the same story at the same time. They all provide a mediocre newscast based on the same format.

 

As for aesthetics, viewership didn't seem to decline one bit when they changed the theme music. Nobody really cares about that, apparently, or the graphics. As long as they don't change their logo or decide to rebrand themselves something stupid like "The Nueve", people will still watch.

 

I think KCNC's success can be stemmed more for CBS' strong lead in at 10pm. Not sure about their 5pm lead in. But the reasons you listed are the exact opposite of why KSDK is tanking. They don't have a consistent news team anymore, it always seems to change. Plus their news has been getting fluffier but so has the competition (KMOV). So in reality, it sounds like Denver is not too different from St. Louis afterall.

 

 

So 9News doesn't use the "Colorado's News Leader" slogan anymore?

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I think KCNC's success can be stemmed more for CBS' strong lead in at 10pm. Not sure about their 5pm lead in. But the reasons you listed are the exact opposite of why KSDK is tanking. They don't have a consistent news team anymore, it always seems to change. Plus their news has been getting fluffier but so has the competition (KMOV). So in reality, it sounds like Denver is not too different from St. Louis afterall.

 

Yes, KCNC has strong lead-ins from CBS primetime and from Oprah. Though, to their credit, the quality of their content has improved somewhat, so I think they've earned it. I think they (marginally) produce a better newscast than KUSA. I can't speak for the St. Louis stations; I don't really know much about that market other than that they have a Tribune/Local TV LLC combined station, too.

 

KUSA is just so different because they're the de-facto #1 in ratings for all newscast times (except for maybe the KTVD newscasts; I don't think those are doing so well). It's not like in other markets where one station might dominate in the mornings but another might win the late news. Still, Denver is a very competitive market nonetheless with four news outlets producing the same caliber of content.

 

So 9News doesn't use the "Colorado's News Leader" slogan anymore?

 

I think in the talent run, the VO says something like "Colorado's High Definition News Leader", but channel 9 is always coming up with new taglines and other ways to make themselves feel good. The newest tagline seems to be "Colorado's Information Center".

 

Oh, and 9 doesn't have a "newsroom" anymore-- it's now called the "9News Information Center".